Empowering Leaders: Ali Moussa’s Fellowship Journey

September 3, 2025

For Ali Moussa, joining the Yousef Jameel GAPP Public Leadership Program has been a transformative experience, both on a personal and an intellectual level. He describes pursuing a graduate law degree at AUC as “a long-held aspiration” that would have remained unrealized without the program’s support.

Coming from a public university background, Moussa explained that he faced challenges adapting to AUC’s academic environment. “It was initially a personal challenge — one that demanded resilience, adaptability and self-belief. Yet the University’s supportive atmosphere and tailored academic guidance eased this shift.” With resilience and support — like that of Diana Van-Bogaert, senior instructor in AUC’s Department of Law and adviser of the Master of Laws in international and comparative law — he found his footing. “Today, I carry my Yousef Jameel experience as a trophy of confidence and personal growth,” he says. Beyond the classroom, he joined AUC rugby team, “an experience that fostered camaraderie, discipline, and balance during my studies.”

Academically, the program reshaped his understanding of law itself. Though already a practicing state prosecutor, one course in particular, jurisprudence, opened his eyes. “While many practitioners possess a strong grasp of the court system and legal rules, the philosophical underpinnings often remain unexplored,” Moussa reflected. Under Associate Professor Jason Beckett’s guidance, he explored the relationship between law and morality, the nature of legal rules and the complexities of judicial interpretation. “After completing this course, I started to see more into and behind the legal text... It helped me as a practitioner to formulate stronger arguments.”

The program didn’t just deepen Moussa’s legal expertise; it also ignited a passion for human rights. Inspired by Associate Professor and Chair of the Department of Law Thomas Skouteris’s public international law course, Moussa went on to serve as a human rights adviser to the Egyptian government and a consultant to UNICEF. The fellowship also motivated him to pursue a Master of Science in criminology and criminal justice at the University of Glasgow as a Chevening Scholar.

His thesis at AUC, “The judicial resolution of the tension between human rights treaties and Shari’a law reservations under the constitution of 2014,” became more than an academic exercise, as it contributed to real legal discourse. Published in a UK public law journal and cited in an EU-funded project on refugees in Egypt, his work argued for the primacy of human rights treaties in Egyptian law — a stance later affirmed by a ruling of Egypt’s Supreme Constitutional Court.

For Moussa, the YJ community has been as meaningful as the scholarship itself. In May 2024, he joined more than 90 AUC fellows, experts in public policy, education, law, journalism and global affairs, at a conference in Istanbul, titled Advancing Change in Public Goods in an AI-Driven World: The Yousef Jameel Fellows and a Visionary Path Forward. The event gave him the opportunity to meet Yousef Jameel in person, share his paper and reconnect with fellow scholars.

Moussa emphasized that the Yousef Jameel GAPP Public Leadership Program did more than support his education. “It catalyzed a long-term trajectory of academic achievement, personal development and public service. It remains a defining experience in my professional and intellectual journey.” 

Launched in 2012, the Yousef Jameel GAPP Public Leadership Program has supported more than 290 fellows pursuing master's degrees in public policy, development and global affairs at AUC. Through scholarships, international exchanges and field research, the fellowship cultivates a generation of leaders advancing positive change across Egypt and beyond.