About

Career

Born in Rotterdam, Netherlands on January 6th, 1980, Wassila is the daughter of first-generation Moroccan immigrants.

After graduating in Business Administration at the Erasmus University in Rotterdam, she chose to work at the Royal Dutch Navy as a military officer where she has learned that your leadership is defined and exists by the grace of those you lead.

After taking off her uniform she worked at the Ministry of Economic Affairs and the Ministry of Defense, and she received the award Young Government Official of the Year 2007 for outstanding performance in public service. 

In 2010 Wassila was sworn in as Member of the Dutch Parliament. After almost 6 years, she resigned and joined the presidential campaign of Hillary Clinton where she gained valuable insights into American politics and the 2016 presidential election. Both her years as Dutch MP as well as one year learning about politics in the United States of America, have elevated Wassila’s understanding of power and how power systems work.

Passion

Wassila’s passion for dialogue is born during her time in politics. At TEDx Amsterdam Women she shared her story and she led a successful crowd funding campaign. For years now, Wassila has coached 600+ people and given countless trainings for Mindvalley, the School of Life and other corporations. She loves being a social entrepreneur and serving people directly as a coach for individuals and trainer for teams in (self) dialogue.

Wassila also created a proposal using dialogue to improve (the control of) power, (the game of) politics and (the role of the) media: From Debate To Dialogue. This proposal entails the serious need of democratic renewal through the abolition of all political parties and the (re)introduction of independent representatives of the people.

Wassila is intently motivated to back up her statements about (self) dialogue scientifically, by contributing to the field of sociology and psychology with a PhD research.

If you connect to spirituality, Wassila (وسيلة) is derived from Islam and is an Arabic word to refer to the means to connect with the divine. There are many heartfelt reasons for Wassila believing in Islam's timeless message of love, mercy, peace, freedom, justice and unity. It is Wassila’s main source of inspiration for understanding (self) dialogue.