Sami Abdel-Shafi is an independent consultant, representing the Carter Center in Gaza since mid-2008. Prior to establishing Emerge Consulting Group, LLC., a management consulting firm he started in Gaza City in 2004, Sami Abdel-Shafi worked in small to medium size and fortune 500 companies in Silicon Valley, California. His background is in Commerce & Business Administration with a concentration in Information Technology. In recent years, Sami frequently provided analysis and recommendations on the great challenges facing the Gaza Strip including politics, economics and those related to the private sector. He served on the Board of Directors of several Palestinian Non-governmental organizations, wrote and published economic and political analysis and provided commentary on Palestinian affairs in the international media, including print, radio and television. Sami has also served as an Associate Fellow with the Middle East and North African Programme at Chatham House in London since 2015.

Elizabeth Campbell is the Director of UNRWA’s Regional Office in Washington, D.C.  Prior to joining UNRWA, Elizabeth was the Senior Humanitarian Policy Advisor in the Bureau of International Organization Affairs in the Department of State where she worked on refugee and humanitarian issues in the United Nations system.  Elizabeth has also served as a Senior Advocate for Refugees International where she focused on the humanitarian crises in East Africa and the Middle East.  She was Director of Refugee Council USA, a NGO consortium focused on refugee resettlement and protection.  Elizabeth holds a Ph.D. and focused her research on Somali refugees in Kenya.  She published several articles and book chapters on refugee and humanitarian issues and has served as an adjunct professor at Georgetown University’s School of Law, James Madison University, and the State University of New York at Binghamton.  Her courses focused on humanitarian affairs, refugees, environmental studies, and inequality and social justice.