Nasreen Hadad Haj-Yahya

Nasreen Hadad Haj-Yahya is one of the leading researchers on Arab society in Israel with a focus on public policy issues of education, employment, representation and social mobility.

Since 2015 she is the Director of the Arab-Jewish Relations Program at the Israel Democracy Institute (IDI) and since 2019 she is a Partner at the Portland Trust.

In 2020, together with two partners – Aiman Saif (a senior economist and the former Founding Director of the Authority for the Economic Development of the Arab Sector) and Avivit Hai (researcher and expert on Arab society and shared society in Israel), Nasreen founded NAS-ناس Research and Consulting Ltd, a practical research and organizational consulting firm that specializes in Arab society in Israel.

Previously, Nasreen directed the initiative on Diversity in the Teachers’ Lounge of the Merchavim Institute, collaborating with the Ministry of Education to integrate Arab teachers into Jewish schools. A native of Ramla and an expert in the field of Arab-Jewish relations, Nasreen works to bridge socio-economic gaps between Jewish and Arab citizens of Israel. In particular, she has expertise on efforts to advance informal education in Israel’s Arab society, enhance socioeconomic opportunities for Arab youth and young adults, improve integration of Arab citizens into higher education and the job market, and increase representation of Arabs in Israel’s civil service and decision-making circles. Nasreen has won numerous academic distinctions and scholarships, including the Merit Scholarship of Tel Aviv University’s Department of Geography and Human Environment and a Merit Scholarship from the Bikura Science Foundation. She holds an MA in Education and Social Geography and her groundbreaking PhD thesis from Tel Aviv University examines the phenomenon of inaction among Arab young adults, titled: “The contemporary impact of social space barriers on the inaction and future orientation of young Arabs aged 18–22.”