Dr. Dina Najjar joined the Social, Economics and  Policy Research Program of ICARDA as an Associate Social and Gender Scientist in February, 2014. She is a socio-cultural anthropologist by training and  completed her PhD in Anthropology in 2013 from the University of Western  Ontario. She also holds a Bachelor of Science in Agriculture and a Diploma of  Ingenieur Agricole from the American University of Beirut, an Ecosystem Restoration Post-graduate Certificate from Niagara College, and a Masters  in Natural Resource Management from the University of Manitoba.

She is  fluent in English and Arabic, with a working knowledge of French and Swahili.  Her academic career has taken her to several geographic locations, including  the Middle East (Lebanon, Tunisia, Algeria, and Egypt), East Africa (Kenya) and Canada (Ontario and Winnipeg). She has diverse academic interests, including gender inequalities in Kenya and Egypt; river corridor restoration in  Southern Ontario; integrated crop protection and production in Lebanon; adult  education (particularly transformative learning) in participatory agricultural  extension (Farmer Field School (FFS) program) in Kenya; land access for women  in Egypt's massive Mubarak Resettlement Scheme (MRS), particularly how women  accessed land, retained this land, controlled the land, and/or benefitted from  the land (socially or economically) in Upper and Lower Egypt; impacts of the Revolution  of January 25 in rural Egypt; the role of science and technology in development  (in Egypt, Algeria, and Tunisia); and the infuelence that the Lebanese diaspora in Southwestern Ontario exerts on peace-building in Lebanon.

Dina  obtained various competitive awards, including an International Development  Research Center (IDRC) Doctoral Award from IDRC, and a Middle East Research  Competition from the Ford Foundation. She has published her findings about  learning outcomes and conditions related to FFS in Kenya's Taita Hills, a  biodiversity hotspot, particularly regarding gender and sustainability, in the  International Journal of Educational Development. She also completed a book chapter  related to feminist political ecology of climate change, cactus cultivation,  adjusted irrigation, and women landholders in Egypt's MRS.