Nadia Abu-Zahra is Associate Professor of International Development and Global Studies and a member of the Human Rights Research and Education Centre, University of Ottawa. Nadia Abu-Zahra has worked on projects in health, environmental issues, human rights, and education, supported by Oxfam, UNICEF, the European Union, the Open Society Foundation, and Global Affairs Canada. She was previously based at the University of Oxford’s Refugee Studies Centre, and currently serves on the Reconciliation Committee of the Canadian Federation for the Humanities and Social Sciences, and on the Boards of the Group of 78, the journal Geopolitics, the Al-Qazzaz Foundation for Education & Development, and Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle East. She is co-author with Adah Kay of Unfree in Palestine: Registration, Documentation and Movement Restriction. The collective efforts of Community Mobilization in Crisis — a project she co-directs, to develop open educational resources for use locally and internationally — have garnered several awards.

Khaled Al-Qazzaz has a Masters of Applied Sciences in Mechanical and Industrial Engineering from the University of Toronto (UofT), Canada and is currently pursuing a Doctorate of Education in Educational Administration at Walden University, USA. Khaled is also the co-founder of the Al-Qazzaz Foundation for Education and Development. Khaled is passionate about social change and human rights issues, which is why he started many different initiatives on the UofT campus like the Students for World Justice Committee and organizing events with the Anti-Racism & Cultural Diversity Office. Khaled co-founded Zajel Institute to empower members of the Arab Diaspora who had to leave their homes whether by compulsion or choice.

Khaled Elsharkawi is an accomplished project manager for technology projects internationally, covering a diversity of industries. He holds a Master of Public Administration from Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government where he focused on developing a broad range of leadership and analytical skills to initiate and implement change. He also holds a Master of Business Administration and a Master of Business Information Technology and is a certified Project Management Professional and a certified trainer and coach in Breakthrough Communications. He has used his education and experience to improve processes in both the private and public sectors and for communities in need, where his accomplishments in the corporate and public sector projects are paralleled by his commitment to serve communities and volunteer for greater good. His involvement with the not-for-profit sector includes volunteering with CARE, Greenpeace, Rotary and local organizations. As a democracy advocate, Khaled’s thesis on technology-based direct democracy empowered his leadership to steer an international campaign, “Right2Vote”, to successfully enable Egyptians abroad to vote.