From Boston to Beirut: Reimagining the Work of Social Change in the Middle East

The desertification of traditional grazing lands, victimization by predatory lenders, and urban encroachment have long threatened to displace semi-nomadic desert tribes in Albaydha, Saudi Arabia. Based on a model developed by Rebecca Riccio, Lynn Zovighian and her family’s Beirut-based social investment firm The Zovighian Partnership are leveraging “patient philanthropy” to engage over a thousand families in designing and building a village to meet their housing needs. The participatory design process honors their cultural traditions while also addressing health, education, employment, and sustainability. Rebecca and Lynn will discuss systems analysis, multi-stakeholder engagement, participatory research, housing design, visualization and mapping, and multi-stream funding in the context of this project.

Faculty guests: Moira Zellner, Professor of Public Policy and Urban Affairs, Director of Participatory Modeling and Data Science and Co-Director of NULab for Texts, Maps and Networks; Liza Weinstein, Department Chair and Associate Professor of Sociology; and Laura Kuhl, Assistant Professor of Public Policy and Urban Affairs and International Affairs

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*Arabic translation will be available*

As the architects of a philanthropic initiative to drive women’s economic empowerment in Lebanon, Lynn Zovighian and Rebecca Riccio invited local community-based organizations to define their own funding priorities and promised to listen. They will present an alternative approach to philanthropic grant making that draws on Social Impact Lab practices and principles to disrupt the conventional power imbalance between grantees and donors to give women a voice. They will also share how their data is providing real-time insights into critical vulnerabilities, urgent needs, and emerging frontline strategies for addressing Lebanon’s multiple crises.

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Lynn Zovighian commissioned, funded, and co-produced the short documentary This Is Still Genocide to center Yazidi survivors’ voices in their own story eight years after the self-declared Islamic State (Daesh/ISIS/ISIL) initiated the ongoing genocide and mass displacement of their community with a brutal assault on Sinjar, Iraq in 2014. Lynn recently won the International Religious Freedom Business Leader in Civil Society Impact Award for her work with the Yazidis, one of the oldest ethnoreligious minorities in the Middle East. Following a screening of the film, Lynn will discuss her partnership with Yazda, an international Yazidi-led NGO committed to documenting the genocide, supporting survivors around the world, and seeking global recognition and justice for their community.

Faculty guest: Gordana Rabrenovic, Associate Professor of Sociology and Director of the Brudnick Center on Violence and Conflict

Register to attend in person here. (Snacks will be served.)

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*Arabic translation will be available*

As Lebanon struggles with a corrupt and paralyzed government, economic collapse, and the aftermath of the Beirut explosion, civil society is demonstrating resilience in the face of unprecedented demands. Entrepreneur and social change leader Lynn Zovighian will offer a critique of the international donor community’s response to Lebanon’s spiraling crises informed by her company’s collaboration with Human Rights Watch to independently monitor humanitarian aid entering the country. She will also make the case for building NGOs’ data, governance, and operational capacity to engage local communities in meeting their own critical needs and shaping Lebanon’s future.

Faculty Guest: Maria Ivanova, Director, School of Public Policy & Urban Affairs

Register to attend in person here. (Light lunch will be served,)

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As climate crises displace people around the world, what can be learned from Albaydha, a semi-nomadic rural community in Saudi Arabia whose grazing lands were destroyed by desertification? Offered in collaboration with the Dukakis Center’s Open Classroom, this session will examine how participatory processes informed by Social Impact Lab principles and frameworks have engaged over a thousand families in the design and implementation of a community-led resettlement initiative. The program employs sustainable building technologies and ecosystem regeneration while honoring traditional family structures and cultural practices. Lynn Zovighian and Rebecca Riccio will explain how their commitment to centering community members’ voices has led to this project being designated a national housing pilot for vulnerable communities in Saudi Arabia.

Moderator: Ted Landsmark, Distinguished Professor of Public Policy and Urban Affairs and Director, Kitty and Michael Dukakis Center for Urban and Regional Policy

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Student-only workshop co-sponsored by Human Services Organization

In this conversation with students, Lynn Zovighian will discuss her commitment to serving women and communities in the Middles East and reflect on the ways her professional and personal journeys have been shaped by Social Impact Lab principles and frameworks. Lynn will also share intimate moments when her personal rulebook for rigorous ethical and decision-making has been put to the test by genocide and war, political and economic corruption, systemic patriarchy, and the COVID-19 pandemic.

Register to attend in person here. (Light lunch will be served.)

Student-only workshop co-sponsored by NUImpact

As co-founders of The Zovighian Partnership, Lynn Zovighian and her father align the strengths of their social investment firm and public office to design and implement large-scale social impact projects in the Middle East. Prioritizing trust over speed, they integrate systems thinking, ethical governance, and transparency with deep listening and authentic relationship-building with all stakeholders. The firm strategically leverages public funding, private capital, and philanthropy to advance collaboratively defined goals. In this interactive workshop Lynn will invite students to engage with several of her firm’s recent opportunities and challenges as case studies. Attendees will walk away with a new perspective on the importance of honoring all stakeholders’ voices and a toolkit for tapping multiple funding streams to advance social change in a challenging economy.

Register to attend in person here. (Snacks will be served.)

Student-only workshop co-sponsored  by the Center for Intercultural Affairs and Social Justice Resource Center and co-facilitated by CIE Director Naomi Boase.

How does reckoning with our own complex identities and lived experiences prepare us to engage more empathetically and effectively with others in the work of social change? As a social investor, human rights advocate, systems disruptor, and changemaker, Lynn problem solves from a worldview shaped by Lebanese, Armenian, Italian, and Palestinian ancestry and a multi-generational family history of displacement due to genocide and war. As a child, she was raised in several countries and exposed to many faith traditions that have shaped her spirituality. Drawing on her experience designing and implementing social change projects with collaborators throughout the Middle East, Lynn will illustrate how working across complex identities has presented challenges and unleashed opportunities. Her personal stories will be a starting point for students to reflect on the identities they bring to the social change table and how those identities may influence how they perceive others and show up in the world.

Register to attend in person here. (Lunch included)