Dr Naba Alfayadh: The Architecture of Change — Love, Cultural Safety, and the Science of Behaviour Transformation

In this episode of The Wisdom Of ... Show, host Simon Bowen speaks with Dr Naba Alfayadh, emergency medicine doctor, social entrepreneur, Stanford-trained innovator, and Founder and CEO of Rahma Health. Naba's organisation has reached over 3 million Arabic-speaking families globally, achieved 95% parent behaviour change in under 10 minutes, and in 2025 won three simultaneous national Telstra awards, including Business of the Year. A former Iraqi refugee who fled war at age 10, Naba has built a life and an organisation at the intersection of medicine, technology, and the most foundational force she's identified in human development … love.

Simon builds a live visual model, ‘The Rahma Health Behaviour Change Pathway’, capturing the precise framework behind how cultural safety becomes the gateway to real, measurable transformation.

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Episode Breakdown

00:00 Welcome to The Wisdom Of ... Show and introduction of Dr Naba Alfayadh

04:15 From Iraq to Australia, the refugee journey that shaped everything

10:30 Founding Happy Brain Education at 22: what a student sees that institutions miss

17:45 The genesis of Rahma Health and why COVID turned out to be the moment

24:10 What "culturally safe" actually means and why it's a performance variable, not a value statement

31:55 The behaviour change data: how 5–10 minutes produces 95% change and doubled health literacy

38:20 LIVE MODEL BUILD: The Rahma Health Behaviour Change Pathway

47:00 Intergenerational trauma, the precise mechanism by which conditional love becomes a survival programme

55:30 Unconditional love as leadership: what the research shows and why it's not soft

01:03:15 The three principles for leading across cultures: listening, respect, and love

01:10:40 Kookaburra Kindness, writing a children's book with her daughter in response to the Bondi tragedy

01:17:00 What it means to build something. Not to become a billionaire, but because there are things to be done.

01:17:53 Closing reflections and the green line

About Dr Naba Alfayadh

Dr Naba Alfayadh is a General Practice Registrar, emergency medicine doctor, public health leader, and serial social entrepreneur whose work has supported more than three million people globally. She is the Founder and CEO of Rahma Health, an award-winning Australian charity creating culturally and psychologically safe health and parenting resources for Arabic-speaking families worldwide.

Born in Iraq, Dr Alfayadh fled to Australia in 2003 at age 10 during the Iraq War, after her school was bombed. She graduated from Monash University with MBBS/BMedSci degrees on a Merit and Equity Scholarship, and later studied Social Innovation and Entrepreneurship at Stanford University. She co-founded Happy Brain Education at age 22, growing it to serve 2,000+ students with 50 staff across two states, before founding Rahma Health in 2021.

Under her leadership, Rahma Health has reached over 3 million users globally, partnered with 50 international organisations, and published research with the Murdoch Children's Research Institute demonstrating that health literacy more than doubled after just 5–10 minutes of platform use, with 95% of parents reporting behaviour change. She currently serves on the Governance Committee, updating Maternity and Neonatal Handbooks for Safer Care Victoria.

In 2025, Dr Alfayadh was named Telstra Business of the Year, Telstra Championing Health, and Telstra Accelerating Women - three simultaneous national awards. She also received the Women's Health Medal of Distinction Australasia 2025 and the Monash Emerging Leaders Alumni Award. She is a Westpac Social Change Fellow and a Women's Agenda Leadership Awards Finalist.

Connect with Dr Naba Alfayadh:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nmalfayadh/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/myrahmahealth/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/myrahmahealth/

Website: https://rahma.health/about-rahma-health/

About Simon Bowen

Simon has spent over two decades working with influential leaders across complex industries. His focus is on elevating thinking in organisations, recognising that success is directly proportional to the quality of thinking and ideas within a business. Simon leads the renaissance of thinking through his work with global leaders and organisations.

Connect with Simon

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/simonbowen-mm/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/officialsimonbowen/

Website: https://thesimonbowen.com/

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