Sima Aldardari is a former research associate at the Arab Gulf States Institute in Washington. She is a researcher and development worker from Damascus, Syria. Aldardari holds a BA in sociology and anthropology from the American University of Beirut, an MA in conflict, governance, and international development from the University of East Anglia, and an MA in Arab studies with a concentration in development from Georgetown University. She spent six years in Lebanon working with fellow Syrians in refugee camps as a teacher and a campaign and event organizer. Aldardari hopes to add to knowledge production in the Arab region through researching and analyzing cultural and social patterns in the diverse Arab societies. Her research interests include development, displacement and immigration studies, culture and society, and water politics.

While at Georgetown University, Aldardari worked as a research assistant for Rochelle Davis where she researched the struggles of Iraqi aid workers and internally displaced people. In addition, she designed and delivered a certificate-earning course to boost professional credibility among 17 diverse students in Lebanon, aged 20 to 40, on core international development topics such as education, labor and livelihoods, water development, and environmental sustainability. She taught the course in collaboration with two local nongovernmental organizations in Beirut in the summer of 2019.