May Rihani

May Rihani was born in Beirut, though her family hails from Freike, Matn District, Lebanon. She is an expert on girls' education and women's empowerment. She worked in more than 40 countries in Africa, the Middle East, and Asia and visited 30 more to implement educational reform and in particular improve girls' education. She was a Senior Vice President of three leading US organizations that worked in International Development: Family Health International (FHI 360), the Academy for Educational Development (AED), and Creative Associates International. Ms Rihani served as the co-chair of the United Nations Girls' Education Initiative (UNGEI) between 2008 and 2010. She is fluent in Arabic, French and English, is a writer and poet, and a women's rights activist.

She assumed a position as director of the Kahlil Gibran Chair for Values and Peace at the University of Maryland, College Park, in early 2016. She is a candidate for the 2022–2023 Lebanese presidential election, and has sought support from opposing parties, independent MPs, and thirteen reformist deputies as well as the Lebanese diaspora. Provided by Wikipedia