Jordan Speakers 2017

Lee-Alison Sibley is an author, vocal artist, teacher, actor and social activist with international experience spanning three decades. Having earned degrees in music from Boston University and The Manhattan School of Music, and a Masters in Education from George Mason University, Lee has sung, taught, lectured and acted all over the world. Having performed everything from folk to opera, to art songs, to Broadway, in a variety of languages, Lee recorded the songs of Bengali poet Rabindranath Tagore on her album “The Distant Near” in 2003. In 2009, she published a memoir about peace in the Middle East, Jordan’s Jewish Drama Queen. Lee hopes that people everywhere will share her vision of brotherhood after reading her personal account detailing her 4 years living in the Middle-East. Currently, Lee is filming a documentary, “Tikiapara with Gayatri Kaul: Mamoon and Lee and the World InBetween.

Dareen Abu-Lail is a youth development practitioner with expertise in advancing youth polices at the national, MENA and the international levels. Abu-Lail is working for UNESCO Amman, managing the NET-MED youth project among other youth initiatives. Abu-Lail has joined the UN at an early age of 22 years old, where she started in UNFPA. Abu-Lail worked for Action Aid Denmark and ACTED organizations. Abu-Lail is known for the high level of commitment to advance the human well-being and putting necessary theories in to practice to fulfill the dream of participating towards a better world. Abu-Lail is an activist before being a practitioner and believes in the necessity to give voices for those who are not heard and to fulfill her obligations as a global citizen to contribute to social justice, especially for young women and men. Abu-Lail holds a B.Sc in Nursing and is studying MBA in leadership and sustainability.