Dr. Cathia Jenainati

Dr. Cathia Jenainati is the Dean of the School of Arts and Sciences and professor of English Literature at LAU. She joined LAU in September 2019. She hails from the University of Warwick in the UK where she has been a full professor and the founding head of the School for Cross-Faculty Studies. Her research focuses on women’s activism, oral history, the global sustainable development agenda, and the history of education missions in the Middle East. Dean Jenainati spearheaded the gender series curriculum at LAU.

Dr. Lina AbiRafeh

Dr. Lina Abi Rafeh is the Executive Director of the Arab Institute for Women (AiW) at LAU in New York and Lebanon. She has served in this position since 2015. The Institute was established in 1973 as the first women’s institute in the Arab region – and one of the first globally. Lina completed her doctoral work from the London School of Economics and published “Gender and International Aid in Afghanistan: The Politics and Effects of Intervention” based on her research. She speaks and publishes frequently on a range of gender issues such as gender-based violence, sexual and reproductive health and rights, what’s holding Arab women back from equality, bodily integrity and autonomy, female humanitarian aid workers, women in conflict – for instance in Sudan and Yemen, and so on. Recently, Lina has been focused on the need for a feminist response to the COVID-19 pandemic and its impact on Arab women and girls.

Rachel Dore-Weeks

Rachel Dore-Weeks is the head of UN Women in Lebanon, joining the Lebanon office in March 2019, where she represents and oversees the direction of the office. From 2018-19 she served as UN Women’s Regional Director for Arab States ai, and from 2016-18, as UN Women’s Regional Advisor on Peace, Security and Humanitarian Action for the Arab States, a role in which she worked closely with the League of Arab States, regional actors, Special Envoy teams and UN Women offices to support inclusive peacemaking and women’s engagement in peace. Rachel has worked for UN Women and UNRWA, and on issues of peace and security for 16 years, including in Afghanistan, Rwanda, Yemen, Jordan, Egypt (regional) and now Lebanon. In 2010 she worked for the UN’s Peacebuilding Support Office (now the Department of Political and Peacebuilding Affairs) where she was served as one of two members of the drafting team of the Secretary General’s 2010 Report on Women’s Participation in Peacebuilding (A/65/354–S/2010/466)

Ms. Haneen Sayed

Haneen Sayed is the World Bank Program Leader for Human Development in Lebanon, Syria and Jordan and covers the fields of education, health, social security and the labor market. She earned her M.A. and M.Phil degrees in economics at Stanford University and Columbia University respectively. Subsequently, she joined the World Bank in 1992, where she worked on Indonesia, Pakistan and the Caribbean prior to being appointed Country Director for Korea and Burma, as well as Senior Advisor for Middle East and North African countries at the World Bank’s Boards of Executive Directors. She has lectured in New York and worked for Morgan Stanley Bank, the Kuwait Institute for Scientific Research (KISR), and Arab Fund for Economic and Social Development (AFSED), which is based in Kuwait.

Ms. Katrina Fotovat

Ms. Katrina Fotovat is currently the Acting Senior Official to the Secretary of State’s Office of Global Women’s Issues (S/GWI), where she leads an office of technical policy and programmatic experts promoting gender equality efforts including support of women, peace, and security, countering violent extremism, promoting women’s economic empowerment, health, and combatting gender-based violence. Ms. Fotovat has over 20 years of experience in gender and human rights globally. Previously, Ms. Fotovat was Director for the Office of Communications, Policy, and Partnerships, in the Bureau of Conflict and Stabilization Operations where she oversaw an expert team that provided policy and strategy guidance to respond to atrocities, fragility, increase global stability and peacebuilding, and integrating women, peace, and security efforts in areas of conflict. Ms. Fotovat was also the Deputy Director for the Office of Global Programing in the Bureau for Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor where she oversaw over a billion dollars in active programs geared toward supporting civil society and human rights in the most sensitive and fragile spaces, including internet freedom, transitional justice, and marginalized populations. Other positions in the US Government included as a Political Officer in the US Embassy in Moldova, and as the Senior Grants Officer in the Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons, Senior Human Rights Advisor in the Office of the Procurement Executive, and Interagency Policy Liaison at USAID. She holds a Juris Doctor in International Human Rights Law and a Masters Degree in Foreign Policy from American University. She lives in Rockville, Maryland with her son and husband.

