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MAY RIHANI

Director of the Gibran Khalil Gibran Chair for Values and Peace at the University of Maryland: 2016 to present

Also, presently a member of four boards of international organizations:2012 to present

Mothers2mothers: based in Cape Town, South Africa

The Rene Moawad Foundation: based in Beirut, Lebanon

Girls’ Rising: based in California, USA

Al-Waref: based in Washington, D.C. USA

FHI360/ACADEMY FOR EDUCATIONAL DEVELOPMENT (AED)

Position:Senior Vice President 1998-2012

Expertise:Extensive in-depth experience in design and management of projects in more than 25 countries, including: Basic Education and Girls’ Education, Girls and Women's Education and Equity, Gender Perspectives, Community Participation, Community Mobilization, Teacher Training, Local Capacity Building, Participatory Decision Making, International Development Policies and Programs, Institutional Development, Human Resource Development,Management, Strategic Planning. Served as AED Strategic Planning Chair in 2000, produced a comprehensive five-year plan for the company.

Worked Extensively In:Benin, Democratic Republic of Congo, Egypt, Ghana, Guinea, Jordan, Lebanon, Malawi, Mali, Morocco, Niger, Pakistan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Sudan, Tunisia, Uganda, Yemen.

Languages:Proficient in English, French, and Arabic.

As a Senior Vice President of FHI360 and AED, and as the Director of the AED Global Learning Group and the Center for Gender Equity, May Rihani was responsible for the planning and implementation of AED’s educational projects as well as integrating gender perspectives in these programs. She designed, planned, and managed cross-cutting gender programs and girls' education projects in Afghanistan, Benin, Congo, El Salvador, Ghana, Guinea, Mali, Niger, and Pakistan. These projects were funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), World Bank, Asia Development Bank, The Netherlands AID, UNICEF, UNFPA, and several private Foundations. Ms. Rihani’s extensive work in girls’ education included research work, policy assessments, innovative program designs, education systems analysis, and management of numerous country programs. She presented lessons learned, best practices, and strategies on girls’ education at many international conferences and symposia addressing education for all including the Comparative International Education Society (CIES), and Middle East Studies Association (MESA). Ms. Rihani is aleading international voice on the strong relationship between girls’ education and other human development areas including health and nutrition, reproductive health, HIV/AIDS, environment, and economic productivity. Ms. Rihani has developed and implemented innovative programsaround the intersection of the environment, gender, and education. She has worked with the government ministries and civil societies ofmany African, Middle Eastern, and Asian countries to advance basic education and girls’ education. Twoof her major research studies are: “Learning for the 21st Century: Girls’ Education in the Middle East and North Africa,” which was translated by UNICEF into Arabic, French, and Farsi; and “Keeping the Promise: Five Benefits of Girls’ Secondary Education.” She is the author of “Cultures Without Borders: From Beirut to Washington, D.C.,” a memoir of her work and the major influences in her life.

As the Director of the Center on Gender Equity, May Rihani led the Academy’s activities that further advanced the organization’s capability regarding the centrality of gender not only in education, but in other sectors critical to the success of the organization’s work in development. Ms. Rihani was responsible for innovative initiatives to ensure equity and to increase the participation of undeserved populations in education. She oversaw and/or directed several educational programs that focus on gender issues such as USAID’s Strategies for Advancing Girls’ Education (SAGE), the World Bank’s Balochistan Primary Education Project (BPEP), the Dutch funded Educational Quality Improvement through Community Participation (EQUIP), and the Asia Development Bank Primary School Quality Improvement Project. She worked closely with the other AED centers to ensure the integration of the gender perspectives in environmental, health and civil society programs. Some of the cross-cutting activities that Ms. Rihani directed include:

  • Designed and implemented a ToT (training of trainers) workshop in Jordan for the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Water to integrate gender perspectives and environmental information into the curricula of primary and secondary schools. The training focused on water conservation and waste prevention;
  • Designed, planned, and organized a colloquium on the impact of HIV/AIDS on education and how through innovative strategies in girls’ education HIV/AIDS could be mitigated; and
  • Designed and delivered training on women’s leadership and empowerment that centered around the gender roles of women and men and how,by decreasing the inequities and valuing women’s leadership, civil society benefitted.

