Our team in Jordan

Alexis serves as FAO Representative ad interim in addition to leading the sub-regional resilience team for the Middle East since September 2019. He started his career in 1996 as a rural development project manager for international NGOs in West Africa and Central America. Alexis has been working for the FAO since 2002, including at the Emergency and Rehabilitation Division in the DRC, South Sudan and Uganda (2000-2010) and Regional Coordinator for resilience programming in Latin America and Africa (2010-2014). From 2014 to 2019, he covered the function of FAO Representative in Central Africa Republic, Chad, Liberia and the Democratic Republic of Congo. Alexis holds an Engineer degree in Agronomy and a Master of Science in Environment and Water management from Belgium University.

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). 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.

Maria Cristina first joined WHO in 1999. She notably served in the UN Administered Province of Kosovo, Serbia and Montenegro, the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia. From 2002 to 2009, Maria Cristina was the Desk Officer for emergency preparedness and response in the European Regional Office. In 2005 she was deployed to Pakistan to respond to the earthquake. In 2006 she was acting as WHO Representative in Ukraine. She was the WHO Representative to Turkey (2009-2014) before being reassigned to Jordan in September 2019. Maria Cristina has a medical degree with specialization in Infectious Diseases. She has two Masters in Health Services Management and Health Economics.

Adar joined UNRWA Jordan office in March 2019, after two years as UNRWA Representative in Syria. Before that, he was the UNHCR Representative to Sudan (2014-2016) and Uganda (2012-2014). During his 30 years of career with UNHCR, Adar also served in Pakistan, Iraq, Afghanistan, Sierra Leone and at the Headquarters in Geneva. Adar started his UN career in 1983 as a Field Assistant in Belet Uen in Somalia.

Patrick Daru is the ILO Senior Skills Specialist for the Regional Office for the Arab States, and the Country Coordinator for Jordan. Before coming to the Arab states four years ago, he managed a large ILO project on youth employment in eastern Indonesia. In the early 2000s, he managed consecutively two ILO regional projects on forced labour in South Asia and child labour in Eastern Europe. For ten years before joining ILO, Dary managed large scale projects related to forced displacement issues in Bosnia, Rwanda and the Commonwealth of Independent States. His education background is a master-level business studies diploma from a French Ecole de commerce. He has contributed to and coordinated the publication of numerous ILO research papers and manuals.

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 17 years of experience with the UN. She notably served as Regional Liaison Advisor covering Latin America and the Caribbean as well as Asia and the Pacific at the UN Development Operations Coordination Office (2013-2016). Before that, she worked as a Senior Advisor at the UN MDG Achievement Fund (2008-2013) in New York and oversaw its global implementation. She also served with UNDP in Cambodia (2000-2007) and as a UN Volunteer (1999-2000) for the UN Mission in East Timor. Ms Ferrer Olivella holds a MA in Political Science and Public from the Autonomous University of Barcelona (Spain) and a European Master’s Degree in Human Rights and Democratization from the Inter-European University Center for Human Rights and Democratization (Italy).

Sarah Gordon-Gibson has been working for WFP for over 20 years in North, West and East Africa, the Middle East, Eastern Europe and Southeast Asia. She took up her duties as Country Director and Representative in Jordan in July 2018 after three years as Country Director and Representative in Lao PDR. Prior to this assignment, she was the Regional Programme Manager for the Syria Crisis Response - based in Amman - and covering Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Iraq, Turkey and Egypt. She also served as Deputy Country Director in Niger, Myanmar and Tanzania. She holds a University Degree in Law from the University of Paris I Panthéon-Sorbonne, and a Masters in Law from the University of London.

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 Meyer is in charge of the World Bank Program for Jordan, which comprises a portfolio of about $500m spread across 20 projects and ten sectors. She previously worked for the World Bank in different capacities, most recently as the Manager of the Korea Trust Fund for Peacebuilding for the Bank’s newly-created Global Center on Conflict, Security and Development. She also worked as a Counsellor in the Office of the Special Representative of the World Bank to the UN. Ms Meyer holds a Masters in International Affairs and Economic Development from Columbia University and a Masters in Finance and International Business from Sciences-Po Paris.

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.