Where it Started: Reporting in Cairo & Mada Masr
From 2009 to 2016, I reported for the Financial Times, The Guardian, and Egypt Independent, covering the Arab Spring, the Egyptian Revolution, and its aftermath. In 2013, I co-founded Mada Masr, Egypt's only independent investigative newsroom, which went on to win the Free Media Pioneer Award and receive nominations from Reporters Without Borders and Index on Censorship.
My investigations ranged from water resource conflicts in the Nile Basin to an exclusive Guardian report using a leaked government document revealing that Egypt's police deliberately killed over 800 protesters in 2011. I was also on the ground in Tahrir Square during the post-revolution's most pivotal moments; documenting how a sit-in became a self-organizing city complete with schools, radio stations, and libraries — interviewing activists, constitutional court judges, Coptic Church officials, and diplomatic sources across Egypt, Libya, and Algeria.
For more samples of my print reporting click here.
Mada Masr / The Guardian / FINANCIAL TIMES
The Pivot: Policy & Strategic Comms
Leaving the newsroom didn't mean leaving the story; it meant learning to shape it at a much larger scale.
After co-founding Mada Masr, I moved into the policy world as a Political Officer at the UK Foreign Office in Cairo, managing a $7.9M human rights and civic engagement grant portfolio across MENA and authoring 50+ political risk reports for senior diplomats. That role taught me how institutions think, how decisions get made, and how narrative shapes policy.
From there I transitioned fully into strategic communications — directing campaigns for 350.org in South Florida, where a coalition of 40+ organizations produced Miami's largest-ever climate event with 1,000+ attendees. I managed digital strategy for For Our Future for Florida's 2018 midterm elections, contributing to the passage of Amendment 4 which restored voting rights to 1.7 million Floridians. At Just Vision, I led communications, including for the launch of the award-winning documentary 'Boycott', which premiered at SXSW and DOCNYC and led to placements, featuring partners and staff members, in MSNBC, TIME, and the WaPo.
Along the way I also built communications strategies for the Nile Project's U.S. tour, securing placements in The Guardian, and NPR, and for Nahdet El-Mahrousa, Egypt's first social enterprise incubator, growing their engagement by 40%.
30+ Top Tier Placements
secured across AP, NYT, WSJ, and WaPo and many others across mediums, including legal, independent outlets, print, audio, broadcast, video, and radio.
40% Audience Growth
Audience engagement across all social media and newsletter channels led to 10-40% audience growth across all of the organizations I worked for.
50+ Coalition Partners
Coordinated in joint campaigns with up to 50+ partners, releasing joint statements and other forms of joint coalition work, for each organization I worked with leading to tangible policy change in climate change, sustainability, civil rights, and foreign policy.
MSNBC· BBC NEWS ·WASHINGTON POST· AL JAZEERA · ASSOCIATED PRESS · FRANCE 24 · NYTIMES · TIME
Expanding to Other Mediums: Editorial Strategy & Podcasts
Journalism taught me to find the story. Strategic communications taught me to land it. Podcast production taught me to sustain it across an entire season by turning massive, complex topics into something intimate and human.
As a producer for TED's Audio Collective, I produced 20 episodes for TED Interview and How To Be A Better Human, reaching 10M+ monthly listeners and facilitating conversations with figures including chess grandmaster Garry Kasparov. At Kerning Cultures, I produced 18 episodes for the official Dubai Expo 2020 podcasts, People and Planet and Inside Expo, driving 1.5x audience growth for a Signal and Webby Award-winning network. I then directed the editorial strategy for Season 2 of Cerdan Stories, a podcast on writers in exile, facilitating interviews with global leaders across Sudan, Pakistan, Mexico, and the Philippines. I rounded out this era as a fact-checker for Wondery and Campside Media's Reign of Error and Radical, — two of the most critically acclaimed investigative series of 2023.
This era sharpened my ability to think in long arcs; taking sprawling, high-stakes stories and making them land with clarity, rigor, and emotional resonance.
10M+
Monthly Listeners reached
with ted audio
38+ Episodes
episodes PRODUCED ACROSS
ALL PODCASTS
24M+
visitors reached for
expo 2020 dubai
TED audio — campside media — wondery — audible — kerning cultures network — cerdan stories
The Full Picture: Senior Organizational Strategy
Senior Communications Strategist & Consultant
Today, I work at the biggest picture.
Most recently I served as Communications Strategist at TIMEP, securing 20+ top-tier placements in AP, NYT, WSJ, and WaPo while growing audience engagement by 40% and coordinating press outreach around the IMF-World Bank Annual Meetings. As an elected board member of AMEJA, I work to strengthen the ecosystem that makes this kind of work possible and co-led the 2025 AMEJA Awards ceremony with 250+ guests.
I help organizations move beyond the news cycle and build something that lasts. Based in New York, I bring together 16 years of journalism, policy, communications strategy, and editorial production into a single practice: making sure important work reaches the press, the public, and the people with the power to act on it.
I craft communications strategies at the organizational level, ensuring that companies and organizations and their impact are not only widely known by the public and media, but also that they reach audiences across mediums, across platforms and across various channels, including social media, digital, press, and direct community engagement through in-person events.
I am currently available for senior full-time communications roles across media companies, universities, foundations, mission-driven nonprofits, and for-profit companies in public affairs, CSR, and sustainability, as well as select consulting engagements for organizations navigating high-stakes narrative challenges.