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Honorees

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Shafik Gabr ’73
Chair and Managing Director, ARTOC Group for Investment and Development

Shafik Gabr ’73, chair and managing director of the ARTOC Group for Investment and Development, is an international business leader, philanthropist and one of the world’s leading collectors of Orientalist art. As part of his efforts to enhance cross-cultural dialogue, Gabr established East-West: The Art of Dialogue initiative of the Shafik Gabr Foundation, which sponsors exchange programs between young and mid-career Middle Eastern and Western leaders in the arts, science, sports, media, as well as social and business entrepreneurship. Gabr is chair and a founding member of Egypt’s International Economic Forum, is a member of the International Business Council of the World Economic Forum and serves on the Yale University President’s Council on International Activities. He is ranked by The Middle East magazine and ArabianBusiness.com among the world’s most influential Arabs, and has received the Meridian Global Citizen Award and the Middle East Institute’s Visionary Award in 2014. Gabr is also the recipient of the Distinguished Alumni Award from AUC, where he graduated with a bachelor’s in economics and management. Paying tribute to his alma mater, he has named the Malak Gabr Arts Theater at the AUC Center for the Arts, ARTOC Sports Court, Mohamed Shafik Gabr Department of Economics and Mohamed Shafik Gabr Lecture Hall. He has also recently established the Aly Boraie-Adel Gabr Endowed Career Certificate in the School of Continuing Education.

 

Azza Kamel ’83
Founder and Director, Alwan wa Awtar NGO

Azza Kamel, founder and director of Alwan wa Awtar (Colors and Strings), a nongovernmental organization, has been striving to improve the lives of vulnerable children in Egypt, helping them realize their potential through experiential learning and using art as a tool for social development. Her work at Alwan wa Awtar has received international recognition, including the UN Women’s Guild Award (2008) and the U.S. administration’s Coming Up Taller Award (2009), which recognizes “exemplary arts and humanities programs [that] foster young people’s intellectual and creative development.” In 2013, Alwan wa Awtar won the Pan African Award for Entrepreneurship in Education. Kamel, who graduated from AUC with a bachelor’s in business administration, has been recently granted the Takreem Award for Innovation in Education, which recognizes Arabs who have excelled in their fields and inspired others in their quest for cultural, educational, scientific, environmental, humanitarian, social and economic development in the Arab world. Kamel has previously worked at UNESCO and other international development agencies, and is currently a volunteer in Fat’het Kheir, Nahdet El Mahrousa and Tawasol NGOs. In 2009, she became an Ashoka fellow, joining a group of pioneering social entrepreneurs who work to find innovative solutions to social problems. 

 

Monica Hanna ’04, ’07
Award-Winning Egyptian Archaeologist

Monica Hanna ’04, ’07, Egyptian archaeologist and contributor to the Daily News Egypt, has been active for many years in exposing the consistent looting and destruction of archaeological sites and monuments. She has been instrumental in protecting many sites, including the Egyptian Museum during the January 25 Revolution. She has also participated in surveying the damage to the Museum of Islamic Art and the Egyptian National Library and Archives after the January 24, 2014 bombing of the Cairo Security Directorate. Hanna was recently recognized by the New York-based Saving Antiquities for Everyone (SAFE) nonprofit organization for her outstanding achievements in raising public awareness of Egypt’s endangered cultural heritage and the devastating consequences of the illicit antiquities trade in the country. She was presented with the 2014 SAFE Beacon Award and voted one of Egypt Today’s seven People of the Year in 2013. Recipient of AUC’s Distinguished Young Alumni Award, Hanna graduated from the University with a bachelor’s in Egyptology and a master’s in teaching English as a foreign language. She earned her PhD from the University of Pisa in Italy. Hanna currently teaches scientific writing at AUC’s Department of Rhetoric and Composition.