Dr Al Zoubi is a development economist at the International Development Department at Saint Mary's University at Halifax, Canada. Her research focuses on gender and rural development, including women’s empowerment and its role in the development. Since the war broke out in Syria in 2011, her concern has been researching ways to improve the livelihoods and food security of affected households (IDPs and refugees), especially women-headed households. She examines the host country responses through its policies and politics that reshape refugee livelihoods. Dr Al Zoubi worked as Gender and Forced Migration, and Middle East Politics Lecturer at the University of Oxford and a visiting scholar at Glasgow University. Dr. Al Zoubi is a member of ‘’Science in exile’’ steering committee. She also co-leads the GYA–At-Risk scholars initiative and TWAS Young Affiliates Network (TYAN). She has been working in an academic/research and UN and NGOs overseas foundations for around 15 years.