Dr. Wafa Al-Daily is a senior urban planner, a researcher, a lecturer, and an international development expert with a demonstrated working history of about two decades in academia, government agencies, NGOs, CBOs, local communities, and the private sector in the USA and the MENA region. She is experienced in urbanization, metropolitan planning, management and governance, urban recovery, smart/sustainable development, fragility and antifragility, e/governance, DRRM, and informal settlements. She also has extensive management experience in international education and program administration and partnership development, global initiatives, capacity building, grant writing and implementation, and strategic planning. She is passionate about inclusive planning and has dedicated part of her professional career journey to supporting underserved and marginalized populations. Her experience spans a variety of groups, including women, youth, immigrants, people with disabilities, and indigenous peoples in both the USA and the MENA region.
Dr. Al-Daily is the co-founder and executive director of EHAAR International, LLC, a consulting firm with a social and humanitarian mission that focuses on urban development and urban recovery issues. She is the leader of the Arabia Chapter of the International Metropolitan Fellowship (IMF). She is a member of the Board of Directors of the International Metropolitan Fellowship (IMF) in Spain, the International Society of City and Regional Planners (ISOCARP) in the Netherlands, and the Gulf International Forum (GIF) in the USA. She is an affiliated member, fellow, and researcher of a number of centers and institutes, including the Center for Cooperative Problem Solving and the Institute for Policy and Governance at Virginia Tech University in the USA, the International Metropolitan Fellowship (IMF-Spain), the American Planning Association (APA-USA), the Arab-German Young Academy of Sciences and Humanities (AGYA-Germany), and the NAFSA Academy for International Education (USA). She has worked in a consulting capacity with a number of organizations, including the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), URBA Consulting, the World Bank Group (WBG), the Social Fund for Development (SFD), and the Qatar National Research Fund (QNRF).
Dr. Al-Daily was a recipient of prestigious awards and fellowships, including the American Association of University Women International Fellowship and Who’s Who Among Students in American Universities and Colleges. She was nominated for the President’s Award for Excellence and the Alumni Award for International Outreach at Virginia Tech University in 2020. She is a certified practitioner of Kirton Adoption-Innovation (KAI) Inventory Problem Solving and Cognitive Style and a facilitator of intergroup dialogue and human relations. She earned a Ph.D. in Planning, Governance, and Globalization from Virginia Tech (USA), a Master of City and Regional Studies from Rutgers University (USA), a non-degree diploma in Urban Planning and Community Development from Rutgers University (USA), and a Bachelor of Science in Architectural Engineering from Sana’a University (Yemen).