Mariam is a mathematics instructor in University College at Zayed University since 2016. She earned a Masters’ degree in mathematical sciences from the American University of Sharjah in 2014.

AKHTAR, Fokiya

Her teaching experience includes: Senior Lecturer at Manipal University, Dubai and Visiting Faculty at the Media Education and Research Centre, University of Kashmir and National Institute of Mass Communication, New Delhi, India. She has worked as a Freelance Producer/Director and has produced educational documentaries and instructional television programmes for University Grants Commission countrywide classroom in New Delhi.

Ms. Akhtar has also produced, directed, edited and anchored live shows, game shows, current affairs programmes and documentaries for various production houses in India and Oman.

For more information visit:

https://www.zu.ac.ae/main//en/colleges/colleges/__college_of_comm_media_sciences/faculty-and-staff/_profiles/Fokiya_Akhtar.aspx

ALBEDWAWI, Alyaa Khamis 

Alyaa is Assistant Professor at the College of Humanities and Social Sciences. She completed his Ph.D. Degree in Islamic Jurisprudence from the College of Islamic and Arabic Studies, Dubai in 2014. Dr. Albedwawi has 10 years’ work experience and prior to joining Zayed University, she worked as a lecturer in the Department of Islamic Affairs and Charitable Activities in Dubai since 2007. In 2015, she was appointed Assistant Professor at the Higher Colleges of Technology, Department of Arabic Language and Emirati Studies.

Dr. ALLEN, Michael 

Michael is Assistant Provost for Research at Zayed University, with campuses in Abu Dhabi and Dubai. He has held that position since September 2011, having previously served for five years as Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at Zayed University. Prior to joining Zayed University, he was Associate Dean of Arts and Sciences at Brigham Young University, Hawaii. He has also been employed at the University of Auckland (New Zealand), the University of California at Berkeley, and the University of Victoria (British Columbia, Canada). He has extensive experience in international education, and has traveled widely both for his own research and to build programs and partnerships between universities.

Trained as a historian, Dr. Allen received his Ph.D. degree from the University of Washington and his Master’s degree from the University of California at Berkeley. He holds undergraduate degrees in both History and Asian Studies from Brigham Young University. Dr. Allen is a specialist on East Asian history in the 19th and early 20th centuries and has traveled numerous times to China, Japan, and Korea (both North and South). Most of his research has focused on Korea in the 19th and 20th centuries. He also has a deep interest in world history, and his publications include books and articles on nationalism in East Asia, intellectual history, historiography, and the history of the world since 1500.

ALSAIED, Najat

Najat has more than 16 years of experience in development organizations and digital media.

She worked at Islamic Development Bank (IDB) in Jeddah-Saudi Arabia, World Health Organisation-Pan American Health Organisation (PAHO) in Washington DC-USA, Housing and Urban Development (HUD) in Washington DC-USA.

For more information visit:

https://www.zu.ac.ae/main//en/colleges/colleges/__college_of_comm_media_sciences/faculty-and-staff/_profiles/Najat_AlSaied.aspx 

OZDEMIR AYBER, Pinar

Pinar has been in the field of education since 1992. She has worked in Ankara, Istanbul, and Dubai.

She received a BA in English Language and Literature from Hacettepe University, in her native country Turkey and later completed a master in TESOL at Aston University. She is a certified NLP practitioner and an IELTS examiner. She currently teaches at Zayed University UC, EWS. Over the years, she has taught all age groups and has gained extensive experience in teaching across various contexts from secondary schools to teacher training and mentoring programs, the ZU Institute for Community Engagement (ICE) program, ABP and some COE courses.

Her professional experience includes teacher training, curriculum and material development, level coordinating and Ed-tech mentoring. Her research interests lie in the areas of teacher feedback and error correction, development and evaluation of language teaching materials, cultural aspects of language in multicultural settings, technology-based teaching, M learning and flipped classrooms. She has published and presented her work both locally and internationally.

DOWSWELL, Kirk

Kirk is an Instructor at the College of Technological Innovation, Zayed University. His current area of research is subject-specific vocabulary acquisition and mobile language learning. He is also interested in other aspects of Information Communications Technology (ICT) and language learning.

