The International Advisory Council enhances the organization’s visibility, offers diverse international perspectives, and provides insight and guidance to the board and Executive Director, among other functions.

Samir Abdulhadi graduated in 1964 from the American University of Beirut with a degree in civil engineering. After working in his field in Libya from 1964-1972, he joined the Khatib & Alami engineering firm in Dubai as regional director for the Arab Gulf area. In 1977 he became Director General, in 2000 he became a member of the company’s Board of Directors, and then Chairperson of the Executive Committee of the Board. In 2011 he became Deputy Chairman of the Board of Directors. Since his retirement in 2013, Mr. Abdulhadi has devoted his time to philanthropy and volunteer work as Vice Chairperson of the Welfare Association Board of Trustees, Chairperson of its Resources and Development Committee, and member of the Board of Trustees of both the Palestine International Foundation for Research and Arab Student Aid International in Jordan.

Professor Ghassan Abu-Sittah is a multi-award-winning Plastic and Reconstructive Surgeon, with a worldwide reputation as one of the world’s leading specialists in Craniofacial surgery (facial deformities), aesthetic surgery, cleft lip and palate surgery and trauma related injuries. Professor Abu-Sittah is a passionate and active humanitarian. A British Palestinian, he has worked as a war surgeon in numerous conflict zones including Iraq, South Lebanon and Gaza. He is a trustee of INARA (the International Network or Relief Aid) and of Medical Aid for Palestinians. He set up a 2 year training program in Craniofacial Surgery for the UK Charity Facing The World (U.K. charity). As a recognized authority in his field he has featured regularly in the press, most notably the BBC, CNN, The Wall Street Journal, The Independent, The Telegraph and Le Monde who dubbed him, “the man who fixes broken faces.”

Dr. Araj is a professor and Director of Clinical Microbiology in the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine at the American University of Beirut. He received a fellowship from the American Board of Medical Microbiology and was the first diplomat certified from the Arab world in 1985. He has been recognized for his work on Brucellosis disease, a disease caused by bacteria commonly found in animals but which can be contracted by humans.

Dr. Eman Assi is an Associate Professor of Architecture in the School of Engineering at the American University of Ras al Khaimah. She has also taught both at the University of a Sharjah, UAE, and An-Najah National University in Palestine, and works as consultant in projects related to documentation, conservation, and management of cultural heritage. At present, Dr. Assi is a member of ICOMOS International Scientific Committee on Historic Towns CIVVIH and a member of the ICOMOS International Scientific Committee on Cultural Routes CIIC, and recently she joined the ISC20th. In 2014, her book on traditional houses of Dubai in both English and Arabic received an award from the Sultan bin Salman Award of Cultural Heritage. In 2006 Dr. Eman joined the Department of Architecture and Antiquities of Dubai Municipality as a cultural heritage expert where she manages the development of the Dubai Historic Area Project.

Sam Bahour is a Palestinian-American, born and raised in Youngstown, Ohio, and is managing partner of Applied Information Management (AIM), a consulting firm specializing in business development with a niche focus on start-ups and providing executive counsel. Bahour was instrumental in the establishment of two publicly traded firms: the Palestine Telecommunications Company (PALTEL) and the Arab Palestinian Shopping Center. He is currently an independent director at the Arab Islamic Bank and an advisory board member of the Open Society Foundations’ MENA Office. Bahour serves in various capacities in several community organizations, including co-founder and board chair of Americans for a Vibrant Palestinian Economy (AVPE), board member of Just Vision in New York, policy adviser at Al-Shabaka, the Palestinian Policy Network, and a secretariat member of the Palestine Strategy Group (PSG), among others. He writes frequently on Palestinian affairs and has been widely published in leading outlets. He is co-editor of HOMELAND: Oral History of Palestine and Palestinians (1993), tweets at @SamBahour, and blogs at www.epalestine.com.

