Amal Ghandour

Amal Ghandour’s career spans more than three decades in the fields of research, communication, and community development. She is an author (About This Man Called Ali) and a blogger (Thinking Fits, This Arab Life). Since 2009, she has held the position of Senior Strategy Adviser to Ruwwad al Tanmeyah, a regional community development initiative that spans Jordan, Palestine, Lebanon, and Egypt. Ghandour, who was special adviser to Columbia University’s Global Centers, Amman, from 2014 to 2017, sits on the Women Creating Change Leadership Council of Columbia University’s Center for the Study of Social Difference and the Board of Trustees of International College, Lebanon. She has served on the Board of Directors of Ruwwad, Lebanon (2012-2022) and the Arab Human Rights Fund (2011-2014). Ghandour holds an MS in International Policy from Stanford University and a BSFS from Georgetown University. She is the author most recently of This Arab Life, A Generation’s Journey Into Silence, an intimate and honest exploration of a rising Arab generation’s descent into silence. Personal and panoramic, granular and sweeping, the book offers a raw account of the unremitting mire that anticipates the region’s present-day chaos.