Barbara Ibrahim is the founding director of the John D. Gerhart Center for Philanthropy and Civic Engagement and currently serves as an advisor to the president at the American University in Cairo (AUC). Previously, she served for 14 years as regional director for West Asia and North Africa at the Population Council. From 1982 to 1990, she was a program officer at the Ford Foundation's regional office in Cairo, where she was responsible for programs on urban poverty, microenterprise lending, and gender studies. She was also a senior research associate at the Center for the Study of Philanthropy at the City University of New York. Barbara's most recent publication is titled Family Legacies: Wealth and Philanthropy in the Arab World and her other recent publications are on the topics of philanthropy in political transitions, Egyptian youth and civic participation, and reform of Arab higher education. In 2008 to 2009, her book titled Charity to Social Change: Trends in Arab Philanthropy was published in Arabic and English. She earned an M.A. in sociology from the American University of Beirut and a Ph.D. in sociology from Indiana University. Barbara is a Fellow of Salzburg Global Seminar.