Board of Trustees

Chair­man

Dr. Ashrawi is a mem­ber of the Pales­tin­ian Nation­al Coun­cil and she was elect­ed to the Pales­tin­ian Leg­isla­tive Coun­cil in 2006. She found­ed a num­ber of bod­ies and insti­tu­tions, most impor­tant­ly the Inde­pen­dent Com­mis­sion for Human Rights (ICHR), the Pales­tin­ian Ini­tia­tive for the Pro­mo­tion of Glob­al Dia­logue and Democ­ra­cy- MIFTAH and the Coali­tion for Account­abil­i­ty and Integri­ty-AMAN. Dr. Ashrawi is also a mem­ber of advi­so­ry bod­ies for sev­er­al insti­tu­tions, includ­ing the Insti­tute for Pales­tine Stud­ies and the Inter­na­tion­al Human Rights Com­mis­sion.
Dr. Ashrawi holds many hon­orary degrees, includ­ing local and inter­na­tion­al awards in the field of women’s issues, peace­mak­ing, inter­na­tion­al affairs, human rights, and high­er edu­ca­tion. She has authored poems, short sto­ries, papers, and arti­cles on cul­ture, lit­er­a­ture, and Pales­tin­ian pol­i­tics.
Ashrawi received her Bach­e­lor of Arts and Mas­ter of Arts degrees from the Amer­i­can Uni­ver­si­ty of Beirut and a Doc­tor of Phi­los­o­phy degree in Medieval and Com­par­a­tive Lit­er­a­ture from the Uni­ver­si­ty of Vir­ginia. In addi­tion, she is the recip­i­ent of eleven hon­orary doc­tor­ates from uni­ver­si­ties in the U.S., Cana­da, Europe, and the Mid­dle East.

Vice Chair­man

Dr. Aghabekian is the Man­ag­er of Capac­i­ty and Insti­tu­tion Build­ing at the office of the Pres­i­dent, Exec­u­tive Direc­tor of Al Quds Cap­i­tal of Arab Cul­ture 2009, Direc­tor of Research & Plan­ning at the Wel­fare Asso­ci­a­tion, Asso­ciate Pro­fes­sor at Al-Quds Uni­ver­si­ty (1988–2008) as well as Dean of Health pro­fes­sions 95–98 and Dean of grad­u­ate stud­ies (1998–2000).
Dr. Aghabekian direct­ed sev­er­al nation­al stud­ies includ­ing the Mul­ti­sec­tor Review and Strate­gic plan for East Jerusalem, the Nation­al Plan for Human Resource Devel­op­ment and Edu­ca­tion in Health. She is a mem­ber of the com­mit­tee which draft­ed the strate­gic plan on main­tain­ing Chris­t­ian pres­ence in the Holy Land.
Dr. Aghabekian is a mem­ber of the Pres­i­den­tial Com­mit­tee for the restora­tion of the Church of Nativ­i­ty and advi­so­ry com­mit­tee mem­ber for the Pres­i­den­tial com­mit­tee on Church Affairs. She is active on human rights issues and the author of sev­er­al stud­ies, man­u­als and nation­al reports on Jerusalem, edu­ca­tion, youth, women and man­age­ment.
Dr. Aghabekian holds a Ph.D. is in Admin­is­tra­tive & Pol­i­cy Stud­ies-Edu­ca­tion from the Uni­ver­si­ty of Pittsburgh/USA and a M.Sc. from Indi­ana University/Purdue Uni­ver­si­ty /USA. Cur­rent­ly, with the Nego­ti­a­tions Sup­port project and free-lance man­age­ment and pol­i­cy consultant.

Sec­re­tary