My Name is Joanna-Maria Khoury and I am from Beirut, Lebanon. I am a Junior in Georgetown’s School of Foreign Service where I am majoring in International Economics with a focus on Growth and Development. I will be the chair of this committee, as we simulate Lebanon’s National Roundtable Dialogues. I am excited about this committee as it revolves around the political crisis in my home country, which I have experienced first hand throughout my life. I am eager to hear your input on the complex problems that face Lebanon as you represent various Lebanese parties. I am confident it will be an exciting and dynamic committee for the political impasse in Lebanon is multi-dimensional and complex, involving numerous local, regional and international actors. I hope that you, the delegates, will have the ingenuity and intelligence to make practical, viable suggestions, ones that perhaps the Lebanese leaders themselves have not managed to reach.

While this is my first year chairing at NCSC, I have participated in Georgetown’s high-school Model UN for the past two years, as a director for the first year and as Deputy Undersecretary General for the Councils, Summits and Courts organ last year. Thus, I am involved with Georgetown’s International Relations Club, particularly with its home conferences program. Besides Model UN, my interests include music, sports and traveling. I am fluent in English and Arabic, and I spent my summer in Paris, France, to gain proficiency in French.

Feel free to contact me at any point with any questions or concern you may have relating to our committee or NCSC in general. My email is jgk26(at)georgetown.edu. As events in Lebanon continue to unfold, we will make any necessary updates to the background guides prior to the conference, to ensure that our committee is in touch with the reality of the situation in Lebanon.

Looking forward to meeting all of you in October,
Joanna Maria Khoury