Selma Talha-Jebril

Director, Research and Policy

Selma Talha-Jebril serves as the Director of Research and Policy at the World Innovation Summit for Education (WISE), where she leads WISE’s research and policy agenda, spearheading initiatives at the intersection of education, innovation, and emerging technologies. Under her leadership, WISE launched the WISE Education Index, a first-of-its-kind comprehensive global measurement framework for education system effectiveness, as well as the Global Research Consortium on AI and Higher Education. She co-curated WISE 11 (2023) and WISE 12 (2025) summit editions.

Throughout her 13-year career in education, Selma has worked with international organizations, foundations, and academic institutions to advance inclusive, equity-driven education systems across the Global South. Prior to joining WISE, she was a Senior Specialist at the Institute of International Education (IIE) in New York and a Monitoring, Evaluation and Knowledge Management Specialist at Chemonics in Washington, D.C.

Selma is actively engaged in a number of advisory and strategic roles across the global education and innovation landscape. She serves on the Advisory Board of I Am the Code, a STEAM-focused foundation empowering refugee and marginalized girls with digital and ICT skills, and on the Advisory Board of the African Olympiad Academy, an organization dedicated to advancing Africa’s mathematics and science talent ecosystem. She is also a Strategic Committee Member of DeepTech Africa at Mohammed VI Polytechnic University (UM6P) and serves as a strategic committee of SAMYRAD Foundation, a non-profit advancing scientific dialogue across academia, industry, and government at the intersection of artificial intelligence and education.

Selma holds a bachelor’s degree in international relations from the Université de Cergy-Pontoise (Paris, France) and a master’s degree in Sustainable Development and International Policy from the SIT Graduate Institute (Washington, D.C. campus).