Khalil Barhoum was born in Bethlehem, Palestine, after his family was driven out of their hometown Al-Malha, a suburb of Jerusalem, in 1948 following the establishment of Israel. He came to the U.S. on a Rotary International scholarship where he earned his first Master’s degree in English Literature. He earned a second Master’s and a Ph.D. degree in Linguistics from Georgetown University. Upon graduating from Georgetown, he joined Stanford University in California and taught in the Department of Linguistics. Currently, he is Coordinator of its Program of African and Middle Eastern Languages and Literatures in the Division of Cultures, Literatures, and Languages. Dr. Barhoum is a frequent visitor to the Middle East and is a keen observer of its societies, politics, and cultures. He has been widely interviewed on American radio and TV, and has been invited to speak nationally and internationally on U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East and the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. His publications dealing with these issues have appeared in local, national, and international  journals. Dr. Barhoum now serves as the President of the US Palestinian Council; he has also served as national President of AAUG (the Association of Arab-American University Graduates) and also served as Chair of the Council of Presidents of Arab American  Organizations in the San Francisco Bay Area and as president of the ADC Chapter in Northern California. More recently he co-founded and was co-chair of the Palestinian American Coalition in the Bay Area. Dr. Barhoum is married and has three children.

Iman Bulbul is an economist by academic background and work experience. Her career encompasses 20-year tenure at Corporate Planning Department of Saudi Aramco; first as an economic analyst and later as an advisor and business consultant to Corporate Management. Since moving back to Miami in 2010, she worked as a lecturer for three years at the Economics Department, University of Miami.

Dr. Dajani is a cardiologist who has been practicing medicine for 34 years. In the Punxsutawney area, he is one of the 67 doctors who specialize in Cardiovascular Disease. He recently relocated to Virginia and established a private practice.

Maha Freij is the deputy executive director and chief financial officer of the Arab Community Center for Economic & Social Services (ACCESS) in Dearborn, Michigan. Freij was the first Arab/Palestinian woman to earn a CPA license in Israel, in 1989. As CFO of ACCESS, Ms. Freij oversees a budget of more than $17 million from more than 100 funding sources and has helped raise more than $30 million in the last decade for endowment building and brick-and-mortar projects, including the first-ever Arab American National Museum in the U.S. As a founder of the Center for Arab American Philanthropy, the only national Arab American philanthropy program in the country, she has also strengthened Arab American giving by establishing charitable legacies through education, grant making and endowment building.

Laila El-Haddad is a Palestinian American journalist, food justice advocate, and public speaker. She is author of the memoir Gaza Mom: Palestine, Politics, Parenting, and Everything in Between and co-author of the award-winning documentary cookbook The Gaza Kitchen: A Palestinian Culinary Journey.  She frequently speaks about the intersection and the negotiation of identity, food, and politics. Through her work as a writer, storyteller, culinary ethnographer, and documentarian she provides much-needed insight into the human experience of the region.

El-Haddad received her B.A in Political Science and Comparative Areas Studies from Duke University in 2000, and her master’s in public policy from the Harvard Kennedy School in 2002. Born in Kuwait to Palestinian parents from Gaza, she currently lives in Clarksville, Maryland with her husband Yassine Daoud and their four children.

Dr. Hammad is currently the President & CEO of Global Health Research, Management & Solutions. In this capacity he oversees global health collaborations and research initiatives and establishes links between researchers and scientists and other academic and health Centers in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) Region as well as their counterparts in countries with Arab immigrants, such as North America. Dr. Hammad is the immediate past Senior Director and founder of ACCESS Community Health and Research Center, and Chairman of the National and International Health research Initiatives.

One of Dr. Harb’s many accolades include performing open-heart surgery at the governmental hospital in Ramallah while under occupation in 1987. He did this with a small staff of two nurses and a resident doctor because there was no other medical staff. This hospital was raided by Israeli soldiers a few times where those same soldiers used Dr. Harb as a human shield. Eventually Dr. Harb chose to leave Ramallah for the United States to continue his humanitarian medical work. He currently sits on the Palestine Diabetes Institute Committee as part of the Board of Directors of the Jerusalem Fund. He recently retired from the Henry Ford Wyandotte Hospital after a decade of serving as their surgeon.

Maher Hashweh is a professor of education at the Department of Teaching and Instruction at Birzeit University and a former Dean of the Faculty of Arts and of the Faculty of Education. He worked as a teacher of physics and science after he received his bachelor’s degree at the Friends Boys School in Ramallah and St. George’s School in Jerusalem. Dr. Hashweh has worked at Birzeit University since receiving his Ph.D. degree in 1985, and he has assumed many administrative positions including Library Director, Head of the Master’s Program in Democracy and Human Rights, and was the chairperson of the Psychology and Education Department several times. He was a visiting scholar at Stanford University, the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, and at Berlin Free University. Dr. Hashweh has published many articles and books in science education, democracy education, and teacher professional development. He recently established the Faculty of Education which accepted its first group of undergraduate students a few years ago, and was the national coordinator of the Teacher Education Strategy in Palestine.

