Page 16 - PresidentReport2024Portrait

Meet

Prof. Dina Shahar,

Senior Lecturer, the DAN
Department of Creative Human
Design, and Advisor to the
President on Gender Equality

Prof. Dina Shahar has been at HAC for over 15 years. Dina earned a Master
of Arts from the Royal College of Art in London. After teaching at Shenkar
College of Engineering, Design, and Art, as well as at Bezalel Academy of Art
and Design, Dina came to HAC in 2006, and helped establish the Department
of Inclusive Industrial Design - now the DAN Department of Creative Human
Design. In 2020, she became the first woman in Israel to earn the status of
professor in the field of industrial design.

“The idea of a program of Inclusive Industrial Design with a clear social orientation
was a new and exciting concept at the time,” she recalls. In 2010, she was appointed
Chair of the Department, a position she held for 8 years. Since 2020, she has been
a Professor in the Department and, since 2022, serves as Advisor to the President
on Gender Equality.

“The College is a goldmine in terms of partnership opportunities,” she explains and
cites the Department of Optometry, The Blender – HAC’s Center for Innovation
and Entrepreneurship, and Tikun Olam Makers activities as examples. “We promote
an approach which centers on the human being, not the product.” HAC places
great emphasis on practical applications and, in their final projects, students get
many new opportunities to implement their knowledge and tools. When they
graduate, they come to their new workplaces with a social agenda. And they
have the tools to lead, conduct research, and manage projects.

As advisor on issues of gender equality, Dina explains that her job is to ensure gender fairness
at all academic levels, while identifying visible and hidden mechanisms that create obstacles and
opportunities. “Women tend to volunteer to take on responsibilities and extra jobs (for which they
are not necessarily paid) much more than men do,” she explains. “As part of the multi-year strategic
plan of the Council for Higher Education and the Committee for Planning and Financing, HAC is
committed to equal gender representation at all executive and management levels,” she adds. “HAC
is working to rectify disparities wherever necessary.”

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