CIO Team

Jenin Assaf

ICT-KM Program Officer

"Excitement is contagious," says Jenin Assaf, the ICT-KM Program's newest team member. "There's an energy you get from people who are excited about what they are doing that can be quite exhilarating. Although I'm still finding my way around the ICT-KM projects, I've already spoken to a number of people who are fired up about their work with the Program and the impact it could have on all levels of research. It's great to be involved in something like this."

Jenin may be relatively new to the unique set of projects that she now coordinates and feels excited about, but she is no stranger to program management. Indeed, she brings a wide range of skills and experiences to her position as Program Officer.

Prior to coming to Rome, where she is now based at Bioversity (formerly IPGRI), this native Palestinian was attached to Vital Voices, an organization headquartered in Washington D.C. that invests in women leaders and helps them unlock their potential as catalysts of global progress. As part of her work with this international partnership, Jenin managed and provided strategic direction for women's leadership initiatives in the Middle East and Afghanistan.

Before joining Vital Voices, she served as the Program Director for Partners in Humanity, an initiative of Search for Common Ground, also based in Washington D.C. During her two years with this conflict resolution organization, she developed and directed programmatic activities related to improving Islamic-Western cooperation and understanding.

While reporting directly to CIO Enrica Porcari, Jenin enthusiastically embraces the challenges of her new job with the ICT-KM Program head on. Indeed, one of her strengths is her ability to work well under fire.

"In the past, I have been confronted with situations that I haven't been prepared for, but I took up the challenges that came my way because that was what was needed to be done at that time," she explains.

One such "situation" involved an impromptu television appearance with the president of a Middle East nation. With only three minutes to prepare before going on air, this gutsy woman didn't falter, even when she realized that she couldn't recall the president's full name. Other "on-the-spot" incidents with her previous positions have more than prepared her for anything the ICT-KM Program might throw at her.

Like many people working in the CGIAR, Jenin is very much an international citizen. Born in Houston, Texas, where both her parents studied for their PhDs, she moved to Palestine when she was three years old. Almost 16 years later, she graduated from the University of Jordan, Amman, with a BA in English Literature. And four years after that, in 1998, she obtained her Masters in International Studies from the University of Washington, Seattle. Then in the spring of 2005, she said goodbye to the country that had been home for almost nine years and headed for Rome as a newlywed with her Italian husband.

"Although I've spent most of my life moving from one place to another," she says, "I feel my roots are still in Palestine."

Her roots may be in Palestine but her mind is presently focused on all things Italian as she attempts to learn her husband's native tongue.

"It's proving to be much harder than I thought it would be," says the same young woman who speaks English and Arabic fluently.

No matter how you translate it, the Program is excited to have Jenin on board.