Prof. Mariette Awad is an associate professor in the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department of the American University of Beirut. She received her PhD in electrical engineering in 2007 and she has been a visiting professor at Virginia Commonwealth University, Intel Mobile Group, and MIT. She was invited by CVC labs, Google and Qualcomm to present her work on machine learning and image processing. She has published a book “ Efficient Machine Learning” in 2015 as well as in numerous conferences and journals and is managing few grants. Prior to her academic position, she was with IBM System and Technology group in Vermont as a wireless product engineer where she earned management recognition, several business awards, and multiple patents. Her current research interests include machine learning, data analytics and internet of things. She can be reached at mariette.awad@aub.edu.lb
- Ghada El-Hajj Fuleihan, MD, MPH, FRCP
Professor of Medicine, Founding Director of Calcium Metabolism and Osteoporosis Program, and WHO Collaborating Center for Metabolic Bone Disorders Scholars in Health Research Program at American University of Beirut, Lebanon, Bernard Lown Scholar, Department of Global Health and Population, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA, USA.
Dr. Ghada El-Hajj Fuleihan is Professor of Medicine, Physician-Scientist, at the American University of Beirut (AUB), Beirut, Lebanon. She is founding Director of the Calcium Metabolism and Osteoporosis Program, WHO Collaborating Center for Metabolic Bone Disorders, and of the Scholars in Health Research Program at AUB. Dr. El-Hajj Fuleihan obtained her MD degree from the American University of Beirut (AUB), completed residency and fellowship training at the New England Deaconess and Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston. She holds a master in Public Health from the Harvard School of Public Health, Clinical Effectiveness concentration.
She is the PI/PD on multiple investigator initiated grants, including the NIH D43 capacity-building grant, awarded a 5-year competitive renewal (2020-2025). Dr. El-Hajj Fuleihan’s laboratory focuses on generating evidence on the pathophysiology, prevention, and treatment of hypovitaminosis D, osteoporosis, and other metabolic bone disorders. She leads a team that conducts clinical trials, systematic reviews, and meta-analyses, and translates findings into prevention and treatment strategies. She closely collaborates with the Ministry of Health officials and international experts to generate evidence-based national and international care pathways. These include guidance and guidelines on metabolic bone diseases, by OSTEOS, ISCD, IOF, ASBMR and the Endocrine Society. She led the IOF Middle East Africa audit, launched FRAX Lebanon, the first fracture risk calculator in the Middle East. She has mentored over 64 postgraduate trainees and junior faculty; several are pursuing careers in clinical translational research, at AUB, or in the US.
Dr. El-Hajj Fuleihan has published on her topics of interest in over 190 publications, mostly peer reviewed original investigations, chapters, invited reviews, and penned invited several Editorials, Scientific Position Statements, and commentaries in the New England of Medicine, and Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism, and Nature Reviews Endocrinology. Dr. El-Hajj Fuleihan is a member of the Alpha Omega Alpha Medical Honor Society, and recipient of several awards including the 2013 International Society of Clinical Densitometry John P. Bilezikian Global Leadership Award, the 2016 Endocrine Society International Excellence in Endocrinology Laureate Award, and the 2017 Harvard T. Chan School of Public Health Award of Merit. She served as Clinical Science Chair, Endocrine Society’s Annual Meeting 2019; and serves a three year term on its board of directors. She also holds a lifelong appointment as the Bernard Lown Scholar in the Department of Global Health and Population, at the Harvard T.H.Chan School of Public Health.
WiDS @AUB Conference Chair , WiDS @AUB Ambassador, Associate Dean for Research and Faculty Development, Professor of Management Science
Suliman S. Olayan School of Business, American University of Beirut
Dr. Lama Moussawi is a tenured Professor of Management Science in the Suliman S. Olayan School of Business at the American University of Beirut (AUB). Lama earned her Ph.D. in Management Science from the University of Texas at Dallas in 2006. She is currently the Associate Dean for Research and Faculty Development. She served as the director and co-founder of the Center for Inclusive Business and Leadership for Women where she led many U.S.-funded grants focusing on women’s economic empowerment in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. Her research focuses on developing applications of Operations Research for various business areas including inventory, supply chain, and revenue management. Lama is on the editorial board of many prestigious international journals in the field. Lama’s recent research explores the effects of deploying data analytics to feminist research in areas that promote gender diversity and equity in the MENA region. She has been repeatedly invited as a speaker at several international conferences including the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, and Wilson Center’s Middle East Program. She is the founding chair of the Women in Data Science at AUB (WiDS @AUB) conference and serves on the advisory board of WiDS Worldwide.
