About
The woman behind NAWA Academy
From a small Algerian desert town to senior engineering leadership across nine countries — through collapse, rebuilding, and a quiet turning inward. She has lived, led, built, and adapted — and that is exactly what shapes how she coaches.
"I never planned to become a coach. I planned to be an engineer and a leader — a woman who solves complex problems in high-pressure environments. And for a long time, that is exactly who I was."
From a small town far from opportunity
I was born in Algiers and raised in Bou Saada — a small desert town in Algeria, beautiful and proud, but far from every opportunity. There, the most a young woman like me could reach was substitute teaching. I understood early that if I wanted a real life, I would have to go and build it myself.
So I left. I moved to my grandmother's home in Algiers to find work, and I kept moving from there — through two civil engineering degrees, and into one of the hardest, most male-dominated industries on earth: construction and engineering.
Nine countries. One woman who refused to stay small.
My career took me across nine countries — Algeria, Germany, Austria, the UAE, Malaysia, Thailand, Morocco, Tunisia, and Canada — inside global companies that lead this industry worldwide.
I grew from site engineer to senior leadership. I led engineering and sales teams, trained engineers, and managed complex, multi-million-dollar projects on major infrastructure — consistently exceeding my targets in fiercely competitive markets.
I was often the only woman in the room, building my place in male-dominated, international environments where little was expected of me.
I learned to lead while being doubted, and to build credibility from zero in every new country, language, and culture — across more than two decades of senior engineering and leadership roles.
A success story on the outside. A quieter truth within.
Behind the titles, I was carrying what many capable women carry in silence — exhaustion that sleep couldn't touch, and the weight of holding everything together.
Then life asked me to start over. At my lowest, when I urgently needed work, I applied for a cleaning job — and was not accepted. I rebuilt — not with luck, but with the same discipline and refusal to stay down that had carried me through my career. I climbed back into leadership, immigrated, started again, and rose higher than before.
"I rebuilt from zero — with the same discipline that had carried me across nine countries."
— Nawel Merzouk
Understanding, from the inside
As a girl, I was bright and capable — and still often judged for being "too much." I learned early what it feels like to be misunderstood while doing your best, and that understanding runs through how I work with capable women who are quietly struggling underneath.
As a mother, I've also learned — through lived experience, not clinical expertise — how much it matters to truly understand the people in your care, to stay steady, and to support them without losing yourself.
When the engineer's mind turns inward
What changed my life was not motivation, and not a single course or certification. It was understanding.
The same strategic mind I had spent years sharpening in engineering and leadership turned inward. I began studying patterns — not in systems and structures, but in people. In women. In the inherited beliefs we carry about what we are allowed to want, how we are allowed to rest, and who we are allowed to become.
What became clear was simple, and easy to overlook: a woman's life cannot be separated into pieces. Her emotional state shapes her motherhood. Her motherhood shapes her work. Her relationship with her body shapes her confidence. Everything is connected.
NAWA came from that understanding — built because I needed a space like it and could not find one. That is what NAWA Academy and The NAWA Method are, and what I offer every woman who walks through this door.
- Lived experience, not theory alone. Every part of this work comes from something I have personally carried, questioned, and understood.
- An engineering and leadership background. Twenty-three years solving complex problems, leading teams, and managing multi-million-dollar projects across nine countries — now applied to the architecture of a woman's real life.
- Deep, lived understanding of motherhood, immigration, divorce, burnout, and starting again. Not from reading about them. From living through them.
- A practical, structured mind combined with emotional intelligence. I don't give vague encouragement. I help you see what is happening and build from there.
- A whole-life approach instead of one-topic coaching. Your emotions, your body, your motherhood, your work, and your direction — together.
Trained, certified, and self-taught
My engineering degrees were only the beginning. Across three continents — from Austria to Malaysia, from Dubai to Morocco — I was trained and certified by European industry leaders in project management, contract management, strategic pricing, high-rise construction, and sales leadership.
And beyond every certificate: I am profoundly self-taught. Everything I could not be given, I learned on my own.