Creative Associates International, Inc. (CAII), Senior Vice President: 1991-1998.

Head of Education and Training Division (ETD) with contracts valued at $54 million. Designed, developed, marketed, implemented, and managed a broad range of projects in education planning, women in development, human resources, and economic productivity. Long-term projects and programs have been undertaken in Benin, Egypt, Lesotho, Malawi, Mali, Morocco, Pakistan, Somalia, South Africa, Uganda, and Yemen. Also provided planning, program design, and management training expertise both at CAII headquarters and for international development projects in the field. Major project responsibilities include:

  • Project Director, Institutionalizing Small, Innovative Schools Project, (ISIS) Egypt, 1997-2003.

Designed and manageda multimillion innovative project that provided corporate technical direction for the activities of the project. ISIS sought to establish 1,000 schools in rural Egypt by involving communities, NGOs (non-governmental organizations), and local leaders to support primary schools in the villages of three Egyptian governorates.

  • Project Director, Morocco Education for Girls, 1997-2002.

Designs and manages this five-year project to develop a new model for rural schools in Morocco. The model was based on the integration of three components: school reform, community involvement, and educational system strengthening. Worked closely with the ministry of education, long-term advisors, researchers, and regional and local education officers to develop, test, and implement the model. Monitored progress and evaluated results.

  • Project Director, Malawi Policy, Planning, and Curriculum, 1996-1998.

Provided corporate technical direction and management support for CAII's policy, planning, and curriculum development efforts that assisted primary educational reform in Malawi. Communicated regularly with the program leader and staff to monitor project planning, activities, and progress towards intended results. Maintaineddirect contact with USAID technical and financial representatives to ensure smooth progress.

  • Project Director, Malawi Social Mobilization Campaign, 1993-1997.

Provided oversight, technical direction, and quality control for CAII's multi-year effort to develop a campaign to mobilize parents, local leaders, and communities in Malawi to keep primary girls in school. Designed the project based on a series of studies on education in Malawi, and guided and approved campaign concept development. As with all projects, communicated regularly with the team leader and senior staff to monitor project activities and to troubleshoot issues. Keptdonor representatives aware of progress, problems, and solutions.

  • Project Monitor, Children’s Learning and Equity Foundations CLEF Benin (Indefinite Quantity Contract), 1993-1997(Subcontract to the Mitchell Group,1995-1998).

Responsible for oversight of two USAID Children's Learning and Equity Foundation (CLEF) projects that provided long- and short-term technical assistance to the primary education reform effort in Benin. Worked closely with the Ministry of Education in Cotonou to plan specific technical assistance needed in support of the 15 action plans that advanced the educational reform effort in Benin. Monitored the progress of these projects to ensure quality results.

  • Associate Director, Advancing Basic Education and Literacy Projects (ABEL 1 and 2), Creative Associates International, Inc., 1989-1995.

Managed CAII project activities and provided girls’ education expertise to USAID’s primary contract for assisting host-country governments and USAID Missions in implementing basic education programs. Instrumental in disseminating effective tools, methods, and research findings. Provided support to Missions in “nuts and bolts” operations and management issues, designing pilot projects, and providing short-term training to ministries, schools, and classrooms. Directed all activities related to girls’ and women’s education, including:

  • country-specific operational research;
  • country-specific assessments of the constraints that create gender gaps;
  • design and implementation of pilot projects that test interventions and strategies aimed at improving school access or retention;
  • assessment of the quality of the teaching learning process;
  • analysis of classroom practices;
  • identification and development of country-specific interventions and strategies to improve community participation; and
  • identification and summary of lessons learned.

