Appendix C
Biographical Sketches of Workshop Speakers
Larry Aber, Ph.D., is the Willner Family Professor of Psychology and Public Policy at the Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development, and University Professor at New York University, where he also serves as board chair of its Institute of Human Development and Social Change and codirector of the international research center Global TIES for Children. His research examines the influence of poverty and violence on the social, emotional, behavioral, cognitive, and academic development of children and youth. Currently, he conducts research on the impact of poverty and HIV/AIDS on children’s development in South Africa (in collaboration with the Human Sciences Research Council), the effect of preschool teacher training quality and children’s learning and development in Ghana (in collaboration with Innovations for Poverty Action) and on school- and community-based interventions in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Lebanon, Niger, and Sierra Leone (in collaboration with the International Rescue Committee). In 2006, Dr. Aber was appointed by the Mayor of New York City to the Commission for Economic Opportunity, an initiative to help reduce poverty and increase economic opportunity in New York City. Dr. Aber earned his Ph.D. from Yale University and an A.B. from Harvard University.
Mohammed Abu-Nimer, Ph.D., of the International Peace and Conflict Resolution program, serves as Director of the Peacebuilding and Development Institute. He has conducted interreligious conflict resolution training and interfaith dialogue workshops in conflict areas around the world,
including Egypt, Israel, Northern Ireland, Palestine, the Philippines (Mindanao), and Sri Lanka. In addition to his articles and publications, Dr. Abu-Nimer is the co-founder and co-editor of the Journal of Peacebuilding and Development. At American University, Professor Abu-Nimer is also Director of the Peacebuilding and Development Institute. Professor Abu-Nimer also serves as Senior Advisor to KAICIID.
Friedrich Affolter, Ed.D., is the Manager of UNICEF’s Peacebuilding, Education, and Advocacy Program (PBEA) at UNICEF Headquarters in New York. The program is implemented in 14 fragile and postconflict countries in south eastern and western Africa; the Middle East; and central and Southeast Asia. Mr. Affolter is a graduate of the Center for International Education of the University of Massachusetts, from where he holds an Ed.D. and M.Ed. Prior to joining UNICEF at New York Headquarters, Mr. Affolter was the education cluster lead in Sudan, as well as the peace education focal point for UNICEF Sudan’s YouthLead Project. Mr. Affolter has also worked for UNODC (United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime) South Africa (2008–2010) as a victim empowerment capacity development expert; for UNDP (United Nations Development Programme) Angola as a civic education expert (2007–2008); and UNDP/ UN-HABITAT Afghanistan as a community mobilization training advisor (2002–2006).
Nadia Akseer is a biostatistician and epidemiologist in the Centre for Global Child Health at the Hospital for Sick Children, and a Ph.D. candidate in Epidemiology at the Dalla School of Public Health at the University of Toronto. Dr. Akseer’s work primarily involves studying reproductive, maternal, newborn, and child health (RMNCH) in low-resource settings globally; she’s currently involved in assessments in the Middle East, South Asia, sub-Saharan Africa, and broader Islamic world. For her doctoral research, Dr. Akseer is conducting a systematic assessment of Afghanistan’s progress in RMNCH, nutrition, and mortality trends in Afghanistan in the post-Taliban era with a focus on the impact of conflict and socioeconomic inequities. Dr. Akseer’s other research interests include exploring low-cost interventions for preventable diseases and malnutrition in developing countries, health and nutrition in humanitarian emergencies and conflict settings, multidimensional poverty, and other social determinants of health.
Marwa Muhammad Al Aboud is a social cohesion peace delegate, participating in the social cohesion program that Generations for Peace implements in partnership with UNICEF. She is one the most active Syrian participants who showed positive change in behavior, and decided to be
a facilitator for the Sports and Arts for Peace activities for other youth and adolescents in her community.
Ayyam Fouad Al Asaad is an industrial engineering student at the University of Jordan, and the Vice President of the Jeel 962 youth network (formerly UNICEF Change Agents Network). Al Asaad is self-motivated and highly interested in voluntary work, leadership, and youth participation.
Ghassan Al Helou is a second-year business administration student at the Jordan University; the Media officer for Jeel 962; and is an active youth volunteer with various organizations in Jordan.
Hamzah Al Najar finished school and joined one of the youth centers with Generations for Peace’s social cohesion program. He showed great leadership and possesses very good communications skills, and he also has very good presentation skills. He became friends with many other Jordanian youth and led the community initiative for youth talents and interests.
