Yossef Ben-Meir

Dr. Yossef Ben-Meir is president and co-founder of the High Atlas Foundation, a Moroccan-U.S. nongovernment organization created in 2000 and dedicated to sustainable development. He has been dedicated to the field of international development since joining the Peace Corps in Morocco (1993-1995). Dr. Ben-Meir is a visiting professor at the University of Virginia since 2017, teaching in Marrakech the experiential course, Participatory Development in Practice. He was a faculty member at the School of Humanities and Social Sciences at Morocco's Al Akhawayn University (2009-10). In 2003, he was a research fellow at the American Institute of Maghrib Studies, and an Associate Peace Corps Director in Morocco (1998-99), managing the agriculture and environment sector. Dr. Ben-Meir holds a Ph.D. in sociology from the University of New Mexico (2009), where he also taught, an MA in international development from Clark University (1997), and a BA in economics from New York University (1991). Dr. Ben-Meir is also the recipient of the 2026 Sargent Shriver Award for Distinguished Humanitarian Service, awarded by the National Peace Corps Association (NPCA).