Dr. Ted Purinton is a scholar and an educational leader who most recently served as the Founding Dean of the Sharjah Education Academy, where he led the creation of transformative educational and research initiatives designed to improve educational performance across the Emirate of Sharjah. Prior to this role, he served as Senior Education Advisor for Bahrain’s Economic Development Board and Dean/Chief Executive of the Bahrain Teachers College, he led initiatives under the direction of the Prime Minister that doubled the College’s capacity, attained international accreditation, and established the Bahrain Leadership Centre to drive countrywide school improvement. Purinton has also served as Associate Provost of the American University in Cairo, where he led a pivot of the university's international and study abroad profile following the Arab Spring. Also at AUC, he served as the Dean of the university's Graduate School of Education, where he positioned the faculty of education as a regional leader on philanthropically-funded reform and development projects. Previously, as Chair of the Department of Educational Administration at National Louis University in Chicago, he transformed the department's suite of leadership programs into a nationally-leading hub for reform-focused leadership development, forging strategic partnerships with Teach for America and New Leaders for New Schools to foster evidence-based transformation in charter schools, urban school districts, as well as rural school districts. A sought-after consultant and board member, advising governments and educational organizations on issues such as organizational change, teacher development, and higher education reform, Purinton has collaborated extensively with educational bodies, multilateral agencies, consulting firms, and ministries on projects ranging from budget optimization to comprehensive education system redesign. He holds a doctorate in educational policy, planning, and administration from the University of Southern California.

DISRUPTING KNOWLEDGE SYSTEMS: STUDYING THE JURISDICTIONAL OPPORTUNITIES AND IMPACTS OF AI ON ACADEMIA AND EDUCATIONAL PROFESSIONS

While my research has long examined the sociological cycle of educator and academic professionalization, focusing on how the state utilizes evidence and academia to solidify professional jurisdiction, the emergence of artificial intelligence has introduced a significant disruption to established institutional-knowledge regimes. Throughout my career, I have observed how various occupational groups contend for supremacy over specific domains. Particularly in academia and the field of education, the cycle of evidence production, evidence use certification, peer mediation of practice, and state regulation of practice has been thoroughly institutionalized. Yet, AI now presents a unique jurisdictional conflict that challenges traditional academic authorization while simultaneously offering a mechanism for equity in lesser-resourced environments. My recent work, including the paper "The Emerging AI Professional-Occupational Jurisdictional Conflict Among Higher Education Faculty and School-Level Educators," explores how this technological change disrupts professional groups within the global understanding of educational institutions. In the coming years, I intend to further investigate how researchers and scholars can interpret these shifts through sociological and economic evidence to ensure that the fields of academia and education remain responsive to the needs of diverse populations.

BEYOND POLICY BORROWING: BUILDING HUMAN CAPITAL AND EDUCATIONAL CAPACITY THROUGH LOCALIZED DIAGNOSTICS

I am currently working on a new book, Skills versus Science: The Conundrums of Emergent Knowledge Systems, which examines the neo-institutional, cross-border, transnational flow of two interwoven reform streams: the pursuit of research excellence for international rankings and the increasing mandate for labor market-ready training. This work is driven by my repeated professional observation that global education often relies on "policy borrowing" or the adoption of international best practices without a sufficient understanding of their historical purposes; consequently, I argue that practices intended to build human capital should be derived from within the specific cultural and social context of a society. By stripping away superficial trends and focusing on the fundamental scientific and pedagogical processes, academic institutions can better educate for the future while maintaining research integrity. In addition to this book, I am exploring opportunities to disseminate these findings through a more practitioner-oriented lens, including a dedicated Substack and/or a podcast series focused on real-world problems of practice.

