Dr. Hoteit is a researcher and professor at the Lebanese University, with a doctorate in psychology from the Sorbone University- Paris V, France. She teaches courses in early childhood education and children’s literature in the Faculty of Education at the Lebanese University. Dr. Hoteit has experience researching educational, social, and psychological aspects relating to children, family and women. She participated in several academic conferences, co-organized a seminar on “Gender mainstreaming in the Lebanese University”, co-edited several of the books produced by The Lebanese Association of Women Researchers and has published several papers on Arab women, gender, child literature, and education.

Ms. Trudi Hodges is AUB’s first Title IX Coordinator; she assists in and advises on allegations related to possible discrimination or harassment on the basis of gender at AUB and AUBMC. Ms. Hodges has more than a decade of experience in the Middle East working on institutional development and civil society initiatives centered on legal reform, governance, and capacity building for youth. She also directed the final phase of a scholarly constitutional reform project in Baghdad, and is co-founder of Right to Nonviolence, a Lebanese association centered on advocacy to support human rights and the rule of law.

Dr. Abirafeh completed her PhD in 2008 under the auspices of the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) Department of International Development. She Joined the Institute for Women’s Studies in the Arab World (IWSAW) in 2015. Dr. Abirafeh brings nearly 20 years of experience addressing gender issues in development and humanitarian settings, with a focus on gender-based violence in emergency settings. She has worked with many UN agencies and international NGOs in countries such as Afghanistan, Central African Republic, Lebanon, Nepal, Papua New Guinea, Haiti, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and has conducted international research trips tackling various gender issues.

Professor Nadia El Cheikh is Chairperson of the Department of History and Archaeology. Previously she served as the Director of the Center for Arab and Middle Eastern Studies from 2000-2004 and 2006-2009. Nadia El Cheikh is an eminent scholar of the history of Arab Byzantine relations and gender history in the Abbasid period. Recently she has co-authored a book entitled Crisis and Continuity at the Abbasid Court. Her book, entitled; Women, Islam and Abbasid Identity, was published by Harvard University Press, in 2015.

Dr. Abdulrahim is Associate Professor and Chairperson in the Faculty of Health Sciences at the American University of Beirut. She obtained her PhD in Health Behavior and Health Education from the University of Michigan School of Public Health. Her research straddles the areas of social inequalities, self-rated health, migration and health, primarily focusing on the health of Arab immigrants in the United States and labor migrants and refugees in Arab countries.

Ms. Zeina Abla is an independent consultant currently working with UN agencies and international organizations. She has over fifteen years of development research experience covering the Arab region. She authored and co-authored many interdisciplinary reports linking the social, economic, political and cultural development dimensions to formulate policy related outputs. Ms. Zeina Abla has an extensive experience in economic research in the banking sector. She is the co-author of the ILO Regional report “Women in business and management – Gaining Momentum in the Middle East and North Africa”.

Dr. Jad Melki is a journalism and media studies professor, trainer, researcher and consultant. He is the research director of the International Center for Media and the Public Agenda (ICMPA) at the University of Maryland, College Park, a visiting faculty at Johns Hopkins University, USA and at the Salzburg Academy for Media and Global Change, Austria. He has extensive experience teaching media and broadcast related courses, and has been a broadcast and online journalist for over 12 years. He was part of the Webby award and Press Club award winning Hot Zone team (Yahoo! News), covering the 2006 Israel-Lebanon war. Dr. Melki received his Ph.D. in journalism and media studies from the Phillip Merrill College of Journalism at the University of Maryland and is the chairperson of the Media and Digital Literacy Academy of Beirut (MDLAB).

Ms. Eliane Fersan holds a bachelors and masters degree in History and a BA (ABT) in Archeology. In addition to her teaching experience at high school and university levels, she has over 13 years of experience in NGO development, network building, training, project and event management, communications and media relations, and social media, gained through several executive positions with regional and international NGOs and companies and the United Nations’ agency United Nations Population Funds (UNFPA). She lead the Youth and Culture Center (YCC) of Zouk Mikaël, a Lebanese governmental institution that promotes youth and women empowerment and human development at the local level. She serves now as YCC’s development adviser. Ms. Fersan is founder and President of the Lebanon Development Union (LDU).

Dr. Afiouni is an Associate Professor of Human Resource Management at the Olayan School of Business, American University of Beirut, Lebanon. She obtained her Ph.D. in Human Resource Management and Industrial Relations from Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne University and was the recipient of the Sharjah award for the best doctoral thesis in administrative sciences in the Arab world for the year 2005. Dr. Afiouni’s current research focuses on the interplay of HRM, careers, and gender in the Arab Middle East with a particular interest in identifying best HRM practices in the region, HR policies in support of women’s career development, as well as individuals’ chosen career patterns and conceptualizations of career success.

Dr. Beverly Dawn Metcalfe is SL in Gender and HRD (Associate Professor) at the Institute for Development Policy and Management at the University of Manchester. She has published in many leading journals and has worked with various governments and women’s organizations on empowerment and education and leadership development including Iran, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Oman, UAE, and Egypt. Dr. Metcalfe’s key research interests are feminist theory and globalization, women’s leadership development in the Arab Gulf, women’s organizations, learning and feminist pedagogies. Her book Leadership and Development in the Middle East 2012, Edward Elgar, is the first text to unite both Arabic and English writings to provide a critical account of leadership development.

