Trustees and Board Directors

Trustees:

Oussama Salam

- is the Chairman of the Hala Salaam Maksoud Foundation. He received a B.Sc. in Civil Engineering from Loughborough University of Technology in 1968, a MS in Traffic and Transportation Engineering from the Department of Civil Engineering, Ohio State University in 1969, and a Ph.D. in the Finite Elements Method from the Department of Civil Engineering, Ohio State University in 1974. He served as Director General of International Center for Commerce & Contracting, a leading construction company in Saudi Arabia from September 1978 until December 2000. In 1990 he co-founded Pillar BV; a venture capital business-consulting firm based in Paris, and remained a partner until September of 1999. He also co-founded WorldCare Limited, a leading company in the emerging field of global eHealth, and served on its Board of Directors from 1993 until June 1998. Dr. Salam is currently a board member of Spectra Systems Corporation, a company that specializes in optical solutions for document and currency authentication and tracking; marking and tracking in challenging applications such as optical media and postal documents. Dr. Salam is involved in the business development of these companies in Europe and the Middle East. Currently he lives in Beirut, Lebanon.

Ziad Asali

- M.D., is the President and founder of the American Task Force on Palestine (ATFP). He has been a member of the Chairman's Council of American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC) since 1982, and has served as ADC’s President from 2001-2003. He served as the President of the Arab-American University Graduates (AAUG) from 1993-1995, and was Chairman of the American Committee on Jerusalem (ACJ), which he co-founded, from 1995-2003. He has written for numerous newspapers and appeared on scores of major television programs in the United States and the Arab world. Dr. Asali has testified before the Senate on the issue of Palestinian education. He recently testified at a hearing before the full U.S. House Committee on International Relations on the topic of “The Way Forward in the Middle East Peace Process.” He served as a member of the United States official delegation to the funeral of Chairman Yasser Arafat and as a member of the United States official delegation to observe the Palestinian elections. Dr. Asali is the author of several publications that include: From Crusades To Zionism (1993) Zionist Studies of the Crusades (1992) and Expedition to Jerusalem (1990). Dr. Asali was born in Jerusalem, where he completed his elementary and secondary education. He received an M.D. from the American University of Beirut (AUB) Medical School in 1967. Dr. Asali was the Medical Director and Chairman of the Board at the Christian County Medical Clinic in Taylorville, Illinois, until he retired in 2000. He is a member of several medical societies such as the American Medical Association, the American Society of Internal Medicine and is a fellow of the American College of Physicians.

Treasurer:

Naila Asali

- Naila Asali was born in Nablus, Palestine and was educated at the American University of Beirut where she received her Bachelor's Degree and Master's Degree in Chemistry. She also holds an M.S. in Mathematical Systems from the University of Illinois. Mrs. Asali was a Certified Public Accountant and a real estate agent in the state of Illinois. Her professional experience includes 15 years in real estate development and property management in Illinois and Virginia. She has been active in many Arab-American organizations and served on the Board of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC) for 10 years, five of those as Chairperson and two as Treasurer. She is a co-founder of ATFP, a treasurer and a Board Member of the Hala Maksoud Foundation. She is a resident of Washington, D.C.

Other Board Members:

Mokhless Al-Hariri

- Mokhless Al-Hariri-Rifai holds a Ph.D. in architecture and urban planning from the Ecole des Beaux Arts in Paris, France. An alumnus of the Institut d’Etudes Politiques in Paris he also pursued postgraduate studies at George Washington University in Washington, D.C. Born in Aleppo, Syria, he grew up in Paris, France, and has been living in Washington D.C. since 1972. Dr. Al-Hariri is the Creative Director and President of the Georgetown Design Group, Inc. He is the author of numerous articles and his published work includes co-authoring three books on the cultural heritage of the Arabian Peninsula. His commitment to cross cultural dialogue brought him to serve as Cultural Advisor of the League of Arab States in the U.S., Advisor of the Aga Khan Award for Architecture, and Vice-Chairman of the Wolf Trap Foundation for the Performing Arts. His recent work includes the design of the new Embassy of Qatar in Washington, D.C.

Rashid Khalidi

- Rashid Khalidi is Edward Said Professor of Modern Arab Studies and Literature and Director of the Middle East Institute at Columbia University. Previously to that, he was Professor of Middle East History and Director of the Center for International Studies at the University of Chicago. He received his B.A. from Yale University in 1970, and his D.Phil. from Oxford University in 1974. He is past President of the Middle East Studies Association, and was an advisor to the Palestinian delegation to the Madrid and Washington Arab-Israeli peace negotiations from October 1991 until June 1993. Khalidi is the author of The Iron Cage: The Story of the Palestinian Struggle for Statehood, (2006), Palestinian Identity: The Construction of Modern National Consciousness (1997) co-winner of the Middle East Studies Association’s Albert Hourani Prize as best book of 1997, British Policy towards Syria and Palestine, 1906-1914 (1980), Under Siege: PLO Decision-making during the 1982 War (1986), and Resurrecting Empire: Western Footprints and America's Perilous Path in the Middle East (2003), and is co-editor of Palestine and the Gulf (1982) and The Origins of Arab Nationalism (1991). He has written over seventy-five articles on aspects of modern Middle Eastern history.