Rony Jalakh

Part-time Senior Lecturer
e-mail: rjalakh@azmuniversity.edu.lb

With nearly 16 years of experience working with different UN agencies and other international organizations, Rony has extensive knowledge managing and monitoring projects relating to governance, civil society, the municipal sector, strategic planning, livelihood and urban analysis. As an activist and practitioner of Placemaking, he provides courses, lectures and workshops throughout Lebanon, MENA region and abroad and transfer the learning through hands-on activities using different participatory design tools. Using Placemaking approach, Rony’s work aims to increase the provision of public space through joining the efforts of different local actors such as Universities, Local Authorities, Civil Society Organization, Volunteers, Activists and Private Sector. Being a senior fellow at Porject for Public Spaces Organization (PPS) in NY, Rony coined the phrase ‘Placemaking for Peacemaking’ in an inspiring article under the same title. Placemaking is foremost a participatory process and in that sense it could be explicitly used to create encounters between different divers groups in society. Rony holds a Master’s degree in Urban Planning, Bachelor’s degrees in Agricultural Engineering and Political Science. He is actually an instructor and lecturer at many Universities in Lebanon and a visiting professor at Pratt University in NY.