Dr. Rifaie Tammas brings over a decade of experience in research, monitoring and evaluation in higher education and community development projects in Australia and overseas. He holds a PhD in Political Science from the University of Sydney and has provided extensive media commentary for BBC, ABC News and Al Jazeera. Rifaie is a native Arabic speaker and was the winner of the 3 Minute Thesis (3MT) competition at Macquarie University in 2017. 

Dr. Reem Turkmani is a Research Fellow at the Conflict and Civil Society Research Unit in the Department of International Development at the London School of Economics and Political Science. She directs the Syria conflict research programme at the Unit. Her policy-oriented research work focuses on identity politics, legitimate governance, transforming war economy it into peace economy and the relationship between local and external drivers of the conflict. She is a member of the Women's Advisory Board to the UN special envoy to Syria and sits on the advisory board of airwars.org which monitor the International coalition strikes against ISIS. She directed the project: ‘Crowd-sourcing Conflict and Peace ‘Events' in the Syrian conflict' which produced a detailed database of instances of violence and peace-making.

Dr. Ibrahim Al-Assil is a Senior Research Fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School’s Middle East Initiative, where he serves as project lead for the Syria Transition Lab. His work examines geopolitics, governance, and state building, with a focus on the Gulf and Levant.

Dr. Al-Assil's work bridges academic research, policy, and practice, informed by his engagement in conflict resolution, regional Track II dialogues, and grassroots movements. He served as a professorial lecturer at George Washington University’s Department of Political Science teaching courses on comparative politics and great-power competition. He has held fellowships at Harvard University’s Center for Public Leadership, the Middle East Institute and Atlantic Council in Washington, D.C., and the Orient Research Centre in Dubai. He was a founding member and former president of the Syrian Nonviolence Movement, and has served on the boards of the Harvard Arab Alumni Association and various political risk advisory groups.

Dr. Al-Assil has advised U.S., European, and regional policymakers, testified at the United Nations, and contributed to policy and academic conversations across the world. He has been published and quoted in leading international outlets including The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Foreign Affairs, and the Atlantic. He regularly appears on BBC, CNN, and Alarabiya, and previously created and hosted Podcast AlAwsat.

He holds a Doctor of International Affairs (DIA) from Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS), a Master in Public Administration (MPA) from Harvard Kennedy School, an MBA from the University of Essex.

In addition to his policy and academic work, Dr. Al-Assil is an abstract artist whose paintings explore themes of identity, memory, and transformation. He is a contributor to Liberties Journal on culture and politics.

Dr. Mohamed Aburawi is a surgeon turned tech entrepreneur and founder of Atarona Ventures, where he builds and scales high-impact ventures advancing global health equity, education, financial inclusion, and clean energy. Guided by the belief that bold ideas can reduce suffering and expand opportunity, he works at the intersection of technology, impact investing, policy, and advocacy to unlock human potential for those often left behind by trickle-down innovation. He holds an MPA from Harvard Kennedy School, where he was a Center for Public Leadership Fellow, Edward S. Mason Fellow, and SICI Fellow. He also received an MBA from MIT Sloan School of Management.

In 2017, Mohamed founded Speetar, an AI-enabled telehealth platform. Piloted in Libya and currently being scaled across the Middle East, Africa, and Central Asia, Speetar links under-served patients in low resource settings to a global pool of cultural and language-matched medical specialists.

Prior to launching Speetar, Mohamed worked at Harvard Medical School’s Center of Engineering in Medicine as a senior researcher where he led the design and development of a novel discarded human kidney reconditioning system, utilizing non-blood based ex-vivo organ perfusion (first in the USA); The cutting edge work he innovated is paving the way for a ground-breaking multi-center clinical trial supported by the New England Organ Bank.

In 2018, Mohamed was named one of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation GoalKeepers, and an Ashoka Visionary in recognition for his efforts leveraging digital technologies to enable healthcare delivery in low resource settings. In 2019, he was awarded the Harvard Medical School Dean’s Community Service Award and most recently was selected as an Aspen Institute Fellow and a Fellow at the MIT Legatum Center of Development and Entrepreneurship.

Mohamed’s passion for improving global healthcare outcomes continues to place him at the intersection of technology, business, and medicine. His work has been featured by Forbes, the BBC, Aljazeera, PRI, PRX, WGBH, and StartupScene MENA among other local and global outlets.

Amany Qaddour is a nonresident senior fellow for the Atlantic Council’s Middle East Programs. She is also the director of the 501(c)(3) humanitarian nongovernmental organization Syria Relief & Development. She also holds an associate faculty appointment at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Department of International Health, and the school’s Center for Humanitarian Health. 

Qaddour has guest lectured on various humanitarian, health, and human rights topics at Johns Hopkins University, Brown University, Georgetown University, Emory University, Tulane University, American University of Beirut, Carleton University, and the Naval War College. In 2020, she was awarded the Outstanding Leadership and Advocacy in Maternal and Child Health by the American Public Health Association. In 2020, she briefed the United Nations Security Council alongside Emergency Relief Coordinator Mark Lowcock and again in 2021 alongside Emergency Relief Coordinator Martin Griffiths.

Qaddour has held multiple leadership and advisory roles, including the World Health Organization Implementing Best Practices Network Steering Committee; the DisasterReady Advisory Group; the American Red Cross Board of Directors (Douglas County Chapter); and the Durable Solutions Platform and Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health Research Reference Group.

Qaddour holds a doctorate in public health from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. She has a bachelor’s degree in human biology and psychology and master’s degree in health services administration, both from the University of Kansas. For the 2022-2023 academic year, she was a visiting scholar at Brown University in its Center for Human Rights and Humanitarian Studies at the Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs.