Haifa Staiti was born and raised in Palestine before moving to Norway at age 17 and then Canada at age 19. Growing up during the 80s and 90s, Haifa experienced first-hand the effects of the conflict in the Middle East. Her childhood experience, as well as a formative summer as a participant in the Seeds of Peace program in 1997, fueled her passion for peacebuilding and desire to work with others to achieve fair and just society in Palestine and throughout the world.
Haifa has an International Baccalaureate Diploma from United World College –Red Cross Nordic (Norway), a BA in Political Science and Economics, and a Graduate Diploma in Business Administration (both from Simon Fraser University, Canada). In 2015 Haifa was awarded the Gather Fellowship, a Seeds of Peace initiative that amplifies the exceptional efforts of innovative individuals whose ideas and work have the greatest potential to contribute to positive change in their communities and to disrupting the status quo of conflict. In addition to her work as the co-founder and executive director of Empathy for Peace, Haifa is also a grantmaking and philanthropy specialist with over 10 years of experience in working with large grantmaking foundations in Canada including the Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation and Brain Canada Foundation. In 2016 Haifa joined GrantBook Inc., a social purpose business specializing in the procurement, implementation and management of cloud-based tools for grantmakers and their networks, where she specializes in supporting philanthropic organizations in Canada and US thrive in the digital world. |
