Barbara Ibrahim

Barbara Lethem Ibrahim is founding director of the John D. Gerhart Center for Philanthropy and Civic Engagement, established at the American University in Cairo in 2006. Prior to that she served for fourteen years as regional director for West Asia and North Africa at the Population Council in Egypt. She has published widely in the fields of gender and health, youth studies, and women's employment, as well as directing programs in urban poverty and gender relations through the Cairo office of the Ford Foundation. She received an M.A. degree from the American University of Beirut and a Ph.D. from Indiana University. She was principal investigator on the major national survey of adolescents and their parents conducted in Egypt in 1997, as well as on the current impact study of ISHRAQ, a sports and empowerment program for rural girls. Ibrahim advises groups in Jordan, Pakistan and Iran on national youth research, and holds membership in a regional working group on Arab family research. She is developing new programs to enhance local philanthropy and forge stronger links between research, activist and policy communities. Ibrahim received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Association of Middle East Women's Studies in 2003, and was inducted into the Educators Hall of Fame (USA) in 1999. She serves on numerous international boards. Among her most recent publications: From Charity to Social Change: Trends in Arab Philanthropy with Dina Sherif, Associate Director of the Gerhart Center, “Negotiating Leadership, Young Women’s Experience in Rural Egypt” with Rania Salem and Martha Brady, Women’s Studies Quarterly, 2003; “Gender-role Attitudes Among Egyptian Adolescents” with Susan M. Lee and Omaima el-Gibaly Studies in Family Planning, 2003; and “Social Change and Adolescent-Parent Dynamics in Egypt” with Sahar el-Tawila and Hind Wassef in The New Arab Family (ed. Hopkins, 2003)." Also see


 * Director, Virtual Activism
 * Trustee, Ibn Khaldun Center

She is married to Saad Eddin Ibrahim.