I am a Lebanese-american citizen, and have worked as the Regional Program Manager with the United States Institute of Peace (USIP), from 2014 to 2019, overseeing the institute’s peacebuilding programs in Tunisia, Egypt, and Libya. Prior to joining USIP, I was working for the Center for Victims of Torture (CVT) on its New Tactics methodology in the Middle East/North Africa (MENA), an advocacy capacity-building in human rights for local organizations in Egypt and Tunisia. I monitored and evaluated CVT’s grantees in the MENA. From 2010 to 2012, I was the executive director of Alef-Act for Human Rights, an NGO based in Lebanon focusing on monitoring and advocacy of human rights violations and youth peacebuilding. I still serves as a board member of Alef-Act. I was also seconded to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in Iraq by the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) to work on UNHCR’s persons of concerns’ protection portfolio in 2008-2009. I train, mentor, and advise on organizational development, international human rights, refugee and IDP’s protection, humanitarian law, peacebuilding, and NGO capacity-building related themes.My academic qualifications include a B.A. in law, Master’s in Diplomacy and Strategic Negotiations and a LLM in Human Rights Law from the London School of Economics and Politics.
