Dr. Sahar Attia, is a Professor of Architecture and Urban Design. She has been the Head of the Department of Architecture at the Faculty of Engineering, Cairo University 2013-2017. She has more than 35 years of extensive experience in academia and practice. Aside of her teaching and research work at Cairo University, Dr. Sahar is the managing director for the Associated Consultants, a multi-disciplinary consulting firm where she practices and studies her assignments contextually in order to design sustainable solutions, with a special focus on sustainable cities. She coordinated several national projects with Egyptian authorities as well as international partners. She is a board member of Ecocity Builders NGO-USA. She is chairing the steering committee for the Universities Network Initiative- UN Habitat (UNI),and a member in the Standing committee of the World Urban Campaign. She has been the Co-chair of the Research and Academia Constituent group in the General Assembly of Partners for Habitat III(GAP) 2014-2017.

Her research interests include participatory approaches in Urban Development, Urban Regeneration, sustainable urbanism, and Upgrading the Informal Areas. She is the Co-Editor of; “Dynamics And Resilience Of Informal Areas: International Perspectives” published by Springer, 2016. Her most recent publication is a co-edition :New Cities and Community Extensions in Egypt and the Middle East, published by Springer 2018.