GLOBAL ENGAGEMENT & TRANSNATIONAL LEADERSHIP

I have held primary residential and institutional appointments in the United States, Egypt, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates, and Poland. However, the whole of my professional reach has extended across a global landscape. My leadership has facilitated the development and delivery of academic programs that have engaged learners in over 40 countries (via digital/hybrid programs), supported by a diverse workforce representing more than 30 distinct passport nationalities. This international breadth is further reflected in the student populations I have overseen, which have included enrollment from over 100 countries and active recruitment corridors spanning 80 nationalities. Such extensive cross-border engagement has required a nuanced understanding of varied regulatory environments and cultural expectations to ensure that educational outputs remain locally relevant. Beyond direct institutional management, I have orchestrated and led complex international partnerships and academic consortia that connect institutions across 60 countries. My experience encompasses strategic initiatives and research collaborations in North America, East Asia, Central Asia, South Asia, and the Middle East, as well as focused development work in Sub-Saharan Africa, North Africa, and throughout Western, Central, and Eastern Europe. I have focused on the adaptation of high-quality educational models to serve different national priorities.

FIDELITY OF PLACE: RETHINKING LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT FOR THE COMMUNITY-FOCUSED LEADER

In collaboration with Carlos Azcoitia, I am developing a new framework for leadership in our forthcoming book, The Fidelity of Place: A Diagnostic Framework for Coaching Community-Focused Leaders. This work, which reflects a central theme of my career, posits that leadership development should shift away from the transmission of prescriptive strategies and toward the cultivation of diagnostic capacity. While traditional mentorship and leadership training/education often involves experienced practitioners providing anecdotal advice that may not translate across different contexts, our approach emphasizes the cognitive processes and evidence-based inquiry required to interpret local cultural and historical factors. We argue that true professional independence is achieved when a leader moves beyond "bulleted strategies" to become a learner of the local context; this ensures that interventions are precisely tailored to the unique gravitational forces of the community rather than being imported as ineffective, generic templates.

SCHOOL IMPROVEMENT THROUGH CAPACITY DEVELOPMENT

As a member of the founding leadership team for the Sharjah Education Academy, I helped establish an institution dedicated to raising educational and academic capacity through globally-infused qualifications and localized research. This work was built on the recognition that while regulation can inspire improvement, sustainable progress is achieved through a cycle of professional learning that empowers individual practitioners to make evidence-based decisions within their specific environments. This initiative reflects my previous experiences in Bahrain, Egypt, and Chicago, where I focused on equipping leaders with the diagnostic capacity to solve complex problems of practice. My paper in the Gulf Education and Social Policy Review, "Interpreting Reform of the Academic Field of Education in the MENA Region," highlights the role that localized academic organizations play in advancing education across the GCC and MENA regions.

RECALIBRATING EDUCATIONAL SYSTEMS FOR PRIVATE SECTOR READINESS IN BAHRAIN

Between January 2018 and December 2022, I served as Senior Education Advisor for the Economic Development Board of Bahrain and Dean/Chief Executive of the Bahrain Teachers College (BTC). BTC was opened in 2008 through partnership with the National Institute for Education in Singapore. I developed and implemented a ten-year education quality and teacher labor-flow capacity plan, occurring within the dual context of a streamlining government sector and a private sector-shifting labor market. I also advised on policy and provided technical expertise to the Office of the Prime Minister on tertiary reform and regulation, school system design, educational labor management, research and evaluation for national human capital goals, strategic enrollment management, revenue generation, evidence-based budgeting, and facilities repurposing. Key outcomes of my work in Bahrain included the doubling of BTC’s budget, staffing, and enrollment; modernization of BTC’s regulations and support systems; implementation of sustainable capacity building programs; revision of all college curricula to be more broad-based, skills-oriented, and locally relevant; development of new programs to serve key professional groups within the Ministry of Education; and launch of the Bahrain Leadership Centre to formalize and consolidate country-wide school improvement efforts through evidence-based practices in both school leadership and classroom instruction. By partnering with embassies of the UK, Thailand, US, and France, I brought instrumental resources to the college. By partnering with Boston University, I brought a leading masters degree program to be delivered for the distinct purpose of educational leadership development in Bahrain. I initiated contracts with the Harvard University Graduate School of Education to bring its Project Zero to Bahrain. I also oversaw contracts with the Zurich University of Teacher Education to provide job preparation within teacher education curricula; Kent State University Ohio to modernize assessment practices; the University of Oulu Finland to provide special education development; and Edraak/Queen Rania Foundation to develop MOOCs for teacher preparation in Arabic. These initiatives and partnerships, along with the successful attainment of accreditation by the US-based Council for the Accreditation of Educator Preparation (CAEP), sustained a flow of the global knowledge base for education to Bahrain, positively highlighting the country’s investment reputation and serving as a model for globally-oriented higher education. I also led multiple projects, both structural and evaluatory, for a full-scale restructure of the Ministry of Education. And I delivered on a government plan for BTC’s autonomy, accountable to a governing board.

