Cristina Albertin

Regional Representative for the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), UNODC

Ms. Cristina Albertin (national of Germany) is currently the Regional Representative for the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). Prior to joining the Regional Office for MENA (ROMENA), Ms. Albertin served as Representative of the UNODC Country Office for Nigeria, in Abuja since 2016. In the course of a UN career spanning 30 years, Ms. Albertin has held several positions in different capacities in various locations. Since joining UNODC in 1994 as Assistant Representative of the UNODC Country Office in Peru, she has held various positions within the Organization, including Representative of the UNODC Regional Office in South Asia, based in New Delhi, India; Representative of the UNODC Country Office in the Plurinational State of Bolivia; Chief of the Latin American and Caribbean Section in Austria; and Programme Manager for South America in Austria. Before joining UNODC, she was an Assistant Project Officer with the World Food Programme in La Paz.

Ms. Albertin has extensive practical experience in developing, negotiating, and supervising the implementation of UNODC technical assistance programmes, as well as in forging and maintaining close partnership arrangements with all relevant stakeholders.

Lulua Asaad

Global Coordinator of the primary education component of the Education for Justice (E4J) initiative, UNODC

Lulua Asaad is a UNODC Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice Officer. She coordinates UNODC’s Education for Justice (E4J) initiative at the primary education level, managing a vast array of activities with UNODC’s Field Offices, as well as activities under the UNODC/UNESCO partnership on GCED for the rule of law. She provides advice and policy support on E4J’s engagement with different innovative programmes and stakeholders on the 2030 Agenda, as well as supporting countries in their education policy and innovative educational activities and models. Lulua holds a Masters degree in international relations, and has served in the last 15 years many different positions at UN agencies and the public and private sectors.

@luluaasaad

Caroline Pontefract

Director of Education, UNRWA

Dr. Caroline Pontefract is Director of Education at UNRWA Headquarters with oversight of education delivery in five Fields of operation – Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. UNRWA directly educates 540,000 students in 709 schools with approximately 18,000 teachers and educators, themselves Palestine refugees.

Prior to working for UNRWA, Dr. Pontefract has covered different executive positions in international education programmes, such as Chief of Teacher Education at UNESCO and Director for the Social Transformation Division in the Commonwealth Secretariat in London. Dr. Pontefract has also worked for a number of bilateral and multilateral agencies such as DFID and the Africa Development Bank, on the development of national and regional education programs.

Rachel Evers

Director of Legal Affairs, UNRWA

Rachel Evers currently holds the position of Director, Department of Legal Affairs (DLA) at UNRWA, reporting to the Agency’s Commissioner-General. Within the Agency, Rachel is responsible for promoting coherent legal strategies and policies and ensures that the legal function is fully integrated into all aspects of the Agency’s strategic, policy, programmatic and protection activities. Rachel is dedicated to the consistent application of UNRWA regulatory frameworks and international law in all fields of operation. A key function of her role is the provision of strategic and policy advice to the Commissioner-General and the Deputy Commissioner-General on all aspects of the Agency’s mandate. Within DLA, Rachel leads DLA’s programme of work and management and provides strategic and technical leadership for the Agency’s lawyers, with a view to ensuring legally sound, timely, easily applied, politically sensitive and consistent advice.

Prior to joining UNRWA, Rachel worked with Warner Music Group in London, as Senior Vice President of Legal & Business Affairs reporting to the Chairman. She specialized in intellectual property, corporate and commercial law, with joint responsibility with the Chief Financial Officer for profit and loss management, financial analysis and forecasting on all commercial transactions and ensuring consistent compliance with financial rules and company regulations.

Marco Teixeira

Global Coordinator of the Global Programme for the Implementation of the Doha Declaration, UNODC

Marco Teixeira joined UNODC in 2011 and the Corruption and Economic Crime Branch, Division for Treaty Affairs, of UNODC in January 2019 as the Senior Programme Officer and Coordinator of the Global Programme for the Implementation of the Doha Declaration. Mr. Teixeira previously held positions in the Organized Crime Branch of UNODC, where he led the efforts of the global programme related to narcotics control and law enforcement capacity building and international cooperation covering 12 Countries in West Africa and Latin America.

Prior to relocating to Vienna, Mr. Teixeira served as UNODC Head of Office in Guinea-Bissau and Liberia and as Chief of Illicit Trafficking, Organized Crime and Terrorism Section at the Regional Office in Senegal responsible for West and Central Africa, where he provided guidance for a multitude of programmes, projects and initiatives aimed at strengthening regional and global responses to organized crime and other forms of illicit trafficking including the implementation of capacity building to law enforcement agencies.

Oussama Safa

Chief of the Social Justice Section at the UN ESCWA

Oussama Safa is currently the Chief of the Social Justice Section at the UN ESCWA in Beirut, Lebanon. Prior to this, he was General Director of the Lebanese Center for Policy Studies, a Beirut-based think-tank working on public policies and development in Lebanon and the Middle East and North Africa Region. He has vast experience in research, advocacy and capacity building, and has been focusing recently on issues of political economy, civil society participation and inequality and social justice in the Arab Region.

Mohammed Salameh

Chief of Education, UNRWA Palestine

Starting September 2018, Mohammad works for UNRWA in West Bank as Deputy Chief Field Education Programme. Among his responsibilities is contributing to managing, leading the Education Programme, developing, and implementing policies, strategies and programmes aiming at improving quality of education in UNRWA schools. Before this post, he worked as Head professional Development & Curriculum in UNRWA, where he was mainly responsible for oversees the development, implementation and assessment of professional development in the field for developing the competencies of the education staff and leads on the development, implementation and assessment of curriculum enrichment and cross cutting curricula issues including inclusive education, human rights, child wellbeing and gender.

Rana Dajani

Professor, Founder and Director, We Love Reading

Professor of molecular cell biology, Jordan, visiting professor Yale, Cambridge and Harvard. Most influential women scientists in Islamic World, 12th among the 100 most influential Arab women. President of the Society for the Advancement of Science, Technology and Innovation in the Arab World.

Developed “We love reading”, received the World Innovation Summit in Education Award, King Hussein Medal of Honor, UNESCO International Literacy Prize, the Jacobs social entrepreneurship award, Science, Technology and Innovation Award UN, Ashoka Fellow, UNHCR Nansen refugee award.

Author of the book: Five scarves, Doing the impossible: If we can reverse cell fate why cant we redefine success, Nova Publisher 2018; reviewed by Nature.

https://welovereading.org/ | @welovereading | @WLReading