Dr. Reut Barak Weekes gained her PhD in Development Economics from SOAS, University of London. She heads the Glocal Program for International Development at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Her research focus includes: decision making of smallholder farmers in developing countries, social impact of microfinance, and the interaction between NGOs and government entities in development. Dr. Barak Weekes acts as the chairperson of NALA, an NGO which fights Neglected Tropical Diseases in developing countries. In the past decade, Dr. Barak Weekes has advised various international development organizations in Israel, including IsraAid, CoCuDi, CIMI, Fair Planet, JDC and Mashav.

Teaches: Introduction to Development, Development Economics: Principles and Application, Program Seminar.

Dr. Orit Gazit is a faculty member (assistant professor) in the Glocal Program for International Development and in the Department of International Relations at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and the head of Glocal's Migration & Development track. 

With academic grounding in both international relations and sociology, she applies these tools to study the fields of migration and refugees, space and borders, security and emotions.

Before joining the faculty of the Hebrew University in 2019, she completed her Ph.D. in both the Department of International Relations and the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at the Hebrew University, as well as an LL.B in the Hebrew University’s Faculty of Law.

She continued to UCLA as a Rothschild (Yad Hanadiv) post-doctoral fellow in UCLA’s International Institute and Department of Sociology, and then joined the Martin Buber Society of Fellows in the Humanities and Social Sciences (MBSF) at the Hebrew University, where she pursued a research project on the interrelations between migration, border crossing and emotions through classical social thought (published in International Studies Review, International Theory and the Journal of Classical Sociology).

One of her recent research projects explores the relations between migration and the environment, and another recent project focuses on the meanings of motherliness among Eritrean asylum-seeking women in Southern Tel-Aviv (with Skyler Inman, Brandeis University). Other recent research projects address the experience of (mis)trust—particularly in the context of protracted conflict, trauma, and forced migration; analyze the everyday insecurity of border areas; and focus on the aesthetics of the international through the lens of visual IR (with Oded Löwenheim).

In Glocal she teaches, among other courses, the mandatory introductory course Global Migrations in the program's migration & development track, and another course on Refugees & Development.

Currently Researcher, Braun School of Public Health and Community Medicine, Hebrew University-Hadassah in Jerusalem and Edelstein Center for the History and Philosophy of Science, Technology and Medicine; Research Fellow, Truman Institute, Hebrew University-Jerusalem; South Africa Coordinator, Operation Abraham Collaborative, The Jerusalem AIDS Project; Honorary Senior Lecturer, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, London, UK; Associate Editor, History, Canadian Journal of Public Health. Previously Associate Director, CIHR Strategic Training Program in Transdisciplinary Public and Population Health Research: Promotion, Prevention and Public Policy (4P);  Department of Epidemiology, Biostatistics & Occupational Health, Faculty of Medicine, McGill University; Faculty Lecturer, Dept of Epidemiology and Dept of History, McGill University. Former Deputy Director, Welcome Unit for the History of Medicine, University of Oxford.  Trained in History of Africa and Medicine; Public Health. Research interests: history of global/international public health, epidemiology, malaria (particularly sub-Saharan Africa), infectious diseases and ‘tropical medicine’/science; scientific networks/knowledge exchange.

Teaches: Development & Global Health: A Critical Approach to Theory, Policy and Practice.

Dr. Shira Bukchin-Peles is a faculty member at the Glocal Program for International Development and the Department of Geography and the head of the Behavioral Sustainable Development lab at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Shira conducts interdisciplinary research on sustainable development with a focus on understanding and promoting the connections between human behavior and sustainable development. Her studies typically examine how human behavior and decision-making affect the environment and contribute to sustainable development, as well as how sustainable development can improve the well-being of individuals and communities. She approaches environmental issues from technological, behavioral, social, and educational perspectives, and her research often has significant empirical and applied components. A significant part of her research deals with the developing world, and she has led a variety of field studies in countries such as Senegal, Nepal, and Ethiopia.

Shira holds a B.Sc. in Biology from Tel Aviv University and an M.A. and Ph.D. in Public Policy from Tel Aviv University. Her doctoral research focused on the relationship between personal resources and the adoption of sustainable technologies and methods by farmers in developing countries. She also completed a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of California, Berkeley's Department of Agricultural & Resource Economics, where she investigated the potential of insects for food and feed from a social and economic perspective.

Dr. Areen Hawari is an academic and a feminist activist. She holds A PhD in Gender Studies from Ben-Gurion University. Her research focuses on the activism of the Palestinian women: between feminism, religion and the state. She is the director of the “Gender Studies Program” in Mada al Carmel- Arab Center for Applied Social Research in Haifa. She is an adjunct lecturer in the division of Graduate Studies at Rothberg International School, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem and in the faculty of education at Oranim College.