Ammar Al Thaher has a B.A. in English language and business administration. He has been a youth activist and a youth volunteer since 2007 in many of the institutions and nonprofit organizations in Jordan and aspires to shed light on issues that youth in Jordan face and their role in community development.
Constanza Alarcón is a Colombian expert on childhood and adolescent public policy design and implementation, with a special focus on early childhood. She is Executive Director of one of Colombia’s most important private-sector foundations, Fundación Alpina. She recently worked at the Presidency of the Republic of Colombia as the National Coordinator of the Intersectoral Commission for Early Childhood, a position that let her lead the design and implementation process of an innovative public policy, in terms of integrality and intersectoriality, for early childhood in her country. Ms. Alarcón is a psychologist from Colombian National University. She holds a specialization degree in social comprehensive attention in mental health, and a master’s degree in educational and social development.
Hamza Abdul Jalil Alnajjar is a young person who has experienced the Syrian conflict firsthand.
Mohannad Al-Nsour, Ph.D., is an internationally recognized expert in the fields of epidemiology, research, and public health systems. As a cur-
rent Ph.D. fellow at the International Agency for Research on Cancer, and Glasgow University, Scotland, Dr. Al-Nsour holds a medical degree from Ukraine and an M.Sc. in epidemiology from the American University of Beirut (AUB). Since 1999, Dr. Al-Nsour assumed several positions as a clinician, advisor, and director in Jordan. He also served as a consultant for the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), WHO, and the AUB. Before becoming EMPHNET’s Executive Director, Dr. Al-Nsour was the Director of the Field Epidemiology Training Program (FETP) in Jordan and the head of the Surveillance Department of Balqa Health Directorate in Jordan. Dr. Al-Nsour also served as a CDC consultant for the FETP in the Eastern Mediterranean Region.
Dr. Al-Nsour has been leading EMPHNET since 2009, by providing strategic and operational responsibilities, and guiding the enrichment of FETPs in the region. Under Dr. Al-Nsour’s leadership, EMPHNET emerged as a regional entity that leads initiatives to promote public health, advance field epidemiology, and improve performance of FETPs in the region.
Nicole Behnam, Ph.D., is the Senior Technical Director for a new technical unit at the International Rescue Committee (IRC) focused on violence prevention and response. Dr. Behnam has previously worked with World Vision and the U.S. Department of State, where she led a $350 million PEPFAR (U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief) portfolio and strategy to implement a multisector program, policy, and research agenda. In this and other roles, based both in the field and headquarters, Dr. Behnam has supervised and delivered technical assistance for programs focused on women and children; managed teams, complex work, and budgets; advocated for policy change at various levels; and advanced the use of evidence-based programs in both emergency and protracted contexts. Dr. Behnam has a doctorate from the University of Pennsylvania and master’s degrees from Harvard University and Johns Hopkins University.
Maysoun Chehab is currently working as the Basic Education Regional Programme Officer at the UNESCO Regional Bureau for Education in the Arab States. Ms. Chehab is providing technical and professional support to the UNESCO regional office and their national counterparts in the Arab States. She is currently involved in working on promoting intercultural dialogue, peace building, global citizenship education, and combating extremism. Ms. Chehab has developed and managed education programs in such countries as Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, Palestine, Sudan, Syria, and Yemen and the Persian Gulf. She serves as an advisor to a number of local foundations and national and international organizations, helping to create innovative policies and programs to improve the conditions
for children and families. She is the author and co-author of numerous publications, including Dialogue in Early Childhood, Investing Against Evidence, Comparative Analysis for ECEC in the Arab States, Providing a Sense of Belonging in an Environment of Conflict, and Children Living on the Front Line. She is a Ph.D. candidate at Paris Saclay University in France and holds a master’s in education from the University of Michigan and a B.S. in child and family counseling from the University of Michigan.
Andrew Claypole is Senior Advisor to the SRSG on Violence against Children. He has 25 years of experience in social policy, research, monitoring, evaluation, and communication in the UN and UNICEF, both at headquarters and in the field. Before joining the UN he was a senior researcher at the BBC. Most recently he was the Chief of Social Policy at UNICEF in Thailand, prior to which he was Chief of Programme Planning, Monitoring, and Evaluation at UNICEF in China. In these capacities he has provided technical support in social policy analysis, research, monitoring, and evaluation to a range of government partners, academic institutes, and NGOs. In Thailand he supported the government in the conduct of the first national survey on violence against children, as well as promoting the strengthening of the national social protection system. In 2015, he coordinated the advocacy of the Office of the SRSG on the development of indicators to monitor the violence against children targets of the global SDGs. He has a B.A. in Economics and a Master’s in Human Rights from the London School of Economics.