BUILDING A DEVELOPMENT HUB FOR EDUCATION IN NORTH AFRICA

As Dean of the American University in Cairo Graduate School of Education, previously Associate Dean, I collaboratively built the college from its founding. Created to provide an American-style faculty of education at the premier Egyptian university, it became indispensable to multilateral organizations, NGOs, governments, universities, and schools in North Africa on matters related to higher education policy, educational planning and development, STEM/STEAM education, and digital education. By expanding its reach within the university and across the country, region, and continent, I showed how strategic networks and partnerships provide institutional and governmental backing for the development and dissemination of locally-adapted global knowledge for education and education reform. Having worked closely with governmental and non-governmental organizations, embassies, development foundations, private firms, and multilateral organizations, I created school-based professional renewal programs, implanted high impact practices in public universities and schools, built capacity for university leadership within the region and continent, and implemented international programs for development and the diffusion of professional knowledge. My responsibility was to position the faculty to be a leader of education reform in Egypt by bringing to Egypt the global knowledge base of educational research and innovation. But to do so, I also had to move the faculty into a financially prosperous and academically stable position. I accomplished both simultaneously by matching new programs to well-defined audience markets; creating blended/online programs to reach teachers in rural areas of Egypt; building international partnerships with well-regarded universities; and positioning the college to be a primary source of educational expertise for publishers, academic networks, development agencies, diplomatic missions, and researchers. I created, expanded, and strengthened outreach programs that fostered community and national goodwill, and in doing so, I increased revenue and gifts for the college. Through the college, I brought to Egypt innovations that had not been seen in the country, such as liberal arts leadership, STEM/STEAM education techniques, interactive classroom technologies, and much more. By the time I left, scholars around the world interested in educational issues in Egypt and the Middle East would uniformly seek out the support, expertise, and input of the faculty.

REIMAGINING AND SUSTAINING AUC DURING A TIME OF CRISIS

Also at AUC, I served as Associate Provost, responsible for strategic initiatives, academic administration, institutional partnerships, academic policies, online and MOOC offerings, accreditations, study abroad programs, and international student and faculty mobility. I stepped into this position in the midst of the country’s political and economic turmoil in 2013; my immediate task was to rebuild the university’s long-standing relationships with academic, governmental, diplomatic, NGO, charitable, and private sector institutions around the world, as well as to envision and enact new relationships and markets that would reshape and sustain the university for the decades ahead. In doing so, I opened up opportunities for new markets of students from across Africa and Asia; crafted partnerships for research consortia and dual/joint degrees; shaped domestic institutional relationships aimed at applying AUC's expertise to problems within local communities; and identified clever ways to ensure that the university’s historic financial reliance on American study-abroad students could be converted to other sources. In sum, I successfully handled crisis management before COVID-19 made it vogue, as I achieved the above results in a constantly changing country leadership, a declining economic stability, a rapidly deteriorating currency, the constant threats of terrorism, and regular social upheaval.

BUILDING RELEVANCY, EXPANDING NATIONALLY, & ENGAGING WIDELY AT NATIONAL LOUIS UNIVERSITY CHICAGO

In leading the Department of Educational Administration at National Louis University (NLU) in Chicago, I transformed it into a relevant, nationally-focused faculty, able to partner with national charter networks, Teach for America, and the Teacher Union Reform Network, as well as many other organizations and networks, in order to broaden the department’s scope and revenue and to increase its reputation among academics, policymakers, and donors. From 2006 to 2011, I was privileged to be on the faculty of NLU, an historic, community-based institution that contributed widely to educational policy and innovation in Chicago since 1886. Yet during my time there, university-based teacher and leadership certification increasingly faced public criticism across the US. So to ensure that my department and university were on the forefront of national-level reforms, I initiated partnerships with charter school networks, local school coalitions, teacher union reform networks, and other groups. I also worked closely with local and state governments on school finance reform, as well as on teacher and school leader preparation reform, progressive teacher unionism, and museum education leadership. Under my leadership across the three states for which the department worked (Illinois, Wisconsin, and Florida), our principal and superintendent preparation programs were nationally recognized by politicians, educational reformers, and governmental bodies. As a key example, I led the total revision of our doctoral program in educational leadership to be one of the leading progressive practice-based doctoral programs in the country, drawing principals from charter schools and school districts from across the country. Upon completion, we had school leaders from all the major national-level charter school networks flying into Chicago on a monthly basis for our blended/online and completely relevant programs.

