Dr. Alia Qatarneh builds learning-centered systems that connect science, strategy, philanthropy, and social impact. Her career is rooted in a belief that access is not created by programs alone, but by the partnerships, resources, and conditions that allow people and communities to thrive.

Alia began her career at Harvard University as a lab-based Research Assistant with the Life Sciences Outreach Program, housed in the Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology and directed by the late Dr. Rob A. Lue. She later directed the Amgen Biotech Experience Massachusetts Program, a hands-on biotechnology education program supported by the Amgen Foundation. In that role, she led a regional initiative that supported more than 100 educators and reached over 7,000 students annually through laboratory-based science learning. Her leadership expanded student reach, strengthened teacher professional development, and deepened the connection between corporate philanthropy, science education, and workforce pathways.

Her science education strategy has also extended internationally through the International School of Science Education in Erice. In 2024, Alia developed Mapping the Molecular Biology Education Ecosystem, a framework for understanding the people, institutions, and conditions that shape molecular biology education across sectors and geographies. In 2025, she continued this effort through Co-Building the Molecular Biology Education Ecosystem, analyzing participant data, gathering stakeholder feedback, and offering recommendations to strengthen international collaboration among researchers, educators, industry partners, policy actors, and funders.

At the Harvard Graduate School of Education, Alia’s doctoral work extended her focus from science education systems to organizational learning. Her capstone examined how a growing, distributed nonprofit network could create the trust, routines, and shared spaces needed for people to learn from their own practice. During her residency with Life Science Cares, she worked alongside national leadership on governance, expansion, and internal capacity-building across a multi-site organization. The role also placed her within a national life sciences social impact network, where she engaged with the corporate responsibility, philanthropy, and community impact efforts of industry partners committed to disrupting poverty.

Alia also serves on the executive leadership team at TrailblazHERs Run Co., a women-of-color-led nonprofit creating inclusive wellness spaces through movement, sisterhood, and leadership. As LeadHer for Strategy, Marketing, Communications, and Partnerships, she helps shape the organization’s growth, external relationships, and community-centered storytelling. This role reflects her broader commitment to building partnerships that move resources, visibility, and opportunity back into community.

Across her roles, Alia brings a scientist’s curiosity, an educator’s attention to development, and a strategist’s eye for systems. Whether working with educators, nonprofit leaders, corporate partners, funders, or community organizations, she designs for connection: between resources and needs, institutions and communities, and ideas and action.

Her work has been featured by the Harvard Gazette, Harvard Ed. Magazine, and the Amgen Foundation, and she has spoken at international science education convenings, national leadership conferences, and local community forums.