Rabih El Chammay, M.D., is the head of the National Mental Health Programme at the Ministry of Public Health in Lebanon. The programme is focused on reforming the mental health system in Lebanon through the first National Mental Health and Substance Use Strategy 2015–2020. He is a faculty member at the Department of Psychiatry in the Faculty of Medicine at Saint Joseph University in Beirut. He has a special interest in public mental health and more specifically in refugee mental health. He has been working on these topics regionally and internationally with various agencies such as UNHCR and UNICEF and many international NGOs on programme design, development, and evaluation.
Abed El Fattah El Samman, Ph.D., is a university lecturer in Islamic economy. He also holds a Ph.D. in media and a master’s degree in Islamic economy and education. He is a family and media trainer in effective communication techniques with media, and an international observer and expert in the religious and cultural diversity in the United States. Dr. El Fattah El Samman has worked as a human development trainer specializing in family and behavioral modeling, television presenter (more than
1,500 satellite and radio hours), and media consultant and instructor at the University of World Islamic Sciences. He is also a Certified Trainer for the International Union for trainers and several international and local institutions in human and family development. He specializes in children economy and has presented many courses in developing the financial skills of children and their families.
Shatha El Nakib holds a Master’s of Public Health degree from Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health with a concentration in epidemiology and a certificate in public health and humanitarian assistance. She is currently working with Columbia University and UNICEF Middle East and North Africa (MENA) Regional Office on a project aimed at building the capacity of UNICEF country-based staff in MENA to better respond to public health emergencies. Prior to that, Ms. El Nakib worked for the Mailman School of Public Health as a researcher, was part of a research group at Human Rights Watch in New York, and worked for the International Organization for Migration in Egypt.
Selim El Sayegh, Ph.D., is a Professor of Law and International Relations at the University of Paris since 1993. He is currently the Director of the Master’s Program in Diplomacy & Strategic Negotiations and the director of CADMOS (Center for the Analysis of Disputes and their Modes of Settlement). He is the co-founder and vice-president of the American Graduate School of Diplomacy and International Relations in Paris, which has been affiliated with Arcadia University in the United States since 1995. He serves as visiting professor in different universities around the world. Dr. El Sayegh is an internationally and regionally recognized expert in his field. He currently serves as a Senior Adviser for the UNESCO Program on Intercultural Dialogue.
Nada Elattar is the Director of Educational Programs, International Social Impact, at the Sesame Workshop, the nonprofit multimedia educational organization behind Sesame Street. Ms. Elattar’s experience is an eclectic mix of international development work with a focus on early childhood projects. In addition to her extensive experience with Sesame Workshop, Ms. Elattar has worked for a number of prestigious international organizations. She has worked as an advisor at the UN WHO’s Mediterranean Center for Vulnerability and Risk Reduction in Tunis, Tunisia. While in Tunisia, Ms. Elattar also served as an English language instructor for AMIDEAST and as a writer and editor for the local UNICEF office. Other positions include Communications Advisor in Cairo, Egypt, for the Johns Hopkins University’s Center for Communication Program’s—Communication for Healthy Living project, and Communications Offi-
cer for the UN’s World Food Programme. Ms. Elattar has also worked for various higher-education organizations including the University of California, San Francisco; Johns Hopkins University; and the American University in Cairo.
Kathleen Hamill, J.D., is a human rights lawyer and a Visiting Scholar at the FXB Center for Health and Human Rights at the Harvard School of Public Health. As an Adjunct Assistant Professor, she has taught human rights and international law at the Fletcher School, Tufts University. She has worked as a researcher, advocate, and consultant in several regions of the world, including Africa, Asia, Europe, the Middle East, and South America. Ms. Hamill recently conducted child protection assessments among Syrian refugees in Lebanon and Jordan in order to inform FXB’s policy work to protect the rights and well-being of children and families impacted by the Syria crisis. She holds a J.D. from Boston College Law School, a Master of Arts in Law and Diplomacy from the Fletcher School, and a B.A. from Brown University.