Mr. Mohammed Hellail, also known as MJ Hellail, is based in Houston, Texas. He is the Chairman / CEO of SAMOCO Holdings, LLC an International Holding group with active investments in several sectors of the economy. Currently involved in the CRE (Commercial Real Estate) market, Oil & Gas industry (Supply Chain Management & Manufacturing) as well as Consumer Retail Products. Mr. Hellail has over 30 years of experience in the business market both domestically and International.

Khalil Hindi is a Professor of Management Science at the Olayan School of Business at the American University of Beirut. He was President of Birzeit University in Palestine from September 2010 to September 2015. From September 2002 to 2010, he was Professor of Management Science and Professor of Engineering Management at the American University of Beirut. He holds a Ph.D. and a DSc. from Britain, where he was an academic successively at London South Bank University, the University of Manchester, and London Brunel University.  He also simultaneously had a long technical consulting career and has published numerous research papers, over 60 of which in high-impact refereed international journals. He is active in Palestinian voluntary work

Souad Nasr Makhoul is a city and regional planner, practical civil engineer, and visual artist and the Director of the Center for Planning & Urban Studies based in Haifa. In her earlier works, she was inspired by the remains of the old Palestinian Arab demolished quarters and expressed them very strongly in her works. In addition to a large series of documentary works, she has done paintings, etchings and drawings of historical buildings and neighborhoods.

She has worked in D.C. and Jordan in the fields of banking, real estate property management and consulting.  Living in Jordan, she has become involved in the refugee camp in Jerash, Jordan known as Gaza Camp, to bring awareness to their issues and aid in any way possible to alleviate their hardships.  She has served the board of the Al Hussein Society Jordan Center for Training and Inclusion for 20 years. Tanya is passionate about seeing those who are physically disabled become active, fulfilled members of Jordanian communities and societies through inclusion.  She helped Al Hussein become the largest center in the region for physically disabled.

Ayman Almuflih is the Secretary General of the Jordan Hashemite Charity Organization (JHCO). He was previously the Governor of the Ministry of the Interior in Jordan and an Advisor to HRH Lt General Prince Faisal Bin Al Hussain of Jordan.

Dr. Mariam Mari Ryan is a Palestinian educational psychologist and a retired university professor. Dr. Mari is a writer, researcher and founder of various organization and institutions concerned with issues related to women, children, education, human rights, and other social political organization. Dr. Mari is also the founder and served as the president for over 20 years for various organizations, including the Galilee Center for Social Research, as well as the Acre Arab Women Association and its Home of the Arab Child Pedagogical Center, which specializes in Early Childhood Education in the Arab sector in Israel.

Abida had a teaching career in the city of Nablus and then worked in the medicinal division of Jerusalem Pharmaceuticals. Abida has a long history in social and philanthropic work, as she founded several programs supporting local schools, providing medical care to elderly people, and covering educational expenses for hundreds of university students. Abida is a member of multiple organizations and institutions, as she is the chairwoman for the Women for Jerusalem committee in Kuwait and an administrative member of the Friends of Jordan. She was previously a member of the General Union of Palestinian Women, and she has been a member of the advocacy committee of Taawon since 2003.

Waleed Shehadeh is the General Manager of the Arabian Drug and Trading Company since 1985 in both Jordan and Iraq, the President of Modern Veterinary Vaccines Company in Jordan since 2014, and the President of Premium Brands General Trading Co. since 1998, both branches in the Palestinian and Jordanian market.

Dr. Issa Tarazi is a renowned cardiologist and former Executive Director of Near East Council of Churches Department of Services to Palestinian Refugees in Gaza. Prior to this position, Dr. Tarazi served as the Director General, Presidential Medical Advisor, and Special Physician for Presidential Affairs of the President’s Office in Gaza, and as the International Examining Physician for the United Nations in Gaza. He holds a Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery degree Alexandria University, a diploma and clinical fellowship in Cardiothoracic Medicine from the University of London, and was a member of the Palestinian Board of Cardiology.
Dr. Tarazi has also recently served as the Chairman of the Arab Orthodox Church Council in Gaza, a member of the Higher Presidential Committee of the Churches Affairs in Palestine, and as Chairman of the Management Committee of the Arab Orthodox Cultural and Social Center in Gaza.

Viorica Wahbeh is managing editor and op-ed page editor at the only Jordanian English daily, The Jordan Times, where she has been working for the past 27 years.