Executive Board

Anat Binur, Executive Board Anat is a PhD student at MIT in Political Science with a concentration in Political Economy. Anat has a Masters in Public Policy from Columbia University in New York and a law degree from the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. Anat was the Jerusalem manager and board member of "Dor Shalom," a grassroots social organization initiated after the assassination of Prime Minister Yitzchak Rabin. Anat has diverse political and management experience including working for Israel's State Attorney and for the US House of Congress.

Assaf A. Harlap, Executive Board Assaf is the co-founder of MEET and is currently perusing his MBA at Harvard Business School. Before Harvard, he worked in business development and marketing in Colmobil Corp, Israel's largest car importer and distributor. Assaf is a graduate of the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) at the University of London, where he majored in Japanese Studies. Beyond Japanese, his passion for new languages and cultures draws him to seek proficiency in Arabic and Mandarin Chinese. During the past eight years Assaf has been traveling, working or studying in Asia, Australia, Europe, and Africa.

Yaron Binur, Executive Board Yaron is currently a co-founder of Red Beacon, a stealth mode startup in Silicon Valley. Previously, Yaron was a Product Manager at Google, where he led the product development of Google News and worked on improving the international quality of Google Search. Yaron graduated from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology with a degree in Computer Science. While at MIT, Yaron was the Vice President of "MIT Africa Internet Technology Initiative", a program started by MIT students to integrate computers and Internet technology into the education of students in African schools. In addition, Yaron was the co-chair of the Student Committee on Educational Policy, a committee that aims to improve the undergraduate educational experience at MIT through policy.

Abeer Hazboun, Executive Board Abeer was born and raised in Bethlehem. She graduated from the Hebrew University majoring in Chemistry and Biology. She has been working as an instructor in The Belmonte Science Center for Youth at Hebrew University until 2004 when she joined MEET's management. Her main interests lay in developing education and science programs among youth, especially Palestinian young students who have great raw material but lack the necessary care.

Sandra Ashhab , Executive Board Sandra is an independent environmental consultant. She holds a master degree in Climate and Society from Columbia University in New York with a focus on water and public health. She worked as a researcher at different Palestinian NGOs researching water and environment. During her Earth and Environmental sciences degree at the Hebrew University, she worked as a physics instructor at The Belmonte Science Center for Youth where she also helped tailoring special Arabic curricula for East-Jerusalemite students and teachers. In 2004 she joined MEET on it's very first year as the Jerusalem Program Coordinator. While her academic interests lie in environmental justice and health, she has strong interests in youth education and empowerment, especially, of Palestinian young women.

sandra@meet.csail.mit.edu

Staff

Noa Sattath, Executive Director Noa comes to MEET from a diverse background in the private and non profit sectors. She worked as a team and project leader in Prosight Technologies, an innovative leading software company from 1999-2007. Subsequently, deciding her passion was in the world of social action, she transferred to a leading social organization in Jerusalem, The Jerusalem Open House. There, Noa served in a range of roles including board member, chairperson and Executive Director. Noa has a rich experience in management, fund-raising, programming for teens, and working for social change. She majored in International Relations and History in the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. She also brings with her to MEET a passion for working with teenagers and in multicultural environments. noa@meet.csail.mit.edu

Mustafa Hussein, Student Relations Manager Mustafa Hussein has served as MEET's Summer Program and Student Recruitment Manager in MEET for the past two years. Under this role he spearheaded the new recruitment process, significantly increasing and improving MEET's applicant pool as well as overseeing the growth in the organization's Summer Program. Prior to coming to MET, amongst other things, Mustafa worked for the Children Cancer Unit at Hadassah, Ein Karem Hostipal. Mustafa qualified as a Computerised Graphics Engineer however has chosen to join MEET in order to fulfill his long standing ambition of bringing together Palestinian and Jewish youth. His personal interests include photography and graphic design. mustafa@meet.mit.edu

