Scholars

Abeer Sheikhasan earned a Bachelor’s degree in Mathematics Applied to Economics from Birzeit University in Palestine in 2012. Three years later, Abeer earned a Master’s degree in Statistics Applied to Economics from the same university,. She also had the opportunity to experience teaching in a private basic school for about three months, and research assistance in her university for another three months. Immediately after that, she became a government employee at the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics as a statistician, where she currently works. As a government employee at the National Statistical Office of Palestine, she participated in many international training courses: including in Belgium, Turkey, Lebanon, Kuwait, and Japan. She learned intensively in the field of statistical analysis in support of inclusive development policies and price indices, and moderately in data science and big data techniques for official statistics. During her amazing experience in Japan, she learned R programming as a new tool for data analysis and she conveyed that knowledge by conducting several training courses for her colleagues.

Aboud J. Al Ifranji has five years of experience in the nonprofit sector and three years of experience in the UNRWA education sector. A.J. earned a Bachelor’s of Teaching English Language from Al Azhar University in Gaza, Palestine. While working as an English teacher in different UNRWA schools, he helped improve his students’ academic achievement in English in prep schools. While working as a Project Coordinator in Japanese Campaign for the Children of Palestine, he helped improve the quality of education in local government schools across different areas in Gaza, Palestine. Through these experiences, he developed strong project coordination, planning, monitoring, implementation, reporting, and evaluation skills. A.J. also honed his abilities to work with computerized and office programs, use cameras for video recording and editing, and facilitate different types of trainings, workshops, and meetings, especially for teachers and school staff members. A.J. is also deeply skilled in translating oral and written English to Arabic, researching, working under pressure, multitasking, and leading teams. Throughout his career, A.J. has developed a wide variety of communication skills, along with best practices in data collection, validation, summary, and analysis. A.J. enjoys focusing on topics of education development, cultural variety, sports, animation, movies, and music, and has a strong passion for self development and youth empowerment.

Bashar Timraz has eight years of experience in the nonprofit and government sectors. Bashar earned a Bachelor’s degree in Business Administrations from Al-Quds Open University in Palestine. Bashar has diverse work experience in administration, coordination, security, reporting, and project management. In his current role as Operations Coordinator in the Field Security and Risk Management at the United Nations for Relief & Work Agency (UNRWA), he provides emergency response to around 13,000 staff members working in 300 UNRWA installations, guarantees a safe work environment for the UNRWA employees, follows up and reports all security incidents as needed, and organizes and maintains security files on all issues related to assessments, security plans, and more. Through his work with UNRWA, Bashar works with staff from different backgrounds, experiences, and working styles. Thus, he has developed strong communication, teamwork, risk-management and problem-solving skills. Previously, Bashar worked at the Ministry of Detainees and Ex-detainees Affairs in the projects and planning department, and was responsible for preparing the Ministry’s projects, operational plans, and reports. Working with the government has enabled him to develop report writing skills, strategic thinking, and communication skills, along with the ability to organize media events. Bashar is particularly looking to challenge himself and learn new things focusing on the topics of humanitarian, operations, and economic development.

Bisan Abu Harb completed her Bachelor’s degree in business administration at the Islamic University of Gaza. She completed several short courses for professional development, including leadership, reporting, gender and crisis management. While working as a UDOC assistant at Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) under the Emergency Relief Program, she helped improve living conditions to enable non-refugees internally displaced by the 2014 Gaza conflict to return home. Previously, Bisan worked at MAAN Development Center as a team leader in the UNMAS funded project “Risk Education ERW Awareness”. In addition, she worked as a team leader in the same organization in another project namely “Promoting Conflict Preparedness and Protection in Gaza Strip”. She also worked as a project assistant for the project “Supporting women leadership in Gaza Strip” where her success story started as she got to know well all the non-profit organizations working in this field and contributed significantly in strengthening the human security of women in vulnerable areas. Bisan has volunteered in many programs and organizations as she believes in community participation. During her professional career, she developed strong project management skills, networking and communication skills, and event planning skills. Bisan is interested in focusing on gender issues and has a strong passion for helping IDPs and refugees survive. She is interested in various things such as art, photography, humanitarian work and most importantly making a difference in people’s lives.