Maysaa Hudhud worked for 12 years as a kindergarten teacher and kindergarten principle in the Ministry of Education system in Syria. She also worked in the early childhood care and development program with both Iraqi and Syrian humanitarian responses with children, parents, and community members. She is currently the early childhood care and development field officer with Save the Children International at Azraq Camp in Jordan. In this role, she is responsible for managing the early childhood/kindergarten program; developing early childhood care and development materials such as activity books and awareness materials; and working side by side with the advocacy and media department, financing department, and the reporting department.
Gillian Huebner has spent more than 20 years working in international affairs in the fields of children’s rights, child development and protection, humanitarian assistance, and conflict management. She is currently a Senior Associate with Maestral International. Prior to joining Maestral, she helped establish the U.S. office of J.K. Rowling’s international child rights organization, Lumos. Ms. Huebner served as the Senior Child Development and Protection Technical Advisor with the U.S. Agency for International Development’s (USAID’s) Center for Children in Adversity, where she worked with a team responsible for coordinating all forms of U.S. government assistance to highly vulnerable children in developing countries. Ms. Huebner has taught courses in assistance for children in emergency settings (George Washington University), field research and cross-cultural communication (World Learning’s School for International
Training in Russia), and has been involved in a working group on psychosocial support in crisis settings.
Ghassan Issa, M.D., is a Lebanese medical doctor and earned a postgraduate degree in pediatrics from AUB in 1980. He is the co-founder and the general coordinator of an Arab regional NGO, The Arab Resource Collective (ARC), that was established in 1988 for better childhood, health for all, and community development in the Arab region. He is a member of the International Pediatric Association (IPA), Technical Advisory Committee on Early Childhood Development. He is an International Developmental Pediatrics Association board member. He is the Director of the Arab Network for Early Childhood Development. He is the Chairperson of the Lebanese National Certification Committee on Poliomyelitis Eradication and Measles and German Measles Control. He is the Senior Advisor of National Strategy for Early Childhood Development for the Higher Council of Childhood of the Lebanese Ministry of Social Affairs. He is a MENA Health Policy Forum member.
Kaveh Khoshnood, Ph.D., is an Associate Professor and Director of Undergraduate Studies at the Yale School of Public Health and core faculty member of the Yale Council on Middle East Studies. He is co-founder of Yale Violence and Health Study Group and a Steering Committee member of the Program on Conflict, Resiliency, and Health at the Yale McMillan Center. Dr. Khoshnood is trained as an infectious disease epidemiologist and has more than two decades of domestic and international experience in HIV prevention research among drug users and other at-risk populations, including its ethical aspects. Dr. Khoshnood is an investigator on two current projects in Lebanon, a parenting intervention with Palestinian refugees and a population size estimation and biobehavioral surveillance of populations at risk of HIV/AIDS.
Rami Khouri is an internationally syndicated political columnist and book author. He was the first director, and is now a senior fellow, at the Issam Fares Institute for Public Policy and International Affairs at the American University of Beirut. He also serves as a nonresident senior fellow at the Kennedy School of Harvard University. He is editor at large, and former executive editor, of the Beirut-based Daily Star newspaper, and was awarded the Pax Christi International Peace Prize in 2006.
Samer Laila is a psychosocial consultant. He received his B.S. in sociology from Aleppo University 2010. Mr. Laila started as a psychosocial consultant in Anadan School in Aleppo City in 2012. Then, he worked with Syrian internally displaced people (IDP) in the Médicins Sans Frontières
hospital in Alsalama town in 2013. At the end of 2013, he began his work as a PSWs TL with MRFS in IDP camps north of Aleppo. Then he moved to Turkey to work with Syrian refugees as PSWs TL in IMC in Kilis city from 2014 until now. Currently, he facilitates trainings and mental health promotion sessions for refugees and service providers in the community. Mr. Laila is a Master PFA, mhGAP trainer, and EMDR therapist.
Joan Lombardi, Ph.D., is an international expert on child development and social policy. She currently serves as Senior Advisor to the Buffett Early Childhood Fund on national initiatives and to the Bernard van Leer Foundation on global child development strategies. She also directs Early Opportunities, LLC, focusing on innovation, policy, and philanthropy. Over the past 40 years, Dr. Lombardi has made significant contributions in the areas of child and family policy as an innovative leader and policy advisor to national and international organizations and foundations and as a public servant. She served in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services as the first Deputy Assistant Secretary for Early Childhood Development (2009–2011) in the Obama administration, and as the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Policy and External Affairs in the Administration for Children and Families, and the first Commissioner of the Child Care Bureau among other positions (l993–1998) during the Clinton administration.
