About Jennifer Atala

Global Impact Strategist & Speaker
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Jennifer’s Story

Jennifer Atala has two decades’ experience in sustainable economic development, entrepreneurship ecosystem building, national security (US government), and global partnership development with expertise in technology, financial inclusion, and healthcare. She has lived and worked in the US, Egypt, Palestine, Israel, Jordan, Afghanistan, South Africa, and Canada.

Through Inara Strategies, Jennifer and her partners provide strategic business and partnership advisory to reach impact, rooted in context-driven, agile methods underscored by behavioral science and a sustainability mindset. Her clients range from tech startups and entrepreneurship ecosystem builders to global development institutions and government leaders. With her clients, she has successfully created alliance and channel partnerships resulting in B2B initiatives and sales; mobilized funding from Fortune 500 & 1000 companies to respond to humanitarian crises; and assessed country-wide ecosystems and created intersectional, impact-driven programs to successfully allocate financial and business resources to build startups. A Middle East/North Africa (MENA) expert, she has led startup ecosystem building, economic, private sector, and export market development initiatives in Egypt, Palestine, Israel and Jordan, and served as a personal advisor on these issues to the Swiss Ambassador to Israel and Swiss Representative in Palestine. In Washington, DC, she led a program in Afghanistan for the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) while also liaising between USAID CMC, OAPA, OTI, serving on secondment to the USAID Middle East Bureau and on the State Department’s Libya Task Force (2011), and contributing to USAID’s Youth and CVE Policies. For more professional details, visit LinkedIn. 

Jennifer is regularly invited to speak with social impact professionals, leadership fellows, Congressional cohorts, university students and alumni, and religious communities. Speaking topics include: (1) Israel-Palestine issues, including indigenous civil rights and human rights, nuanced foreign policy to promote the dignity of all, impact investment and economic growth, and a theory of change for peace-building; (2) economic & private sector development best practice in MENA; (3) emerging technology for enterprise and national security; and (4) career development. She conducts business in English, Arabic and Hebrew, and has a unique ability to facilitate negotiations between communities and across borders. 

Jennifer has spent the last 20 years actively engaged in volunteering within her communities – from civil rights advocacy for Arab Americans to Palestinian folk dance performance and community education. She is an active 2017 Truman National Security Project Fellow, currently serving as North Carolina Chapter Director.  An RYT-200 certified yoga instructor focused on trauma-affected communities, she has led classes and workshops since 2013 in the US, Palestine and Israel. She has served on a number of non-profit & social enterprise boards, and has also served the State of North Carolina as a Guardian ad Litem. Jennifer has an M.A. from Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS), a B.A. from the University of Chicago. 

Theory of Change

Empathy Leads to Impact

Empathy is at the root of human interaction, whether it’s closing a deal or connecting communities with vastly different viewpoints on the same issue.

A mindfulness approach enables the creation of space within oneself and between parties to understand, connect, and establish principled bargaining strategies to negotiation. Application of this approach in business building and community transformation leads to intersectional, sustainable growth.

Transformation Comes from System-Level Change

Designing and implementing interventions for impact require holistic assessment, and a keen understanding of local and international political, economic and social actors and impacts. Amplifying grassroots efforts that are solving real local challenges, within both a social and growth context and facilitating resources to fill critical gaps are key.

Impact Investment & Social Enterprise Can Learn from the International Development Field

There are few new ideas – it’s ability to connect the dots across all relevant variables, to build on lessons from past interventions, and to establish contextual, nuanced activities that can lead to real change. There is much good will in the world of impact investment and social enterprise, often channeled into an idea that sounds promising but might not actually address root problems, or might not be sustainable beyond initial seed funding. It is vital to listen to the experience and intelligence behind lived and studies international development and grassroots crowd-solving practitioners to understand the best way to make the most impact out of an investment of time, money, or expertise.

About Inara Strategies

Inara Strategies is a consulting business that was first launched in 2014 in the Middle East as a platform to support impact investors and social entrepreneurs in the technology sector. Initially focused on building the Palestinian tech entrepreneurship ecosystem in Israel and Palestine, the mission quickly grew to guide global development institutions to build inclusive financial systems in developing countries, advise impact investors and entrepreneurship ecosystem builders across the globe on transformative economic growth strategies in the Middle East, and lead international development institutions and governments to drive key success factors for private sector development and conflict transformation.

Inara Strategies utilizes a data-driven, systems-level approach to drive sustainable impact, build businesses, and scale innovation. Leveraging leadership experience with local and global institutions across eight countries, Inara Strategies is uniquely positioned to strategically advise as you launch catalytic entrepreneurship and private sector growth projects and partnerships in the US and in developing and emerging markets.

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Contact Jennifer

Jennifer has worked with the following and more:

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