Dr. Lina AbiRafeh

Dr. Lina Abi Rafeh is the Executive Director of the Arab Institute for Women (AiW) at the Lebanese American University, based in New York and Lebanon. She has served in this position since 2015. The Institute was established in 1973 as the first women’s institute in the Arab region – and one of the first globally. Lina completed her doctoral work from the London School of Economics and published “Gender and International Aid in Afghanistan: The Politics and Effects of Intervention” based on her research. She speaks and publishes frequently on a range of gender issues such as gender-based violence, sexual and reproductive health and rights, what’s holding Arab women back from equality, bodily integrity and autonomy, female humanitarian aid workers, women in conflict – for instance in Sudan and Yemen, and so on. Recently, Lina has been focused on the need for a feminist response to the COVID-19 pandemic and its impact on Arab women and girls.

Rachel Dore-Weeks

Rachel Dore-Weeks is the head of UN Women in Lebanon, joining the Lebanon office in March 2019, where she represents and oversees the direction of the office. From 2018-19 she served as UN Women’s Regional Director for Arab States ai, and from 2016-18, as UN Women’s Regional Advisor on Peace, Security and Humanitarian Action for the Arab States, a role in which she worked closely with the League of Arab States, regional actors, Special Envoy teams and UN Women offices to support inclusive peacemaking and women’s engagement in peace. Rachel has worked for UN Women and UNRWA, and on issues of peace and security for 16 years, including in Afghanistan, Rwanda, Yemen, Jordan, Egypt (regional) and now Lebanon. In 2010 she worked for the UN’s Peacebuilding Support Office (now the Department of Political and Peacebuilding Affairs) where she was served as one of two members of the drafting team of the Secretary General’s 2010 Report on Women’s Participation in Peacebuilding (A/65/354–S/2010/466)

Dr. Suad Joseph

Dr. Suad Joseph is a Distinguished Research Professor of Antropology and Gender Sexuality and Women’s Studies  at the University of California, Davis (UC Davis). She is the founder and founding president of the Middle East Research Group in Anthropology (Middle East Section of the American Anthropological Association), founder and founding president of the Association for Middle East Women’s Studies (AMEWS) and the founder and director of the Arab Families Working Group. She founded and directs the University of California Davis Arab Region Consortium which includes the American University of Beirut, the American University in Cairo, the Lebanese American University, Birzeit University, American University of Sharjah, and UC Davis. She was president of the Middle East Studies Association of North America in 2010-2011.  She is co-founder and founding president of the Arab American Studies Association and co-founder of the Association for Middle East Anthropology and the Journal of Middle East Women’s Studies. She is the General Editor of the Encyclopedia of Women and Islamic Cultures and she has edited or co-edited 10 books, published over 100 articles in journals and books, and most recently she contributed to the Arab Family Studies: Critical Reviews (2018) and Arab American Women: Representation and Refusal (2021). She is the founder and founding director of the Middle East/South Asia Studies Program at UC Davis, co-founder of the Feminist Research Institute, and was awarded the UC Davis Prize – the largest undergraduate teaching and research prize in the United States. She was honored with the Middle East Studies Association Jere L. Bacharach Life Time Service Award in 2019, and life time service awards from the Association for Middle East Women’s Studies and the Arab American Studies Association. UC Davis awarded her the Edward A. Dickson Emeriti Professorship for 2020-2021.

Dr. Lina Kreidie

Dr. Kreidie is a visiting assistant professor and the Academic Director of the TLS-gender program LAU . She oversees and coordinates the TLS curriculum, students’ progress, and attainment of MEPI and TLS academic goals. Dr. Kreidie has over 20 years of teaching experience. She is a Research Consultant at the Intisar Foundation, an NGO that focuses on Women’s Empowerment, as well as  a fellow at the Interdisciplinary Center for the Study of Ethics and Morality at the University of California, Irvine and a member of the Harris Council at the University of Chicago Harris School for Public Policy. Her research focuses on marginalized communities such as refugees and victims of war and violence. She earned her PhD in Political Science with a concentration in Political Psychology from the University of CA, Irvine. 

