Lamia El-Sadek, Ph.D.

Dr. Lamia El-Sadek is an experienced strategist, financial executive, international activist, and movement leader, with a background in Corporate Business Development and Finance, and a passion for human rights. Dr. El-Sadek’s humanitarian work has taken her throughout Africa, the Middle East, Australia, and Europe on issues ranging from economic development, forcibly displaced & refugee rights, gender equity, and youth empowerment.

Previously, as Executive Director of Dignity & Power Now, a Los Angeles-based grassroots prison abolition and community justice organization, she drastically increased the organization’s operating budget and was part of a coalition that successfully stopped a $3.5 billion jail plan for the city.  Dr. El-Sadek began her career as a Developer at IBM. Over the next several years, she gained extensive international business and finance experience in multinational corporations, including as the Regional Associate Finance Director for PepsiCoInternational, based in Dubai, UAE.  

Following the Arab Spring, Dr. El-Sadek received an invitation to be one of the advisors of the President of Egypt on women’s issues, particularly social and economic empowerment of women and, in collaboration with various human rights organizations, Dr. El-Sadek worked on a proposed rights-based new constitution for Egypt.  In 2010, she was among an international humanitarian delegation to Gaza. In 2016 and 2017, Dr. El-Sadek was a speaker at the United Nations CSW on ‘Economic Empowerment and Equity of Marginalized Groups’ globally.  

Dr.Lamia El-Sadek studied business management and information technology and has a Masters in Training and Development from North Carolina State University.

She holds a Ph.D. in Global Leadership from Indiana Institute of Technology, and has served on the Boards of Aythos, Dignity and PowerNow, NFCC International, and Casa Milagro Foundation. She co-authored a book on Global and Cross-Cultural Leadership and is currently working on a book outlining the parallels between recent global revolutions, such as the Arab Spring, and social movements within the U.S.

Dr.El-Sadek most recently held the position of Executive Director of both the March For Our Lives Action Fund and the March For Our Lives Foundation.