Abla Mehio Sibai

Abla Mehio Sibai is Professor of Epidemiology and Interim Dean of the Faculty of Health Sciences, American University of Beirut (AUB). She is the co-founder of the AUB University for Seniors program and the founding Director of the Center for Studies on Ageing, Lebanon. She is also a Board Member of HelpAge International, UK and serves on the World Economic Forum - Global Future Council on Healthy Ageing and Longevity. She had served on multiple occasions as an expert on the WHO Ageing and Health Committee. She is also a consultant for several local and International NGOs and Governmental agencies, including the Ministry of Social Affairs in Lebanon.

Professor Sibai is a researcher and an activist. Her work cuts across epidemiology, gerontology, and social demography. She has vast experience in researching health and social wellbeing of older people, with a focus on cardiovascular disease in context of wars and socio-political unrest. In a region that hosts the highest per capita ratio of refugee population in the world, she addressed the challenges of end of life care and the clinical management of NCDs in primary care setting  in refugee settlements. She is currently involved in a national multilevel mixed-method study assessing the inclusion of older refugees in  humanitarian response.  Her exploration of existing NCD research in Arab countries, where NCDs represent nearly 60% of the disease burden, highlighted the disconnect between research and policy and the dire need to reduce research waste in resource-scarce countries.  She spearheaded the three mapping reviews of policies and programs on Ageing in the Arab region (2007, 2012, 2017) and led the development of the ‘National Strategy for Older Persons’ in Lebanon (2020), for the country’s Ministry of Social Affairs.

Professor Sibai is the Laureate of the 2020 L’Oréal-UNESCO for Women in Science Award for Africa and Arab-States for her scholarly research on chronic disease epidemiology and her pioneering advocacy role in promoting the ageing agenda in low- and middle-income countries. She is also the recipient of the Foundation of the State of Kuwait Prize for the Control of Cancer, Cardiovascular Diseases and Diabetes in the Eastern Mediterranean Region (2019) and the WHO Shousha Award for her ‘significant contributions in the field of public health in the Eastern Mediterranean Region (2014).

Professor Sibai graduated from the American University of Beirut with a BSc in Pharmacy in 1977 and an MSc in Epidemiology in 1986. In 1997, she received her PhD in Epidemiology from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, UK.