Researcher profile

Abla M. Sibai

Abla Mehio Sibai is Professor of Epidemiology and Dean of the Faculty of Health Sciences, American University of Beirut (AUB). She is the co-founder of the AUB University for Seniors program and the founding Director of the Center for Studies on Ageing, Lebanon. She is also a Board Member of HelpAge International, UK and serves on the WHO Science Council as well as the World Economic Forum - Global Future Council on Healthy Ageing and Longevity. Abla has vast experience in researching health and social wellbeing of older people, with a focus on cardiovascular disease in context of wars and socio-political unrest. She spearheaded the three mapping reviews of policies and programs on Ageing in the Arab region (2007, 2012, 2017) and led the development of the ‘National Strategy for Older Persons’ in Lebanon (2020-30), for the country’s Ministry of Social Affairs. Abla is the Laureate of the 2020 L’Oréal-UNESCO for Women in Science Award for Africa and Arab-States and the recipient of the Foundation of the State of Kuwait Prize for the Control of Cancer, Cardiovascular Diseases and Diabetes in the Eastern Mediterranean Region (2019). Professor Sibai has a BSc in Pharmacy and an MSc in Epidemiology from the American University of Beirut and a PhD in Epidemiology from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, UK.