Born of a Palestinian father and an American mother and growing up in Spain, Miriam Rayward is passionate about international cooperation and bringing people together to create new opportunities.

 

Miriam is an innovation strategist and solutions architect with a multidisciplinary background. She studied Communications and Peace and Justice at the University of San Diego. She received her M.A. in International Policy Studies with an emphasis in Conflict Resolution from the Middlebury Institute of International Studies, and she is currently pursuing a Master in Finance at IE Business School.

 

She became a Certified Mediator and mediated Small Claims and Unlawful Detainer cases in the Superior Court of California in Monterey. She then taught high school students Negotiation at the Hand in Hand School for Jewish-Arab education in Jerusalem. Miriam went on to the Alliance for Middle East Peace in Washington DC, where she was a policy advocate for Palestinian and Jewish organizations working toward peace and reconciliation efforts in Israel and the Palestinian Territories.

 

She then made a move into the private sector, working for the UAE’s National air carrier, Etihad Airways, where she negotiated cooperative marketing agreements between the airline and different government tourism authorities.

 

She currently works for one of the most important assisted reproduction clinics in Spain, ProcreaTec Fertility Center, where she heads all commercial activities under the title of Director of Marketing and Patient Experience. In her role, she has designed the strategy to restructure and grow the business, she has negotiated international partnerships and developed new opportunities for patient outreach.

 

Miriam is also involved in humanitarian initiatives that promote peace, sustainability and empowerment. She is the co-chair of Global Impact Africa and she collaborates with Beacon of Hope UAE and the Alliance for Middle East Peace.

 

Her academic awards include: the Kathryn Davis Fellowship for Peace (2009), the U.S. State Department’s Critical Language Scholarship (2010) and the U.S. Department of Defense National Security Education Program’s Boren Fellowship (2011).