Current Executive Committee Members

(In Alphabetical Order)

Iman A. Hashem (Co-Chair) ( 2012- present)

Iman A. Hashem is Director of Arabic Language Programs at the Occidental College Foreign Language Project. She regularly designs and conducts workshops, nationwide, for teachers of foreign and heritage languages, most often for teachers of Arabic. During her career, she authored curriculum and materials for heritage and non-heritage learners, taught and directed K-12 Arabic language programs, participated in the delivery of the Advanced Development of Language Proficiency Program at the Language Acquisition Resource Center, and designed a certificate program for teachers of Arabic and Arabic speakers at California State University, Fullerton. Mrs. Hashem was a member of the writing committee for the Standards for Learning Arabic and for California's World Language Content Standards. Currently, she consults for the Los Angeles Unified School District and K-12 Islamic schools where she designs Arabic language programs and supports program improvement in language and culture.  She is also the Arabic consultant/coach for the Alameda County Office of Education (ACOE) FLAP Arabic dual immersion and FLES program.  Mrs. Hashem works at California State University, Long Beach where she teaches world language methods and where she designed courses in elementary, intermediate and advanced Arabic for non-native and heritage speakers. She was the recipient of the Special Achievement Award from the New Horizon System in 1996, CLTA's President's Award for Leadership in Language Education in 2003,  and (CLTA) and (CWLP) Outstanding Teacher Award 2012.

Nagwa Amin (Public Outreach and Co-Event Coordinator) ( 2012- present)

Nagwa Amin was born in Cairo, and obtained a Bachelor of Science degree in Architectural design. She has completed her early childhood education credentials from UCLA, and San Fernando Valley city college in Los Angeles. She is currently the principal at the Institute of Knowledge in Walnut, CA. For the last 20 years she has been the principal at the Straight Way School in Covina, CA. She helped in the development and the growth of the school from a pre-school service to become a leading institution for students thru 8th grade. She served as a teacher in English, Math, Arabic language, Quran and Islamic studies for elementary and middle school. She also developed after school and summer educational programs for students thru high school, as well as for college and adults.  As a principal, she developed and worked on the improvement of the curriculum and the teaching of the Arabic language by providing creative supplementary materials, implementing the modern standards of the early childhood education and the latest studies, techniques and training available for teaching a foreign language also organized, participated and attended many teaching workshops and training seminars. She has provided training for teachers in the academic secular curriculum as well as in the subject of Quran, Islamic studies, and Arabic language. For the last 7 years she has successfully used the Nuraniyah method in teaching children and adults to become fluent readers in the Quran. She has helped and worked with board members and staff in other schools as a consultant and principal creating a system to follow, and coordinated secular curriculum with Charter and Public school districts' regulations and guidelines.

Layla Bahar Al-Aloom (Membership) ( 2012- present)

Layla Bahar Al-Aloom earned a Bachelors of Arts degree in Applied Studies from California State University at Dominguez Hills, and a Masters of Arts degree in Education Administration and Supervision from University of Phoenix.   She has thirteen years of experience in teaching Arabic language to students of various age groups- kindergarten through university. Currently, Layla is Arabic language department head at the Minaret Academy School, an ESL instructor at California State University at Long Beach, and Arabic language online instructor with University of Maryland. Also she has been the program coordinator for STARTALK programs since 2007. As an educator, Layla is constantly seeking creative ways to promote high quality and modern styles of teaching the Arabic language. In addition, she has a great passion for helping teachers to learn new methods and strategies in teaching Arabic language.

Thouraya Boubetra  (Website Arabic Content Reviewer) ( 2012- present)

Thouraya Boubetra graduated from Algiers University with a BA in Arabic Language and Literature. She worked as a journalist in a daily and weekly newspaper in Algeria and Lebanon, and as an Arabic language teacher in Lebanon and New Horizon School Pasadena.Thouraya worked also with the BIAE to improve the Arabic Language teaching by preparing supplementary material for teachers, and helped with “Haya Natakalamu Ma’an” as curriculum reviewer. Since 2010, she is the online education director in Aldeen foundation, and the online coordinator for the Aldeen Startalk summer program. She is currently also serving as an interim board member and the newsletter executive editor in National Arabic teacher association. Her goal at all times will be to help provide the Arabic teachers with the most recent strategies and effective techniques to teach Arabic as a foreign language,  and to promote the importance of professional networking between Arabic teachers.