SCALING-UP BEST PRACTICES TO REACH MARGINALIZED COMMUNITIES

Prior to academia, I spent a few years working as a researcher with a US federally-funded education agency (North Central Regional Educational Laboratory, now Midwest Regional and integrated into the American Institutes for Research), as well as a school district administrator in Los Angeles (Paramount Unified School District). In these roles, I conducted program evaluation for large-scale governmental reforms, led school district policy technical assistance, developed and delivered professional development to school district leaders, headed adult ESL programs, headed gifted and talented programs, designed and managed a community-based English tutoring program, and oversaw a federally-funded supplemental educational services program. My approach to all these tasks was to utilize evidence, design flexible scale-up models, and closely monitor implementation.

INSPIRING YOUTH THROUGH RIGOROUS & ENGAGING TEACHING

I spent the first six years of my career as an English teacher in three different schools throughout Los Angeles--Long Beach, San Pedro, and Anaheim. In each, I honed the ability to increase academic achievement as well as engagement in learning among diverse students, many of whom faced significant socio-economic disadvantages. I also had the privilege to lead a school during its summer school programs, overseeing instruction, staff, and operations.

RESEARCH INTO ACTION

My research focuses on the political, social, and economic dynamics of educator and academic professionalism, internationalization, educational research, school and university governance, and school and higher education policy. My books include Knowledge Mobility is the New Internationalization: Guiding Educational Globalization One Educator at a Time, co-authored with Jennifer Skaggs (Lexington/Rowman & Littlefield, 2022); Designing Global Quality Teacher Professional Development Programs, co-edited with Osama Al Mahdi (IGI Global, 2022); American Universities Abroad: Leadership of Transnational Higher Education, co-edited with Jennifer Skaggs (Oxford University Press/AUC Press, 2017); Creating Engagement between Schools & Their Communities: Lessons from Educational Leaders, co-edited with Carlos Azcoitia (Lexington Books, 2016); Six Degrees of School Improvement: Empowering a New Profession of Teaching (IAP, 2011); and Making Sense of Social Networks in Schools, co-authored with Terry Deal and Daria Cook Waetjen (Corwin Press, 2008, American Association of School Administrators book selection). I have written approximately 40 papers on educational research, school governance, transnational higher education, and school funding and have authored numerous policy papers, legislative briefs, and M&E reports. I am currently developing two new volumes: Skills versus Science: The Conundrums of Emergent Knowledge Systems and, in cooperation with Carlos Azcoitia, The Fidelity of Place: A Diagnostic Framework for Coaching Community-Focused Leaders.