Karen Emanuel, Resource Development Manager Originally from Calgary, Alberta, Canada, Karen decided to move to Israel in 1997. She graduated from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, majoring in both English Literature and Education. Prior to joining MEET, Karen was the Head of Development at the Etza Organization, an Israeli non profit, where she focused on data management, donor cultivation, development of written materials and public relations. Karen has also had public relations and administrative experience in the private sector working in leading companies such as Teva Pharaceuticals and Citi Group. Karen's goal is to help build a peaceful and harmonious society based on equality. karene@meet.mit.edu

Yohanan Hruschev, Yearlong Program Coordinator After Yohanan graduated from MEET in the summer 2006, he returned to MEET to serve as a tutor during the 2006-2007 Yearlong Program and as a teacher assistant during the 2007 Summer Program. He completed a year of national service and served as MEET's finance manager. During summer 2008 Yohanan was in charge of the overnight students. Currently working full time in MEET as the yearlong program coordinator. He enjoys many things including sports, ping pong, uni-cycling, writing music, but mostly making people feel damn good. yohanan04@meet.mit.edu

Shira Pruce, Administrative Coordinator Shira graduated from Rutgers University in New Jersey with a degree in Women and Gender Studies and Women's Leadership and she been living in Israel for 4 years. During that time she has worked in such diverse settings as the Knesset and the Jerusalem Open House. At the Open House Shira designed the curriculum and ran a community leadership program and now overseas the community health clinic. Shira brings to MEET her passion for fostering young leaders for a progessive, pluralist Jerusalem. shira@meet.mit.edu

Ohad Assulin, Head of Year-Long Instructors Ohad is currently completing a B.Sc. in the outstanding Cognitive Science and Computer Science program at the Hebrew University, and is the lecturer of the "Current Internet Technologies" course at the HU computer science department. Ohad's experience includes management of a JEE development team at EDS, where he led a large-scale finance project, and consulting stat-up companies and web 2.0 entrepreneurs. Ohad is highly involved in the open-source community including being a core developer for the Super EJB FW and the Eclipse project. He has been an instructor and a mentor in MEET since 2006. mrohad@gmail.com

Volunteers

Max Goldman, Chief Technical Officer Max finished his degree in Mathematics with Computer Science at MIT during the Spring of 2004, and immediately left the USA for Jerusalem to join MEET's first instructor team. Since then he has lived in the town of Haifa in the north of Israel, working on a Master's degree at the Technion while traveling to Jerusalem regularly to mentor and develop MEET's yearlong projects. He is responsible for developing MEET's technical curriculum as well as various software and technological solutions for both managment and students. In the summer of 2005, Max led the instructor team as Head Instructor and did what he likes best - teaching.

Jonathan Varsanik, Head of Curriculum Jon is a PhD student in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (EECS) at MIT. He received undergraduate degrees in Physics and EECS in 2005 and a Master of Engineering Degree of EECS in 2006, all from MIT. Jon's research has spanned a wide breadth of electrical engineering disciplines and he has worked as a technology consultant for an upcoming book as well as the Science and Technology Policy Institute, a science policy think tank in Washington, DC. Since joining MEET in 2006, Jon has been a Year 2 instructor and the President of the MIT Student Group. He is an assistant coach of the MIT Varsity Swimming and Diving Team and enjoys playing volleyball.

Ted Golfinopoulos, MIT Group President Ted is a graduate student in MIT's Electrical Engineering department. He loves the sciences, music, literature, philosophy, learning and teaching, and multicultural activities, especially when food is involved. He enjoys soccer and spending time with his wonderful family spread out on both sides of the Atlantic and both US coasts.

Amir Ofek Amir is the Director of Management Services at Amodcs. In the past he was a Director for Business Processes Improvement and an IT Engineer at Elbit Systems Ltd. where he also coordinated a tutoring program helping to prepare new Ethiopian immigrants for their high school final exams. Amir earned an MBA from INSEAD Graduate School at Fountainebleau, France, and majored in Knowledge Engineering and Information Systems from the Technion Faculty of Industrial Engineering and Management. He is also a member of the Public Council of "The People's Voice" ("Hamifkad Hleumi") initiative.