Lina Kholaki (Co-Chair) (2012-present)

Lina Kholaki is an instructor of Arabic language and program coordinator & nbsp at University of Southern (USC). Graduated from Kuwait University 1981, moved to United States in 1982 where she proceeded with her education and completed her Masters in Human Development and adult Education. She began teaching Arabic at New Horizon Elementary and Middle School in Pasadena, where she remained on staff for thirteen years. Since 2001, Lina has been training Arabic teachers at the four New Horizon campuses for the Bureau of Islamic and Arabic Education and for the Aldeen Foundation.

Lina is the co-developer of Hayya Natakalam Maan, a landmark program for teaching Arabic language following the modern standards for Early Childhood Education. In addition Lina co-developed text book thorough San Diego University “Teaching Arabic through dialogue”. Lina is certified in standards-based instructional theory, design and assessment from Occidental College in Los Angeles, is a certified Arabic instructor in age-appropriate pedagogy from Early Childhood through Adult Education, and is a long-standing member of the American Council of Foreign Language Teachers.

In addition, Lina was a member of the Task Force Committee charged with drafting the Standards of Arabic as a Foreign Language for the 21st century for K-12, also a chair of connection standards for revised Standards 2012.

Lina has continued to be a Steering Committee member for curriculum development for the Arabic village of Concordia Language Villages since 2005. And she developed syllabus and material for Arabic learners at “Al-Waha” Arabic language village in summer 2005. She was a leader for Arabic teachers at the 2006 UCLA Arabic and Hebrew workshop.

She has developed programs for after-school clubs and Arabic cultural events since 2001, and presented her philosophy and experiences at numerous national conferences such as the National Conference of Less Common Taught Languages (UCLA, Los Angeles 2002), the American Council of Teachers of Foreign Languages (Philadelphia, 2003) and the Northeastern Conference (New York City, 2004), ACTFL 2004-05-06-07 also serves as a co-chair in ACTFL Learning Language for Children special interest group since 2005-06

Lina directed AldeenStartalk since 2008 Summer Teacher training and High school Arabic Student program.

Lina served as an Arabic instructor at California State University, San Bernardino 2006-2012.

Currently she is coordinating Arabic Language activities for Arabic language learners in Fall 2012 at USC, in addition she is participating and coordinating creating placement tests for USC students interested in learning Arabic. In addition she is going through her OPI certification through ACTFL.

Salma Kweider (Website English Content Reviewer) (2012- present )

Damascus, Syria is where I was born and where I learned and loved the Arabic language . I moved to the USA during my mid-teens and from the moment I set foot in this country, I started my journey in serving the Arabic Language and those seeking to learn it. In 1996, I started at Al-Nada Heritage Weekend School and I am still with them until the present time. There I taught Arabic to a variety of levels and ages: first as a Teacher’s Assistant, then as the main teacher.  I also had the opportunity to teach Arabic at a daily private Islamic School. Currently, I am the coordinator and the main Arabic teacher of the Sunday Program of New Horizon Elementary School, Irvine. Though I hold a B.S in biological Sciences from University of California Irvine, and an MPH in Nutrition from Loma Linda University, I discovered over the years that my real passion lies in being part of the movement to improve Arabic Language instructions inside the classrooms. I feel that being part of this is more significant than anything I can accomplish with my formal profession. I wish to contribute to this movement by setting reasonable and clear goals for every level, by spreading the standards developed for teaching Arabic, and by providing the teachers with resources that will increase their effectiveness in fulfilling their honorable mission.

