Eliane (Elle) Fersan is an LGBTQ activist from Lebanon. As a strategist, an experienced advocate for public policy reform, a catalyst and an international development practitioner, she invests her skill-set in supporting LGBTQ organizations in Lebanon and the MENA region by providing them with guidance, strategic planning, networking with donors, fundraising, and public policy advocacy. She is currently collaborating with the Arab Foundation for Freedoms and Equality on bringing together Arab and MENA LGBTQ members in the diaspora to support the community back in their home countries. She is also drafting a MENA wide position paper on LGBTQ rights based on a thorough needs assessment, followed by a strategy developed in the MENA region for the MENA region by activists from the region. Elle was awarded the Eisenhower Fellowship (2015), and UNESCO's Top 40 Women Leaders from the Grassroots in Lebanon (2013). She received numerous international awards for her work in supporting civil society development, women political participation and LGBTQ rights in Lebanon.