Dr. Shahvisi has an MSc in Astrophysics and a PhD in Philosophy. Her current research is in philosophy of science and applied ethics with projects on reproductive ethics, social epistemology, scientific methodology, and the ethics of labor. Dr. Ariane Shahvisi takes her role as a public ethicist very seriously, and engages in campus and community activism, focusing on gender, race, migration, and academic freedom. She serves as an editorial board member of Kohl: Journal for Feminist Research on Gender and the Body in the MENA Region. Dr. Shahvisi teaches undergraduate courses on the philosophy of mind, ethics, social determinants of health, feminist bioethics, and bio-politics. She also lectures on gender and ethics within the MSc in Global Health.

Nour Nasr is the Director of the Gender and Sexuality Resource Center at Arab Foundation for Freedoms and Equality (AFE). She is an Instructor for Industrial/Organizational Psychology at the Lebanese American University. She has co-authored a number of papers on social roles and gender disparity in the workplace in the Middle East through her work at the Olayan School of Business at AUB. Nasr currently teaches general psychology at the AUB, and has worked as a research consultant to national and international bodies such as the Chamber of Commerce, Industry, and Agriculture, Beirut, and the British Council. She holds an MSc.in Organizational and Social Psychology, The London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE).

Ms. Ashmashan Zein is the chairman/general Manager of InfoFort Lebanon. She has almost 46 years of experience in all kinds of services, from Airlines to Hotel Management Transportation & Logistics (27 years with Aramex). She started a new company in 2014 Crypta sal that signed for the franchise of (InfoFort LLC) – at the same time still handling the CSR projects of Aramex. Ms. Ashmashan Zein was recently elected President of LLWB.

Sally Abi Khalil has been in the field of development for over 15 years of experience in Jordan, Iraq, Lebanon, and Syria. Her expertise focuses on citizenship education, advocacy, youth leadership, political party development, minority rights, and increasing the political participation of women. She currently runs, the National Democratic Institute's Syria program. Sally holds Master's degrees in Political Science and Development Studies from the American University in Beirut and the London School of Economics, respectively.

Dr. Dima Jamali is a Professor in the School of Business, American University of Beirut and the Chair of the Management, Marketing and Entrepreneurship Track. Her research / teaching revolve primarily around Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). She is the author of over 40 international publications focusing on different aspects of CSR in the Middle East, all appearing in highly reputable journals. Dr. Jamali holds a PhD in Social Policy and Administration, from the University of Kent at Canterbury, UK.

Joelle Rizkallah holds a Bachelor Degree in Journalism and Press Agencies, 1986-1990, from the Lebanese University, Lebanon. She is the co-founder and member of Women in Front (WIF) Member of the Third Voice for Lebanon. She is a coordinating member of the British Hay Festival projects in Lebanon, and a member of the Press Club. Ms. Joelle Rizkallah is the General Manager at JO Branding Advertising & JO Relocation Services. She is a trainer at the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO).

Georges Azzi is a sexual rights and HIV/AIDS activist. He is a co-founder of HELEM, the first LGBT organization in the MENA region; board member and founder of MARSA, a comprehensive sexual health clinic in Beirut, Lebanon; founder and currently executive director of the Arab Foundation for Freedoms and Equality (AFE), based in Lebanon.

Dr. Helou is a professor of Political Science and women’s rights activist in the Lebanese University. She has worked extensively on issues surrounding women’s rights and political participation in Lebanon. She has compiled research for international agencies on women’s status in Lebanon and was a guest editor for Al-Raida, the Journal of Centre for Studies of Women and Gender in the Arab World at the Lebanese American University, for their recent issue on the women’s quota. Dr. Helou’s has published on tropics relating to democracy, political culture, and extensively about parliamentary elections.

Nada Anid holds a Master’s Degree in Graphic Communications, from Academie Charpentier. She is the co-founder of Women in Front (WIF), as well as an independent writer. Ms. Nada Anid worked for various advertising agencies, founded of a publishing house, and was part in the Francophonie Games managing team.

Professor Michael Clinton is the Vice-Chair of Social Behavioral IRB. He is a Professor in the Faculty of Nursing and the Faculty of Medicine, University of Calgary, Alberta, Canada. He is also a visiting Professor in the School of Nursing, in the American University of Beirut.

Ms. Youmna Makhlouf is a lawyer and activist. She is currently writing her PhD thesis on the individual in Lebanese law at the Panthéon-Assas University in Paris.

HELEM’s Director of Fundraising and Strategic Planning.

Ms. Fida Kanaan is the Director of executive education at the Olayan School of Business in AUB, and manager of the WEP.

Ms. Zeina Abdel Khalik is the National Project Coordinator, promoting women’s participation in governance, at the Ministry of Social Affairs in Lebanon. She holds a Masters degree in Public Health, from the American University of Beirut.

National Project Coordinator of the ILO project “Promoting Rights of Women Domestic Workers” (PROWD).

Gender Focal Point at MEHE ( Ministry of Education and Higher Education).

Ms. Abou Abbas is the manager at Marsa, the Beirut-based sexual health center.

President of Akkar Network for Development.

Education Consultant.