Our Board
Samantha
May
Marketing Executive
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Our Board
Kyle McEneaney
President
Kyle McEneaney is a Fellow leading global growth initiatives for Schmidt Futures and the people and programs it supports. Kyle has worked in investment, operational, and advisory roles in emerging and frontier markets for over fifteen years. He is the founder of Bellamy Partners, an investment and advisory firm that works with hedge fund, family office, and corporate clients on bespoke investment and corporate development mandates in MENA, East Africa, and Southeast Asia. Previously, Kyle led corporate strategy and development for a large and diversified family-owned conglomerate based in the United Arab Emirates. He was a founding Vice President with Northern Gulf Partners, the first Iraq-focused investment firm. Prior to this he led the MiddleEast practice for Ergo, a global intelligence and advisory firm. Kyle has also advised the World Bank on climate-smart and agricultural investment strategies. Kyle was a term member at the Council on Foreign Relations, and holds a BA from Yale University and an MA from Harvard University.
Thomas Simsarian Dolan
Secretary
Thomas Simsarian Dolan is a Ph.D. Candidate in American Studies at George Washington University, focusing on Middle Eastern diaspora and race. Recently selected as a Fulbright US Teaching Scholar and Calouste Gulbenkian Global Excellence Scholar, Thomas' research has also been supported by the Institute for Middle East Studies, Dr. Philip M. Kayal Fund for Arab American Research, Bentley Historical Library Bordin-Gillette Fellowship, Loeb Institute for Religious Freedom and Armenian General Benevolent Union. He is an alumnus of Yale University, NYU, and the New School's Institute for Critical Social Inquiry. Thomas has also served as a visiting researcher at the Doha Institute for Graduate Studies, and published in Mashriq & Mahjar, The Armenian Weekly, Huffington Post, Muftah, Arab America, and HowlRound, among others.
Malak Nasr
Board Member
Malak graduated from Yale College in 2019 with a bachelors degree in Anthropology. Following graduation, she was awarded the Cohen Public Service and Gordon Grand fellowships to support her work as Program Director at Havenly Treats, a New Haven-based non-profit offering job training for refugee women. Malak co-directed the first ever Arab conference at Yale in 2018 that included speaker events and panels on Middle East current affairs, politics, culture and history. Malak intends to pursue a graduate degree in Public Health in 2022.
Nafez Al Dakkak
Treasurer
Nafez is the CEO of the Queen Rania Foundation’s London office where he oversees the foundations strategic partnerships and talent development. He also leads the foundations engagement with the education entrepreneurship sector across MENA and globally. Prior to this role, Nafez founded Edraak.org, the largest Arabic online education portal that reaches over 5 million learners across the MENA region – where he is now the Executive Chairman. An initiative of the Queen Rania Foundation, Edraak’s learners come from all across the region and include disadvantaged youth in Gaza, Syria, and Iraq. Nafez was recognized for his work at Edraak as one of the top 50 “Makers+Shakers” in education technology globally by
EdtechXGlobal in 2016; and received the Order of Independence First Class on behalf of Edraak from HM Abdullah II King of Jordan in 2017.
Dima Srouji
Board Member
Dima Srouji is a Palestinian architect, designer, artist, and educator working in the expanded
context of interdisciplinary research-based projects using multiple mediums. Her work explores
the power of the ground, its strata, and its artifacts in revealing forgotten, silenced, or hidden
narratives, specifically concerning Palestine. She works with glass, archives, maps, plaster casts,
and film. Most of her projects are developed in close collaboration with archaeologists,
geographers, and anthropologists, and sound designers to develop work through interdisciplinary
methodologies. The research projects are focused on critical cartography and deep mapping to
construct alternative spatial narratives of the global south. Srouji is a graduate of the Yale School
of Architecture, founder of Hollow Forms, and currently teaches design studios at Birzeit
University in Palestine.
Shady M. Qubaty
Board Member