Dr. Gretchen King

Dr. Gretchen King is an Assistant Professor of Communication at Lebanese American University, she also serves as the Director of Pedagogy and Curriculum Design at LAU’s Institute for Media Research and Training. An award-winning journalist, Dr. King served as news director at CKUT 90.3 FM in Montreal for ten years for which she was presented the Community Radio “Legend”/Lifetime Achievement Award in 2011 presented by the National Campus and Community Radio Association of Canada. Dr. King co-founded numerous multimedia initiatives, including “Radio Free Palestine” an international, twenty-four hour radio broadcast that marks the anniversary of the Palestinian Nakba. Her scholarship focuses on nonprofit, Indigenous, and community media research, policy, teaching, and practice; journalism studies; critical audience studies; feminist and gender studies; alternative media and community radio in the regions of North America, North Africa, and West Asia.

Dr. Jennifer Skulte Ouaiss

Dr. Jennifer Skulte-Ouaiss is an Assistant Professor of Politics and International Affairs at LAU. She holds a Ph.D. in Comparative Politics and International Relations from the University of Maryland, USA (2005). A specialist in post-communist politics, national identity and women and politics, she has published book chapters and articles focusing on return migration, elite politics and national identity construction in Europe and the U.S. She has taught in the US and Lebanon and has also worked as a researcher on issues of international development. She published a book chapter concerning women and labor migration from the Baltic States to other states in the EU and the impact of this migration on Baltic national identities in 2008. She has recently co-edited with Paul Tabar, a volume on the Lebanese Diaspora: Politics Culture, and the Lebanese Diaspora (2011).

Mrs. Abir Chebaro

Abir Chebaro is a gender consultant and activist who has been advocating for women’s rights for over 20 years throughout her work with the government and with multiple CSOs. 

She held various official posts such as, Gender Advisor to the President of the Council of Ministers, Vice President of the National Commission for Lebanese Women - NCLW , Advisor to the Minister of State for Women’s Affairs and National Coordinator for the Mashreq Gender Facility by the World Bank. She was selected by OECD as a member of the Competitiveness Platform for Women’s Economic Empowerment for MENA region where she still serves. She serves also as member of the Advisory Working Group for the Generation Equality Forum- UN.Abir is a board member of the Lebanese League for Women in Business and an Advisory Board Member of the Knowledge is Power- KIP project at AUB. As Gender specialist she consulted for UNDP and UNFPA. She holds a Master’s degree in Public Health.

Mrs. Karma Ekmekji

Mrs. Ekmekji holds a Master of Public Administration from the School of International and Public Affairs at Columbia University, where she was a Fulbright student. Karma Ekmekji is a Mediation Advisor with UN Women. She is also a Senior Policy Fellow at the Issam Fares Institute for Public Policy and International Affairs at the American University of Beirut and the Lead Advisor on their Women, Peace and Security initiative. Before joining PM Hariri’s office in 2009, Karma was the National Political Officer at the United Nations Special Coordinator’s office in Lebanon where she briefed the Special Coordinator on political developments and strengthened the office’s network base with Lebanese political parties. Ekmekji also served at the UN Secretariat’s Department of Political Affairs in New York. Stemming from a strong interest in empowering women in the field of diplomacy, peacemaking, mediation and negotiation, Karma founded the #Diplowomen initiative to share knowledge, develop mentorship opportunities and strengthen networking.

Mrs. Myriam Sfeir

Mrs. Myriam Sfeir joined the Arab Institute for Women (AiW) in 1996. She is currently the Director of AiW. Previously she served as senior managing editor of Al-Raida, the double-blind peer-reviewed journal published by AiW. She has over twenty five years of experience working in the area of women’s rights issues and gender equality and ample experience doing research, expert analysis and trainings. She has worked on several groundbreaking projects that dealt with various subjects considered taboo in the Arab world (sexuality, honor killings, incarcerated women, homosexuality, etc.). She has organized several international and regional conferences, film festivals, and lectures at LAU. Myriam is knowledgeable on issues related to human rights, gender-based violence, and sexuality. Myriam earned her Bachelor degree in Philosophy from the American University of Beirut and her Master’s degree in Interdisciplinary Women’s Studies from the University of Warwick, United Kingdom.