Seema Jilani

Seema Jilani is a pediatric hospitalist at Texas Children’s Hospital and a humanitarian aid worker whose career has taken her to Afghanistan, Gaza and the West Bank, Lebanon, Bosnia, Iraq, Syria, Egypt, Ukraine, Turkiye, and refugee rescue boats off the coast of Libya. She has worked as an evacuation-flight physician for critically ill children and also as a pediatric palliative care physician. Her writings have been featured in The New Yorker, The New York Times, The Guardian, and several other publications. She is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. (updated 10/2026)