George Batah is a Strategy and Operations Manager at Attentive Mobile and the Co-founder and Executive Director of Syrian Youth Empowerment. George sits on the Visiting Committee for Ancient Near Eastern Art at The Met Museum and he is a Global Shaper at the World Economic Forum, Summit Fellow, and Blossom Hill Fellow. Previously, George was a Schwarzman Scholar at Tsinghua University while advising Apple TV on one of its original shows and MasterCard China on its cross-border strategy. Prior to that, George worked as a consultant at Deloitte covering a wide variety of financial institution clients with a focus on the payments industry. George is from Syria and lives between New York and Michigan.

Majed Abdulsamad is an architect and urban planner working on public infrastructure and affordable housing projects at WXY Architecture + Urban Design in New York City. Born and raised in Damascus, Majed is one of SYE’s co-founders. Previously, he has worked for public, non-profit, and private organizations focusing on urban design, transportation planning, and public realm design in cities. Majed has worked with city agencies in New York, Sao Paulo, Fortaleza, Mumbai and Addis Ababa through his work at the Global Designing Cities Initiative. Majed was also a fellow at NACTO and an Urban Design Intern with the New York City Department of City Planning. Majed received his master's degree in urban design from Columbia University in 2017 and has a Bachelor's degree in Architecture from Illinois Tech. He serves as the Chair of Landuse and Waterfront for the Manhattan Community Board Six.

Hannah is a graduate of Macalester College where she studied linguistics and Arabic. Prior to joining SYE, Hannah worked as a creative writing teacher, and supported communications and development for the Iraqi and American Reconciliation Project. Hannah has been with SYE since 2021 where she began as our Program Fellow. In her capacity as Program Manager, Hannah leads our classroom-based Prep and Azraq Programs, builds relationships with universities worldwide, develops and grows SYE's localized curriculum, and provides one:one support to our One Year students and volunteer mentors.

Dr. Amneh Arnous is a Syrian immigrant who graduated from the University of Illinois at Chicago/ College of Dentistry. She’s currently practicing in the Chicago-land area. Her passion lies in treating her patients in the most caring way possible while using the most current techniques and technologies available. She also prides herself in being able to educate her patients on how to improve their health, appearance, and self-esteem. She strives to treat people with compassion and respect in order to build a sincere and meaningful patient-dentist relationship. Amneh also cofounded the 501(c)(3) pending organization, Muntada, which is dedicated to offering a safe, inclusive space for open dialogue, community gatherings, and educational opportunities for individuals of all ages to expand their knowledge and appreciation of Arab culture through various mediums of art.

Lina Sergie Attar is founder and CEO of Karam Foundation. She is a Syrian-American architect and writer from Aleppo. She was named one of GOOD magazine’s 2016 GOOD 100 for Karam’s innovative work with Syrian refugees. Her articles and essays have been published in the NYT, Chicago Tribune, Foreign Policy, Politico, The Atlantic, and BBC. She has appeared on CNN, NBC News, BBC News, Huffington Post, NPR and other media outlets. Lina has spoken about the Syrian humanitarian crisis at schools, universities, and institutions including: RISD, Harvard, University of Chicago, Johns Hopkins, Northwestern, The New School, Phillips Exeter Academy, King’s Academy in Jordan, the Chicago Council on Global Affairs, New America, the Aspen Institute, and others. Sergie Attar is a co-founder of the How Many More? project, serves as Chair of the Board of Directors of The Syria Campaign, and is a non-resident fellow at New America.

Kim Benzel joined The Met in 1990 and since then has worked on numerous exhibitions. She has co-edited and contributed to multiple exhibition catalogues, published several articles on the jewelry arts of the ancient Near East, and co-authored a Met resource guide on the ancient Near East for K–12 teachers. Kim holds a Ph.D. in Art History and Archaeology from Columbia University in New York and previous to that studied at the Kulicke-Stark Academy in New York. For many years Kim participated in archaeological excavations at sites in Syria, and regularly taught the ancient Near East sections of the Barnard College Introduction to Art History survey course, as well as the ancient Near East portion of the Curatorial Studies course offered by the Institute of Fine Arts at New York University. Currently, Kim and her colleagues in the Department are working on a full reimagining and renovation of the permanent galleries of ancient Near Eastern art at The Met.

After graduating from the University of Chicago, Elysa launched her career in Dubai, where she worked as a college counselor at an education startup. Eager to utilize her experience in international admissions for impact, Elysa joined SYE as a volunteer before progressing to Operations Manager. Elysa currently serves as the Director of Operations at a Dearborn-based non-profit where she supports delivery of a multi-million-dollar community development grant designed to upskill and support Arab American entrepreneurs. She is also leading operations and programs at Street Smart Group, connecting underemployed and unemployed talent in the MENA region and globally with remote project-based work. Deeply passionate about generating access to learning opportunities, Elysa has been featured for her college counseling work in The National, The Gulf News, on Dubai Eye Radio, and at MIT’s Migration Summit, where she most recently discussed the role of SYE's partnerships in supporting and developing Syrian talent.

Yasmin Eltawil was born and raised in San Francisco to parents who had recently immigrated from Damascus, Syria. She graduated from Stanford University with a B.S in Biology with honors in 2020. Yasmin is currently a second-year medical student at UCSF and is hoping to become a reconstructive surgeon. Her dream is to open up free clinics in Syria and the rest of the Middle East to support victims of war and conflict. She is currently a member of the Chan Lab at UCSF and has published several articles in prestigious scientific journals. She started the Syria Grad program at SYE, which was the first of its kind at the time it started. The program has seen great success, with students getting admitted to grad programs with prestigious scholarships such as the Said Foundation scholarship, the DAAD, and Erasmus Mundus, among others. Yasmin is also an avid portrait photographer.

Eva Hangartner currently works in Knowledge Resources at the Tent Partnership for Refugees, a global coalition of large companies dedicated to hiring, mentoring, and training those forced to flee. There, she manages company best practices across 12 countries and researches the business benefits of hiring displaced talent. Prior to joining Tent, Eva coordinated social services in the preeminent emergency shelter for Ukrainians in Europe, and interned at UNHCR’s Innovation Service and the IRC’s legal services department. She has been committed to mentoring SYE students since 2020. She received her Bachelor’s in history and Arabic from Stanford University and is based in Berlin, Germany.

Born and raised in Houston, Texas, Bianca Navia is the oldest of four sisters in a Cuban-American family. She is a 2021 graduate of Arizona State University and holds dual degrees in Political Science and Global Studies. Bianca is also multilingual, speaking Spanish, German, Arabic (Levantine dialect), and some Italian. Bianca’s passion for foreign languages and culture motivated her to teach English, which she has taught for over 7 years both in-person and remotely, leading her to places as diverse as Vienna and Palestine. In her free time, Bianca enjoys reading, traveling, baking, spending time with her husband and sisters, and trying desperately to keep her plants alive. She is thrilled to join the SYE team and support students in achieving their academic goals!