Dr. Awadiya Ahmed Yahia, born and raised in Darfur, is the mother of two children and currently lives with her family in Buffalo, New York. She holds a PhD in Global Gender Studies from New York University at Buffalo. Dr. Yahia has worked with many international humanitarian organizations including Save the Children’s Fund U.K and as a gender consultant with the Netherlands Embassy and the UNICEF in Sudan, Co-founder and General Secretary of the Voluntary Society for the Development of Rural Women in Southern Darfur, She was the founder of Sudan Peace Building and Empowerment, Co-Founder and Secretary of Helping Ensure African Loans (HEAL), as well as Co-founder of Sudanese American House in New York, and the Program Manager for IMAGINE-Sudan. Currently she serves on many Boards of Directors for many organizations in the U.S. Dr. Yahia is deeply involved with the peace process in Sudan where she is a peace delegate to the Darfur Peace Talks taking place in Doha.