Nazia Raja-Khan

Dr. Nazia Raja-Khan is an Associate Professor at the Penn State College of Medicine, holding joint appointments in the Departments of Medicine (Division of Endocrinology and Diabetes), Obstetrics and Gynecology, and Psychiatry and Behavioral Health. She joined the faculty in 2007 and is a physician-scientist specializing in mindfulness-based interventions for chronic diseases like diabetes and obesity. She founded the Penn State Mindfulness Research Group and leads NIH-funded research on stress reduction programs for type 2 diabetes. Her work also includes a mobile-app-based mindful eating pilot study. Dr. Raja-Khan holds an MD from SUNY Downstate and an MS in Health Evaluation Sciences from Penn State. She has been awarded the Mark J. Young Award and the Laurence M. Demers Career Development Professorship.

Education:

• MD, SUNY Downstate Health Sciences University (1996–2000)
• MS in Health Evaluation Sciences, Penn State College of Medicine (2005–2007)
• Endocrinology Fellowship, Penn State Health Milton S. Hershey Medical Center (2004–2007)

Research Interests: Her work focuses on optimizing mindfulness interventions for chronic disease prevention and treatment. Key areas include diabetes, prediabetes, PCOS, obesity, and behavioral medicine. She has led NIH-funded trials and contributed to over 20 peer-reviewed publications.

Articles Trends: Recent studies explore mindfulness in opioid use disorder, diabetes and pancreatitis comorbidities, and pandemic-related diabetes outcomes. Her research emphasizes translational and clinical applications of mindfulness.

Awards: Recognitions include the Golden Key Society, Phi Beta Kappa, and collaborative research team awards. She has led over five grants, including NIH R01 and K23 awards.

Labs/Teams: Directs the Penn State Mindfulness Research Group and collaborates with the Type 1 Diabetes in Acute Pancreatitis Consortium.