Maha Yahya

Maha Yahya is Director of the Carnegie Middle East Center, where her work focuses on political violence and identity politics, pluralism, development and social justice after the Arab uprisings. Prior to joining Carnegie, she led work on Participatory Development and Social Justice at the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (UN-ESCWA). She was previously regional adviser on social and urban policies at UN-ESCWA and spearheaded strategic and inter-sectorial initiatives and policies in the Office of the Executive Secretary. She has also worked with the United Nations Development Program in Lebanon, where she was the director and principal author of “The National Human Development Report 2008-2009: Toward a Citizen’s State”. She was also the founder and editor of the “MIT Electronic Journal of Middle East Studies”. She has served on a number of advisory boards including the MIT Enterprise Forum of the Pan Arab Region and the Lebanese Center for Policy Studies.