Nellie El Enany is an assistant professor of organization studies in the School of Business at The American University in Cairo. Prior to joining the School of Business in 2015, she was a research fellow in entrepreneurship and an assistant professor in organization studies at Warwick Business School in the United Kingdom. During the fellowship, she conducted an in-depth study, observing and interviewing healthcare professionals, chief executives, managers and practitioners across a range of national health trusts in England. She focused on examining the translation of evidence-based innovation into clinical practice and how the institutional context impacts this. This resulted in the development of a process-based model of institutional entrepreneurship that encompassed the different types of work undertaken. El Enany was awarded her Bachelors of Arts in management and marketing with honors from the University of Derby, in 2007. She also received her master's of innovative manufacturing, specializing in knowledge management for innovation from Cranfield University, funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) in 2008. She was awarded her PhD from the University of Nottingham, funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) and Nottinghamshire Healthcare NHS Trust, in 2013. Her doctoral thesis explored the way in which patients, as their role as consumers, were involved in the development and improvement of mental health services and the ways in which they were able to work alongside chief executives, managers and health professionals in doing so. As part of this work, she examined notions of power and representativeness, knowledge and the identity patients as legitimate consumers of health services. As part of her passion for teaching, she completed a Postgraduate Certificate in Academic and Professional Practice and is a Certified Fellow of the Higher Education Academic (FHEA). Additionally, she has completed a range of courses, including community-based learning and teaching enhancement at the Center for Learning and Teaching (CLT) at The American University in Cairo. With a range of undergraduate and postgraduate teaching and research supervision experience at universities in the UK (including Nottingham Trent University, the University of Nottingham and the University of Warwick), creativity, free-thinking and experiential learning are central to her teaching and learning style. El Enany has taught a range of courses, including organizational behavior, managing organizations, critical issues in management, corporate social responsibility and business ethics. She currently teaches entrepreneurship, human resources and international business at The American University in Cairo. She takes an interdisciplinary approach to teaching where she integrates subjects from other disciplines into her courses, including politics, psychology and sociology, and connects world research and current events, as well as her own research with teaching and learning. Giving students the space to think independently and critically, explore different meanings and interpretations through debates and role play through case studies and research projects, is central to her teaching philosophy. She believes students should be at the forefront of their learning and promotes this by encouraging their personal growth and development. She is a strong proponent of experiencing and acquiring knowledge rather than simply listening to it, and encourages students to make real-life connections by connecting with courses and students in other countries. Hands-on learning that brings the business world into the classroom through speakers and class trips are central to her teaching approach.

Nellie El Enany centres on two broad themes stemming from my interest in how individuals interact in different social spheres and how they deal with instability, stigma, legitimacy and professional boundaries. My research on identity loss, reconstruction and identity work examines how individuals attempt to reconstruct their identities, engage in discourse to build legitimate identities and deal with stigmatised and damaged identities. This research area has been examined in health settings, marginalised groups and family businesses. In the second stream of my research on entrepreneurship, I investigate how entrepreneurs, in particular nascent entrepreneurs, deal with triggers that impact the entrepreneurial path, the antecedents to entrepreneurial start-ups, their processes of constructing what they perceive is a legitimate identity and how their behaviours change over the entrepreneurial process and if this alters the entrepreneurial path. Exploring and understanding the social underpinnings and fabric of society, organisations and individuals, provides insights into the crucial cues and triggers that affect identities, behaviours and interactions better allowing organisations and society to deal with change, uncertainty and the future.