Contributors

The key personnel in this project include prominent international experts in the fields of Arabic language, curriculum development and language acquisition, as well as program development, management and communications:

Dr. Hanada Taha-Thomure

Dr. Hanada Taha-Thomure is Associate Dean of Bahrain Teachers’ College at the University of Bahrain. She is the director of Arab Expertise, an educational consulting group based in California, USA. Dr. Taha-Thomure has served as director of Arabic programs at the Language Acquisition Resource Center at the San Diego State University. She has taught Arabic language to native and non-native speakers in countries such as Lebanon, Bahrain, Sultanate of Oman, United Arab Emirates and the United States of America for the past twenty years. Dr. Taha-Thomure has trained thousands of Arabic language teachers, trainers and ministry officials in various countries within the context of international private and public schools and in international conferences. She has developed many Arabic language instructional materials and scholarly works for teaching Arabic to non-native speakers at the high school and university level using the communicative language approach. As a co-creator of the WLI program, she has been instrumental in the foundational work developing Arabic language standards for ISS, and for the Arab Thought Foundation.

Dr. Virginia Pauline Rojas

Dr. Rojas conducts professional training on effective programs and strategies for English language learners. She has worked in over 250 international schools throughout the world as well as with school districts in the US and Canada. She is an ASCD Faculty member (Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development) and is the author of Strategies for Success with English Language Learners: An Action Toolkit for Classroom and ESL Teachers published by ASCD (2007) and of Educating English Language Learners: Connecting Language, Literacy, and Culture (2010), Dr. Rojas teaches summer the graduate course EAL for Mainstream Teachers for the Teacher's Training Center in Miami and London and Translating Brain Research into Effective Language Education for the Association for the Advancement of International Education.

Bridget Doogan

Bridget is an educational consultant with 30 years of experience as a teacher, K-12 curriculum coordinator and staff developer. Ms. Doogan has worked at the elementary, middle and high school levels and in UK, American, international and bilingual systems in the UK, East Asia and the Middle East. She is presently based in Bahrain as a consultant for International Schools Services focused on curriculum and professional development, and is one of the WLI co-creators. In addition, she is a consultant for the Danielson Group providing professional development and support for schools developing supervision systems around Charlotte Danielson’s Framework for Teaching. Ms. Doogan is also an agency trainer for the Center for Adaptive Schools and NESA’s assistant to the Director for Professional Development.

Bruce McWilliams

Bruce, Vice President and head of the ISS Middle East Office, has been an overseas teacher, principal and school head for 24 years with 21 years of experience in the Middle East. Mr. McWilliams is also a co-creator of the WLI program. He was the founding head of the ISS school in Bahrain, Riffa Views International School, and has a proven track record in developing and opening new schools. He is the co-author of the ISS Handbook for Establishing New Overseas Schools.

Barbara Parker

Barbara is currently the Regional Curriculum Director for the ISS Asia-Pacific Office. In this role, Barbara has developed curriculum for four start-up schools in China and Malaysia. She actively supports the schools in their implementation of the curriculum through professional development workshops and coaching. Prior to her role in this position, Barbara has worked for over 30 years in international schools in Morocco, Malaysia, Pakistan and Ethiopia. While in Morocco, she served as the MAIS Optimal Match Regional Coordinator consulting with schools throughout the MAIS region regarding planning and implementing curricular differentiation to meet the needs of all learners. For several summers Barbara served as the Academic Dean for Johns Hopkins University’s Center for Talented Youth program followed by several summers teaching in the University of Washington’s summer program for Highly Capable Youth. Barbara is an instructor for Teachers Training Center for which she designed the course, Addressing Special Needs in International Schools.

Lila Leung

Lila, Vice President – Development of the ISS Asia Pacific Office based in China. She has been a language teacher, coordinator and trainer for over 20 years in Spanish, EAL and Chinese. She was the founding head of the ISS school in Wuxi, and specializes in school and program development in China and the Asia region. She is the co-author of the ISS Language Position Statement.

Dr. Dany Doueiri

Dr. Doueiri is Head of Arabic at California State University at San Bernardino, USA and ISS Arabic language consultant. He joined the World Languages & Literatures (WLL) department of California State University San Bernardino in 2001 and currently serves as the Arabic language program coordinator. He completed his doctorate degree in the interdisciplinary Islamic Studies program from the University of California Los Angeles in 1996. In addition to teaching the Arabic language and literature classes, he also teaches classes on the people, cultures, history, and politics of the Islamic world and is an executive board member for the Center for Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies. Dr. Doueiri was born in the Congo, raised in Lebanon, and pursued his college education in the United States. Before joining academia, he worked as a senior policy analyst consulting for major international organizations. He also co-founded and serves as a current board member of a U.S.-based non-profit educational and scientific organization carrying development projects in the U.S., the Middle East and other countries around the world. Dr. Doueiri has served as the external evaluator of the ISS Arabic program.

Mazen Al-Sheikh

Mazen, ISS WLI consultant, has several years’ experience teaching Arabic Language and literature, and English to non-native English speakers throughout the Middle East and Europe. He has served as the Arabic Program Coordinator at the American Community School of Beirut and Riffa Views International School in Bahrain, and has supervised the Arabic Heritage language program at the American International School of Muscat. He is an International Baccalaureate (IB) diploma examiner, and previously served as a NESA Arabic Advisory group member. Mazen has conducted numerous workshops and training sessions for Arabic teachers at various conferences in the Arab region, and developed a program for teaching ‘Spoken Gulf Arabic’ to non-natives. For the Arabic WLI, he has served as Arabic Curriculum Developer and conducts trainings on behalf of the program around the region.

Fawzi Jamal

Fawzi is Deputy President of Dhahran Ahliyya Schools (Boys) and of the Educational Book House (Dar-alkitab Attarbawi). As Director of Training and Professional Development he offered trainings on classroom management, discipline with dignity, multiple intelligences, cooperative learning and numerous related topics. He is now Chief Editor for all publications of Dar-alkitab Attarbawi and has overseen the translation, editing and publishing of over 70 titles, many of which are now the leading references for teacher training institutions across the Arab world.

Sami Rahmouni

Sami, Inspector and Arabic language specialist working for the Tunisian and the Bahraini MOE. Sami has written the standards for Arabic language in Bahrain and has been training trainers of Arabic for the past 20 years. Sami is an acclaimed author focusing on the communicative competence as the main goal of language teaching.

Erin Uritus

Erin, ISS Director of Communications and Middle East Operations, is currently based in Abu Dhabi, and has seventeen years’ experience in communications, change management, organization development and international program management. Prior to ISS, she served as the Director of Communications & Change Management for the Abu Dhabi Government’s Restructuring Program and as Senior Communications Advisor to the Executive Council. Prior to that, she worked as a Senior Associate at management consulting firm Booz Allen Hamilton, where she served as business lead and program manager for several high- profile US government and internal firm projects. She holds an M.S. in Organizational Development from American University, and a B.S./B.A., in Political Science and French from Marquette University.

Wafa Al-Derazi

Wafa, WLI Administrative Assistant, earned her translation degree in 2003, and completed her Master’s Degree of human resources in 2007 from University of Bahrain. She has worked for Directorate of Curricula, Ministry of Education (MOE) Bahrain, and has several years of experience translating educational documents for different educational institutions.