Ayah Abulghanam

Ayah is a passionate humanitarian, working to help make the world a better place day by day. As a Peace and Conflict Program Officer with Mercy Corps, she is currently working with communities to help alleviate violence and build more cohesive and peaceful communities. Ayah graduated with a B.A. in Applied English Linguistics from the University of Jordan. During her junior year at university, Ayah spent a semester abroad in Bergen, Norway, which she now considers as her second home.

Ayah is a bibliophile who enjoys travelling and watching historical dramas. In her free time, you can find her hiking, baking or reading random articles online.

Manar Abdullah

Manar Issam Abdullah is a passionate humanist, civil engineer, and advocate for positive social change, holding a degree from the University of Jordan.

Throughout her career, she has been committed to driving educational and charitable projects aimed at improving lives and fostering a better future for underprivileged communities. Her journey into community service officially began when she became the lead coordinator of The Camp of Gaza Support Campaign (TCGSC), where she worked to empower disadvantaged children and adolescents through education, health awareness, and essential life skills. This role honed her leadership, adaptability, and strategic planning abilities, reinforcing her commitment to championing child rights, education, women’s empowerment, and the welfare of refugee communities.

Stemming from her belief that music is a universal language that unites people, she also pursued and earned a diploma in ‘oud,’ reflecting her dedication to cultural connection.

Manar later worked with the Madrasati Initiative for nearly two years, where she focused on improving the physical and educational environments in some of Jordan’s most underprivileged public schools. Her groundbreaking research on “Period Poverty among Women in Poverty Pockets in Mafraq Governorate, Jordan” became a milestone in her career. This eight-month research project, the first of its kind in Jordan and the Middle East, won national recognition through the Lazord Fellowship competition.

In her current role, Manar leads the Jordan Young Scientists (JoYS) initiative at the Embassy of Ireland in Jordan, a national programme aimed at inspiring and rewarding young people who excel in science, mathematics, engineering, and technology. Under her leadership, the JoYS initiative, which is modeled after a 60-year-old programme in Ireland, has expanded its impact in Jordan, motivating students to apply scientific knowledge in innovative ways.

In addition to her role as the lead coordinator for JoYS, Manar also heads the Green Team at the Embassy of Ireland, spearheading sustainability initiatives. The team focuses on improving environmental practices within the embassy and the residence, setting yearly goals and benchmarks to advance sustainability efforts.

Manar is also a strong advocate for climate resilience and sustainability in Jordan. Most recently, she authored a position paper on “The Effect of Climate Change on Agriculture Sustainability in Jordan,” which she presented as the moderator and main speaker to both the Minister of Agriculture and the Minister of Environment. Her work on this topic underscores her commitment to addressing one of the most pressing global challenges—climate change—and its local impacts.

Reham Al-Aghbari

Reham Al-Aghbari is a proud DAAD scholar with a master’s degree in Public Health and a bachelor’s degree in Nutrition and Dietetics. Currently, Reham is an External Projects Program Coordinator at Saint Andrew’s Refugee Services (StARS), Egypt. She works in developing the institutional capacity of refugee-led organizations in Egypt to derive quality services to the refugee community. Prior to working at StARS, Reham worked as a program coordinator at Generations for Peace in Jordan. Reham was inspired to know the relationship between health and conflict. She learned how to identify conflict in a community and how the quality of relationships (building acceptance, inclusion, and respect) plays a significant role in conflict transformation. In the public health sector, Reham has worked researching in the electronic health (eHealth) major and joined research programs at the University of Hamburg and Bernhard Nocht Institute for Tropical Medicine in Germany. In her free time, Reham can be found playing football, going hiking, and crafting.

Rana Shihabi

Rana is an English Language and Literature graduate from the University of Jordan and an Erasmus+ alumna from the University of Cologne in Germany. Stemming from a growing interest in education and different cultures, Rana has extensive work and voluntary experiences in the field of Higher Education, Educational Exchange, and International Relations. Currently, Rana works at Amideast in the capacity of the Programs Coordinator leading U.S. Department of State Programs and various Education Abroad programs while pursuing her M.A. in European Studies and Politics at the same time.

Al Muthana Mufleh

Multiple circumstances, life changes, lessons, loss, lies, and too many other things to count have shaped AlMuthana (Dr. Alex) into the person he is today.

The person who he is today is a result of living in three different countries, dealing with people and cultures all around the world, having the insight of a doctor who tells him how the human body works and how to deal with the human being at his weakest, combining being a human and curing one. One sphere of knowledge won’t grant you success and that one sphere is not enough to proceed in life and have an impact upon others’ lives.

