Hania is excited to bring her experience in media relations and cross-cultural communications to Kiva as a Communications Manager. She joins Kiva from Edelman Public Relations where in addition to providing public relations and strategic counsel to clients including AMD, HP and Adobe, she created Sprout, a global service providing PR counsel to early stage startups, VCs, and small entrepreneurial ventures. Most recently she was invited to the White House’s Champions of Change initiative after she led a successful nationwide media campaign for the official National Day of Civic Hacking - the largest-ever “mass collaboration” of civic hackers in the US supported by the Obama Administration. Similar to the spirit of Kiva, the National Day of Civic Hacking allowed everyday people to collaborate with one another and the government to solve problems through technology by building anything from an app for backyard poultry farmers, to platforms that expand access to energy consumption data. Prior to her time at Edelman Hania also worked in the non-profit sector for the Center for Multicultural Human Services in Virginia as well as Ketchum Public Relations, Porter Novelli in Dubai and the Saudi Arabian Cultural Mission to the United States focusing on education in the Middle East. Hania is fluent in Arabic and grew up frequently traveling to the Middle East. She is currently a mentor and on the council for Progress in Technology In the Middle East (PITME), a social impact accelerator devoted to supporting the progress and development of entrepreneurship in the Middle East. With a deep belief in empowering ordinary people to improve the world Hania is dedicated to accelerating Kiva’s mission as a Communications Manager. During her spare time Hania enjoys screenwriting, crafting delicious homemade jams and sometimes emceeing outdoor music festivals. She holds her degree in business and communications from Virginia Tech.