Faten Juma has more than nine years of experience in the nonprofit sector. Faten has been working with the United Nations for Relief & Work Agency (UNRWA) since 2010. She earned a Bachelor’s degree of Science in Business Administration from Al-Quds Open University in Palestine, and a two-year diploma in Commerce from Gaza Training/Community College. Working with UNRWA as Human Resources Associate has enabled her to contribute significantly in developing the internal policies to ensure strong governance and effective accountability systems. Faten has worked on maintaining positive morale and trust through increasing the engagement and structural communication among employees. While she was working at the Recruitment Office, she made constant efforts in improving the quality of living standards for refugees on infrastructure, educational, health, and humanitarian aid through recommending the most competent employees to ensure delivering best services. Also, she has made many achievements in bridging the gender gap and realizing gender equality principles by her outreaching efforts and powerful networking skills. As an HR professional, her ultimate goal is to contribute in building a thriving and prosperous economy through managing the human capital by establishing an institute for people management and development. Faten has a great eagerness in utilizing her proven knowledge and expertise to benefit her venerable community and has assiduously played a key role in supporting it by sharing innovative ideas and launching initiatives properly while volunteering in community associations. She is well-known for having constructive insights about human resources and keeping abreast with the latest international approaches.

Feda’a Sobeh has six years of experience in the non-profit sector and is a PhD student in Curriculum and Teaching Methodology in English at the Institute of Arab Research and Studies, Egypt. She works as a program manager at Al Aqsa Sports Club Association. She is also a member of the National Team on Developing and Adapting Entrepreneurship Curricula in Palestine. She is an Entrepreneurship Trainer and a Business Plan Development Trainer. In addition, Feda’a was a judge at the graduation ceremony of Hult Prize at Al Quds Open University- Gaza. Feda’a is passionate about women’s rights, child protection and community protection and has been part of many projects that promote women and youth capacity building, leadership, non-violence and quality education. She is also a member of a community protection committee. Feda’a believes that her work background allows her to appreciate new perspectives and national differences. She believes in the power of community and the role of women and youth in bringing about positive change.

Haitham Badarin is a computer engineer and YouTuber, based in Hebron. He grew up in a family of 12, completed secondary school with distinction and went on to study engineering at Palestine Polytechnic University. Upon graduation, Badarin was nominated for the MEPI Student Leader Program and spent 6 weeks developing leadership and communication skills in the United States. Upon returning to Palestinian Territories, he competed in the annual teachers’ employment contest, won first place and was hired as an IT teacher. In his first year of teaching, Badarin volunteered to train fellow teachers at the district on how to use computer software and his contributions were recognized both by the school district and the Ministry of Education. In 2018, Badarin was promoted to a new position as a software engineer, which was created in response to the increasing digitization of education. As it required a well-established expert in this field and someone who has a vision of what e-learning should look like, Badarin was a great fit. There, Badarin supervised the transition of the eSchool website to a national eLearning portal. He modernized and automated huge parts of the district’s tasks and provided in-person training to secretaries and employees in the district, public, and private schools. As remote work and collaboration intensified during the pandemic, Badarin was tasked with proposing and managing a remote learning system, he administered the introduction and deployment of the Office 365 Education package in Hebron schools. Within months, every teacher and student became familiar with MS Teams and through his YouTube channel Badarin provided tutorials on how to use Office 365 apps. His tutorials have registered more than 1.2 million views. Badarin is mostly interested in education and introduction of new technologies in the classroom.

Hana Jasem possesses more than seven years of progressive experience working in universities and with NGOs. Hana’s professional history includes positions such as a Lecturer and Project Coordinator as well as an Undergraduate Students Mentor at University of Bedfordshire. She also worked at Juhoud for community and rural development as Project Coordinator. In this role, she was responsible for coordinating project sponsorship by the U.S. General Consulate. Hana’s professional experience at the university level has developed her skills in planning, training, and mentoring, along with providing workshops, advice, and support to students. In addition, studying at University of Bedfordshire was a remarkable experience to broaden her vision and understanding of project and business management, as well as celebrating diversity by working and teaching students from all over the world. Her supervisor during postgraduate study relied on her research, time management, communication, interpersonal, and organizational skills. Hana has always wanted to be in a place where she can be part of the solution through her innovation and positive impact. She is passionate about developing the leadership expertise that is necessary to make a difference by applying and developing leadership skills.