Hady Amr Board Chair

Hady Amr is a development economist, policy analyst and social entrepreneur working on a range of socioeconomic and geopolitical issues facing the Middle East with a focus on the Levant, Israeli-Palestinian relations and the Gulf, as well as Arab human development, economic growth in the Middle East, and U.S. public diplomacy. Appointed by the White House in 2010 as a senior diplomat, he served as Deputy Assistant Administrator for the Middle East at USAID, and most recently as U.S. Deputy Special Envoy for Israeli-Palestinian Negotiations focusing on economics through early 2017.

Previously he served as the founding director of the Brookings Doha Center in Qatar from 2006-2010. In that capacity, he served as a convener of the annual U.S.-Islamic World Forum, a global event that brings together leaders from the United States and from across the Muslim world. He rejoined Brookings in 2017 as a nonresident senior fellow.

Mr. Amr is the author of numerous publications, including “The Opportunity of the Obama Era: Can Civil Society Help Bridge Divides between the United States and a Diverse Muslim World?” and was the lead author for UNICEF’s “State of the Arab Child” and “The Situation of Children, Youth, and Women in Jordan.” He has contributed regularly to international television broadcasts and has been published by Newsweek, the Washington Post, USA Today, and the International Herald Tribune.
Over the course of his career, he has worked for or advised international organizations, including the World Bank, the World Economic Forum, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, UNICEF and the US Department of Homeland Security. As an appointee at the U.S. Department of Defense, he helped establish the Near East South Asia Center for Strategic Studies at the National Defense University. Prior to joining the iEARN board, he served as a consultant to iEARN on expanding and strengthening iEARN activities in the Arab world.

Mr. Amr received a Bachelor of Arts degree from Tufts University and a master’s degree in economics and public affairs from Princeton University’s Woodrow Wilson School. He lives in the Northern Virginia with his wife and three children.