Title: Communications Specialist
Company: Planetary Health Alliance, Johns Hopkins University
Education: MA in Communication, The Johns Hopkins University (2023); Master of Research, Ecology, Evolution and Conservation Research, Imperial College London (2020); Bachelor’s Degree in Zoology/Animal Biology, Conservation Biology and Visual Media, Minor Animal Studies, New York University (2019); Coursework in Zoology, University of Cambridge (2018); Coursework in Arabic, Lebanese American University (2017); Sidwell Friends School (2015)
Career History: Communications Specialist, Planetary Health Alliance, Johns Hopkins University (2024-Present); Content Creator, Digital Revamp (2022-2023); Co-Founder, Project Manager, Free and Fair Lebanon Web (2021-2022); Americorps Member, Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation (2021); Graduate Student Researcher, Imperial College London (2019-2020); Research Assistant, Carribean Primate Research Center (2019); Intern, City Dogs Rescue & City Kitties (2018)
Yasmina Nour Ahdab, Communications Specialist at Planetary Health Alliance, has been recognized as a Marquis Emerging Leader for their contributions and achievements in the field of communications.
Passionate about science and animal research from a young age, Ms. Ahdab attributes this interest to her father, who spent much of his childhood in Africa. His interactions with wildlife inspired her greatly as a child, leading her to earn a bachelor’s degree in zoology, wildlife biology, and visual media from New York University in 2019. After that, she spent time in Puerto Rico as a research assistant at the Caribbean Primate Research Center.
Managing a team of two, Ms. Ahdab studied monkeys off the coast, which had been brought to the island from India about 100 years ago; their research involved understanding their vision, particularly how they visually interacted with different people and responded to various colors. She subsequently pursued a master’s degree at Imperial College London, where she concentrated on paleontology, evolution, and birds, culminating in a degree in 2020. Ms. Ahdab’s journey in research led her to pursue a career in science communication—and eventual earning of a master’s from the Johns Hopkins University—through which she aimed to translate research findings into accessible and understandable information for those outside the scientific community.
While pursuing degrees, Ms. Ahdab established herself within the Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation and as a fosterer of connection, identifying commonalities, and networking through social media. In 2021, she co-founded the Free and Fair Lebanon Web, a nonprofit organization aimed at inspiring and working for political change in the country. With her family originally from Lebanon, she felt a strong sense of responsibility to make a difference; recruiting 15 volunteers, she and the group conducted extensive research on independent political candidates in Lebanon and created a comprehensive website and blog. She translated all the information from Arabic into English and, as a result of their efforts, they successfully mobilized a larger diaspora than ever before to vote for independent candidates, opening the door to more voices.
Since 2024, she’s excelled as a communications specialist for a network of thousands of people at Planetary Health Alliance, within the Johns Hopkins Institute for Planetary Health, which serves to address the impacts of “global environmental change on human health and wellbeing.”
Ms. Ahdab has played a significant role in the communications team, helping to manage an online community platform called Hilo, which is focused on growing and nurturing a community of nearly 4,500 individuals from around the world. She worked alongside her communications partner to redesign and relaunch the site, which features 100 web pages. The old website lacked libraries or databases for user interaction, so she proposed the idea of creating a resource library full of tools and publications; with her creativity, she rewrote the copy and sourced visuals and videos. Further utilizing her expertise, she provides research, tools, and solutions to encourage empowerment and change in people’s communities, whether at the individual, local, or global level. In addition, she hosts an annual meeting organized by the Planetary Health Alliance every 18 months.
As a testament to her work’s impact, Ms. Ahdab was recently nominated as a U.S. delegate from Youth Leading Now and as a “Game Changing Woman” from The Disruptive Quarterly.
Looking toward the future, she hopes to work in mission-driven organizations where core values are embodied and strives to translate research into action, focusing on behavior change campaigns and guiding individuals, especially regarding environmental issues, biodiversity, human health, and mental well-being. Additionally, she aspires to become an executive at a nonprofit, concentrating on native landscaping and providing consultations on land management practices.