Ann Masten, Ph.D., LP, is Regents Professor, Irving B. Harris Professor of Child Development and Distinguished McKnight University Professor in the Institute of Child Development at the University of Minnesota. She completed her doctoral training at the University of Minnesota in clinical psychology and her internship at the University of California, Los Angeles. Professor Masten’s research focuses on understanding processes that promote competence and prevent problems in human development, with a focus on adaptive processes and pathways, developmental tasks and cascades, and resilience in the context of high cumulative risk, adversity, and trauma. She directs the Project Competence studies of risk and resilience, including studies of normative populations and high-risk young people exposed to war, natural disasters, poverty, homelessness, and migration. The ultimate objective of her research is to inform sciences, practices, and policies that aim to promote positive development and a better future for children and families whose lives are threatened by adversity.
Mark Miller, M.D., is currently Associate Director for Research and the founding Director of the Division of International Epidemiology and Population Studies for the Fogarty International Center at the National Insti-
tutes of Health (NIH). His research focus has been on vaccine discovery/ development and health outcomes evaluation through the integration of epidemiologic, biomedical, and sociobehavioral/economic data with a particular emphasis on computational biology/modeling and special emphasis on vaccine preventable diseases. As a Medical Officer with the Children’s Vaccine Initiative, his analyses highlighted the utility of underutilized vaccines through national-level assessments of their potential use, leading to investments and the creation of the Children’s Vaccine Program at PATH and the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization (GAVI).
Aleksandra (Saška) Mojsilović, Ph.D., is a scientist in the Mathematical Sciences Department at the IBM Thomas J. Watson Research Center, Yorktown Heights, New York, where she leads the Data Science Group. Dr. Mojsilović is also a founder and codirector of the IBM Social Good Fellowship program. She received a Ph.D. degree in electrical engineering from the University of Belgrade, Serbia, in 1997. Her research interests include multidimensional signal processing, predictive modeling, and pattern recognition. She has applied her skills to problems in computer vision, health care, multimedia, business analytics, finance/insurance, public affairs, and economics. Dr. Mojsilović is the author of more than 100 publications and holds 16 patents. Her work has been recognized with several awards, including IEEE Signal Processing Society Young Author Best Paper Award, INFORMS Wagner Prize, IBM Extraordinary Accomplishment Award, IBM Gerstner Prize, and Best Paper awards at the European Conference on Computer Vision and the Service Operations and Logistics, and Informatics conferences. For her technical contributions and the business impact of her work, Dr. Mojsilović was appointed an IBM Fellow, the company’s highest technical honor.
Ilham Nasser, Ph.D., is an associate professor in Early Childhood and International Education at George Mason University in Virginia, United States. She is an educator who spent more than 25 years in the research of child development and teacher training in different educational settings in Africa, the Middle East, and the United States. She completed a Ph.D. in Human Development and Child Study at the University of Maryland, College Park, and worked for several years as a classroom teacher and a school counselor. Her research agenda includes studies and publications on the topic of teachers’ professional development and more specifically, teacher preparation and professional development in social and political contexts and ways these influence children’s outcomes. Her recent research on teaching for forgiveness in Arab schools includes 5 countries and more than 500 teachers in the Middle East. Recently, she co-authored the first curriculum in teaching for forgiveness to Arab school children,
which is accompanied by a study to document the effect of the curriculum on students using a pre/post design.
Pia Rebello Britto, Ph.D., Global Chief and Senior Advisor, Early Childhood Development, UNICEF, is internationally renowned for her expertise in early childhood policy and programs. Dr. Rebello Britto obtained her doctoral degree in developmental psychology from Columbia University, and prior to joining UNICEF she was an Assistant Professor at Yale University’s Child Study Center.
Dr. Rebello Britto has worked in low-, middle-, and high-income countries developing integrated systems and policies for early childhood. In particular, she has investigated the role of governance and finance of national systems in achieving equity, access, and quality, as well as conceptualized models for implementation and evaluation of quality early childhood services and parenting. Currently, Dr. Rebello Britto is involved in work examining the relationship between early childhood and peace building.
