Ghaith Ghabra serves as Director of Compliance, including providing oversight and review of Federal assistance awards as well as Federal and private contracts throughout the pre-award, post-award, and closeout phases with a focus on compliance with funder requirements, including Federal regulations. Ghaith provides training, guidance, and technical assistance to program officers and staff on laws, regulations, and procedures pertaining to proper documentation and compliance with federal regulations and other organizational laws & operating procedures. Ghaith also oversees the procurement process, including requests for quotations and proposals, vendor selection, and contract administration, and identifies opportunities to develop and improve compliance-related processes.

Ghaith joined Meridian International Center in 2014 with 15 years of diverse experience with the U.S. Department of State/U.S. Embassy Damascus in several fields: Procurement & Contracting, Travel Logistics Coordination, and Grants & Program Management. Immediately prior to joining Meridian, he completed a six-month temporary duty assignment (TDY) at the U.S. Embassy in Amman, Jordan, where he worked with the Public Diplomacy Section on various grant management and training issues and some English/Arabic simultaneous translation tasks for cultural & artistic groups.

Ghaith earned a Bachelor of Arts in English Literature and a post-graduate diploma in English/Arabic translation from Damascus University in Syria. He is an accredited sworn translator of English/Arabic from the Syrian Ministry of Justice. He attended various grant management training workshops including a 2020 Grants Management update by Thompson Grants and RSM, subaward training by Vendor Centric in 2020, a Humentum conference on updated Grants Management and Contracts Compliance in July 2018, a cost-share matching training in 2015. He completed U.S. Department of State trainings in various fields (SAMS Domestic, simplified acquisitions, travel regulations, WebPass management). Ghaith has a certificate from the U.S. Department of State in monitoring grants & cooperative agreements.  He speaks fluent English and Arabic