Prior to working at Zayed University, he worked at several higher education institutions in Canada, Australia, and the Middle East.

ELMASSAH, Suzanna

Suzanna has received her Ph.D. in Sustainable Development (2009) and MSc in Finance (2004) from Cairo University. She has a 20-year teaching experience in higher education, in addition to her involvement in mobile learning, academic courses’ development and industry consultation. Suzanna is the founder and advisor for the InveSlamic Club at Zayed University since 2016.

She has multidisciplinary interest in research areas of Economics, Finance, Sustainable Development, Economics of Education, and Behavioral Economics. She has published several papers and studies in international journals and sits on the Editorial Review Board for some peer-reviewed Journals.

Dr. EPPARD, Jenny

Jenny has taught EFL in universities and K-12 environments for twenty years. She has an ESL qualification as a K-12 teacher in the United States as well as a Ph.D. from the University of Virginia in Instructional Technology.

Dr. Eppard has lived and worked in both the United States and the United Arab Emirates. She has worked extensively on creating activities on the iPad to be used at the university level with EFL students. Her research interests include informal learning and social media sites, using mobile devices as a learning device both inside and outside of the classroom, ways to increase reading skills and using assistive technology to improve communication for individuals with communication disorders.

FAROOQ, Shahbano

Shahbano holds a M.Sc. in Computer Science from the University of Calgary, Canada. Her M.Sc. thesis focused on Research and Development of Visualizations in Pairs: PairedVis.

Shahbano has more than five years of experience in the Industry as a Software Engineer and Technical Writer.

FOTIADIS, Anestis K.

Anestis studied Business Management and Administration at the Moscow Commercial University of the Russian Federation. After the completion of his military service, he continued his studies in the T.E.I. of Piraeus, specialized in “Informatics and Administration”. Since September 2004 he had already started his Doctoral Thesis at the Faculty of Economics, in the University of Pecs, Hungary and on October 2009 he received his Master’s Degree on “Tourism Business Administration” from the School of Social Studies of the Greek Open University. He finishes his Post – Doc in Hungary in cooperation with Kodolanyi Janos University with the theme “Factors for Success on Rural Tourism Development in Greece”.

Dr Fotiadis worked for several years in Taiwan for I-Shou University where he received the best teacher and best mentor award for 2014. His research focus is on small-scale events management, theme park management, rural tourism and sustainable development. He has published more than 40 research papers in top-tier international academic journals such as Tourism Management Journal, Journal of Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Computers in Human Behavior and Journal of Business Research. Furthermore, he participated in more than thirty international conferences and he published several books and book chapters.

Prof. Dr. GITSAKI, Christina

Christina is the Research Coordinator at the Center for Educational Innovation, Zayed University, UAE. During her 20-year career in higher education, she has contributed to the field in a number of different capacities such as English language teacher, applied linguistics lecturer, pre-service teacher educator, in-service teacher trainer, textbook author, project manager, curriculum leader, editor, and researcher. In the past, she served as the UNESCO Chair in Applied Research in Education in Sharjah and later as the Associate Dean of the Foundations program at the Higher Colleges of Technology, UAE. Before coming to the UAE, she worked at The University of Queensland (UQ) in Australia, where she educated pre-service ESL teachers and supervised Masters and Ph.D. students in language education research. She has worked with Education Queensland and The Learning Federation of the Curriculum Corporation, Australia on state and federal education projects such as the creation of digital Learning Objects for K-12 ESL students.

Dr. Gitsaki has presented her research at International Conferences, has been an invited speaker at various professional events and she has published 72 papers in refereed journals and book chapters on language acquisition and pedagogy. She is the author, editor, and co-editor of twelve books on language education research. At the CEI she oversees the SoTL Course, the development of resources for research and she provides advice and mentorship to faculty who are interested in engaging in research on teaching and learning.