Becoming a Lazord Fellow put Dr. Alex in a test that sculpted his skills and gave him insight into what he is capable of learning and doing, implementing his skills, and coming up with a more aware person of what is the meaning of an opportunity, and giving it to himself.

He became a Lazord Fellow to be a part of a community that holds two important words as an aim. “Responsible leader” sees that the first word is scary to state but yet the second one is tempting to hold. Dr. Alex believes that the way to achieve your dreams and ambitions is taking responsibility for your own actions and leading yourself to greatness by learning and spreading the knowledge a person can gain.

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Dr. Alex is a very sophisticated person that has always pushed himself beyond the traditional paths of life and stereotypical life He didn’t limit his life choices within his major but he also went beyond to discover, develop skills and experiences in other aspects that made him involved and evolve in the social and management of life aspects in three different countries. When he started his journey in Medicine he had the honour to claim the position of the Batch leader and advancing all the way to become the first-ever foreign president of the faculty of his university where he worked thoroughly with students and their well-being, academic development. Dr. Alex also became a TV host to spread awareness on matters that help maintain the original concept of humanity and working hard.

“Once you stop learning, you stop living” – Dr. Al Muthana Mufleh

Mallak Bani Mustafa

Mallak is an engineer, social entrepreneur, and co-founder of SHABABIT, a digital tool that promotes knowledge about and from youth-friendly services (YFS) in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). For five years, she served in the area of sustainable-focused innovation in Jordan, the Arab region, the EU, and the UK, assisting 40 startups from a vulnerable region in launching their businesses from the ideation phase, with the goal of promoting sustainable economic development and decent work. She was awarded a TOTAL prize, the Hult prize, for her renewable energy invention in biodiesel production. She is a STEM Ambassador and a Siad Foundation Alumna, in addition to being a Lazord Fellowship Alumna.

She is certified in project management from Red R UK and MDF with three years of experience. Her 550 national and international volunteer hours were devoted to SDG 8, 5, and 11 through TEDX, UNLEASH, SUSSEX University, Anna Lindh Jordanian Network, Solyia, and Erasmus+, in addition to IAESTE in the Czech.

Duha Abu Omair

After graduating from the University of Jordan in 2019, Duha joined the Lazord Fellowship Program, which gave her the opportunity to network, and the leadership and guidance to continue to grow and make an incredible impact on the community. After that she worked as an Italian language teacher, presenting her own intercultural experiences and enhancing students’ intercultural and global competencies. Currently, she a senior compliance officer at Amazon, where she is demonstrating the best of her leadership skills.

She believes that fostering intercultural understanding works as a foundation of peace and justice. When peace-building and humanitarian work calls for conflict resolution, intercultural competence is required to develop culturally sensitive and appropriate solutions. It is important to develop our intercultural competence, which is linked to empathy to help us to understand others and see the world from their perspective through listening and observing, critical thinking, flexibility, conflict resolution skills, and tolerance of ambiguity.

Nour Akileh

Nour Akileh is a dedicated young professional currently pursuing an MSc in Intercultural Communication for Business and the Professions at the University of Warwick as a recipient of the prestigious UK government Chevening Scholarship. She holds a BA in Literature and Cultural Studies from Hashemite University, where she graduated in the top 3% of her class.

Balancing academic excellence with community involvement, Nour has extensive volunteering experience both locally and internationally. Her journey through the Lazord Fellowship further enriched her with diverse knowledge and skills in cross-cultural communication, research and innovation & entrepreneurship, shaping her into the cosmopolitan leader she is today.

Nour is deeply committed to promoting peace and coexistence through intercultural communication. She believes that mutual understanding fosters more inclusive and tolerant societies and that small actions can make a significant difference. This has been one of the core learnings she acquired through her participation in the esteemed Study of the U.S. Institutes for Student Leaders program at Bard College, New York.

Rawaa Moumar

Rawaa is a researcher and project coordinator at the Human Security pillar at the WANA Institute. She is passionate about her field of work as she believes that in a region that is full of flaming conflicts, tensions, and poverty, there is a growing need to focus on putting the most vulnerable first. As the human being is the corner stone of the development process, working towards providing security in each aspect of the human life is what helps a society thrive. Her field of interest is related to prevention of violent extremism, countering hate speech, and promoting intercultural dialogue especially when it comes to women’s and youth’s roles in the prevention of violent extremism and the promotion of peacebuilding.