- In Memory of Sana El Hajj (1963-2024)
WiDS Ambassador and past Executive Committee member
Lecturer, Finance
Founding member & Executive, the Lebanese Private Sector
Suliman S. Olayan School of Business
American University of Beirut
Sana was an instructor at the Olayan School of Business (OSB), American University of Beirut, from 2006 until her recent passing. Over the course of her 20-year career, which began at the Lebanese American University in 2001, Sana acquired extensive experience teaching Accounting, Finance, and related subjects. Her contributions to practice included extensive research of various Lebanese SMEs and the publication of case studies such as "The Diet Center: The SAP ERP DECISION" and "MALIKs: FRANCHISING THE BRAND" with IVEY PUBLISHING in 2018 and 2020 respectively. The former is listed in the Harvard Publishing Review Store and Harvard Business Education Publishing. She was also a member of OSB’s “Case HUB” that promoted case writing and teaching.
Sana's background was in the banking industry, where she worked as a Credit Analyst at BLOM Bank (London) and a Eurobond Trader at SAMBA (London). She also attended the Associate Development Program at Citicorp Investment Bank (London). Starting in 2001, Sana shifted her attention to the private sector.
In addition to her academic career, Sana had wide experience as a consultant, advising on optimal business processes, budgeting, financial forecasting, implementation, and monitoring of internal controls, and conducting professional workshops and seminars. Sana was a Founding member of the Lebanese Private Sector (LPSN) and a member of its executive committee.
She was also a member of the Board of Directors of Wake, a non-profit organization and a cultural and educational center that strives to enforce a culture of dialogue and acceptance of religious diversity among the Lebanese. Sana held a BA in Economics from AUB and an MBA from LAU.
May her contributions and legacy continue to inspire others in the field.
WiDS Advisory Board
- Carole Al Sharabati, PhD
Professor and Founding Partner, Siren Analytics
Carole has twenty-five years of professional experience in research, teaching, consulting, technology, communication, and management. She currently holds the position of Professor of Political Science at Saint Joseph University, where she teaches various courses in political science and quantitative methods. In addition to her academic work, Carole also serves as the Director of Research at Siren Associates, a prominent public sector consultancy firm boasting a team of 150+ consultants, experts, data scientists, and engineers. She is also a co-founder of CME Offshore, a multinational technology firm with 350+ engineers in Lebanon and over 200+ engineers located internationally in the US, Argentina, China, India, Dubai, and Europe. Carole earned her PhD in Political Science and Quantitative Methods from Claremont Graduate University in California.
WiDS @AUB Ambassador Director of the AI Data Science and Computing Hub, Associate Professor of Machine Learning, Maroun Semaa Faculty of Engineering, American University of Beirut
Prof. Mariette Awad is an associate professor in the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department of the American University of Beirut. She received her PhD in electrical engineering in 2007 and she has been a visiting professor at Virginia Commonwealth University, Intel Mobile Group, and MIT. She was invited by CVC labs, Google and Qualcomm to present her work on machine learning and image processing. She has published a book “ Efficient Machine Learning” in 2015 as well as in numerous conferences and journals and is managing few grants. Prior to her academic position, she was with IBM System and Technology group in Vermont as a wireless product engineer where she earned management recognition, several business awards, and multiple patents. Her current research interests include machine learning, data analytics and internet of things. She can be reached at mariette.awad@aub.edu.lb
A. James and Alice B. Clark Foundation Faculty Fellow. Associate Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering. Associate Professor of Computer Science (Secondary)
Associate Professor of Earth and Environmental Sciences (Secondary). Associate Chair of Civil and Environmental Engineering
Vanderbilt University
Dr. Hiba Baroud is an associate professor and the associate chair in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Vanderbilt University. She holds secondary appointments in Computer Science and Earth and Environmental Science. Her research is interdisciplinary in data analytics and risk analysis with applications to disaster management and climate adaptation. Her work particularly focuses on network interdependencies across infrastructure, social, and environmental systems.
Hiba is the co-chair of the Risk and Resilience Measurements Committee of the Infrastructure Resilience Division in the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE). She serves on the editorial board of the ASCE Journal of Infrastructure Systems and as Associate Editor of the ASCE Natural Hazards Review. Hiba is the recipient of the Global Voices Fellowship, the National Science Foundation Early CAREER award, and the National Academy of Sciences Arab-American Frontiers Fellowship. She was selected as a member of the Global Young Academy in 2023 and named a Fellow of the International Science Council in 2024.
- Ghada El-Hajj Fuleihan, MD, MPH, FRCP
Professor of Medicine, Founding Director of Calcium Metabolism and Osteoporosis Program, and WHO Collaborating Center for Metabolic Bone Disorders Scholars in Health Research Program at American University of Beirut, Lebanon, Bernard Lown Scholar, Department of Global Health and Population, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA, USA.