GREENWOOD, Louise 

Louise has been a teacher in the Academic Bridge Program at Zayed University since 2014. She has worked as a teacher, teacher trainer, materials writer and manager in the UK, Greece, Egypt, Hungary, Oman and the UAE, at British Council teaching centers.

Her interests are academic grammar, methodology, and affective factors in learning.

Dr. GUNN, Cindy

Cindy is the Director of the Faculty Development Center and Professor in the Department of English at American University of Sharjah (AUS). Before joining AUS in 2001, she lived and taught in Canada, Japan, New Zealand, Thailand, Turkey and the United States. While a member of the English Department at AUS, she helped to develop the MATESOL program and the Education minor. As the Director of the Faculty Development Center, she works closely with the Academic Computing Group to offer workshops on effective use of technology in the classroom as well as assisting individual faculty members in their endeavors to utilize technology in the classroom.

Dr. Gunn’s main research paradigm is Exploratory Practice focusing on the contributions teachers and learners make to classroom research. Her main research interests are effective technology use in education, reflective teaching and learning, and materials development. She is the author and editor of three books on classroom research and has published more than 30 peer-reviewed journal articles and book chapters. She has presented her research both internationally and locally in the UAE at conferences with a focus on Educational Technology, TESOL, SoTL and Educational Leadership.

HARPER, Lynnette

Lynnette is an enthusiastic Librarian with a MA in Teaching English as a Second and Foreign Language.

When she is not randomly taking off for Antarctica to drive heavy equipment, she can often be found in Libraries teaching information literacy skills to faculty and students because all the reliable information in the world is not useful unless you know how to find it, use it, and share it.

Dr. HOJEIJ, Zeina

Zeina is an Assistant Professor at Zayed University, UAE. She holds an Ed.D. in Educational Leadership and Administration from Saint Louis University, USA. She earned an MA in Applied Linguistics and TEFL from Notre Dame University, Lebanon and a BA in English Language and Literature with a Teaching Diploma from the Lebanese University. She is also a Certified Online Instructor (COI), and CELTA and CELTYL certified.

Dr. Hojeij began her career teaching English as a second language to adults. She then transitioned into higher education. She’s taught and coordinated a variety of courses across a range of levels of English and Education courses. Since joining ZU, She’s taught both undergraduate and graduate courses and has been involved with teacher mentoring and supervision. She is currently the Graduate Coordinator for the Masters of Educational Leadership and Administration program at Zayed University.

Her research interests include Mobile Learning Technology, Educational Leadership, and Teaching & Learning. She’s published her work internationally and has presented at various local and international conferences.

JONES, Wayne 

Wayne has worked as a teacher, teacher-trainer, and academic administrator for over twenty years in Europe, South America and the Middle East. During his 13 years at Zayed University, he has worked within the Academic Bridge Program (ABP) as a teacher, Level Coordinator, and Assessment Supervisor and as a head of the department in the Colloquy on Integrated Learning (Zayed University's General Education program). He has been the Director of the ABP since 2012.

His academic interests are in the field of Language Testing and Assessment.

JOURNEAUX, Catherine 

Catherine is an instructor in the Department of English and Writing Studies at Zayed University, Abu Dhabi.

She holds a MEd in Educational Technology and English Language Teaching and currently teaches courses in first-year composition and technical writing. She is also a tutor providing academic writing support to ZU University College students.

KHALEEL, Eiman 

Eiman is the Co-Chair of the IWS/AUH department, College of Humanities and Social Sciences, at Zayed University, and an assistant professor of the Emirati Studies course. Dr. Khaleel received her B.A. in Islamic Studies from UAE University, her M.A. in Islamic Jurisprudence from Cairo University, and a Ph.D. in Islamic Jurisprudence from Cairo University. She has more than 15 years of experience in teaching and she has published research papers in refereed journals. Her published work includes: “How to Eliminate Poverty by Zakat”, “Zakat in the Era of Globalization”, and a book with the title “Zakat Provisions: A Contemporary Doctrinal Study.”

Dr. Khaleel has participated in conferences nationally and internationally and she has been honored twice with the H.H. Rashid Award for Outstanding Scientific Work.

