Sustainability is a transformative process. 

For innovation ecosystems to survive and thrive, we need to rethink how the future is imagined. Public interest research and technology need leadership capable of experimentation and institutions that can adapt to change. Reimagining and scaling infrastructure sustainably requires changing our practices, attitudes, and relationships.

I bring a global, human-centered perspective to team building, organizational culture, and leadership. I work with individuals and teams of technologists, artists, teachers, and researchers to imagine how institutions are built and maintained, intentionally develop organizational culture, and plan for growth strategically.

I completed a PhD in Theatre and Performance at the City University of New York in 2016. From 2011-2019, my ethnographic research followed artists and technologists across the Levant. From 2017-2021, I held university teaching and research positions in Anthropology, Middle East Area Studies, and Global Media and Communication. Since 2021, I have worked in nonprofits and philanthropy alongside software engineers, scientists, researchers, teachers, and funders developing and delivering curricula, facilitating workshops, conducting original research, fundraising, and managing teams.

I am a Lebanese and Palestinian-American. I speak and work in English, Arabic, and French. I look for and uphold interdicsplinarity as a fulcrum for building and leveraging distributed power.

Let’s connect! You can reach me at rayyaelz [at] proton [dot] me.