Nada Al-Nashif took up her duties as Assistant Director-General for Social and Human Sciences at UNESCO on 16 February 2015. She is the holder of a BA in Philosophy, Politics and Economics (1987) from Balliol, Oxford University and a Master’s in Public Policy (1991) from the Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University. Prior to joining UNESCO, she served (2007-2014) as Assistant Director-General/Regional Director of the International Labour Organization’s Regional Office for Arab States, based in Beirut, Lebanon. Previously she worked at UNDP, where she started her UN career in 1991, serving in Libya (1992-1995), Lebanon (2000-2004), Iraq (2003) and at Headquarters in New York (1995-2000, 2005-2006). As a development economist and practitioner, she serves in an advisory capacity on several boards, notably the Boards of Trustees of Birzeit University and the Human Development NGO, Taawon.