IMPROVING THE QUALITY AND RELEVANCE OF TRANSNATIONAL HIGHER EDUCATION

Much of my leadership, and quite a bit of my research, is focused on the challenges of transnational higher education. Unlike standard internationalization (which usually focuses on human mobility), transnational higher education refers, in part, to the transplanting of organizations, structures, curricula, and/or staff from other countries into the host country. These institutions straddle foreign concepts with local regulations and customs. Whether an American-style university in Africa, a Singaporean curriculum in the Middle East, a British accreditation in Asia, a Chinese-based global university ranking system in North America, or the recruitment of European staff for a faculty in South America, transnational higher education is a growing and fascinating field in which to work and research. My recent book with Jennifer Skaggs (Knowledge Mobility is the New Internationalization: Guiding Educational Globalization One Educator at a Time, Lexington/Rowman & Littlefield) is a sociologically-based strategic approach to improving the quality of educational service delivery in developing countries through the dissemination mechanisms of increasingly internationalized faculties of education. Whereas previous forms of higher education internationalization have focused on mobility of individuals (e.g., students from a developing country traveling to the UK for a university degree; students from an American liberal arts college traveling to Europe for study abroad; faculty members from an Australian university traveling to Central Asia for technical assistance in the field of their specialization), our argument is that knowledge work--and knowledge-based solutions--have been left out of the academic globalization equation. When it comes specifically to the professions of education, and the rapidly expanding evidence-base for practice, human mobility will provide less uniform and long-term impact than knowledge mobility. We argue that, while cultural differences in education are still relevant, the developed world has come to core agreements about the evidence base on educational practice, and getting that evidence base to developing countries should be a core responsibility for any established faculty of education. Ultimately, if a knowledge base cannot cross borders, its professional standing will be weakened. The field of medicine recognized this long ago and has been clear about the distinctions between the science that does not change across borders, despite cultural differences on issues such as bedside manner, health priorities, and so forth. We believe that every established faculty of education in the world has a responsibility to culminate and disseminate its knowledge base so that all educators--whether working in universities, schools, ministries, training centers--are equipped with skills that will impact human capacity. 

My previous book with Jennifer Skaggs (American Universities Abroad: Leadership of Transnational Higher Education, published in 2017 by Oxford University Press) is a compilation of essays written by presidents and provosts of the various universities that are a part of either the Global Liberal Arts Alliance or the Association of American International Colleges and Universities. Their essays portray the complications of transnational institutional leadership. Their universities are either branded as American or have adopted an American-style liberal arts approach. Yet they work in countries with very different traditions, and often staffed by people who have not studied or worked in the US. From the president of the American University in Nigeria, who organized a university-wide food campaign for the refugees fleeing the terrorism of Boko Haram, to the President of International Christian University in Tokyo, who persists in exclaiming the values of a broad-based intellectual education, each of these leaders shared their personal stories and strategies about how they make transnational higher education work well. In addition to these books, I have spoken widely and written many articles on related topics for journals such as Change: The Magazine for Higher Learning, Liberal Education, and the Diplomatic Courier. I have also spoken widely on university rankings, particularly as they quietly coerce countries and universities in developing and emerging countries to pursue expensive strategies that provide minimal impact to their growing populations’ need to access high quality tertiary education. One key element of my work has been the application of liberal arts education strategies for the prevention of extremism and terrorism. In addition to the works previously mentioned, I am continuing my collaboration with Lucy Bailey on several projects concerning educational shifts in the Middle East. While our paper "Transnational Education in the Gulf Cooperation Council: Shifting Priorities in a Period of De-globalisation" was recently published, we are currently working on a new chapter titled "Conceptualising the University-State Relationship in the Middle East and North Africa". This research complements my broader interest in the conundrums of emergent knowledge systems, exploring how transnational institutions must navigate the delicate balance between global research expectations and local socioeconomic needs.

PRODUCING & DISSEMINATING EVIDENCE FOR EDUCATIONAL PRACTICE AROUND THE WORLD

Perhaps the center of all my research endeavors is a topic that drives all of my leadership and has been the core of my entire career: building the knowledge base, diffusion mechanisms, and internal quality assurance structures to support a unified, rigorous, impactful profession of education. Given that professions both control the terms of work within fields and drive improvements to the quality of provisions within those fields, any established profession works within a cycle of trust between society and the professional actors: universities produce research and teach it to students of their professional programs; graduates of those programs are equipped to deliver a high standard of service; they work in organizations that give them the rights to monitor the quality of their own work, as the knowledge base is often too complex for a non-specialist to comprehend; and all of those features are accepted by society, governments, and clients, as the outcomes meet the expectations of society. These steps are explained in finely grained detail in my book, Six Degrees of School Improvement: Empowering a New Profession of Teaching (IAP, 2011). This book has been described by policymakers and educators as the core guidebook to building and enhancing the profession of education, while also increasing the learning outcomes of students in both schools and universities. It also guides my leadership behavior, as well as my strategic actions, on a daily basis. My recent book with Jennifer Skaggs (Knowledge Mobility is the New Internationalization: Guiding Educational Globalization One Educator at a Time, Lexington/Rowman & Littlefield) extends the 2011 book with a step-by-step guide on how to build the profession across national borders, and it comes directly from my own professional experiences in doing this work in the Middle East and Africa. I also co-edited a volume on international practice-lending in teacher professional development with Osama Al-Mahdi, Global Perspectives on Teacher Performance Improvement (IGI Global, 2022). In addition to these three books, I have spoken widely on these topics and have written for many journals including Educational Management Administration and Leadership, Global Commons Review, Educational Considerations, Teachers College Record, Action in Teacher Education, International Journal of Leadership in Education, Journal of the World Universities Forum, and Inquiry in Education. I have also written many book chapters for projects on school leadership in Africa, STEM/STEAM education applications in Egypt, global educational leadership knowledge in the Middle East, and more.

