Rima has over ten years’ of experience in the field of strategic communications across borders, ranging from advocacy, lobbying, and human rights; to corporate communications, public relations, marketing and advertising in the corporate sphere; to the public sector and UN working on political and humanitarian campaigns in times of crisis in the Middle East. Rima was the first Lebanese to win G. Tueini human rights research fellowship at the Kennedy School at Harvard, in the name of a martyr journalist assassinated for defending freedom of the press in the region.
 
Rima holds a PhD from the School of Interdisciplinary Studies at the University of London, and specializes in crisis communications, focusing on news framing in times of crisis in the Middle East. Her interdisciplinary research interests (history, media and politics) include:  
   -    Islam, Terrorism, and News Framing in Times of Crisis 
   -    Conflicts, Refugees, and Representations of the ‘Other’ 
   -    Religion, Human Rights, & Framing of Minorities 

Rima holds postgraduate degrees in business, journalism, and political science (international affairs) from American University of Beirut, Lebanese American University, and Harvard. She is a freelance journalist with publications in leading English and Arabic newspapers.