He serves as Professor of Psychiatry at Ain Shams University in Cairo and Assistant Director of the WHO Collaborating Center for Research and Training in Mental Health.
Over the course of his career, he has played a pivotal role in advancing psychiatric education and services in Egypt, founding new departments, mentoring generations of psychiatrists, and advising the Ministry of Health on national mental health policy.
Internationally, Professor Okasha has held senior leadership roles within the World Psychiatric Association (WPA), including Executive Committee Member, Secretary for Scientific Meetings, and Chair of the Operational Committee on Scientific Meetings.
He directed global initiatives on child mental health and anti-stigma programs, and represented Northern Africa at the WPA, ensuring regional perspectives were integrated into global psychiatric discourse. His collaboration with the World Health Organization (WHO) includes contributions to the revision of ICD-10 classifications, advisory roles to WHO-EMRO, and service as a referee for the Eastern Mediterranean Health Journal.
A prolific researcher and author, Professor Okasha has published over 50 peer-reviewed articles and contributed chapters to landmark psychiatric textbooks, including The African Textbook of Clinical Psychiatry and Mental Health and the Oxford Textbook of Suicidology and Suicide Prevention.
His research spans schizophrenia, obsessive-compulsive disorder, depression, substance abuse, electroconvulsive therapy, transcultural psychiatry, and mental health services in the Arab world.
He also serves on editorial boards of leading journals such as World Psychiatry, the British Journal of Psychiatry (Middle East Edition), and the Asian Journal of Psychiatry.
Nationally, he has been a driving force in Egypt’s psychiatric infrastructure, serving on the Supreme Council of Universities, co-founding professional societies for child psychiatry, Alzheimer’s disease, and biological psychiatry, and advising on national councils for drug observatories and psychiatric hospitals.
His work consistently emphasizes the intersection of psychiatry with culture, society, and public health, making him one of the most influential voices in advancing mental health in the Arab world and beyond.