Prof. Noha Asad Al-Huzail
Head of the Center
Senior lecturer and qualitative researcher. Chair of the Committee for Accessibility of Higher Education to the Arab Population and Promotion of Equity on Campus, Sapir Academic College. A social activist promoting collaboration between the community and academia, was one of the founders of the pilot program “Gate to Academia”, and chaired it in its first year. Founder of the “Connecting Bridge” program, which assists in integrating social workers who graduated from academic institutions abroad into welfare services in Israel, founder of the “Al-Awsaj” program, which promotes the extraction of indigenous knowledge and its integration into social work practice. A qualitative researcher studying social issues in local and international contexts such as social work in conflict areas, indigenous social work, and the impacts of social change processes on traditional societies. Holds a Ph.D. in Social Work from Ben Gurion University, research fellow at Leiden University, Netherlands, University of Applied Sciences and Arts Northwestern Switzerland FHNW, Mandel Leadership Fellow in the Negev, board member of “Desert Stars” (an NGO promoting young leadership in Bedouin society), co-founder of the “Sawa” program established by Keren Koret (microfinance for promoting business development managed by women from Arab society), author of the book “When the Shadow is Large, It Means the Sun is Setting: The Lives of Three Generations of Bedouin Women”, recipient of the Local Government Award as a Trailblazing Woman, National Student Union Inspirational Lecturer Award, and Kreitman Award for Outstanding Doctoral Students.
Yousef Abu Zaid
Center Director
Responsible for overall management of work processes, supervision of daily activities, coordination between internal and external organizational entities, and leading the implementation of the Center’s programs in the field. Holds a Bachelor’s degree in Public Administration and another Bachelor’s degree in Law, a Master’s degree in Political Science and Public Administration with a specialization in Financial Management. Brings with him extensive professional knowledge and experience in public administration, governance, and budgetary management.
Tehila Bukra
Center Administrator
Administrator of the Bedouin Society Information and Research Center in the Negev. Holds a Bachelor’s degree in Economics and Management, graduate of Ashkelon Academic College. In her role, she is involved in administrative management, including collaboration with public bodies, researchers, community partners, and more.
Adam Ron
Data Researcher at the Knowledge Center
Adam Ron, Data Researcher at the Bedouin Society Knowledge Center at Sapir College. Master’s student in Data Science, with research and practical experience in time series analysis, predictive modeling, and creating interactive dashboards. Previously led projects in energy consumption forecasting in the Israeli education system and in ESG-finance. Brings a combination of analytical thinking, research approach, and ability to derive actionable insights from complex data for data-driven decision-making.
Amal Khayat
Health researcher at the Knowledge Center
Dr. Amal Khayat is a health researcher at the The National Center for Knowledge and Research on the Bedouin Society in the Negev, and a postdoctoral fellow at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Her research focuses on reducing health disparities between Arabs and Jews, smoking, and health inequalities. She holds a PhD in public health, two master’s degrees in public health and community development, and a bachelor’s degree in pharmacology.
Dr Yaela Raanan
Policy researcher
Dr Yaela Raanan, policy researcher is an anthropologist, a lecturer at Sapir College and serves as co-director of the Regional Council for Unrecognized Villages; she holds a doctorate from the University of Utah, is a long-time social activist promoting the rights of residents of the Negev, and combines applied research with public action in her work
Alan Ozen
Data Scientist
Data Scientist at the Knowledge Center for the Study of Bedouin Society at Sapir College.
Holds a Bachelor’s degree in Management and Data Science, with research and applied experience in the worlds of data analysis, forecasting and building statistical models. Previously worked as a data scientist in the medical field at Clalit Health Services, where he analyzed medical databases, examined morbidity trends over time, developed machine learning-based models and produced insights to improve clinical work processes. Brings with him an analytical ability, a research approach and systems thinking that allows him to draw applied conclusions from complex data sources to support data-based decision-making. Brings with him a combination of technical expertise with a deep understanding of social and health processes, and is able to translate complex data into clear and applied insights
that assist in policy development and leading improvement processes in the field.