BUILDING TRUST, IMPROVING THE ORGANIZATION OF WORK, & SUPPORTING COMMUNITIES

My doctoral advisor, Terrence Deal, one of the principle academic founders of modern organizational theory, led me into the early and emerging study of social network analysis as a way of understanding the social structure of schools, influencing knowledge flow, collaboration, trust, and motivation among teachers within schools. This resulted in our 2008 (Corwin Press) book, Making Sense of Social Networks in Schools, a book that has been widely used in graduate school leadership preparation programs. This work inspired many follow-up studies, contributing to the hunger within schools for knowledge on how to use this exciting new field of study to improve the quality of work relationships within schools. In an attempt to bridge this research methodology to the also-emerging concept of community schools, I began to pursue the leadership strategies of principals of community-based schools. This has resulted in a book with Carlos Azcoitia (Creating Engagement between Schools & their Communities: Lessons from Educational Leaders, Lexington Books, 2016). I have also written many articles on related topics, in both journals and mainstream press, including Catalyst Chicago, Huffington Post, Principal Leadership, Phi Delta Kappan, the Asia Pacific Journal of Contemporary Education and Communication Technology, and the Oxford Encyclopedia of Educational Administration. This work has been particularly important, as trust between society and governmental institutions, all around the world, has declined significantly in the past two decades. Carlos and I are writing a new book titled Competencies for School and University Leadership in Community-based, Multicultural, and International Environments.

SHAPING EFFICIENT & EFFECTIVE EDUCATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS THROUGH POLICY & MANAGEMENT

I have never had the luxury of leading in an organization that was not going through some form of austerity. The reality is that whether private or governmental, all educational organizations throughout the world are simultaneously facing shrinking budgets and expanding outcomes expectations. Instead of worrying or complaining, I have essentially made a career out of turning difficult situations around by restructuring, re-envisioning, and re-equipping organizations. Often, this has meant looking for external resources. But even then, external resources cannot compensate for the needs of organizations to think differently about how to use their stretched budgets. In Bahrain, I have been working closely with the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Finance and National Economy, the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister, and an external reorganization consulting firm to shape the labor market flow through school and tertiary education systems in the country. And at the American University in Cairo, I was put in charge of redesigning the university’s academic budgets within the framework of “responsibility-based” budgeting strategies. But both these efforts were informed by my work with the Illinois General Assembly (state legislature), the Illinois State Board of Education, and a high-level political task force that I co-chaired with Michelle Turner Mangan on redesigning the funding model for governmental educational institutions across the state. Using “adequacy” models, we were able to influence policy beyond finance, as our models provided an evidence-based approach to staffing and organizing educational institutions. In addition to policy reports, we both spoke widely around the country on our efforts and published papers on our work in journals such as the Journal of School Business Management and the Illinois School Board Journal.

