Rana Dajani is currently a professor of molecular biology at the Hashemite University in Jordan. Her area of expertise includes epigenetics and biomarkers of trauma among refugees. Through her leadership, she has contributed to the introduction of national and regional stem cell laws and has presided over numerous scientific boards and United Nations councils, most recently serving as President of the Society for the Advancement of Science and Technology in the Arab World. She has also been a visiting professor at Harvard, Yale, MIT, the Jepson School of Leadership, and Cambridge, and is an ISC and TWAS Fellow.
She is a dedicated advocate for building indigenous research capacity in the developing world and for creating mentoring programmes that support women scholars in STEM. One such programme has been recognized by the National Academy of Sciences.
Rana Dajani is also a social entrepreneur and global thought leader. She is the founder of We Love Reading, a grassroots initiative that empowers changemakers in underserved communities by fostering a lifelong love of reading. A recipient of the UNESCO International Literacy Prize, We Love Reading has established more than 8,000 locally run libraries in over 70 countries.
Her achievements have been further recognized through fellowships and honours, including Fulbright, Eisenhower, Robert Bosch, Ashoka, Yale Morse Fellow, and Yidan Global Fellow at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. She has been listed among the 100 Most Influential Arab Women and has received the Jacobs Social Entrepreneur Award, the Nansen UNHCR Refugee Award, and the Schwab Social Entrepreneur Award.
Her 2018 book, Five Scarves: Doing the Impossible — If We Can Reverse Cell Fate, Why Can’t We Redefine Success?, challenges global policymakers to address persistent inequities in education and employment, while proposing a new paradigm for measuring success in a rapidly evolving world.