ILHAM NASSER
Ilham Nasser (ilham@iiit.org) is the director of the program in Human Development and a senior researcher, part of the Advancing Education in Muslim Societies Initiative, at the International Institute of Islamic Thought in Virginia. She is a researcher and an educator who spent over thirty years in scholarship and teaching in human development and education in different formal and non-formal settings in the U.S., Central Africa, and the Middle East. She completed a Ph.D. in Human Development and Child Study at the University of Maryland-College Park and worked for several years as a classroom teacher and a school counselor. Previously, she was a faculty of teacher education for 12 years (promoted to Associate Professor) at George Mason University. Dr. Nasser is the author of peer-reviewed books, journal articles, and book chapters in education and psychosocial aspects of learning. Her recent research focus is on teaching and learning as well as curriculum development in sociocultural and political contexts and ways these influence learners’ development. She has launched the first curriculum and regional research on forgiveness in the Arab World among teachers and youth. She also led the revisions of the kindergarten curriculum in Iraq and the writing of the first national curriculum for kindergarten in Palestine.