Doreen Toutikian is a social entrepreneur & cultural producer with a background in human(ity)-centered design.

She is the founder of

Beirut Design Week

MENA Design Research Center

LOOP (Listen Observe Organize Prototype)

omgyno

Skills & Experience

Her career in cultural production started with the creation of the first design Week in the Arab world: Beirut Design Week. Since 2018, as co-director of LOOP, she has been collaborating with other European arts institutions on cultural projects such as PROSPER, The Ways of the Heroes, and Under a low Sky; co-funded by the Creative Europe Program of the European Union.

Cultural Production

In 2021, Doreen founded OMGyno, a women-led social enterprise and femtech platform providing private, stigma-free sexual and reproductive healthcare to women and marginalized communities across Arabic-speaking countries. Through anonymous at-home diagnostic testing, telehealth with vetted feminist doctors, and culturally grounded health education, OMGyno reaches women who have been systematically excluded from formal healthcare systems due to cultural stigma, conflict, and lack of privacy.

Social Entrepreneurship

In 2026 she was asked by Mishkal to lead the curatorial theme of the inaugural Palestine Design Week. Formerly she has been the former Communication Coordinator at Mophradat, an arts institution (Brussels & Athens) that supports Arab artists. As an Art Fellow of the institution, she curated the Arab Feminist Films program (2019) at State of Concept, in Athens, Greece.

Curation & Communication

She has a keen interest in the dynamics of groupwork, conflict resolution and the understanding of values as core drivers to healthy working environments. So along with colleagues Aniko Racz and Dorota Ogrodzka, she has developed and designed the Gamified Workshop Toolkit, as part of the EU project: Reshape. This game has been translated to over 6 languages and is played worldwide by cultural institutions and gatherings.

Toolkit Design

She has lectured Master students on design research, history, and theory at The Lebanese American University, and Academie Libanaise des Beaux Arts, where she has also been a member of the pedagogical committee of the Design department (2013-2020).

Teaching

Consultancy

Her consultancy work focuses on human-centered design with non-profit organizations such as UNRWA for Palestinian refugee camps development in Lebanon (2017-2019) and IOM for Creative & Cultural Industries development in Kurdistan (2017-2018).

Research & Writing

Her book, 'Design Education in the Middle East', which was awarded the Cologne Design Prize in 2010, marked the beginning of her career in Beirut where she set out to build a collective design community and enhance the understanding of human-centered design & research in the region.

She believes that multidisciplinary collaboration and community building is essential to the success of all cultural projects. With that in mind, she has initiated in Lebanon ‘Public Design Intervention: Beirut’ (2010), 'Desmeem: Rethinking Design though Cross-Cultural Collaboration (2012)', 'Disrupt!/ Design!' (2015/16) and 'Beirut Design Week' (annual event since 2012). In 2013, Beirut Design Week was awarded the Lebanese Social Economic Award.

Community Building

Doreen is an advisor to various global networks including the ‘International Gender Design Network’ (2013), the 'Board of International Research in Design/BIRD' (2012), an Echoing Green fellow, fellow of Salzburg Global Seminar (2013), fellow of Mophradat (2019) and a member of the Young Cultural Innovators of the British Council (2012). She has often served as a mentor and juror for student examinations and start-up competitions, she facilitates workshops on design & creative economy, and is a regular public speaker at various conferences around the world.