Celebrating Middle Eastern and North African (MENA) Heritage Month 2025

The Office of Belonging, Equity, and Empowerment believes that by cultivating a sense of belonging, promoting equity and empowering individuals, our community creates and upholds environments where people can reach their fullest potential and drive meaningful change.

This April, in celebration of Middle Eastern and North African (MENA) Heritage Month, Negar Shekarabi, PsyD, reflects upon her professional journey as a first-generation Iranian American, offering a call to action for our community to ensure that every voice is heard and valued as we build a more inclusive future and healthier outcomes for all. Shekarabi serves as a shining example that our identities, cultures and histories must not be relegated to the margins of our work, but rather, be actively incorporated as positive catalysts for change.

Reframing the Narrative as a First-Generation MENA Professional: Why ‘Imposter Syndrome’ Misses the Mark for MENA Professionals

Negar Shekarabi, PsyD

For many years, as I moved through my professional journey as a clinical psychologist, I quietly carried what I understood to be imposter syndrome. In rooms full of accomplished colleagues, I second-guessed myself before speaking. I hesitated to call myself an expert, even though I had the credentials and experience to back it up. When praised, I felt like I had fooled someone. When I succeeded, I credited luck. I internalized the idea that this was a personal struggle — a confidence issue I needed to work on.

These feelings weren’t constant, but they showed up in key moments: when I was invited to present at conferences, when I was asked to consult on complex workplace mental health issues, when someone referred to me as a leader in my field. No matter how many times I delivered, the doubts crept back in: Do I really belong here? Am I really good enough?

For a long time, I called this imposter syndrome because that’s the language we’re given to explain these experiences. But in recent years, I began to see it differently. What if this wasn’t just self-doubt? What if these feelings were also the result of navigating a professional world that wasn’t designed with people like me in mind?

As a first-generation Iranian American woman working in the mental health field, higher education and workplace wellbeing consulting, I’ve often been the only one in the room who shares my background. I came to the U.S. with my family when I was four and was raised with cultural values that prioritize humility, respect for authority and collective success. These values shaped how I show up in the world — but they didn’t always align with the dominant professional norms I encountered: self-promotion, individualism and self-advocacy.

I began to ask myself: Was I feeling like an imposter because of some personal flaw — or because the spaces I was in didn’t recognize or reflect the strengths I brought with me? This shift in perspective changed everything. When I started seeing my experiences through the lens of cultural mismatch and systemic exclusion, I stopped blaming myself. I stopped trying to “fix” something that wasn’t broken. I started naming the real issue: our systems often reward certain identities, communication styles and leadership traits while overlooking others. Reframing imposter syndrome in this way helped me reclaim my confidence. It reminded me that expertise can look different — and that mine is no less valid because it was shaped by a different set of values. I began to value my contributions not despite my background, but because of it.

I know I’m not alone. Within the UCI School of Medicine and UCI Health, many of us — whether students, trainees, faculty or staff — are navigating complex intersections of identity, culture and professional expectations. If you’ve ever questioned whether you belong or felt pressure to assimilate into norms that don’t reflect who you are, know that those experiences are real and they deserve to be named, not internalized. When we shift the conversation from “What’s wrong with me?” to “What needs to change in the system?” we make space for more authentic confidence, connection and equity.

This isn’t just a personal revelation — it’s a call to action. If we want to create environments where everyone truly belongs, instead of expecting individuals to adapt to systems that weren’t built for them, we should ask how we can reshape those systems to recognize a broader range of strengths, voices and ways of leading. And for anyone navigating similar feelings, you’re not alone. These experiences are worth talking about. There are support resources, like Faculty/Staff Support Services, where we can have these conversations, challenge these narratives and work together to build workplaces where no one has to question whether they belong.

Negar Shekarabi, PsyD, is the Program Director for Faculty/Staff Support Services, providing oversight and coordination of on-site mental health support, consultation, and program development that supports the behavioral health needs of UCI and UCI Health employees. She is also a first-year delegate of the Council of University of California Staff Assemblies (CUCSA). To learn more about Faculty/Staff Support Services, please contact Shekarabi at nshekara@hs.uci.edu.

To learn more about the Middle Eastern and North African community, including the incredible work being done in medicine and the health sciences, we encourage you to consult the following resources:

• Samuel M. Jordan Center for Persian Studies and Culture (UCI School of Humanities)
• UCI Libraries: Middle East Studies Research Guide
• National Arab American Medical Association
• Network of Iranian American Professionals of Orange County