Join our Founder Dr Reem Em Mutwalli and our guest speaker, Andrea Rugh who is a writer and consultant on development projects. During her career she worked on assistance projects in the Middle East, South Asia and Africa. She was a research associate at Harvard for a number of years as well as working for USAID, UNICEF, Save the Children and other groups. Andrea received a B.A in Psychology from Oberlin College and a Ph.D. in Social Anthropology from American University in Washington, DC. She developed an interest in the UAE when her husband was posted to Abu Dhabi as the American Ambassador from 1992-95.

Over 40 years living and working in the Middle East, she researched and wrote 12 books on the region including Reveal and Conceal: Dress in Contemporary Egypt (1986), The Political Culture of Leadership in the UAE (2007), Simple Gestures: A Cultural Journey into the Middle East (2009) and most recently Egyptian Advice Columnists (2019) and Childrearing in a Syrian Village (2021). She is currently retired and living in Hingham, Massachusetts.