Dr Naheed is an epidemiologist and health systems specialist at the International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh (icddr,b); a reputed international research organisation in Asia. She has obtained her medical degree from the University of Dhaka, Bangladesh, MPH from Johns Hopkins University, USA, PhD rom Tulane University School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine, USA, a post-doctoral training from the University of Melbourne, Australia. 

Dr. Naheed has joined icddr,b in 1994 and over 30 years of her research career she has contributed to many health research leading to innovative solutions to improve health of people in Bangladesh. Dr. Naheed has codeveloped a cost-effective multicomponent intervention strategy for hypertension care in rural Bangladesh famously known as COBRA-BPS (Control of Blood Pressure and Risk Attenuation– Bangladesh, Pakistan and Sri Lanka)¸ and her innovation of digital model of COBRA-BPS strategy is currently being under trial in urban, rural and coastal areas in Bangladesh. Dr. Naheed’s earlier work in assessing the most common circulatory serotypes of Hib and pneumococcal diseases among children in Bangladesh supported formulating pneumococcal vaccines for children immunization program globally, and setting the path to introduce Hib and pneumococcal vaccines in Bangladesh. Her innovation for promoting street food safety through training of the street food vendors and using a street food cart has demonstrated a successful solution for improving microbial quality of street food at a low cost, which was later scaled up in five divisions in Bangladesh. She is a pioneer on characterizing Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) n Bangladesh, which has led to development of the first “National Strategic Plan for Neurodevelopmental Disorders 2016 – 2021 and establishing “MENTHOL” the first mental health service delivery strategy for improving mental health of mothers of children with ASD.

Dr. Naheed is currently leading ‘The NIHR Global Health Research Centre on NCDs and Environmental Change’ in Bangladesh and she is the pioneer in Bangladesh for developing an innovative heath care model and identifying water salinity mitigation strategy for people living in coastal areas in Bangladesh. She is the Regional Lead of The Global Health Network Asia that aims to support research capacity strengthening and data science across many countries in Asia. Her pioneering work in establishing Clinical Research Platform Bangladesh has been an innovation in  capacity building of scientific leadership in Bangladesh, and supported.

She has received many significant awards in recognition of her research contributions, including Bangladesh Academy of Sciences (BAS) Sultan Ahamed Choudhury Science and Technology Gold Medal Award, BMJ Award South Asia, Grand Challenge Canada's Stars in Global Health Cooperative Research Award Harvard Medical School Centre for Global Health Delivery-Dubai, Rotary International Award, Nandos Women Leadership Award, and more. She is a member of the National Research Ethics Committee hosted by Bangladesh Medical Research Council (BMRC) and BMJ South Asia Editorial Board. She has published more than 100 articles in international peer reviewed journals and served as an Editor in several journals. She has been a panel member of several funding committees of UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) and National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR), UK.