Elissa Shamma is a passionate activist from Lebanon who believes greatly in human potential and strives to be an advocate for human rights throughout her work and her life. Since 2007, Elissa has been involved in the civil society sector in Lebanon, with programs aiming at social justice, women’s rights, equality, human solidarity, and improving the lives of people. She puts her soul into working with community members, especially youth and women from underprivileged areas, to build their resilience and achieve agency to infuse the change that they want. She is always keen to work through a participatory and feminist approach, bringing theory of change in working with people and not for them. 

She joined Steps team in 2016 and has since then worked on designing and implementing consultancies in MENA region. Elissa is the creative, inspirational and out-of-the box member of the core team. She brings colors to the work Steps implements with teams and individuals. She is responsible for the Visual Identity of Steps’s publications, such as toolkits and manuals. In 2016, Elissa joined the Women Empowerment family as a trainer in the IMAGINE program which is designed to empower women, especially in marginalized and conflicted areas, in challenging life circumstances to envision and create new possibilities for their life, family and community. She is also a national trainer on the global programme Active Citizens with the British Council since 2013 and a certified Social Media trainer with Social Media Exchange (SMEX) since 2011.

Throughout her experience in community development, peace building, civil society empowerment, and woman and youth empowerment in Lebanon, Elissa designed and managed several projects addressing the Syrian conflict, contributing to building bridges between Syrian, Palestinian and Lebanese youth, especially through arts. Her interest does not stop at working in relation to supporting individuals to develop their skills and build resilience, but it also comes from a perspective of feeling and being directly concerned with human rights violations locally and globally and working towards attaining social justice and freedom.

Elissa holds a Bachelor's degree in Graphic Design and is currently pursuing her Masters in Culture of Human Rights and Non-violence at the Academic University for Nonviolence and Human rights in the Arab World (AUNOHR) in Beirut, Lebanon.