Our team in Jordan

Alberto Correia Mendes has been working for WFP for over 25 years both in country offices and WFP’s Headquarters. He worked in various operations in Southern Africa and Southeast Asia. He took up his duties as Representative and Country Director in Jordan in October 2020 after two years as Representative and Country Director in Tajikistan. Prior to this assignment, he was Representative and Country Director for Eswatini (former Swaziland), East Timor and Zimbabwe (ad Interim). He also served as Senior Adviser for Angola in the Regional Bureau for Southern, East and Central Africa in Johannesburg, and held several other positions in WFP’s Headquarters, Angola and Mozambique. Alberto holds a university degree (BSc.) in mathematics and physics.

Mr Al-A’darbeh has more than 15 years of experience in the Rule of Law and Criminal Justice. He joined UNODC Jordan in April 2011 as a Project Manager and became, in May 2014, the UNODC Team Leader and Head of Office. Before that, he worked for UNDP in Iraq from 2008 to 2011 within the Governance Cluster. He also worked at the Arab Academy for Banking and Financial Sciences as a Senior Public Relations and Protocol Officer (2005-2008). Al-A’darbeh holds a Master’s degree in International Relations and Conflict Resolution and a Bachelor’s degree in Law. He is a member of the Jordan Bar Association since 2001.

Ms Costanza Farina is the UNESCO Representative in Jordan since February 2014. Before that, she was the UN Resident Coordinator in Jordan (July 2012 – January 2014). In over 30 years of career with the UN, Ms Farina notably served as Director a.i of the UNESCO Cluster Office in Qatar; UN Resident Coordinator and UNDP Resident Representative in Libya (2010-2011); Secretary of the Council with the UNESCO International Bureau of Education (IBE) in Geneva (2007-2010). She has had a long experience in the Occupied Palestinian Territories and working with Palestinian Refugees. Ms Farina holds a Master degree in Oriental Languages and Cultures from the Istituto Universitario Orientale, Napoli, Italy.

Ms. Abuthiab is the National Programme Coordinator for UN-Habitat Programme. She has more than 15 years of experience in spatial planning and urban development in Jordan and the middle east. Before joining UN-Habitat in August 2018, she held several positions at governmental sector, non-profit organizations, and private sectors in Jordan. In early 2000s, Deema served at the Aqaba Special Economic Zone Authority (ASEZA) for 6 years as an urban planner. From 2007- 2012, she worked at the Urban Workshop Center where she was engaged in developing strategic and urban development plans for different regions in Jordan. After that, she assumed the position of Urban Studies Director at Consolidated Consultants Engineering firm in Jordan and was responsible for managing several projects in the region.
Deema holds a Master's degree in Spatial Planning with honors from the German Jordanian University in Jordan and TU Dortmund in Germany.

Dominik took up his role in Amman in February 2020, after serving as the UNHCR Representative to Germany. In his 30 years with the UN, he has worked in major humanitarian emergencies and refugee operations, including Afghanistan, Iraq, Zambia, Kenya and India. He also served in senior management positions at UNHCR HQ in Geneva and the UN HQ in New York. In 2005, Dominik was seconded to the Department for Peacekeeping Operations (DPKO) and was deployed to the office of the Secretary-General, tasked with the opening of the Peacebuilding Support Office (PBSO), and the setting-up of the Peace¬building Fund (PBF).
Trained as Development Economist, Dominik holds an MA in Development Studies from the University of East Anglia in the UK and an undergraduate degree in public administration from the University of Konstanz in Germany.

Ms. Enshrah Ahmed is Jordan UNFPA Head of Office. She holds M.Sc. on Gender and Development from London School of Economics. She has written both published and unpublished papers / reports on various gender issues including a recent paper titled “Female Genital Mutilation and Population Movements in and outside the Arab Region March 2018, in partnership with Coventry University in the UK and Ahfad University in Sudan”.
Enshrah held the position of Gender Unit Chief At two UN missions; Sierra Leone and Lebanon. Furthermore, she was the Deputy Regional Director for UNIFEM (currently UNWomen) Arab States Regional office in Amman. Besides, she held various posts in the UK including Amnesty at International, the International Secretariat in London.
Ms. Enshrah Ahmed is a British citizen who is originally from Sudan and lives with her husband and daughter.

