Board of Directors

Paul G. Chandler, the Founding President of CARAVAN, is recognized as a global leader in using the arts to further our quest for a more harmonious future, both with each other and with the earth, as well as exploring and nurturing the connection between spirituality and the arts. He is an author, speaker, art curator, peacemaker, bridgebuilder, and non-profit executive. An authority on the Middle East and Africa, and on the Abrahamic spiritual traditions, he grew up in Senegal, West Africa, and has lived and worked extensively throughout the world in leadership roles within the arts, publishing, relief & development agencies, and with the Anglican Communion. He is also a sought-after guide on the all-embracing artistic spirituality of the early 20th century poet-artist Kahlil Gibran, the best-selling author of The Prophet. He writes about the arts on his blog at: paulgordonchandler.com/blog

President & Founder

Paul G. Chandler

Bassem A. Bejjani, MD is the Chief Medical Officer of Metis Genetics, a telegenetics counseling service company. He served previously on the Board of Trustees of The Henry Art Gallery at the University of Washington in Seattle. He is also the new Chair of the Western States Arts Federation (WESTAF) and past Chair of the Washington State Arts Commission (ArtsWA). Dr. Bejjani has served on the Board of the Spokane Symphony, where he was Executive Vice-President. A graduate of the American University of Beirut, the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill, and Baylor College of Medicine (BCM) in Houston, he is a pediatrician and a medical geneticist. As Clinical Professor at the Elson S. Floyd College of Medical Sciences at Washington State University, he helped establish the genetics curriculum for the first class of medical students. He is co-founder of Signature Genomics, a genomics laboratory that was acquired by PerkinElmer, Inc. in 2010. He is interested in arts and science education and the role of art in enhancing creativity, scientific learning and critical thinking.

Bassem A Bejjani, MD

Sylvia Ragheb is the Co-Founder of Syra Arts, a gallerist and specialist in contemporary Arab art. Originally from the Netherlands, she is a graduate of the Schoevers Institute in Nijmegen, studied French at the Sorbonne in Paris, and has since lived in Germany, Saudi Arabia, France and Egypt. While in Egypt she became immersed in the Egyptian contemporary art scene. Following the “Egyptian Revolution” in 2011, Sylvia moved to Washington, D.C., co-founding Syra Arts, where they hosted a gallery in the Georgetown area promoting Egyptian and Middle Eastern artists in the US. Her gallery represented some of the Middle East's leading contemporary painters, sculptors, and jewelry designers. She also represented the renowned Egyptian jeweler, Azza Fahmy, in the United States. She is now primarily based in Cairo, Egypt.

Sylvia Ragheb

Jessica Wright is a specialist in contemporary Middle Eastern art and an Arabist. She has been a gallerist and curator. She obtain her B.A. in Art History and Near Eastern Studies at Princeton University. She was previously the gallery director and cultural coordinator for the Jerusalem Fund Gallery in Washington, DC, which focuses on exhibiting contemporary art from the Middle East, along with offering a full range of cultural programming She served previously as the Managing Editor at the Center for Public Justice, a non-profit organization based in Washington, D.C. Jessica curated CARAVAN’s contemporary Coptic icon exhibition in Cairo titled “The Eternal Eye." She has lived in Jordan, Egypt, and Malaysia, and is currently based in Nairobi, Kenya. She works as a freelance editor and consultant.

Jessica Wright

James Rawley is an international development professional with over thirty years of experience with the United Nations on four continents in politically complex settings. He was most recently the UN Deputy Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process and UN Humanitarian and Development Coordinator for Palestine (headquartered in Jerusalem). Prior to his role in Jerusalem, he was based in Cairo for six years, as he headed up the UN’s work in Egypt, serving as Resident Representative for the UN Development Programme. He also previously served in a similar capacity in Yemen. Other extended assignments with the UN included: Myanmar (Burma); Nicaragua; Honduras; and El Salvador. He also served for shorter periods with UNDP in Geneva and the UN Population Fund (UNFPA) in New York. A native of New York, James completed his undergraduate studies at SUNY Buffalo and graduate work at Columbia University where he earned degrees in International Affairs and Urban Planning. A resident now on Long Island, NY, he teaches international peacebuilding at Columbia University.