Heba Katoon

Heba Katoon brings nearly 20 years of global human rights communications experience to her role as Director of Communications at the Othering & Belonging Institute (O&B Institute) at UC Berkeley. Her work spans more than 150 countries and includes landmark campaigns that shaped policy, shifted public awareness, and unlocked billions in funding for gender equality.

Heba has led communications for major global organizations including UN Women, Women Deliver, UNICEF, and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). At UN Women, she drove the strategy for the Generation Equality Forum, a landmark United Nations initiative. At Women Deliver, she directed communications for flagship conferences that brought together tens of thousands of advocates. Earlier in her career, she helped double funding for key humanitarian projects through creative communications work at UNICEF and UNDP. She also taught communications at the British University in Egypt. She holds a Master's in Diversity and the Media from the University of Westminster and is currently pursuing a PhD in Communications at Temple University.

If you care about equity, belonging, or social justice storytelling, Heba's career offers a real-world model. You can follow the O&B Institute's communications output to see how research on race, identity, and belonging gets translated into public narratives. If you work in advocacy or nonprofits, her path shows the value of pairing deep subject-matter expertise with strong communications strategy. The O&B Institute also hosts public conferences where these ideas come to life.

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Not location-specific

Heba's work connects to broader conversations happening in Houston around immigrant communities, gender equity, and belonging. Houston is one of the most diverse cities in the country, and organizations here working on social justice and community equity face the same communications challenges that Heba has spent her career solving. Her story is a reminder that clear, strategic storytelling is one of the most powerful tools a community has.

Understanding who leads communications at organizations like the O&B Institute helps you know whose voice is shaping the stories behind equity and belonging work. Heba's background shows how strategic storytelling can move real resources — $40 billion in gender equality commitments, for example — and influence policy at a global scale.