People

Saba Rouhani
Saba Rouhani, PhD, MSc
NYU School of Global Public Health - Assistant Professor
Email: saba.rouhani@nyu.edu
Education
PhD, Global Disease Epidemiology & Control, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
MSc, Control of Infectious Diseases, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine
BSc Medical Microbiology, University of Edinburgh
BIO
Saba Rouhani is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Epidemiology. Her research is focused on epidemiology of overdose and other drug-related harms within the context of changing drug and criminal justice policies. She is particularly interested in characterizing reforms to policing and prosecution of people who use drugs, and measuring their impacts on health outcomes. Dr. Rouhani’s research has been published in the International Journal of Drug Policy, Drug and Alcohol Dependence, Journal of Urban Health, American Journal of Public Health and Preventive Medicine.

Dr. Rouhani completed a T32 Drug Dependence Epidemiology Training fellowship funded by the National Institutes of Health/National Institute on Drug Abuse in 2020 and worked as research faculty in the Department of Health, Behavior and Society at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health prior to joining NYU.
Projects
Principal Investigator, Police Pathways to Addiction Treatment, Health, and Safety: The Police PATHS Study. Active
Principal Investigator, The Impact of HB-139 on Substance Use Outcomes: A Natural Experiment. Active
Principal Investigator, Law Enforcement Perspectives and Experiences of the Changing Drug Policy Landscape: A Qualitative Study with Baltimore City Police Officers. Completed
Publications

Recent

Rouhani S, Rosen JG, del Pozo B, Figgatt M, Aslam R, Rich JD, Park JN (2026).
Business and service provider attitudes towards police involvement in overdose response: A cross-sectional survey in Rhode Island overdose hotspots
Journal of Community Health [Epub 2026 Mar 29]. doi: 10.1007/s10900-026-01570-1.

Sisson LN, Rouhani S, Tomko C, Flath N, Sherman SG (2026).
Structural vulnerability and police interaction among women who use drugs amid de facto decriminalization in Baltimore, Maryland
Journal of Urban Health [Epub 2026 Feb 24]. doi: 10.1007/s11524-025-01030-6.

Lindenfeld Z, Rouhani S (2026).
Legal financial obligations: An understudied public health exposure
American Journal of Preventive Medicine, [Epub 2026 Feb 13]. doi: 10.1016/j.amepre.2026.108312. PMCID: PMC12931662.

Khezri M, Mehmandoost S, Tavakoli F, Rouhani S, Mehrabi F, Nourolahzadeh E, Vassigh A, Doroudi F, Haghdoost AA, Karamouzian M, Sharifi H (2026).
HIV prevalence, risk behaviours, and cascade of care among men who have sex with men in Iran: A nationwide, cross-sectional, biobehavioural survey
Lancet HIV, 13 (2), e116-e125. doi: 10.1016/S2352-3018(25)00230-9.

Rouhani S, Silberzahn BE, Sisson LN, Winiker AK, Kim J, Zhang LN, Schneider KE, Sherman SG (2026).
Experiences of a drug decriminalization policy among police and people who use drugs in Baltimore City: A post-structural policy analysis
SSM - Qualitative Research in Health, 9, 100679. doi: 10.1016/j.ssmqr.2025.100679.


Notable

Rouhani S, Schneider KE, Rao A, Urquhart GJ, Morris M, LaSalle L, Sherman SG (2021).
Perceived vulnerability to overdose-related arrests among people who use drugs in Maryland
International Journal of Drug Policy, 98, 103426. doi: 10.1016/j.drugpo.2021.103426.

Rouhani S, Decker MR, Tomko C, Silberzahn B, Allen ST, Park JN, Footer KHA, Sherman SG (2021).
Resilience among cisgender and transgender women in street-based sex work in Baltimore, Maryland
Womens Health Issues, 31 (2), 148-156. doi: 10.1016/j.whi.2020.11.002. PMCID: PMC8005437.

Rouhani S, Park JN, Morales KB, Green TC, Sherman SG (2020).
Trends in opioid initiation among people who use opioids in three US cities
Drug and Alcohol Review, 39 (4), 375-383. doi: 10.1111/dar.13060.

Dr. Rouhani's ORCID Profile