Aya Mouallem

Aya Mouallem (Arabic: آية المعلّم; born January 17, 1998) is a Lebanese electrical engineer, researcher, and a Knight-Hennessy Scholar at Stanford University. She is the co-founder, co-director, and current board advisory member of All Girls Code, a volunteer-led initiative to provide Lebanese female youth with coding experience. Mouallem is active in the field of Arab youth women empowerment in STEM.

Early life and education Aya Mouallem was born on January 17, 1998, in Beirut, Lebanon. She attended high school at Beirut Baptist School from 2013 to 2016. Mouallem graduated from the American University of Beirut (AUB) in 2020 holding a BEng degree in Computer and Communications Engineering and an undeclared minor in English Language and Literature. She received the prestigious Penrose Award upon graduation, which is awarded to an outstanding undergraduate in Maroun Semaan Faculty of Engineering and Architecture at AUB on the basis of scholarship, character, leadership, and contribution to university life. She is currently a Knight-Hennessy Scholar at Stanford University pursuing an MS/Ph.D. in Electrical and Electronics Engineering, and her research focuses on increasing the accessibility of engineering education to learners with disabilities.

Outreach and volunteer efforts

All Girls Code Mouallem co-founded and served as co-director of All Girls Code, Mouallem and her team fully created the participants' experience and resources, and they reviewed all the admission applications. In addition, Mouallem was an ambassador of Stanford's She++ between 2017 and 2018 to the Middle East. In June 2018, Mouallem was chosen as one of Johnson & Johnson's 10 Devex fellows, representing the Middle East, so she attended the Devex World conference and stated in an interview that she will always be working toward helping youth women in the Middle East to pursue and navigate STEM fields. She was also selected as a fellow by Women Deliver, She was also featured by Cosmopolitan Middle East in their Generation STEM issue in the same year. Mouallem was a board member of Girls Teaching Girls to Code during the summer of 2021 in the Bay Area. Currently, Mouallem is serving on the Women in Tech committee and the board of LebNet as the youngest member. LebNet is a non-profit organization that aims to bring together technologists of Lebanese descent together in the field of tech. She was also featured in a campaign by the UNESCO and the Issam Fares Institute at AUB as a pioneer in STEM in the Middle East and North Africa. Mouallem has moderated and led conversations with Melinda French Gates and Malala Yousafzai on gender equality and girls' education.

Awards and recognition Mouallem has received multiple academic and leadership awards during her high school and undergraduate studies, including the Penrose Award and the Baassiri Exceptional Volunteer of the Year Award at AUB. She also received The Diana Award in 2019, in memory of Princess Diana, for her philanthropic efforts with youth in the Middle East. Mouallem was selected a 2020 Knight-Hennessy Scholar at Stanford University with an acceptance rate of 1.2%. The prestigious scholarship, founded by John Hennessy and Phil Knight, cultivates and supports a multidisciplinary and multicultural community of graduate students from across Stanford University, and delivers engaging experiences that prepare graduates to be visionary, courageous, and collaborative leaders who address complex challenges facing the world and prepare for leadership positions in corporations, non-profits, and governments. In 2022, Mouallem was shortlisted to the Arab Women Awards Next Gen list.