   Ayman Ramadan ( 2016- present)

Ayman received his BA in English Language and Literature from Damascus University. Driven by his passion for Arabic, he completed his MA in Arabization, Translation and Simultaneous Interpretation. His interest in business organization led to Diploma in Management from the American Educational Institute in Bridgeport, Connecticut. Professor Ramadan’s teaching career began early in 1983 while still a student at the College of Letters at Damascus University. He has taught the intricacies of English and Arabic to novice, intermediate and advanced college students. He has joined The Department of Modern Languages and Literatures at Claremont McKenna College as a visiting Assistant professor of Arabic in 2009. He currently teaches at University of California Riverside and Cal State San Bernardino as well as translates and consults for several governments, non-profit and civil rights organizations.

Professor Ramadan teaches Arabic in a creative and energetic manner which produces an effective learning aura that actively engages students and makes the content easily understandable. His teaching methodology includes a good sense of humor; which he uses to forge an amazing bond with his students. His favorite quote is: learn to live and live to learn. He has helped translate “The Cooking of the Eastern Mediterranean” with the renowned author, Paula Wolfert, and was selected as an interpreter for the writer William Byre, author of the novel “Switch” (now a major motion picture). Ayman is currently busy updating “Proverbs and Sayings” in both Arabic and English.

Nacheda Baroud Tizani ( 2017- present )

Nacheda Baroud Tizani is an experienced language teacher who has been teaching Arabic at New Horizon School in Pasadena for the last 23 years.  She has a certificate in Early Childhood Education and has been an important part of developing curriculum for teaching Arabic.  Throughout the past 15 years, she has presented at various national conferences including: American Council of Teaching a Foreign Language (ACTFL), Islamic Society of North America (ISNA) East & West, California Association of Independent Schools (CAIS), National Council of Less Commonly Taught Languages (NCOLCTL), Northeast Conference on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (NECTFL), Startalk, and the Muslim Conference and the Southern California Arabic Language Teachers Council (SCATLC). Nacheda participated in selecting and writing comprehension questions for Aldeen Arabic reading program ARP, and she participated in training teachers on how to teach Arabic as a foreign language in Al Azhar school.  She also participated and instructed in a course entitled: Online Professional Development for Arabic Teachers, by the Aldeen foundation. She has been a master teacher, teaching Arabic for high school students, in the Aldeen Startalk summer program for the last five years. Recently taught Arabic on line for college students. She worked on formatting pictures for “Lughati Al-Islamiyya” and designing the assessment booklet of “Hayya Natakallam Maan”.  She has also developed language learning activities for “Hayya Natakallam Maan”, Level 4. Nacheda has helped to produce instruction materials for National Arabic Standards such as creating scenarios for teachers of Arabic to use in their classroom.  She worked with other volunteer teachers in founding and creating the National Arabic Teachers’ Association K-12, and is a member on the review committee for their newsletter. She also designed standards-based activities for beginner to low intermediate levels for Qatar Foundation International (QFI) and Bureau of Islamic and Arabic Education (BIAE). Nacheda is certified through the Nuraniyah method to teach the Qur’an to students. She has been sharing her experience and tools in teaching the Arabic language with Arabic teachers for over seventeen years. It is her goal to work with other Arabic teachers to enhance the teaching of the Arabic language

Former Executive CommittEe  members

Tayeb AlBarazi (Public Outreach) ( 2012-2016)

Tayeb is a retired computer specialist, is of Syrian decent. He taught Arabic and English to middle school students in Helefa, Syria in 1970. He then left to study in the United States, where he attended Northeastern Illinois University, at Chicago in which he received his double major degree in Political Science and Information Science in 1978. In the same year, he taught Arabic at Berletz School of Language for one year. He then worked for a computer company in Riyad, Saudi Arabia called Digital Equipment Cooperation as an operation manager. After that, he began teaching computer courses at the same company. In 1990, in Saudi Arabia, Tayeb taught Arabic to adult non Arabic speakers. In 1996, he permanently moved to the United States where he bought and managed gas stations. Tayeb’s advice to teachers who are teaching or going to teach Arabic is that they should only speak Arabic in classrooms. With that, they should also use images, PowerPoint presentations, hand gestures, and should take intensive courses on how to teach Arabic. Today, there is a mass interest in learning the Arabic language whether educationally or professionally. We should be prepared for that interest as best as possible.