A national of Lebanon, Ms El Helou is the Director of UNIC in Beirut since August 2018, covering Lebanon, Jordan, Syria and Kuwait, and the Representative of the UN Department of Global Communications (DGC) in Lebanon. She has more than 20 years of experience in public information, communications and international relations, acquired at the United Nations and externally, including 10 years at UNIC Beirut.
From 2000 to 2007, she provided support to strategic communications projects and senior communications officials in the Office of the Executive Secretary of ESCWA.
Ms El Helou holds a bachelor’s degree in agriculture engineering from the American University of Beirut.

Maria Cristina Profili is a medical doctor with a specialization on Infectious Diseases, and two Master’s degrees in Primary Health Care Management and Health Economics. She has almost 30 years of international work experience mostly in WHO, serving three WHO Regions (EURO, EMRO and SEARO). She has proven track record of managing several public health emergencies, health systems development and public health programmes with vulnerable groups. She notably served in Egypt, Bosnia and Herzegovina, UN Administered Province of Kosovo, Montenegro, North of Macedonia. From 2002 to 2009, Maria Cristina was working the Desk Officer for Disaster Preparedness and Response programmme in the WHO European Regional Office. She was seconded to Tsunami affected countries (Thailand, Indonesia, Sri-Lanka), Pakistan earthquake and Georgia to manage emergency operations. Profili had a special Regional assignment (2007-2008) to coordinate the Ministerial Conference on “Health Systems, Health and Wealth” (25-27 June 2008) which culminated in the Tallinn Charter a roadmap for the European health policy development. She led WHO Representative positions in Ukraine (2006) and Turkey (2009-2014) before being reassigned to Jordan in September 2014.
She’s bringing many years of her experience of “Delivery country work” as an important experience for the achievement of Sustainable Development agenda 2030.

With a wealth of over 27 years of experience, 18 of which in the humanitarian and development field at senior level across a number of countries in the MENA region, Marta Lorenzo is leading UNRWA Jordan Field with a workforce of 6010. Prior to joining UNRWA, Marta was Oxfam’s MENA regional director managing 11 country offices. She was also the head of the Spanish agency for international development cooperation (AECID) in Jerusalem and has worked as a senior consultant for UN women in Palestine, Chief operating officer for Integrity Work, and chief of mission of the international organization of Migration (IOM) in Tunisia. Marta started her career monitoring the delivery of food aid distribution among displaced refugee populations in Croatia and later joined the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) as a programme officer for the programme of assistance of Palestinian people in Jerusalem.
Marta has a Master’s Degree in Migration, a Postgraduate Degree in Development Cooperation and a BSc in Economics. As well as a Degree in International Marketing and Trade. She is a Spanish national, fluent in Spanish and English and has a good command of French, Arabic and German.

Mr. Assaf took up his role in Amman in July 2020, after serving as FAO Representative in Algeria.
A national of Lebanon, Mr. Assaf holds a Bachelor Degree in Forestry, a Master’s Degree in Ecology/Natural Resources Management from the National School of Forestry Engineering, Salé, Morocco and a Master of Research in Forest Systems and Products from the University of Lleida, Spain. In 2008, he was Ph.D. candidate in Forestry Biogeography and Land Use Management from the Academy of Paris, Sorbonne University, France.
He joined FAO in 2010 as Forestry Officer at the Sub Regional Office for North Africa (SNE), Tunis, Tunisia. From 2011 to June 2020, he was also serving as FAO Representative in Algeria. Ahead of that he worked for EU-supported projects, agricultural research institutes and in teaching.

Before his current position, Mr Dimassi has held several senior positions in the United Nations that covered a wide range of operations from high-level management, administration and decision making, to corporate and partner relations, information and technology operations and programmatic management. He worked at UN New York Headquarters, as well as in The Hague, Beirut, Hamburg and Nairobi. Mr Dimassi holds a Bachelor degree in Information Technology from Ottawa University and his Masters in Management from Waterloo University in Canada.

Ms Ferrer Olivella has over 20 years of experience in sustainable development with the United Nations. Prior to this assignment, Ms. Ferrer Olivella served as Regional Advisor for Latin America, the Caribbean, and Asia Pacific at UN Development Operations Coordination Office (2013-2017) and Senior Programme Advisor with the UN MDG Achievement Fund (2008-2013), based at HQ in New York. Earlier in her career, she worked with UNDP in Cambodia (2000-2007) and East Timor (1999-2000). Ms. Ferrer Olivella invests in developing solid partnerships and innovative approaches with national institutions, businesses, financing institutions and academia, think tanks, as well as civil society; to forge people centered development solutions.
Ms Ferrer Olivella holds a European Master’s Degree for Human Rights and Democratization from the European Inter-University Center for Human Rights and Democratization (Italy) and a MA in Political Science and Public Administration from the Autonomous University of Barcelona (Spain).

