Meet the Team
Dr. Nathalie Peutz
LPI, based in Abu Dhabi
Nathalie is an associate professor of Arab Crossroads Studies at NYU Abu Dhabi. An anthropologist, she is the author of Islands of Heritage: Conservation and Transformation in Yemen (Stanford UP, 2018), an ethnography of Socotran pastoralists’ reactions to an environmental conservation project in the 2000s. Drawing on research in Yemen, Djibouti, and Somaliland, she is writing a book about refugees and migrants in the Horn of Africa. Dr. Peutz brings her comparative ethnographic field experience and this past year’s leadership experience to this project.
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Dr. Alden Young
Co-PI, based Los Angeles
Alden is an assistant professor in the International Development Studies Program at the University of California-LA and the author of Transforming Sudan: Decolonization, Economic Development and State Formation (Cambridge UP, 2017). His current project examines the economic, political and labor relationships between Sudan and the Gulf region. Dr. Young brings his historical and regional expertise to this project and will oversee the impacts surveys and coordinate the projects written outputs and public outreach.
Dr. Dheaya Alrousan
Co-PI, based in Amman
Dheaya is an assistant professor of Nanotechnology and Water Treatment in the Department of Water Management and Environment at the Hashemite University in Amman, Jordan. A chemical engineer by training, Dr. Alrousan is now researching the effectiveness of projects to improve environmental awareness among children and the consumer perceptions of new sanitation systems. Skilled in the use of survey instruments and SPSS data analysis, Dr. Alrousan will run the “perceptions” surveys in all nine countries and analyse this data set.
Dr. Aisha Al-Sarihi
Team Member, based in Riyadh
Dr. Moustapha Nour Ayeh
Team Member, based in Djibouti
Dr. Ahmed Alhuseen
Team Member, based in České Budějovice and Khartoum
Aisha is a non-resident fellow at the Arab Gulf States Institute in Washington and the coordinator of the T20 Climate and Environment Task Force. A political scientist, her research examines the political economy of environmental sustainability, energy policy, renewables, and climate policies in the Arab region. Dr. Sarihi will bring her deep knowledge of climate change policies in GCC and other countries to this project.
Moustapha is an associate professor of Geography and Director of the Social Sciences at the University of Djibouti where he manages the master's degree in “risk and disaster management.” He has published on urban fragmentation and rising temperatures in Djibouti. Through his research lab, L@bTes, he is studying the impacts of global warming and drought on pastoralists in Djibouti and will help develop and run the impacts survey.
Ahmed is a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Landscape Carbon Capture at the Global Change Research Institute of the Czech Academy of Sciences. A geographer familiar with green infrastructure, GIS, and climate change vulnerability, and natural resource governance, Dr. Alhuseen will assist in the implementation and evaluation of the impacts survey in Sudan, Somililand, and Yemen.
Project Associates
Fahmi Binshbrak, Environment and Climate Change Consultant, Mukalla, Yemen
Tareq Hassan, Climate Action Network Arab World, Sanaa, Yemen
Dr. Abdullahi Elmi Mohamed, Environment and Water Management Consultant, Mogadishu, Somalia
Hussein Yusuf Ali, Researcher, Transboundary Water Diplomacy, Mogadishu, Somalia
Abdikarim Aden Omar, Ecological Consultant, Hargeisa, Somaliland
Ahmed Derie Elmi, Ecological Consultant, Hargeisa, Somaliland
Dr. Ismael Abdillahi Guirre, Associate Professor, Department of Logistics and Transportation, University of Djibouti
Dr. Liban Ali Sougueh, Engineer Forecaster, National Meteorological Agency, Djibouti
Muez Ali, PhD Candidate, UCL Energy Institute, London
Dr. Samia Satti, Professor of Economics, Khartoum University
Dr. Khalid Siddig, Senior Researcher, International Agricultural Trade and Development Group, Humboldt University of Berlin
Yaser Zaidan, PhD Candidate, National University-Sudan
Abdallah Dreait, Green Generation, Youth Advocate, Amman, Jordan
Undergraduate Research Assistants
Yesmine Abida
NYU Abu Dhabi '2022
United Arab Emirates
Ian Hoyt
NYU Abu Dhabi '2021
United States
Rifal Imam
NYU Abu Dhabi '2023
Egypt and United States
Anatoli Lemma
NYU Abu Dhabi '2022
Ethiopia