Headshot of Professor Safwan M. Masri

Professor Safwan M. Masri

Former Title
Dean, Georgetown University-Qatar, Distinguished Professor of Practice, School of Foreign Service, Georgetown University, Qatar

Safwan M. Masri, Ph.D., serves as Senior Advisor and Executive Director of Cultural Diplomacy in the Chairperson’s Office of Qatar Museums. He is the former Dean of Georgetown University in Qatar and Distinguished Professor of the Practice at Georgetown’s Walsh School of Foreign Service. Prior to joining Georgetown in October 2022, he served as Executive Vice President for Global Centers and Global Development at Columbia University and as Senior Research Scholar at Columbia’s School of International and Public Affairs. Earlier, he was Vice Dean and Professor at Columbia Business School. He previously taught engineering at Stanford University and was a visiting professor at INSEAD (Institut Européen d’Administration des Affaires).

A scholar on education, contemporary geopolitics, and identity politics in the Arab world, Masri’s work focuses on understanding the historic, postcolonial dynamics among religion, education, society, and politics. He is the author of Tunisia: An Arab Anomaly (Columbia University Press, 2017).

A lifetime member of the Council on Foreign Relations and an honorary fellow of the Foreign Policy Association, Masri is the founding chairman of King’s Academy and Queen Rania Teacher Academy in Jordan and served as an advisor to Her Majesty Queen Rania Al Abdullah. He is a trustee of International College in Beirut, a director of AMIDEAST and Endeavor Jordan, and Chair of the Lusail Museum Research Institute Advisory Committee.

Masri earned his Bachelor of Science degree in industrial engineering from Purdue University in 1982; his Master of Science in industrial engineering, also from Purdue in 1984; and his Ph.D. in industrial engineering and engineering management from Stanford University in 1988. He was honored with the Singhvi Professor of the Year for Scholarship in the Classroom Award in 1990, the Robert W. Lear Service Award in 1998, and the Dean’s Award for Teaching Excellence in a Core Course in 2000. Masri has also been honored with the 2003 American Service Award from the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee.