New Between Question Marks. My weekly cultural reflections. →
Sara Seif in Arabic calligraphy
Hello! I'm Sara
Culture, Communications, Connections, Community & Change.
People, Places, Insights, Strategies & Impact.
Communications Partner. Cultural Intelligence Researcher. Academic Lecturer. Writer & Educator.
Cairo born. A Daughter of Egypt, The Mother of the World, as the world calls us.

Strategy, culture, and communications. For businesses, governmental entities, and the institutions in between.

Hello, مرحبا. I'm Sara Seif.

A Curious Cultural explorer by nature. Communications Strategist by training. An Insight & Evidence Hunter always.

You'll find me where culture, research, strategy, and communication meet. Mostly with places. Always with people.

Commercial places. Government bodies. International organizations. Academic institutions. And the quiet space between a place and the people who give it meaning.

Portrait of Sara Seif Ibrahim
The question that keeps me curious. "

How do places, organisations, and brands build narratives rooted in the people, cultures, and behaviours they live within?

The question that defines my direction. And the core of what I do.

01
Strategic Communications
Behaviour first. Then narrative. Narratives rooted in culture that engage, shift perception, and actually mean something to the people they reach.
02
Cultural Marketing
How culture shapes brands. And how brands earn cultural fluency through the people and places they actually show up in.
03
Applied Research
Insights and impact examined, explored, questioned for answers through scientific methods and real data. Plus market research that turns into strategy that actually moves something.
My Reflections

Between Question Marks.

A weekly thought. People, behaviour, places, heritage, culture, and the questions that live in the spaces between languages, cities, and disciplines.

Weekly.
01
Why heritage isn't a museumLatest
Cairo · 6 min
02
The Mediterranean speaks Arabic, and you didn't notice.
Barcelona · 8 min
03
Place branding starts with a question, not an answer.
Field notes · 5 min
04
Tourist content is national PR. Discuss.
PhD diary · 7 min
Inside the work

Observe. Decode. Activate. Express.

Four moves. Same order every time. Built around the culture in front of me. The culture that goes beyond a brief document.

Step 01
Observe
I start by watching. Conversations, archives, social feeds, the small details people stop noticing because they live them every day.
Step 02
Decode
Then I translate. What does the culture actually say? What are people not telling each other? What pattern is hiding in the noise?
Step 03
Activate
I turn what I find into something useful. Strategy, narrative, content, frameworks, training. Things that work outside slide decks.
Step 04
Communicate
And we launch it. Campaigns, exhibitions, workshops, brand systems. Work that lives out in the world.
A bit more about me

Egyptian. Cairo born. Arab. Barcelona-Cairo based. Always asking the next question.

A communications strategist, with previous work advising the UNESCO Cairo Regional Office and the Egyptian Cabinet's IDSC, and earlier work in media policy and media intelligence at the Ministry of State for Information within an Associate Minister capacity.

Also an academic; university lecturer (previously at The American University in Cairo), and a current PhD candidate at Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona in Strategic Communications, Public Relations, and Destination Marketing.

Currently researching how social media reshapes the way global audiences see destinations and places, and how tourists themselves co-create those brand images through user-generated content.

Sara Seif Ibrahim
My Story & Journey

A journey, not a career ladder.

2017
Young Arab Media Leader Award. Given by HH Sheikh Mansoor Bin Zayed, UAE Government.
2018
Graduated from The American University in Cairo (AUC) with highest honors. Integrated Marketing Communications and Theatre.
2020
Appointed at Egypt's State Ministry of Information as Strategic Communications Lead, Associate Minister level. Founded the Crisis Communications and Government Marketing Department.
2021
Advertising & Events Account Supervisor at MediaHub Agency. Back to AUC as Adjunct Faculty Lecturer.
2022
Studied U.S. Foreign Policy at George Washington University, Washington D.C. With Cultural & Information Diplomacy focus.
2023
Master's Degree in Media Policy from The American University in Cairo. Appointed as Communications Consultant at UNESCO Regional Arab Office in Cairo. Communications Consultant and Trainer at the Public Policy Forum at the Egyptian Cabinet (IDSC). Emirates News Agency social content creator and producer for the Zayed Heritage Festival.
2024
Started PhD at Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. Brand Health and Strategy Consultant at Telecom Egypt. Certified 200YT Yoga Teacher in Barcelona.
2025
Arts and Culture Committee member, National Council of Women, Egypt.
2025 / 26
Special Advisor, Middle East and Africa. The Place Brand Observer, Zurich.
2026
PhD in Strategic Communications and Public Relations. Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona.
Next
Cultural narrative strategy. Place branding. Soft power advisory. MENA, EU, remote-first.

Cultural & Strategic Communications in Practice.

01 / Cultural Communications Consulting

UNESCO Cairo Liaison & Regional Office.

UNESCO Cairo Office · Communications Consultant · 2023
UNESCO Cairo

Fragmented communications and visibility. Almost no Egyptian media coverage.

The mandate: build the communications ecosystem of media relations and grow digital visibility.

01 / Strategy & Ecosystem
Started with a full audit and a strategic plan. Redesigned the digital content rhythm for 24 weekly website articles and 100+ social updates across Facebook and Twitter over 6 months. Built event and media-appearance frameworks and a press relations ecosystem the office still uses.
02 / The Newsletter (MIRSAL)
Launched MIRSAL, the office's first-ever regional newsletter. Crafted the writing of content and the distribution list. Reaching 250+ stakeholders across 19 Arab states: UN agencies, governmental entities, cultural institutions, and academic partners.
03 / Media Network, Built From Zero
Built the regional media center from scratch: outreach, infrastructure, relationships. The network resulted at the end of the consultancy: 10+ local Egyptian newspaper journalists, 12+ local TV channels, 5–7 regional TV channels, 5–7 regional newspapers, 3–5 international media outlets.
04 / Press Wall
Coverage in Egyptian outlets: Al Ahram, Youm7, Maspero, Akhbar Al-Yom, Almasryalyoum, El Watan, Shorouk. International: PRNewswire (English), Xinhua Silk Road (Chinese), and Al-Watanvoice (Arabic).
High-profile UNESCO moments coordinated and covered in six months. A few of them:
  • 20th Anniversary of the UNESCO Convention for the Safeguarding of Intangible Cultural Heritage — 12 media outlet coverage
  • Cultural Heritage Sites Guidelines launch with the Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities
  • International Literacy Day with the Minister of Education — 7 media outlets coordination & coverage
  • Cairo Governorate Heritage Old Cairo Handicrafts Project Launch
  • Huawei–UNESCO Open School Project — picked up across 10 outlets in English, Arabic, and Chinese press
The numbers.
6×
Local Egyptian news presence
From seven press articles before joining the mandate to forty-three articles, interviews, and videos during the mandate.
+90%
Facebook follower growth
+65%
New social media page visits
250+
Stakeholders reached through bimonthly MIRSAL Newsletter
30+
Local, regional and global media relationships built
20+
Media interviews coordinated
02 / Academic Research

Between Academic Journal Articles, Book Chapters & PhD/Master Dissertations.

Peer-reviewed work on the intersection of culture, brand communications, social media, and destination marketing

Each research paper started with a question I genuinely wanted an evidence-based answer for. Some of my scientific quests are here.

Mo Salah
& Egypt
Nation Branding · 2025
From Player to Nation: Mo Salah and Egypt
How one footballer rewrote the way the world sees the nation of Egypt. A study of how celebrities become accidental nation-brand ambassadors, and what opportunities that carries for the countries to build on.
Read the paper
TikTok
in Class
Digital Pedagogy · 2022
TikTok for Learning in the Classroom
What happens when you stop fighting the algorithm and use it instead? An experiment in using TikTok as a pedagogical tool, and what the platform's psychology actually does to attention, memory, and learning in a higher-ed course.
Read the paper
Feed
to Floor
Consumer Behaviour · 2022
From Social Feed to Retail Floor: Online-to-Offline Sales via Influencers
What makes someone watch an Instagram Reel and then walk into a store? A look at the journey between social media discovery and offline purchase, and the influencer behaviours that actually move people across that line.
Read the paper
Documentary
Theatre
Cultural Practice · 2018
Documentary Theatre Devising in Egypt
Theatre built from real testimony, in a country where real testimony doesn't always make it to stage. An early-career study of documentary devising as both a creative and a civic practice.
Read the paper
See all published research
03 / University Teaching

Three years at The American University in Cairo. My ways into the work.

American University in Cairo · Department of Journalism & Mass Communications · Integrated Marketing Communications · 2021–2023
Teaching at AUC

Adjunct Faculty Instructor in the Integrated Marketing Communications Programme at the American University in Cairo, 2021 to 2023. The work came across three pursuits.

01 / Instructional Design
Curriculum, redesigned.
Redesigned the curriculum for two core undergraduate courses: Online Behaviour & Web Analytics, and Creative Strategy & Copywriting. Integrated contemporary digital trends, AI applications, hands-on content creation, and data-driven methodologies into a fully experiential learning framework.
02 / Industry-Based Case Study
A live UNESCO heritage site client brief.
Brought a real client from a UNESCO World Heritage Site into the classroom: Historic Cairo, The Citadel. Students executed full campaigns end to end and presented to the actual client. Some ideas were adopted by the client.
03 / The Context
AUC IMC. 2021–2023.
Department of Journalism and Mass Communications, Integrated Marketing Communications programme. Two years of teaching, mentoring on creative strategy, online communications, and consumer behavioural analytics. Adding personal branding to the syllabi with real application — students built their professional online profiles for networking. Plus supervising real-world client campaigns as a hands-on learning objective.
The extension of teaching and knowledge sharing

From the syllabus, to the bookshelf of the masses.

What started as added syllabus material I built for my university students became something I wanted more people to have. So I published the material as online courses, practical guides, and playbooks.

01 / The Syllabus
Embedded in the courses I taught at the American University in Cairo.
Personal branding and brand narrative content strategy embedded inside the courses taught at AUC. Taught to undergraduate students as part of the practice, not as an add-on.
02 / The Book
How to Be Impactful on Social Media.
Cairo · 2022
The teaching material became a book. A practitioner's playbook on building voice, audience, and meaning on social platforms.
03 / The Online Course
Communicating from a Brand's Heart.
Brand Narrative Building 101 · On Almentor.net
The next layer. A cohort-based course on building brand narrative from the inside out: a brand's story, audience, and platforms. Designed for creators, founders, and business practitioners who want the brand narrative and communications frameworks I teach and advise on.
Join the next cohort
How I can help

Three ways we can work together.

01
Strategic
Communications Advisory.

Strategy, content, voice, and assembling the right team to deliver it.

Strategic planning Team design Social and ads Copy and content Content calendar Website voice Media relations
02
Teaching
& Training.

University teaching to undergraduate courses in marketing communications, consumer behaviour, place branding, and cross-cultural communications.

University teaching Cohort courses Curriculum design Workshop facilitation Brand narrative Cultural fluency
03
Cultural
Programming.

The in-person half of cultural work. Curating exhibitions, designing programmes, hosting events, and building the communities that gather around them.

Exhibition curation Programme design Event hosting Workshop facilitation Panel moderation Community building Public programmes Cultural activations
As featured in

In the media.

Al Ahram
Egypt's evolving image through tourist-generated content
Youm7
UNESCO and the Egyptian Media Production City cooperation
Maspero
Bayt Al-Turath with the Minister of Culture
Akhbar Al-Yom
International Literacy Day with the Minister of Education
Almasryalyoum
Cultural Heritage Sites Guidelines launch
PRNewswire
Huawei–UNESCO Open Schools Project (English)
Xinhua Silk Road
Huawei–UNESCO Open Schools Project (Chinese)
Emirates News Agency
Zayed Heritage Festival cultural coverage
Let's explore what we can do together

Working together starts with a conversation.

It's always exciting to have a real conversation. Knowing who you are first, discussing what you aim to achieve, and how I can be a part of this journey.

Book a call
saraseifibrahim@gmail.com · +2 010 9848 4797 · LinkedIn · Facebook