Mariana Ramadan Makarem is a Project Manager at the Centre for Social Sciences Research and Action (CeSSRA). She oversees the planning, coordination, and delivery of multi-donor projects, ensuring effective grant management, financial coordination, donor reporting, and compliance with internal and donor requirements. She works closely with the co-directors, finance team, and external partners, and contributes to the design and delivery of national and regional workshops, as well as to the centre’s resource mobilisation efforts.

Mariana holds a Master’s degree in Migration Studies from Universitat Pompeu Fabra in Barcelona, Spain and a Bachelor’s degree in Administrative and Political Science from Saint Joseph University of Beirut, Lebanon.

Rana El Romeh is the Finance and Administration Officer at CeSSRA. She oversees the financial and administrative management of projects, including budget planning and monitoring, financial reporting, internal controls, and compliance with organisational policies and donor requirements. She manages accounting systems, cash and bank reconciliations, payments and disbursements, and serves as the main focal point for auditors and external counterparts. Rana also supports the day-to-day administrative and logistical operations of the centre and its programmes.

Rana holds a Bachelor’s degree in Banking and Finance and a Master’s degree in Business Administration (MBA – M1) from the Islamic University, Lebanon.

Aya Jaber is the Finance and Administration Assistant. She supports programmes and projects through procurement, financial tracking, and logistics, ensuring smooth operations and compliance with internal procedures.

Aya is a Business graduate from the Lebanese American University (LAU) with hands-on experience in administrative, financial, and operational support.

Dima El Ayache is CeSSRA’s project officer. She manages, both the Daleel Madani and Daleel el 3amal projects, with her work centered on civil society.

She holds a Bachelor of Architecture (B.Arch.) from the American University of Beirut.

Sobhiya Najjar is an award-winning journalist, producer, and media trainer with over 15 years of experience in the Middle East and Europe. She is the Communications Expert at CeSSRA, leading communication and visibility efforts of the centre, and employing storytelling to disseminate all of the centre’s research thematics and findings. Sobhiya trains journalists and media organizations on media viability, entrepreneurship, and ethical digital practices. She also works on social media codes of conduct and helps teams build sustainable and responsible content. She is a feminist Idea Lab facilitator, supporting people to turn their ideas into real media projects. She is also a journalist, anchor, and producer. Her work covers public policy, women’s rights, migration, and social justice. She has reported from several countries and worked with platforms like BBC Arabic, Al Jazeera O2, and DW Akademie. Sobhiya believes storytelling can make complex issues easier to understand and closer to people’s lives. She sees the media as a tool for accountability, inclusion, and social change.

Sobhiya holds a Master’s degree in Management and Economics (Ingenierie Culturelle) from the University of Perpignan Via Domitia in France.

Nizar Hariri is an economist and researcher specializing in labour economics and social protection. He is an associate researcher at CeSSRA. Since 2022, he has contributed to a range of research projects and conferences focusing mainly on social protection issues and systems. He collaborates closely with the CeSSRA team and fellow researchers, contributing to the center’s ongoing scientific and analytical work.

Nizar holds a PhD in Economics from Aix-Marseille University, a Master’s degree in Economic Policies from Saint Joseph University of Beirut, and a Bachelor’s degree in Philosophy from University of Toulouse.

ORCID : https://orcid.org/0009-0006-1934-0955

Marie-Noëlle AbiYaghi is a political scientist with over two decades of experience at the intersection of research, academia, and practice. She currently serves as Co-Director of the centre, where she conceptualised and launched its research axis, expanding the centre’s identity and positioning it as a site of rigorous, reflexive knowledge production at the interface of academic inquiry and practitioner engagement.

In her leadership role, Marie-Noëlle provides strategic direction and upholds the scientific rigour of contextualised, multidisciplinary research, while actively positioning homegrown knowledge within global theoretical debates and international fora. Her research interests span the sociology of contentious politics, with a focus on socialisation processes, collective behaviour, transformation of commitment and logics of disengagement, as well as the reproduction of social control and discipline. She also investigates the sociology of public action and the epistemology of open and alternative social sciences.

Her work is grounded in the Lebanese and broader SWANA context, examining topics such as antisectarian movements, feminist mobilisations, civil society, gender dynamics, and the social question. She has published widely in French and English, including edited volumes, peer-reviewed articles, and policy-oriented research.

Her trajectory reflects a deliberate articulation of academic rigour and applied practice: she has served as Senior Researcher at the Centre for Lebanese Studies, as a Political Science lecturer at the Holy Spirit University of Kaslik and Saint Joseph University of Beirut, and has held positions within international organisations working at the nexus of research and policy.

Marie-Noëlle holds a PhD in Political Science from the Université Paris I Panthéon-Sorbonne, France.

ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8558-6722

Academia: https://univ-paris1.academia.edu/MarieNo%C3%ABlleAbiYaghi

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/marie-noëlle-abiyaghi-phd/

Léa Yammine is a creative and interdisciplinary practitioner with extensive experience at the intersection of design, knowledge dissemination, and social research. She currently serves as Co-Director of CeSSRA, where she has established and led the centre's publication and dissemination arm, transforming complex, multidisciplinary research into innovative, openly accessible formats that bridge the gap between scientific production and public engagement.

Léa provides strategic direction while overseeing a multidisciplinary team of designers, data analysts, and digital creators to develop innovative approaches to research visualisation and dissemination, in line with the centre's mission of knowledge as a public good. Her research interests span social security and protection, civil society and civic space, the ethics and politics of communication and data, and the politics of knowledge production.

Léa's career has always moved between creative practice and critical inquiry. With over 15 years of graphic design and creative direction, she has contributed to the publishing world across multiple stages of the production process, providing strategic and creative leadership to several organisations. Her practice-based expertise reframes knowledge accessibility, responsible data use, and the visual politics of research communication as central and not as an afterthought to the production of rigorous, impactful social science.

Léa holds a BA in Graphic Design from the American University of Beirut, an MA in Culture, Creativity & Entrepreneurship from the University of Leeds (UK), and a Certificate in Data Ethics, AI and Responsible Innovation from the University of Edinburgh (EdX).

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/leayam/