Berkley Center

Barbara Lethem Ibrahim is the founding director of the John D. Gerhart Center for Philanthropy and Civic Engagement at the American University in Cairo. A prominent sociologist of the Arab world, Ibrahim has published widely in the areas of gender and health, Arab philanthropy, women’s employment, and youth studies. Before founding the Gerhart Center in 2006, Ibrahim was regional director based in Egypt for West Asia and North Africa at the Population Council and, earlier, as the Middle East program officer for urban poverty and women’s studies programs for the Ford Foundation. Ibrahim serves on numerous international boards, speaks widely on the current youth generation in Egypt and the Arab region, and is a Core Group Member of the Arab Families Working Group. She earned an M.A. in sociology from the American University of Beirut in 1975, and a Ph.D. in sociology from Indiana University in 1980. She received the Lifetime Achievement Award of the Association of Middle East Women’s Studies in 2003, and was inducted into the International Educators’ Hall of Fame in 1999.