Zahra “Niccu” Tafarrodi is a public health educator, researcher and author. She founded the International Health Education Alliance. Before that she served as the chairwoman of the Multicultural Committee of the American Cancer Society, Minnesota Division.

Niccu was born in Shiraz, Iran. As an adult, she established business courses for girls. She also worked with destitute families in the slums of South Tehran. After the Islamic revolution, she immigrated to the United States. Her focus on helping women switched from business education to health education.

She received a B.S. in public health, and Ph.D. degree in family health education from the University of Minnesota. Her Master thesis was on early pregnancy among Jamaican women and her doctoral dissertation was on AIDS education for immigrant teenagers.

With the help of over 400 volunteers, Dr. Tafarrodi created and published cancer and AIDS prevention publications into 61 languages over the past decade. She also offers translations of Mayo Clinic articles to the Persian community. She has received endorsement by the World Health Organization. Her work focuses on the education of immigrant women and refugees who can only communicate in their native languages.

“Immigrant woman and children are badly in need of education about their bodies and lifestyles,” Niccu says. “But first we need to understand women and children through interpretive and critical research before we can develop effective curriculum, teachers training and evaluation criteria.”

Niccu is an avid gardener, cook, and fitness enthusiast. She has earned recognition and certifications for: gardening, cake-making, and aerobic-fitness instruction. The walls of her home are adorned with the embroideries she has created, and the paintings and photography of her two grown children, Ali and Nicky.

Niccu would like to acknowledge
(in alphabetical order):

• Ali Heshmati (licensed architect) for his encouragement in making this project
• David Turgeon, for his endless dedication and kindnesses
• Dominique Rorato, for mentorship in making the dioramas
• Eva Steinback, artisan, for teaching and advising me specially electrification dioramas
• Hossein Moini, for taking time from his work to translate the text of this site into Farsi
• Joice Lyon, Art Professor at art school, University of Minnesota, for her critiques of my artwork
• Maryam Soleimani, for her small-scale paintings of the traditional “Persian miniature” style
• Michael, M. Emami, photography of the Holy Place, Nasir-Al Mulk mosque, and Solstice Night dioramas.
• Mojdeh Kazem, Persian Rug expert, for sharing her article regarding the technique of Persian rug weaving.
• Richard Mcclellan, jewlery maker, advising me for decorating dioramas
• Shiva Shirgir, for the painting of the Eram Garden’s backdrop.

This website is dedicated to my husband, Reza, for all of his love and devotion and also to my children, Ali and Nicky, who are the precious gifts of our life.