Spring/Summer 2020

Letters

From the President

From the President

In this time of turmoil and change, we should all take comfort in the promise of this generation of students in Lebanon. I firmly believe that they will play a pivotal role in advancing fair and just leadership in Lebanon, the Arab world, Africa, and beyond.    

From the Editor

From the Editor

As I write this, I am sitting in front of the only window to the world most of us have in the summer of 2020. As potential hosts to a deadly virus, we are homebound, masked, and socially distanced. The COVID-19 pandemic has limited our freedom to mingle and congregate while deepening our understanding of connection and connectedness.

Features

Aiducation – Woonkee Jo

Aiducation – Woonkee Jo

  Features Aiducation - Wonkee Jo (BS '19) by MainGate Staff Spring/Summer 2020 Woonkee Jo (BS ’19) is South Korean, but he grew up in Lebanon. He is a big fan of Bliss Street: “I doubt there are many universities where there is a whole street of restaurants...

AUBMC’s PECC

AUBMC’s PECC

  Features AUBMC's PECC by MainGate Staff Spring/Summer 2020Under the supervision of Department of Family Medicine Clinical Associate Professor Umayya Musharrafieh, AUBMC's Pandemic Evaluation Clinic and Center (PECC—pictured above) was completed in less than 10...

Rana Hajjeh at WHO

Rana Hajjeh at WHO

  Features A seasoned veteran's "novel" experience by MainGate Staff Spring/Summer 2020 Rana Hajjeh (BS ’84, MD ’88) is director of Programme Management for the World Health Organization’s Eastern Mediterranean Region, an area comprised of 583 million people in...

Testing Detroit

Testing Detroit

Features Testing Detroit By MainGate Staff Spring/Summer 2020Like many healthcare centers around the world, the Henry Ford Health System (HFHS), a sprawling network of hospitals, laboratories, and pharmacies spread across the Detroit metro area, has had to shift gears...

The university experience

The university experience

  Features The University Experience by Carmen Geha, PhD (BA ’06, MA ’08) Dr. Geha is founding director of the Education for Leadership in Crisis program. She is an assistant professor of public administration, leadership, and organizational development. She is...

SPC to AUB

SPC to AUB

  Features What's in a name? SPC becomes AUB by Barbara Rosica Spring/Summer 2020 This year marks the centennial of an event many years in the making. On November 18, 1920, the New York State Board of Regents certified changing the corporate name of the Syrian...

The hope and promise of AUB students

The hope and promise of AUB students

The hope and promise of AUB studentsI am Palestinian and have a wonderful family. I dreamed when I was a child of finding a place where I felt like I belong. Never did I think that that place might be AUB. To be honest, I feel guilty being at AUB. It is a privilege...

Stranded on campus

Stranded on campus

Features Stranded on Campus By Eric Eyges Spring/Summer 2020 Like most of us, Oussema Ksiaa (BA expected ’20), a Tunisian MEPI scholar at AUB studying political science, didn’t know what to make of the novel coronavirus at first. He read the news like everyone else,...

R + D – Mahdi Saleh

R + D – Mahdi Saleh

  Features R + D - Mahdi Saleh PhD (expected '20) Electrical and Computer Engineering by MainGate Staff Spring/Summer 2020 Life before his PhD: I grew up in Beirut and spent my summer vacations in southern Lebanon, where I enjoyed being close to nature and wildlife. I...

Published & Produced

Published & Produced

Features Published & Produced By MainGate Staff Spring/Summer 2020 Fourteen, Traditional Emirati Talli thread and acrylic paint on wood, 80x80cm, Year 2020 Artist Noura Ali-Ramahi (BBA ’97): Learn more about Noura in this issue’s “StandingOUTstanding” feature.The...

A virologist speaks

A virologist speaks

  Features A virologist speaks by MainGate Staff Spring/Summer 2020In an interview last April, Nada Melhem discussed the pandemic. She explained that COVID-19 (“CO” for corona, “VI” for virus, “D” for disease, “19” for year originated) is caused by the severe...

Two different kinds of contamination

Two different kinds of contamination

  Features Two different kinds of contamination by MainGate Staff Spring/Summer 2020 Noor Jaber Chehayeb (MPH ’17) was at her apartment in Rabat, Morocco, when the COVID-19 lockdown went into effect. She’d arrived in the country five days earlier as a newly...