Rima Salah, Ph.D., is currently a member of the faculty of the Child Study Center at Yale University School of Medicine. She is also a member of the United Nations High-Level Independent Panel on Peace Operations, and she was a former Deputy SRSG, UN Mission in the Central African Republic and Chad (MINURCAT). Dr. Salah has had a distinguished career with UNICEF. She was the Deputy Executive Director for External Relations in UNICEF from August 2011 to January 2012 and Deputy Executive Director from 2004 to 2007. Dr. Salah also served as UNICEF representative in a number of countries, including Vietnam and Burkina Faso, as well head of office in Queta, Pakistan. Prior to UNICEF, Dr. Salah lectured in anthropology, sociology, social work, and psychology.
Peter Salama, M.D., was appointed UNICEF Regional Director for MENA in May 2015. Prior to that, Dr. Salama was UNICEF’s Global Emergency Coordinator for Ebola. Dr. Salama previously served as UNICEF’s Representative in Ethiopia. Before then, he was a UNICEF Representative in Zimbabwe, Chief of Global Health in UNICEF New York, and Principal Advisor HIV/AIDS, on secondment to the Africa Bureau of USAID Washington. Before joining UNICEF in 2002, Dr. Salama worked as a visiting scientist for CDC, as well as for Doctors Without Borders and Concern Worldwide. He previously held a visiting professorship in nutrition at Tufts University, is a former Fulbright and Harness Fellow in Public Policy, and maintains a strong research interest in maternal and child survival. Dr. Salama is a physician and epidemiologist by training. He holds a medical degree from the University of Melbourne, a Master’s
of Public Health from Harvard University, and completed the Epidemic Intelligence Service fellowship at CDC Atlanta.
Kefaya Sayyah was a pharmacist for 9 years before she and her family had to flee to Jordan in 2013 due to the conflict in Syria. She has been volunteering with the Jordanian Hashemite Fund for Human Development, a national NGO in Jordan, for 2 years, where she attended and participated in several trainings. As a result, she is now working and supporting other Syrian mothers and children through a UNICEF-funded project for psychosocial support.
Jevara Shahin is a first-year university student and an education advocate. She is a youth representative and a founding member of the Jeel 962 youth network.
Lorraine Sherr, Ph.D., is a consultant Clinical Psychologist and Professor of Clinical and Health Psychology at University College London Medical School. She has been involved in studying psychological aspects of HIV infection since the beginning of the epidemic. Dr. Sherr is editor of the international journal AIDS Care, as well as Psychology Health and Medicine and Vulnerable Children and Youth Studies. She jointly coordinated the European study on policy on HIV in pregnancy and was codirector of the European initiative on HIV discrimination and mental health, HIV and antenatal testing policy in Europe, psychological services for HIV, and AIDS and HIV prevention.
She was appointed a Churchill Fellow for life in respect of her work on HIV and AIDS in obstetrics and pediatrics. She has chaired the British Psychological Society Special Group on HIV and AIDS, and the Special Group on Teaching Psychology to Other Professions. Dr. Sherr represented Psychology on the International Scientific Board of the International AIDS Conferences in Geneva and Washington (2012) and is on the international organizing committee of the AIDS Impact Conference. She was previously appointed to the Review Support Panel of the Global Fund. Dr. Sherr chaired the WHO committee on HIV disclosure.
Selcuk Sirin, Ph.D., is Associate Professor of Applied Psychology at New York University’s Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development. Dr. Sirin’s research primarily focuses on the lives of immigrant and minority children and their families and ways to increase professionals’ ability to better serve them. Dr. Sirin conducted a meta-analytical review of research on socioeconomic status and he co-produced the Racial and Ethical Sensitivity Test (REST) and accompanying training program for school professionals. He also served as the Research Coordinator for
the Partnership for Teacher Excellence project at New York University (NYU) in collaboration with New York City School of Education. His most recent research focused on immigrant youth and Muslim American children and adolescents. Dr. Sirin’s book with Dr. Michelle Fine, titled Muslim American Youth: Understanding Hyphenated Identities Through Multiple Methods, was published by the NYU Press. Dr. Sirin is the recipient of the Teaching Excellence Award from Boston College, Young Scholar Award from the Foundation for Child Development for his project on immigrant children, and Review of Research Award from the American Educational Research Association (AERA) given in recognition of an outstanding article published in education.
