Manal Omar

Manal Omar is the founder and CEO of Across Red Lines. She has a certification in Global Mental Health – Trauma and Recovery from Harvard Medical School and is currently a student at Sex Coach University in California. She has studied with many spiritual leaders over the last several years to combine the medical and neuroscience aspects of trauma with spiritual practice. Her experience as a humanitarian worker and peacebuilder for over 20 years has connected her with women's rights groups across the globe.

She has worked with US government agencies, the World Bank, United Nations, Oxfam, and Women for Women International. She has served as an advisor for global figures, a trainer for peacebuilding facilitators worldwide, and has mentored young leaders through Generation Change and YouTube Changemakers.

Through her work, she has brought together the private sector, innovators, social media personalities, multilateral institutions, and civil society. She is a Truman National Security Fellow and an inaugural Foreign Policy Interrupted fellow dedicated to including women in foreign policy and peacebuilding. She was named among the Top 500 World's Most Influential Arabs by Arabia Business Power in 2011 and 2012, and among the 500 Most Influential Muslims in the World by Georgetown University and The Royal Islamic Strategic Studies Centre in 2009.

In 2007, Islamic Magazine named her one of the ten young visionaries shaping Islam in America. She holds a master's degree in Arab studies from Georgetown University and a bachelor's degree in international relations from George Mason University. Her alma mater recently recognized her as one of its Alumni Exemplars for their 50th anniversary.