Ranna Parekh, MD, MPH joined the University of Texas MD Anderson on May 31, 2022 as the Chief Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Officer and in January, 2024 became the Vice President of Workforce Communities and Connections. Dr. Parekh is a child, adolescent and adult psychiatrist.

Previous, Dr. Parekh was at the American College of Cardiology for almost three years as the inaugural Chief Diversity and Inclusion Office and at the American Psychiatric Association (APA) for almost five years as a Deputy Medical Director and the Director of the Division of Diversity and Health Equity. In this latter role, she was also Director of the American Psychiatric Association/ American Psychiatric Association Foundation’s (APA/APAF) 8 fellowship programs and 5 medical student grants including the Minority Fellowship Program. 

Dr. Parekh is a child, adolescent and adult psychiatrist. Prior to joining the APA, she practiced full time for almost twenty years at the Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) and McLean Hospital/ Harvard Medical School and was the inaugural Director of the MGH Department of Psychiatry’s Center for Diversity.

Dr. Parekh is co-author of the e-book  Overcoming Prejudice in the Workplace (Harvard Health Publishers, 2012). She is also editor of the Massachusetts General Hospital Textbook on Diversity and Cultural Sensitivity (Springer Publishers, 2013) and co-editor of Cultural Sensitivity in Child and Adolescent Mental Health (MGH Academy Press, 2016), Stigma and Prejudice: Touchstones in Understanding Diversity ( Springer Publishers, 2016), and Cultural Psychiatry with Children, Adolescents and Families (American Psychiatric Press, 2021).

Dr. Parekh has led trainings and lectured locally, nationally and internationally on topics including diversity, health care disparities, microaggressions, cultural psychiatry, mediation, collaborative negotiations, child and adolescent psychiatry, addictions and psychopharmacology.  She has lived, studied, and worked around the world including Japan, France, Poland, New Zealand and Australia.

Dr. Parekh is a graduate of the Harvard School of Public Health (MPH), the adult psychiatry and child fellowship residency trainings programs at Massachusetts General Hospital and McLean Hospital/Harvard Medical School, and also holds degrees from Wayne State University (MD, BSc in Biology, BA in Chemistry and co-major in Black Studies).  Currently, Dr. Parekh holds/has held academic appointments at the Massachusetts General Hospital, George Washington University Medical School and Morehouse School of Medicine.