Hoda Mahmoudi

Professor Hoda Mahmoudi holds the Bahá’í Chair for World Peace at the University of Maryland. The Chair is an endowed academic program that advances interdisciplinary examination and discourse on global peace. Professor Mahmoudi has served in this position since July 2012.

As the Bahá’í Chair professor, Dr. Mahmoudi develops a sound scientific basis for knowledge and strategies that explore the role of social actors and structures in removing obstacles to peace and creating paths to a better world. In pursuit of this goal, she collaborates with a wide range of scholars, researchers, and practitioners. In particular, Professor Mahmoudi advocates a broad concept of peacemaking—which she refers to as a “worldview approach”—that draws insights from all cultures.

Before joining the University of Maryland faculty, Professor Mahmoudi served as the head of the Research Department at the Bahá’í World Centre in Haifa, Israel from 2001 to 2012. Her Bahá’í service also includes administrative appointments and assignments at the international and national levels.

Previously, Dr. Mahmoudi was Dean of the College of Arts & Sciences at Northeastern Illinois University, and also served as Vice President and Dean of Olivet College.