Ms Madnat has 15 years of experience in the development field in Jordan. Before her assignment at UNIDO, she was from 2010-2017 an Education Program Team Leader at Global Affairs Canada (GAC). In parallel, she managed other Canadian supported projects in the fields of sustainable economic growth and renewable energy sectors. Before that, she worked with GIZ (Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit) from 1999 to 2007, where she managed multiple German supported development projects in different sectors (vocational education, solid waste management and others) in both Jordan and the region. Sulafa has a Master’s degree in Biomedical Engineering from Germany and a post-graduate degree in Management.

Ms Tajma Kurt assumed her duties as IOM’s Chief of Mission for Jordan in August 2019. Before that, she served as Chief of Mission Kosovo for four years and as Chief of Mission Tajikistan for three years. During her 15 years with IOM, Ms Kurt also served in Afghanistan and Iraq. She was responsible for large portfolios overseeing return and reintegration; disarmament, demobilisation and reintegration; movement operations; counter-trafficking; immigration and border management; community stabilisation; social inclusion and reconciliation and preventing violent extremism. Before joining IOM, Ms Kurt worked with donors and civil society organisations for nine years in conflict and the postconflict environment as well as a journalist during the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Ms Kurst holds a Master’s degree in Post-War recovery from York University (UK).

Ms Chapuisat joined UNICEF Jordan in July 2019. This is her fourth posting as a Representative after her missions in Lebanon (2015-2019), Costa Rica (2012-2015) and the Central African Republic (CAR) from 2009 to 2012. From 2006 to 2009, she Chapuisat worked as Regional Emergency Advisor for all UNICEF offices in West and Central Africa, based in Senegal. She performed a similar function from 2003 to 2006 in East and Southern Africa as a Regional Emergency Project Officer based in Kenya. Before UNICEF, Ms Chapuisat was Assistant Resident Representative in UNDP in Kenya for one year. From 1993 to 1998, she held many positions at ICRC, including in Rwanda, Peru, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Guinea-Bissau. Ms Chapuisat holds a university degree in Political Science from the University of Michigan and a Master of Business Administration (MBA) from Columbia Business School.

Mr Akram has over 20 years of experience in the UN system, governmental and non-governmental sectors in humanitarian and development affairs. Before joining UNOPS in 2015 as the Regional Advisor on the United Nations Development Assistance Frameworks for Asia, the Middle East and Europe, Mr Akram worked in the United Nations Development Operations Coordination Office in New York. Before that, he was the acting Head of the Resident Coordinator Office for Iraq while officiating the function of the Monitoring and Evaluation Advisor for Iraq. Before that, he worked as Regional Monitoring and Evaluation Advisor for United Nations Development Programme serving the Arab States Region and the Europe and Commonwealth of Independent States.

Before assuming his current position in Amman in September 2016, Mr Sheikh was the UN Women Representative in Nepal (2012-2016), notably leading the agency’s response to the 2015 earthquake. With UN Women, Mr Sheikh also served as a Resource Mobilization Lead in New York HQs from 2010 to 2012 and as UNIFEM’s Deputy Country Director in Afghanistan from 2008 to 2010. From 2003 to 2007, he worked with UNICEF designing and implementing global, regional and country-level policy advocacy strategies and campaigns for girls’ education and maternal health, including with UNICEF India. Mr Sheikh holds a Master’s degree in Political Science and Government from the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London and a Bachelor›s degree in Economics from the University of Sussex.

Ms Dowell has over 25 years of experience in humanitarian affairs, including 18 years with OCHA. She assumed the post of Head of Office for OCHA Jordan in June 2019. She was previously the Chief of OCHA’s Response Services Section (RSS) in the Coordination Division at OCHA Geneva. Before that, Ms Dowell was the Chief of the Asia and Pacific Section, and also covered central and southern Africa as well as Latin America. She has also served as Head of Office for OCHA in the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (2001-2003) and Sri Lanka (2007-2010). Ms Dowell holds a Master’s degree in Public Health Administration from San Diego State University in California, USA.