Directed research studies that have resulted in five research publications:

  1. “The Economic and Social Impacts of Girls’ Primary Education in Developing Countries”;
  2. “Educating Girls: Strategies to Increase Access, Persistence, and Achievement”;
  3. “Beyond Enrollment: A Handbook for Improving Girls’ Experiences in Primary Classrooms”;
  4. “Exploring Incentives: Promising Strategies for Improving Girls’ participation in School”; and
  5. “USAID Lessons Learned in Girls’ Education.”

Project Director, Assessment of USAID Education Policy, Creative Associates International, Inc., 1987.

Conducted an analysis of USAID's education policy and programs to determine the appropriateness of Agency activities and the necessary changes required to enhance Agency performance in the education sector.

TransCentury Vice President and Director, Women in Development Secretariat: 1977-1984.

  • Designed and managed a nonformal education/small business project for women in Morocco. The project aimed at training women in literacy as well as income-generating skills in order to integrate women better in the economies of their communities and to benefit further their families and their communities.
  • Assessed the success of United Nations projects at integrating women in the educational systems and meeting the objectives of the countries’ 5-year national plans. Funded by the UNDP, the project was implemented with close coordination with the ministries of Planning and Education in Tunisia, Egypt, and Sudan.
  • Evaluated the impact of WID projects in the areas of small business, education, health, and agriculture; also produced a directory of WID projects with a focus on lessons learned.
  • Set up a data center, whereby information and documentation on women relating to the education, health, and population sectors were collected, studied, and analyzed. This data center served as a baseline for all the women in development activities in the organization.

EDUCATION

M.A. course work, American University of Beirut 1971

B.A., American University of Beirut, Political Science, 1968

CEU courses at Harvard and MIT in executive leadership, strategic planning, and innovation; took these courses between 2005 and 2008

SELECTED PUBLICATIONS AND TECHNICAL PAPERS

Leveraging ICT to Empower Arab Youth in the 21st Century: Comments from an Educational User, Keynote Address ICT Regional Conference,Beirut, November 2008.

Impact of Education and Socialization on Upward Mobility, Salzburg Global Seminars, Austria, November 2007.

Keeping the Promise: Five Benefits of Secondary Education, Academy for Educational Development, Washington DC. 2006.

SAGE Ghana: Design Document, Academy for Educational Development, 2001.

Girls’ Education Activity: Mali Strategy, Academy for Educational Development, 1999.

Technical Assistance Program to Support Girls’ Education Activity in Guinea, Academy for Educational Development, 1998.

Learning for the 21st Century: Strategies for Girls’ and Women’s Education in the Middle East and North Africa, UNICEF, New York, 1993.

Policies of Girls’ Education, Programs that Work, UNICEF, New York, 1992.

Development as if Women Mattered, Overseas Development Council, Washington D.C., 1978.

AFFILIATIONS

  • Co-chair of Global Advisory Committee of the United Nations Girls’ Education Initiative (UNGEI); June 2008 to 2010;
  • Chair of the “In Honor of Lebanon” Task Force : January 2007 to 2012
  • President of the American University of Beirut Association of the Alumni of North America (AANA); June 2004 to June 2006
  • Co-Founder of Platform International, an NGO that promotes the art, January 1986 to present.

AWARDS AND HONORS

As a result of her work May Rihani won many prestigious national and international awards, among them:

  • The ADC Women’s Empowerment Forum Leadership Award:Washington DC, March 2015.
  • The Juliet Hollister Temple of Understanding Award:New York, October 2012.
  • Leadership Award of the Center for Women’s Leadership in International Development: Creative Associates International Inc., Washington, D.C., March 2012
  • Legacy Award:Academy for Educational Development, Washington, D.C., June 2011.
  • Al Waref Poetry Award:Al Waref Institute, Washington, D.C., January 2010.
  • The Khalil Gibran International Award:University of Maryland, April 2008.
  • Said Akl Award:Beirut, Lebanon, June 2004.
  • Capital Area Peacemaker Award:School of International Service, American University, Washington, D.C., March 1998.