Dr. Hagai Agmon Snir is a specialist in intercultural and community development. He directed the Jerusalem Intercultural Center from its founding in 1999 until 2021, where he developed and implemented novel models and approaches to foster cultural competence and community development across the city’s diverse population. Earlier, he conducted research at the U.S. National Institutes of Health (1995–1997) before completing leadership training at the Mandel School for Educational Leadership, focusing on multicultural methods that blend political philosophy, conflict management, dialogue, and project management. He holds a Ph.D. in Computational Neuroscience from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

Teaches : Innovative Approaches to Community Development

Dr. Michal Sabah holds a Ph.D. in Demography from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Her research focused on international migration and its intersections with gender, fertility, and other demographic and socio-economic factors.
As a lecturer in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology, Dr. Sabah taught various demography courses, including Women’s Migration and Introduction to Demography (as a teaching assistant). In recognition of her excellence in teaching, she was awarded the Faculty of Social Sciences’ Outstanding Teacher Award in 2014.
Dr. Sabah currently serves as a manager in the Demography and Census Department at the Israeli Central Bureau of Statistics.

Teaches : Demographic and Socio-economic aspects of International Migration. 

Tal Nitsán is a feminist scholar critically examining socio-cultural, global and local perspectives of the intersections between gender, violence, and social change.

As the academic coordinator of the Sophie Davis Forum on Gender, Conflict Resolution and Peace, she is in charge of creating and executing the forum's annual academic program and for generating, promoting and maintaining collaborations with civil society organizations, academic units, and scholars from a variety of universities in Israel and abroad. Additionally, she initiates and participates in creating academic and popular content on the subject and organizes academic panels for relevant conferences.

Dr. Nitsán played a key role in initiating and creating the MA program on Gender and Diversity at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, in which she currently teaches (as well as in other programs at the Social Science Faculty). Previously (2012-2016) she taught at the University of British Columbia; were she also led a number of research and intervention projects on sexual violence prevention in North American campuses; as well as the Latin America and the Global Research Group at the Liu Institute for Global Issues. Her doctoral dissertation, From Left to Rights: Guatemalan Women's Struggles for Justice, is based on two years of ethnographic fieldwork with the campaign to end violence against women in Guatemala, and focuses on the tension between the international platform of women's human rights and its implementation on the local level. She served on the American Anthropology Association’s Committee on Gender Equity in Anthropology (2016-2019) and on the UBC Sexual Assault Awareness Advisory Committee. (2013-2016).

Her areas of interest and research include: local and transnational aspects of feminist activism, gendered aspects of conflicts, and the tension between theory and practice of social change.

Michal Zuckerman Farkash is a PhD student at the Urban Vitality Lab, Department of Geography. Her study focuses on walking and walkability from a person-centered approach. Her Bachelor of Arts (BA) in Environmental Studies from Tel Aviv University focused on tourism's social and environmental impacts and possible mitigation measures.

A Clinical Psychologist and a Psychotherapist by profession, Virginie has extensive experience working with International/Local NGOs and the I.C.R.C in Emergency and Conflict Zones such as Ex-Yugoslavia, Northern and Southern Caucasus, Middle East, and East Africa. Specializing in MHPSS - Protection activities, Virginie joined exploratory missions, provided direct support to the population during emergencies, participated in national capacities building efforts of healthcare professionals along with long-term development projects, and coordinated teams of different sizes and nationalities while dealing with diverse sources of funding.

After a few years in the field, Virginie went back to University and completed an M.A. in Humanitarian International Law and its application to areas of Humanitarian Assistance.

Sensitized to the complexity of conflict zones, Virginie favors a multiaxial lecture of humanitarian and development actions, aiming at reducing as much as possible potential bias in project design and the delivery of services.  She strongly believes in community ownership, people-driven solutions, and the financial independence of Aid & Development Actors.

In Glocal, as an Internship Adviser, Virginie introduces students to the diversity and professionalism of Actors of Development and Labor Market. She mentors and orients students before and during their internship period, accompanying them in identifying the best internship placement for their specific profile and career wishes. During the internship, she supports Students’ learning experience and the combination of theoretical studies with field experience.

Yossi Offer is a strategic planning and local development specialist. He is a co-founder & executive director of InterLoc Development Ltd. – a boutique consulting company working with local authorities, NGOs, and government and international development agencies in Israel and in developing countries. Yossi has been working in Israel's Project Renewal and as a founder and director of a Municipal Strategic Planning Unit in Israel. He was also director of project development for an international development NGO and as director of training of an international development training institution. Yossi has extensive experience in project design and development, strategic planning, institutional development, and capacity building in Africa, Asia, Latin America, and southeast Europe.

His MA from the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology is in Urban & Regional Planning and his BA is in Geography from the Hebrew University.

Teaches: Development in Practice: Approaches, Challenges & Skills.