Awatef Sheikh
Co-founder and CEO
Awatef Sheikh previously worked for various international grant-making organisations focusing on the Middle East, including five years as the Managing Director of the London based Galilee Foundation before she left to co-found Ajyal Foundation in 2018. Before she moved to the UK Awatef worked extensively with civil society organisations in the West Bank and within the indigenous Palestinian society in Israel focusing on culture, education, civic and human rights. She also worked as a freelance journalist and has written for various media organisations. Awatef has a BA in Social Work from the Hebrew University in Jerusalem and an MSc in Political Sociology from the London School of Economics and Political Science.
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Frank Barat
Fundraising and Development
Frank Barat is an author and organiser. He is the former coordinator of the Russell Tribunal on Palestine, has edited books with Chomsky, Pappé, Loach and Angela Davis and is currently organising the Palestine with Love film festival in Brussels.
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Ruba Farkh
Volunteer
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Peter Treganna
Financial Manager
Peter has over 25 years’ experience in finance and management consultancy.
He has worked with a wide variety of organisations including theatrical producers, international trading companies, property management, solicitors, and chartered and certified accountants. He currently divides his time between sitting as a non-executive director of a company in the social change sector, and consultancies with a wealth management company and a charity promoting development and equality of the Palestinian minority in Israel through the advancement of education and the preservation of culture. |
Board of Trustees
Najat Armaly - Chair
Najat has been the head nurse at the Tuberculosis Center in Nazareth Hospital for the last 15 years. Before she joined Nazareth Hospital, she worked as a Deputy Head Nurse in the Bone Marrow Transplantation Unit in Hadassah Hospital in Jerusalem for 10 years.
Najat has been active in a number of charities and civil society organisations and has volunteered with several relief campaigns. She is the Chairman of the Board of Directors at the educational organisation the Forum for Sexuality and was a Board member at Kayan Organization. She has a BA in nursing from the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, MA in Management of Health Systems from Clark University USA, and MA in Gender Studies from Bar Eilan University. Najat is also a trained personal Coach.
Najat has been active in a number of charities and civil society organisations and has volunteered with several relief campaigns. She is the Chairman of the Board of Directors at the educational organisation the Forum for Sexuality and was a Board member at Kayan Organization. She has a BA in nursing from the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, MA in Management of Health Systems from Clark University USA, and MA in Gender Studies from Bar Eilan University. Najat is also a trained personal Coach.
Caroline Rooney - Trustee
Caroline is Professor of African and Middle Eastern Studies at the University of Kent (UK), and she works mainly on liberation struggles and their expression in the arts and popular culture. Her research programmes include ‘Radical Distrust’ (ESRC), ‘Imagining the Common Ground’ (AHRC) and ‘Egypt’s Living Heritage’ (AHRC Newton), with projects on trust-building in Beirut, the predicaments of Palestinian prisoners, the Arab uprisings and community engagement through the arts in Egypt. As an arts activist, she co-produced The Keepers of Infinite Space, a play on Palestinian prisoners (Park Theatre, 2014); co-directed, with Rita Sakr, the film White Flags(2014); and co-directed, with William Parry, the film Breaking the Generations: Palestinian Prisoners and Medical Rights. (2015) Her latest book is Creative Radicalism in the Middle East: Culture and the Arab Left After the Uprisings (I.B. Tauris, 2020) and she is currently the Co-I on Raphaël Lefèvre’s research programme ‘The Crime-Terror Nexus from Below: Criminal and Extremist Practices, Networks and Narratives in Deprived Neighbourhoods of Tripoli’ (ESRC).
Kanwal Abdulhameed - Trustee
Kanwal is a Phd researcher at the University of Exeter, and a member of the Gulf Studies department and the European Centre for Palestine Studies. She works on modern histories of the Gulf. Her interests include critical histories, gender studies, education, bringing academia beyond the university, and social justice.
Blanka Ilona Geszti - Trustee
Blanka is a teaches at a primary school in Oxford, UK. She is a lawyer by academic training and worked at the London based international organisation Global Witness before she moved to work in the education sector.
Toufic Haddad - Trustee
Dr Haddad is the Acting Director of the Kenyon Institute, the Jerusalem branch of the Council for British Research in the Levant. He is a social scientist whose work focuses on the political economy of development and conflict in the Middle East, and Israel-Palestine in particular. Toufic has an eclectic professional and academic career working as a journalist, editor, publisher, researcher, and consultant. He holds a BA in Philosophy and Middle East Studies from Trinity College [CT, USA]; an MA from New York University (Near East Studies and Journalism); and a PhD from the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London (Development Studies). Toufic has also lectured at SOAS, King’s College London,and Birzeit University.
Advisory Board
Jasr Kawkby
Jasr Kawkby (MD) –
Jasr is a consultant Paediatrician practicing in Dubai, UAE. He is a Fellow at the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health. A co-Founder of Ajyal and a former Trustee of the Foundation, Jasr is a member of the Selection Committee for Ajyal's Sindyan Scholarship Programme. |
Refaat Sabbah
Refaat Sabbah is General Director and founder of the Teacher Creativity Center and President of the Global Campaign for Education. He chairs the Arab Network for Human Rights and Citizenship Education and is the Vice Chair of UNESCO’s Regional Support Group for the ED2030 – the United Nation’s Education Development Goals for 2030. Rifaat has an honorary PhD from Al-Maaref University in Yemen for his work in support of education in Yemen, an MA in Women’s Development and Law from Birzeit University, and a Diploma in Adult Training Development from University of Toronto. Rifaat has trained in many fields pertinent to education including psychology, social counselling, rehabilitation, teacher development, civics, human rights, gender studies and adult education. He worked as a school teacher for nine years, was a member of several curriculum development committees, and has written extensively about education and development.
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Neil Serougi
Neil Serougi
Following a career in the Criminal Justice System and the NHS, Neil has subsequently led several governance projects centred around rights and fairness with regard to data privacy, disclosure and consent. Experienced in charity trusteeship and governance. Neil oversaw numerous Economic and Social Research Council projects and in particular developing Impact Strategies for Civic Society Organisations. Refelcting a long interest in the Middle East and Palestine he previously voluntarily worked for UNWRA with refugees abroad and is currently a trustee with FQMS (Quds Foundation for Medical Schools). |
Terry Weber
Terry Weber worked for Verizon for 24 years as a cable and fiber optic splicer and an electronic technician. Terry became a mathematics teacher in 1996 at the Urban Academy Laboratory High School in New York City. He became the head of the math department in 2006 and retired in 2012 when he started working for the New York Performance Standards Consortium (the Consortium is made up of 38 state schools, 36 in New York City)as a math coach and in policy development for mathematics education. He continues his work with the Consortium working with math teachers in the classroom and in professional development seminars.
Terry has a BS in Marketing from Fairleigh Dickinson University and a Masters of Liberal Studies with a concentration in Urban Education from the City University of New York. |