Jala Makhzoumi (Arabic: جالا مخزومي; born 1949), is an Iraqi-Lebanese landscape architect, academic, and activist. She taught environmental engineering for 15 years at the University of Technology in Baghdad. Makhzoumi was a founding member of the Landscape Design and Ecosystem Management program at the American University of Beirut, where she currently serves as an adjunct professor.^[1][2] Her research covers subjects including landscape design, sustainable urban greening and postwar recovery strategies. Makhzoumi has co-authored several books including "Ecological Landscape Design and Planning: The Mediterranean Context" and "The Right to Landscape: contesting landscape and human rights."^[3] In 2023, she was elected vice president of the International Federation of Landscape Architects.^[4] She is the Middle East Chapter president of the IFLA.^[5] Makhzoumi is also a co-founder of 'UNIT44', a Lebanon-based design and planning practice of landscape architecture and urban design.^[6]

Makhzoumi was born in Iraq in 1949 to an Iraqi Kurdish mother and a Lebanese father. She grew up in Baghdad and spent most of her summers in Lebanon, specifically in Dhour El Choueir. ^[7] In 1971, she enrolled in the Faculty of Engineering at the University of Baghdad to study architecture, and took interest in the relationship between ecology and design.^{[citation needed]} After graduation, she moved to the United States to attend Yale University, where she received a master's degree in environmental design.^[8]

After graduating from Yale, Jala returned to Baghdad where she taught environmental sciences at the University of Technology for fifteen years.^{[citation needed]} During this period, Makhzoumi researched the intersectionality of ecology and landscape, with a primary focus on vernacular settlements and practices invoked by local Iraqi communities.^{[citation needed]} The Iran–Iraq War severely influenced Makhzoumi's ability to travel, and the first Gulf War of 1990 forced her to relocate from Iraq.^{[citation needed]} After her relocation, she decided to pursue a PhD at the University of Sheffield and complete her dissertation in landscape architecture.^[9]

Whilst in the United Kingdom, Makhzoumi developed a methodology for ecological landscaping and applied it to the context of Northern Cyprus.^{[citation needed]} Her work intersected heavily with that of Gloria Pungetti, an Italian scholar and landscape architect.^{[citation needed]} This collaboration eventually led them to publish two books: "Ecological Landscape Design and Planning" (1999) and "The Right to Landscape" (2016).^[9] In 2001, Makhzoumi joined the American University of Beirut (AUB) where she co-founded the BS in Landscape Design and Ecosystem Management. She worked as both a professor and program coordinator from Fall of 2001 to Spring of 2007.^[10]

Makhzoumi was involved with the "AREC Rural Technology Park: Climate Change and Sustainable Livelihoods in Lebanon" project.^[10]

While in Lebanon, she worked with a team from AUB, to revive the Erbil Inner Green Project. AUB neglected the project due to security reasons.^[11][12] In the proposal for the Erbil Inner Greenbelt, AUB aimed to curb the expansion of the city and limit urban development, enhance the local microclimate, and provide a recreational landscape for residents.^[13]

Her work as an activist includes advocating for Dalieh of Raouche to be a public space for local communities in Beirut in the post-Civil War era of Lebanon and protesting against other types of private development.^[14]

• List of Iraqi architects
• List of women architects