LITTLEWOOD, Suzanne 

Suzanne has been teaching for 30 years in schools, colleges, and universities in the UK, Turkey, Hong Kong and the UAE. She is a qualified secondary school teacher of History as well as having an M.Ed. in Teaching English as a Second Language. She has taught English at the foundation, undergraduate, and postgraduate level as well as being an experienced English language teacher educator. She has recently gained recognition as a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy.

MCKEOWN, Kara

Kara has been teaching and training in Europe and the Middle East since the 1980’s. She has an MA in the Teaching of English and an MA in Museum Studies. She has been at Zayed University since 2009. She is the Assistant Director of the Academic Bridge Program and an Adjunct Instructor in Art History in the College of Arts and Creative Enterprises. Kara also works with CACE students In the ABP’s College Language Development Program.

Dr. MOHAMMED, Noorah 

Noorah is Assistant Professor and Co-Chair at the Department of Islamic World Studies, College of Humanities and Social Studies, Zayed University, Dubai. Dr. Mohammed has worked extensively with the Ministry of Education and the Curriculum Unit on compiling textbooks for Social and Islamic Studies. She has also headed the Teacher Licensing Department at the MoE establishing standards and policies for teachers and principals in public schools.

She is currently working on the implementation of project-based learning in higher education. Dr. Mohammed has published her work in both Arabic and English and she has presented her research at local and international conferences.

OWEIDA, Adnan

Adnan Assistant Professor of Economy and Islamic Banking, at the Islamic World Studies Department, Zayed University, Abu Dhabi - UAE. He is an expert in Islamic Banking, Islamic Economy, Classical Economy and Islamic Thought. Dr. Oweida has published in Herndon, Virginia-USA a book entitled “The Risk Theory in Islamic economy: A Theoretical and Implementation Study" (2010) published by the International Institute of Islamic Thought. A recent research study entitled “A Guide on Quality Assurance for Islamic Banking" was published in October 2015 by the Islamic Economy Research Journal at King Abdel Aziz University.

Dr. Oweida is an expert with the United Nations (UNRWA) Education Program, and he was an Assistant Professor in the Economy and Scientific Management Faculty at Zarqa University. Dr. Oweida has taught Islamic Banking, Venture Capital, Islamic Civilization, Islamic Studies, Classical Economy, Macro Economy, Micro Economics, Methodology of Research, Public Finance and Islamic Finance.

PALFREYMAN, David M.

David is Associate Professor in the Department of English and Writing Studies at Zayed University, Dubai, and has been Chief Editor of the ZU Press journal Learning and Teaching in Higher Education: Gulf Perspectives (LTHE) since founding the journal in 2004. He holds a Ph.D. in Language Studies and is an active researcher in language, learning, and teaching.

As well as publishing work in international journals and books, he is the editor of three books: Learner Autonomy Across Cultures (with Richard C. Smith), Learning and Teaching Across Cultures in Higher Education (with Dawn L. McBride) and Academic Biliteracies (with Christa van der Walt). He also teaches, supervises research and assesses work in postgraduate study and ELT teacher development.

PARKAR, Afshan

Afshan holds a M.Sc. in Computer Science from Mumbai University in India. She has seven years’ experience in the field of education as a Faculty and Coordinator for Bachelors and Masters of Computer Science & IT (Information Technology) with the University of Mumbai (India) and various colleges affiliated with Mumbai University, India. She has also worked as a Faculty of Computer Information Science at the Abu Dhabi & Khalifa City Women's College, Higher Colleges of Technology, prior coming to ZU.

Afshan is an entrepreneur for a software solutions company named Spark Infotech handling various technology-based projects. She is very enthusiastic regarding implementing new pedagogical strategies and believes in innovative teaching.

