Dr. Maram Alaqra has over 17 years’ experience in education, working across higher education and K-12 settings. Dr. Alaqra has taught graduate and undergraduate courses at Texas A&M University, which included over eight years of research experience on STEM education.

Dr. Mona El Samaty has over 20 years’ experience in education, including teaching English as foreign language (TEFL), research, and teacher education.

Dr. Ahmet Simsar has over 14 years’ experience in education. In the early years of his career, Dr. Simsar worked as Pre-K teacher, Director of a Kindergarten school, Department Chair in Early Childhood Education studies, and taught and advised undergraduate and graduate classes in the USA and Turkey.

Dr. Eric Kamal Hilgendorf was most recently Vice President of MENA at The Quad Initiative, where he concentrated on organizational performance and development, education entrepreneurship, leadership development and succession, and organizational advancement and diversification. Dr. Hilgendorf was also Associate Dean of Community and Education Engagement at New York University Abu Dhabi, where he created innovative programs that advanced national and institutional priorities for the university. Over his seven years, he created sustainable programming in the areas of K-16 pipeline building, teacher advancement and professional development, organization and school development, leadership and identity, resource and enterprise planning, and institutional advancement. Prior to this, Dr. Hilgendorf served as Director of Education Operations for Vanderbilt University in the UAE, where he steered several educational programs encompassing educational leadership, coaching and assessment models, trajectory planning and professional development for 20+ schools. In advance of that, he was Co-Director for Technical Support for the National Center for Performance Pay (TIF) at Vanderbilt University, where he won an Emmy for a film he co-produced (A Matter of Principals).

Dr. Fatima Bailey has over 25 years’ experience in education. In the early years of her career, Dr. Bailey worked in Pre-K-12 education as a director, school principal, vice principal and teacher in the UAE and US. She has led planning, development, and implementation of hybrid educational activities across multiple institutions. She was instrumental in achieving CAEP accreditation for Zayed University, and in exceeding accreditation KPIs. Dr. Bailey also serves as a mentor in the Ta’Alouf Program for Career Based Teacher Development at the Al Jalila Foundation.

Ph.D. in Curriculum and Instructions with emphasis on Adult Education, Measurement & Research, Meta Evaluation, and eLearning & Instructional technology.

Mr. Omar Ahermouch has over 25 years’ experience in school and higher education, emphasizing language education, English, translation, and academic skills. Most recently at Zayed University, Mr. Ahermouch taught various courses to support students as they develop their academic skills.

Dr. Al Hmouz is Professor, specializing in Gifted Education. Her main area of interest is developing assessment and evaluation tools of academic skills and cognitive abilities, with special focus on cognitive abilities for gifted students and standardizing cognitive and achievement tests in large scale projects. Dr. Al Hmouz is Co-founder of the Technological Innovations for Middle East Education (www.time.edu.jo) initiative, and the second author of Woodcock-Johnson Arabic Tests of Cognitive and Achievement Abilities. With nearly 20 peer reviewed publications; one book; and one manual related to giftedness, learning disabilities, psychological testing, and inclusive education, Dr. Al Hmouz is Principal Investigator/Co-PI of five International funded projects worth a third of a million US Dollars to support gifted students and students with special needs in inclusive education.

Dr. Mustafa Toprak has 20 years’ experience in education as a faculty member, researcher, and teacher. As the chair of the Department of Educational Leadership, he oversees the development of a new suite of programs to prepare and upskill educational leaders.

Dr. Estelle Tarry has over 30 years’ experience in education. She began her career as a primary school teacher in the UK, progressing to Head of an infant school at a British international school in Sri Lanka, Head of a British international school in Thailand, and Head of an international school in the Netherlands. For the past 15 years, Dr. Tarry has been a university lecturer (Fellowship of Higher Education) in the UK, teaching and leading undergraduate and master’s programmes in education, and supervising PhD students.