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Her Highness Sheikha Moza bint Nasser
Her Highness Sheikha Moza bint Nasser has been actively engaged in education and other social reforms in Qatar for many years and has played a major role in spearheading national and international development projects.
Domestically, she currently serves as Chairperson of Qatar Foundation for Education, Science and Community Development (QF), a private non-profit organization founded in 1995. Its flagship project is Education City, which serves as a hub of academic excellence and houses branch campuses of renowned international universities and institutions. QF is also engaged in numerous scientific research and economic and social development projects. In addition to her work at Qatar Foundation, Sheikha Moza served as the Vice Chair of the Supreme Council of Health from 2009-2014 and as the Vice Chair of the Supreme Education Council from 2006-2012. In these roles, she helped enact major top-down reforms of Qatar’s public schools and healthcare system. More recently, she chairs Sidra Medicine, a new training and research hospital that opened its doors in 2016 and is set to become a leading institution for women and children’s specialty care.
Internationally, Her Highness launched Education Above All (EAA) in 2012—a global initiative that aims to foster development and generate a global movement, with a particular focus on areas affected by poverty, conflict and disaster, the needs of children, and the empowerment of youth and women.
Her Highness also launched the Silatech initiative in 2008 to address the growing challenge of youth employment in the Middle East and North Africa, which followed her appointment by the Secretary General of the UN as an Alliance of Civilizations (AOC) Ambassador.
Her Highness also plays an active role with the UN to support global education. She was appointed as a United Nations (UN) Advocate for the Sustainable Development Goals in 2016, and was previously a member of the UN Millennium Development Goals Advocacy Group with a special emphasis on Goal 2—universal primary education. Her Highness serves as a UNESCO Special Envoy for Basic and Higher Education, through which she launched multiple projects including the International Fund for Higher Education in Iraq. In 2012, she was appointed as a Steering Committee Member of the UN Secretary-General’s Global Education First Initiative. The initiative aims to put every child in school, improve the quality of learning, and foster global citizenship.
Among Her Highness’s many honors are the Carnegie Medal of Philanthropy and the George Bush Award for Excellence in Public Service. In 2009, she was inducted into the Academie des Beaux Arts de l'Institut de France. In 2007, Sheikha Moza was presented the prestigious Chatham House Award for her contributions to improving international relations.
Her Highness holds a Master of Arts (MA) in Public Policy in Islam from Hamad Bin Khalifa University’s College of Islamic Studies, and graduated from Qatar University with a degree in sociology. She has also been awarded honorary doctorates from Virginia Commonwealth University, Texas A&M University, Carnegie Mellon University, Imperial College London, and Georgetown University.