ROBBY, Matthew A. Matthew is an academic scholar with expertise in organizational leadership, applied research and program evaluation (process/impact studies), SPSS-statistics, surveys, assessments, and data-driven planning to enhance the development, quality, efficiency, and effectiveness of systems, programs, and interventions in education, health sciences, public agencies, and the community. Dr. Robby has 20 years of experience as a program evaluator and two decades in education in leadership / management positions as follows: Research Associate (1997-2000) at California State University; District Evaluator for Riverside County Public Schools (2000-2010); Chair of Applied Research and Quality Improvement, Office of the Provost, Higher Colleges of Technology; UNESCO Chair of Applied research for the Sharjah Higher Colleges of Technology and Education Zone (2013-2015); and Program Chair of the Daman Institute of Health Economics for the HCT (2015-2107).

He is currently Co-Chair of the HCT Applied Research Ethics Panel, Vice Chair of the Sharjah Applied Research Committee, and Assistant Professor in the Health Sciences Department in Sharjah-HCT. Dr. Robby is a member of the American Evaluation Association, Canadian Evaluation Society, and International Development Evaluation Association.

ROGMANS, Tim

Tim is Assistant Professor in Management at the College of Business at Zayed University in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. He previously worked in the UK, France, and the Netherlands in strategy consulting (with Gemini Consulting and LEK Consulting) and trade credit insurance with Atradius. He has held management positions in Higher Education and Executive Education in Lebanon and the UAE, including at the Rafik Hariri University in Damour and Zayed University in Dubai.

His research work is in the areas of sustainability performance, Foreign Direct Investment, and innovative teaching methodologies. He is the author or co-author of numerous articles and three books, including “The Emerging Markets of the Middle East: Strategies for Entry and Growth”. Tim Rogmans serves as Board Member of the Academy of International Business – MENA Chapter. He holds a Bachelors degree in Economics from the London School of Economics, an MBA from INSEAD and a Ph.D. from Nyenrode University.

SALEH, Dana

Dana graduated from Damascus University in 2003, completed her Diploma in 2004, and her Master Degree in 2010. She started off her teaching journey at Damascus University in 2003, where she taught courses in Linear Algebra and Advanced Linear Algebra. In 2009, she participated in the First International Mathematics Conference in Damascus and had the opportunity to present and discuss her research “The Extension of group C(n) by means of a direct product of two cyclic groups of order p”, which was later evaluated and published in the Damascus University Journal for Basic Sciences.

Dana moved to Dubai and had the opportunity to work with Synergy University, Dubai Campus in 2015 as an Adjunct Lecturer, where she taught, Probability Theory and Statistics, Calculus for Finance and Economics, Algebra and Number Theory, Discrete Mathematics, Basic Mathematics, and Logics. At the same time, she joined Zayed University also as an Adjunct Lecturer and taught Excel Mathematics Modeling, Basic Mathematics, Data Management and Analysis, Survey of Mathematics for Liberal Arts. In 2016, she became a full-time Mathematics Instructor at Zayed University. Currently, Dana is pursuing her Ph.D. degree in Mathematics, through the National University of Ireland in Galway.

TINDLE, Kate 

Kate has been a teacher in the Academic Bridge Program (ABP) at Zayed University since 2010. She has also taught at universities in Japan and Oman and at institutes in Turkey and Tunisia.

She is interested in finding ways to motivate students to read more and was closely involved in the implementation of the extensive reading program currently in place in the ABP. Other interests include helping students to develop their academic reading skills and creating materials for second language learners, particularly those learning in academic settings.

WILLIAMS, Norman

Norman has worked with students for whom English is a second language for over 25 years and has worked on the design and delivery of English for Academic Purposes (EAP) courses in both the UK and the UAE. For the past 15 years, he has also been involved in training teachers of English as a foreign language at both pre-service and in-service levels.

His main areas of interest are writing in academic contexts and reflection in both teacher training and undergraduate study.

ZOGHBOR, Wafa

Wafa is an Applied Linguist and a faculty member at the Department of English and Writing Studies (EWS) at Zayed University. She is the Assistant Dean for Research and Outreach at the University College and an Associate Tutor at the MA program in Applied Linguistics at Leicester University.

Dr. Zoghbor is an accredited professional international trainer in Strategic Planning Skills since 2012, and she attained the International Scholarship of Educational Leadership from the University of British Columbia, in Canada, in 2015.