A perfect storm of data

A perfect storm of data

  Features A perfect storm of data by MainGate Staff Spring/Summer 2020The dual crises of COVID-19 and economic collapse are altering the fabric of Lebanese society in unforeseen ways, playing off one another. The news media relentlessly reports on various...

Virus hunter

Virus hunter

A still of Ghazi Kayali in a cave in the Beqa'a Valley from the Netflix series Pandemics.  Features "Virus Hunter" by Eric Eyges Spring/Summer 2020Ghazi Kayali is in a cave in the Beqaa Valley trailed by a team of filmmakers shooting the mini-series Pandemics for...

Ventilators made to order

Ventilators made to order

Technica's mountaintop headquarters.  Features Ventilators made to order by Eric Eyges Spring/Summer 2020 Around mid-March, Tony Haddad (BE '75) was at home watching a news program on MTV Lebanon that made clear the dire situation in which the country might find...

CLIMAT

CLIMAT

Features Helping Lebanese farmers get on track By MainGate Staff Spring/Summer 2020Many believe that the vast majority of the agricultural sector in Lebanon operates in ways that are unsustainable, exploitative, and economically unsound. Agricultural laborers are...

Check Up with Samir Fakhri

Check Up with Samir Fakhri

  Features Check Up with Samer Fakhri by MainGate Staff Spring/Summer 2020Dr. Fakhri is professor and the chair of Department of Otorhinolaryngology and Head and Neck Surgery at AUBMC. Can you describe your area of specialty? My field is otorhinolaryngology—head...

Alumni & Friends

Views from Campus

Views from Campus

  From the President 2024 Issue No. 2 As another academic year has drawn to a close and we bade farewell to the stellar class of 2024 at our 155th commencement ceremonies, I reminded our graduates of a powerful yet often overlooked lesson: to learn from and...

Professors @Work

  Professors @WorkMainGate asked AUB’s newly appointed Director of Global Engagement Rami Khouri about his new series of interviews with AUB professors. “In October 2020, AUB launched Professors@ Work, a 20-minute podcast audio interview where I speak with...

WAAAUB By the Numbers

WAAAUB By the Numbers

  Alumni & Friends WAAAUB By the Numbers by MainGate Staff Spring/Summer 2020 Number of AUB alumni: 70,000 Living in: 115 countries; on six continents Number of WAAAUB chapters or branches: 65 Oldest alumni chapter: AUB Alumni Association (AAA), established...

In Memoriam

In Memoriam

    In Memoriam  Spring/Summer 2020 Nasri Salti (BBA ’44) was born in Haifa, Palestine in 1924, and passed away on May 15, 2020 at the age of 96 in Toronto, Canada. He had a long, successful career manufacturing soap, olive oil and tobacco products throughout the...

WAAAUB Around the Globe

WAAAUB Around the Globe

WAAAUB Around the Globe  During the pandemic, AUB alumni around the world stayed connected in instructive and inventive ways. Here is a sampling of discussions, webinars, and online classes with strong alumni participation in a wide range of topics including: the...

WAAAUB Elections and Appointments

WAAAUB Elections and Appointments

  WAAAUB Elections and Appointments  Spring/Summer 2020 Abu Dhabi Chapter President: Wael Abdul Malak (BA ’94, MBA ’99, MMB ’03; Vice President: Ghassan Abdel Rahman (BEN ’88, EMBA ’06); Treasurer: Roger El Feghali (BEN ’94); Secretary: Joseph Atallah (BBA ’87);...

A Lifetime of Service

A Lifetime of Service

Alumni & Friends A Lifetime of Service: Karim Nasser By MainGate Staff Spring/Summer 2020 The prairie land of Saskatchewan seems to stretch forever. “You can see for a hundred miles,” says Dr. Karim “Kay” Nasser. “You can’t imagine how long you can see.” Nasser...

Class Notes

Class Notes

    Class Notes  Spring/Summer 2020 Mona Bu-Azza Bawarshi (BBA ’70, MBA ’77) is the CEO of Gezairi Transport, a company that her father founded, and vice president of RDCL World. An active philanthropist, Mona is a proud member of the Board of Trustees of the...

Alumni Profile with Nemr

Alumni Profile with Nemr

Features Uniting people around common truths By Alison Freeland Spring/Summer 2020“I’m Lebanese, so I’m resourceful,” says Nemr Abou Nassar (BBA ’05), an international stand-up comic who goes by his first name alone. “When people ask me what they need to do to be in...