Nayla Tabbara, Ph.D., is the Director of the Adyan Institute and the co-founder of Adyan Foundation. She holds a Ph.D. in Science of Religions from École Pratique des Hautes Études (Sorbonne) from Saint Joseph University and is a university professor in Comparative Religions and Islamic Studies. She has publications in the fields of Islamic theology of other religions, education on interreligious and intercultural diversity, Qur’anic exegesis and Sufism, and works on curricula development (formal and nonformal) on multifaith education and intercultural citizenship.
Mohanad Mohammad Abdel Raheem Tarawneh is the elected president of UNICEF’s Youth Network Jeel 962. He is a student at the Hashemite University and a certified life skills trainer. Mohanad is an active volunteer and believes in the power of youth to become positive change agents in their communities.
His Excellency Mohammad Thneibat, Ph.D., is the Minister of Education, Jordan.
Kush R. Varshney, Ph.D., received a B.S. degree (magna cum laude) in electrical and computer engineering with honors from Cornell University, Ithaca, New York, in 2004. He received his S.M. degree in 2006 and his Ph.D. degree in 2010, both in electrical engineering and computer science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Cambridge. He is a research staff member in the Data Science Group of the Mathematical Sciences and Analytics Department at the IBM Thomas J. Watson Research Center, Yorktown Heights, New York. He is also a data ambassador with DataKind, New York, New York. He has been a visiting student at Laboratoire de Mathématiques Appliquées aux Systèmes at École Centrale, Paris. He was an intern at the Systems and Decision Sciences Section, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Livermore, California; at Sun Microsystems, Burlington, Massachusetts; and at Sensis Corpora-
tion, DeWitt, New York. His research interests include statistical signal processing, machine learning, data mining, and image processing. He is on the editorial board of Digital Signal Processing and a member of the IEEE Signal Processing Society’s Machine Learning for Signal Processing Technical Committee and Signal Processing Theory and Methods Technical Committee.
Amalia Waxman leads a global corporate social responsibility initiative at Teva Pharmaceuticals, Israel. She is an expert in strategy and policy planning, advocacy, private–public partnerships, communications, multistakeholder relations, corporate social responsibility (CSR), international health policy, public affairs, issue and crisis management, and resource development. She is an experienced driver and manager of complex challenging innovative processes and campaigns. She has professional experience in private, public, UN, and not-for-profit organizations. Ms. Waxman led the development of WHO’s Global Strategy on Diet, Physical Activity, and Health. She established, branded, and managed a food labeling system—a complex cross-industry CSR initiative and also developed a national policy on prevention of chronic diseases—adopted by the Government of Israel. Most recently she returned from Switzerland where she was head of corporate affairs and communication at Nestlé Nutrition. Prior to this role she was director of unlicensed affairs and policy at Pfizer Nutrition. She has a master’s degree in political science from the University of Toronto and a B.A. from the Hebrew University in Jerusalem.
Janine Zacharia has reported on Israel, the Middle East, and U.S. foreign policy for two decades, including stints as Jerusalem Bureau Chief for The Washington Post, chief diplomatic correspondent for Bloomberg News, Washington bureau chief for The Jerusalem Post, and Jerusalem correspondent for Reuters. She appears regularly on cable news shows and radio programs as a Middle East analyst and is currently the Carlos Kelly McClatchy Visiting Lecturer in the Department of Communication at Stanford University, where she teaches reporting and writing classes, foreign correspondence, and a new immersive journalism seminar that aims to establish best practices for using virtual reality technologies to augment story impact.
Her Royal Highness Princess Sarah Zeid is a global maternal and newborn health advocate. Princess Sarah has successfully sponsored the addition of an unprecedented focus on humanitarian settings in the updated global strategy for the UN Secretary-General’s EWEC initiative. Commissioned by the Partnership for Maternal, Newborn, and Child Health and in collaboration with the H4+ multilateral agencies (UN and the World
Bank), Princess Sarah continues to champion the priority of, and innovation for, reproductive, maternal, newborn, child and adolescent health in humanitarian and fragile settings as the EWEC Strategy moves into implementation.
Princess Sarah is a former UN staff member, having worked in the Department of Peacekeeping Operations, and she was the Desk Officer for Iraq in UNICEF’s Office of Emergency Programmes. She holds a B.A. in International Relations from the University of St. Thomas in Houston, Texas, and an M.Sc. in Development Studies from the School of Oriental and African Studies at the University of London. Princess Sarah is married to HRH Prince Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein. They have three children.
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