Fatima El Mahdi

Fatima is an educator, activist and self-described proof chaser: thirteen years of teaching in schools around the world, building curricula and collaborating with NGOs, always in search of evidence-based ways to help young people grow. She holds a BSc in Mathematics from University College London, a PGCE in Secondary Mathematics, a Masters in Education, Gender and Development from the Institute of Education, and is completing an MSc in Artificial Intelligence and Digital Transformation at the University of Southampton.

In 2016 she joined Qatar Foundation's Pre-University Education division with THIMUN's regional office. As Head of THIMUN Qatar she trained more than 10,000 young leaders, co-created Arabic Model United Nations to widen access to global diplomacy in Arabic, and helped launch the first-ever UN Youth Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice with UNODC — alongside youth platforms at UN Youth4Climate and COP26.

As Manager of Student Enrichment she built a five-pillar framework across the Arts, STEM, Leadership, Sports and Sustainability, engaging over 3,000 educators and 7,000 students across the region — and built Qatar Foundation's safeguarding, trips and volunteering frameworks, used by more than 300 staff. She later led programmes at Generation Amazing, the Supreme Committee for Delivery and Legacy's football-for-development foundation, overseeing initiatives across ten countries.

Nawa — Arabic for seed — brings all of it together: rigorous, evidence-based, safeguarding-first AI literacy for the children of Qatar, teaching the five human skills that matter most in an age of intelligent machines.