Queen Noor was born to a Syrian-American family as Lisa Najeeb Halaby in 1951 in the United States. She received a bachelor’s degree in architecture and urban planning in 1973 from Princeton University. After graduating, she worked in Australia at a British architectural firm, and then at an architectural firm that had been commissioned to re-plan the city of Tehran. In 1976, she became Director of Facilities Planning and Design for Arab Air Services, a company founded by her father.
Noor met King Hussein of Jordan in 1977. They married one year later and she became the first American-born queen of an Arab country, taking the name Noor al-Hussein or "Light of Hussein”. She soon after started numerous philanthropic initiatives at home and abroad, many of which are concerned with children.
Noor founded the King Hussein Foundation (KHF) in 1979 which includes the Noor Al Hussein Foundation and eight specialized development institutions. In 1980 she convened the first annual Arab Children’s Congress, and from 1995 she was chair of the National Task Force for Children. When King Hussein died in 1999, she was entrusted as the chair of the KHF.
Noor delivered the Beatty Lecture on May 23, 2002, titled “Creating a Culture of Peace".
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