Dr. Ghada El-Hajj Fuleihan is Professor of Medicine, Physician-Scientist, at the American University of Beirut (AUB), Beirut, Lebanon. She is founding Director of the Calcium Metabolism and Osteoporosis Program, WHO Collaborating Center for Metabolic Bone Disorders, and of the Scholars in Health Research Program at AUB. Dr. El-Hajj Fuleihan obtained her MD degree from the American University of Beirut (AUB), completed residency and fellowship training at the New England Deaconess and Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston. She holds a master in Public Health from the Harvard School of Public Health, Clinical Effectiveness concentration.
She is the PI/PD on multiple investigator initiated grants, including the NIH D43 capacity-building grant, awarded a 5-year competitive renewal (2020-2025). Dr. El-Hajj Fuleihan’s laboratory focuses on generating evidence on the pathophysiology, prevention, and treatment of hypovitaminosis D, osteoporosis, and other metabolic bone disorders. She leads a team that conducts clinical trials, systematic reviews, and meta-analyses, and translates findings into prevention and treatment strategies. She closely collaborates with the Ministry of Health officials and international experts to generate evidence-based national and international care pathways. These include guidance and guidelines on metabolic bone diseases, by OSTEOS, ISCD, IOF, ASBMR and the Endocrine Society. She led the IOF Middle East Africa audit, launched FRAX Lebanon, the first fracture risk calculator in the Middle East. She has mentored over 64 postgraduate trainees and junior faculty; several are pursuing careers in clinical translational research, at AUB, or in the US.
Dr. El-Hajj Fuleihan has published on her topics of interest in over 190 publications, mostly peer reviewed original investigations, chapters, invited reviews, and penned invited several Editorials, Scientific Position Statements, and commentaries in the New England of Medicine, and Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism, and Nature Reviews Endocrinology. Dr. El-Hajj Fuleihan is a member of the Alpha Omega Alpha Medical Honor Society, and recipient of several awards including the 2013 International Society of Clinical Densitometry John P. Bilezikian Global Leadership Award, the 2016 Endocrine Society International Excellence in Endocrinology Laureate Award, and the 2017 Harvard T. Chan School of Public Health Award of Merit. She served as Clinical Science Chair, Endocrine Society’s Annual Meeting 2019; and serves a three year term on its board of directors. She also holds a lifelong appointment as the Bernard Lown Scholar in the Department of Global Health and Population, at the Harvard T.H.Chan School of Public Health.
Gilbert S. Omenn Associate Professor of Biomedical Informatics. Associate Director, Bioinformatics and Integrative Genomics (BIG) PhD Track, Biomedical Informatics, Harvard Medical School, Harvard University
Maha Farhat holds an MD from the McGill University Faculty of Medicine and a MSc in biostatistics from the Harvard Chan School of Public Health. She is also a practicing physician at the Massachusetts General Hospital Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine. Dr. Farhat's research focuses on the development and application of methods for associating genotype and phenotype in infectious disease pathogens, with a strong emphasis on translation to better diagnostics and surveillance in resource-poor settings. To date, Farhat's work has focused on the pathogen Mycobacterium tuberculosis and spans the spectrum from computational analysis to field studies. She is PI and Co-Investigator on several large projects funded by NIH including the NIAID and the BD2K initiative.
Director of Program Design and Delivery Operation, LIVE, Wharton Executive Education, Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, PA, USA
Fida is currently Wharton Executive Education online program’s Director for Design and Delivery Operations. She formerly served as the AUB Olayan School of Business Director of Executive Education. Fida’s career has been focused on leading high impact programs that accelerate business outcomes. She led the development and delivery of high-impact, innovative program in both the custom and open enrollment spaces leveraging bisynchronous and blended formats. She is a Jury member of EFMD’s Excellence in Practice yearly award. She also co-founded AUB Stanford WiDS and co-led its planning and execution during its first two inaugural years. Fida holds an MBA from George Washington University and a BS in Computer Science from the American University of Beirut.
WiDS @AUB Conference Chair , WiDS @AUB Ambassador, Associate Dean for Research and Faculty Development, Professor of Management Science, +Suliman S. Olayan School of Business, American University of Beirut
Dr. Lama Moussawi is a tenured Professor of Management Science in the Suliman S. Olayan School of Business at the American University of Beirut (AUB). Lama earned her Ph.D. in Management Science from the University of Texas at Dallas in 2006. She is currently the Associate Dean for Research and Faculty Development. She served as the director and co-founder of the Center for Inclusive Business and Leadership for Women where she led many U.S.-funded grants focusing on women’s economic empowerment in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. Her research focuses on developing applications of Operations Research for various business areas including inventory, supply chain, and revenue management. Lama is on the editorial board of many prestigious international journals in the field. Lama’s recent research explores the effects of deploying data analytics to feminist research in areas that promote gender diversity and equity in the MENA region. She has been repeatedly invited as a speaker at several international conferences including the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, and Wilson Center’s Middle East Program. She is the founding chair of the Women in Data Science at AUB (WiDS @AUB) conference and serves on the advisory board of WiDS Worldwide.