Aida Essaid

Dr Aida Essaid is the Director General of Taawon (Welfare Association), an impact-driven philanthropic institution, focused on empowering the Palestinian community through programmatic interventions in the fields of education, culture, heritage and social development. Before that, Dr. Essaid was the director of the Information and Research Center at the King Hussein Foundation; a center that mobilizes knowledge for positive social change where she has designed and led research and advocacy projects regarding human rights in Jordan, with a focus on women’s and children’s rights, refugees, and people with disabilities. She received her PhD in Politics and a MA in Middle East Politics from the University of Exeter, and a BA Honours from the University of Toronto with a double major in Political Science and Middle Eastern Studies. Her research interests and publications include gender and social justice, forced displacement, and civil society. She has also carried out research and published on British Mandate Palestine and land tenure and is a board member of the Arab Foundations Forum.