Youssef Mossadaq (Secretary) (2012-2016)

Youssef Mossadaq is a teacher both by heart and by trade.  I have spent the last twenty-two years of life teaching languages at both private and public schools including elementary grades through college level well. As an Arabic teacher I took the initiative to launch Arabic courses at my high school, Roybal Learning Center since its opening in 2008.  My school prides itself in sustaining three sections of Arabic with a level three to be started in August 2013. Besides my teaching assignment, I handled leadership functions at my school.  In fact, I was lead teacher for my Small Learning Community, the Shared Decision Making Council, and the school accreditation steering committee. In addition to courses offered during the school year, I was successful in administering exceptional Summer Arabic sessions on Startalk grant for four consecutive years.  I was eventually able to create training and hiring opportunities for one former student and 2 Arabic teachers whom I recommended for employment. As an executive member I intent to advocate for meaningful and purposeful Arabic teaching and learning in our schools, create opportunities for training in order to help non credentialed teachers acquire experience and to facilitate their pathway towards certification. Because I believe in Classroom best practices, I plan to create professional developments prospects for teachers and trainees as well as teaching strategies exchange network to support teachers with hands on classroom techniques as well as lesson planning.  

Amal Sakr Elhoseiny (Membership) (2012-2016)

 Amal, born in Cairo, received a master degree in 1990 and Ph.D. degree in 1997 in German, Arabic language and literature from Cairo University in Egypt. She worked as a lecturer in the College of Education until 2000. 2000-2012, she worked as an Arabic teacher at New Horizon School Pasadena. 2004-2012, she has been the head of Arabic department in the Islamic Center of Southern California. In 2005, she participated in the translation of the national standards for Arabic. In 2005-2012, she presented in different conferences, e.g. MEC, ISNA, CAIS, SWCOLT, and ACTFL. In 2007 she attended Startalk / HADI Arabic teacher training program. In 2008-2012, she participated as a master Arabic teacher in Aldeen foundation / Startalk Student program. 2009-2012, she held the Membership Committee Chair and the Interim Vice President of the National Arabic Teacher Association. In 2010, she completed successfully the Nuraniyah method workshop that enhances learning and teaching Qur’an. 2010-2012, she taught Qur’an at New Horizon School in Pasadena.

Amal’s ultimate goal is to enable the learners of Arabic to connect with the Arab world and to better understand its cultures. On the other hand, she would like to enhance the Arabic teachers’ communication to exchange their expertise. This will allow them to work cooperatively to achieve our goals.

Randa Jad-Moussa ( Technology

Randa Jad-Moussa is the Director of Arabic at the University of San Diego and Instructor of Arabic Language and Literature. For the last seven years, she also taught Arabic at the University of California, San Diego. Professor Moussa’s career in second language education spans over 20 years and across K-12, college, professional and university settings in both ESL and Arabic. She is also an Instructional Designer and Technology Coach and Web Developer. In her classroom she has employed an integrated approach to teaching communicative Arabic and culture based on the National Standards and ACTFL proficiency guidelines in the four skills using available technologies and authentic material. She is a certified ACTFL/ILR Oral Proficiency Interview tester in Modern Standard Arabic and Lebanese as well as Egyptian Arabic.She held the position of School Site Coordinator for “Everyone A Reader” Reading Tutor Program for grades 1-3 for 6 years. She believes that her engaging, cultural-technological approach to teaching Arabic enables students to acquire language skills in a manner that keeps them engaged, motivated, and confident in their abilities to learn any language no matter how challenging. She has published on Educational Technology and presented at multiple national conferences including ACTFL and CLTA.