She was born in Baghdad to a Kurdish family and was imprisoned at age fourteen due to her brother's involvement with the Kurdish movement.
•
She obtained a Bachelor of Science in architectural engineering at the University of Baghdad in 1991.
Past speakers have included Steve Forbes, Chairman and CEO of Forbes magazine; Nasreen Berwari, Iraqi Minister of Municipalities and General Works; Jeffrey Sachs, special adviser to the UN’s Millennium Development; Theodore Roosevelt IV, Managing Director at Lehman Brothers and prominent environmentalist; and Dov Zakheim, US Undersecretary of Defense.