TRANSFORMING EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS THROUGH DIGITIZATION

While not an area in which I have published, my digital leadership efforts have been a cornerstone to my achievements in enrollment management, curriculum delivery, partnership development, capacity building, and much more. In Bahrain, before my departure, I instituted a digitally-based partnership with Boston University for a dual graduate degree program intended for in-country capacity building. I have worked closely with Microsoft providers in Bahrain to transform workflows in the organization so that staff can be more efficient and more creative with their work. In Egypt and Illinois, I developed and managed blended/online programs to reach participants from all across the respective countries. For example, the state of Wisconsin worked directly with me to engage rural school district superintendents in a doctoral program; private sector donors in Egypt worked directly with me to engage rural teachers and school leaders all across Egypt who had no access to high quality professional development. I shaped a partnership with the Queen Rania Foundation’s Edraak MOOC organization to allow AUC faculty to be central to the task of disseminating high quality and affordable online education in Arabic to the Middle East region. Campus closures in 2020 caused barely any disruption to BTC’s programming, as I had already situated the college for digital educational delivery. As we move into the next decade, I am excited about all the new opportunities for educational engagement that digital technologies will provide. At the Sharjah Education Academy, I directed the accreditation of eight academic programs that were the first in the UAE to be approved as hybrid offerings in both English and Arabic. These efforts, alongside previous programs in Egypt and Illinois that utilized blended learning to reach rural educators, demonstrate how technology can be utilized to disseminate high-quality professional knowledge regardless of geographic barriers.

INTENTIONAL, STRUCTURAL, & STRATEGIC SUPPORT FOR DIVERSITY

As an organizational leader, a manager, an educator, and a scholar, my driving force has always been about using the privileges that I personally have to support people (students, employees, families, etc.) who do not have my privileges. When I was a high school student, I became highly active in anti-racism campaigns, and as a result, won the Annual Humanitarian Award from the Orange County (CA) Human Relations Commission at 17 years old. As a teacher, some of my assignments were in highly underprivileged schools; and in all cases, I have never presided over a homogenous classroom. As a university teacher, the same has been true--whether supporting aspiring school leaders who want to make their schools safer and more welcoming for all students or mentoring young Egyptians who just want to break free from the colonialist history that has kept them from reaching their dreams, my very purpose in pursuing my career path has been to contribute directly and substantially to fairness and justice. Finally, in presiding over highly diverse faculties representing more than thirty nationalities within two different GCC countries, I have had the profound opportunity to learn from a global spectrum of perspectives while shaping a unified research and educational environment.

LEADERSHIP PHILOSOPHY

Throughout my career, my direct reports continually express that through my leadership, I make them visible, important, and valued. Particularly in my leadership work in which I oversee highly diverse staffs, I have been publicly recognized for improving organizational culture, creating buy-in for efficiencies, and building institutional trust. The following comments provide a glimpse into how I achieve grand goals while also ensuring staff trust and confidence. First, leadership behavior clinging intently to either of the far spectrums of collaboration or top-down management never works. A leader must be strong and decisive, but that approach alone will fail. A leader must be collegial, but that too, on its own, will not encourage forward progression. 

I am a leader who develops a vision with my colleagues and stakeholders. I move toward that goal steadfastly, but I am never afraid to stop, ask for directions, and proceed with caution. I know that any initiative must be based on a common understanding of what is best. Occasionally that means I must advocate for my ideas. And always that means I must instill confidence in those around me. Second, organizational science clearly articulates the challenge of leadership in not-for-profit institutions. In contrast to for-profit institutions, which have clear indicators of success (and several markers within markets), not-for-profit institutions have ill-defined goals that are susceptible to differing opinions. Such a leader has an obligation to be collaborative within the organization and across all stakeholder groups. Just as price and market signals provide information to for-profit institutions, stakeholders provide information to not-for-profit institutions. A clear recognition of multiple stakeholder viewpoints is essential for appropriate and sustainable decision-making. Additionally, goals in not-for-profit institutions are values-based; maintaining open dialogue allows for values to be communicated throughout the institution and to penetrate planning and decision-making processes. Third, the importance of respect for diverse opinions, backgrounds, agendas, ideas, and people cannot be emphasized enough. In everything that I do, I demonstrate my commitment to fostering high regard for diversity of people and ideas. I remind myself of this each day and strive to put in check my immediate assumptions about people and ideas. Fourth, my academic background mostly focuses on organizational theory. My mentor (and later, co-author), Terrence Deal, one of the founders of the field, taught me to be a leader who shapes the culture of an organization. As the leadership consultant to CEOs of companies like Southwest Airlines, Terry recognized that there are tangible ways to give people in the motivation and goals they need to do their work effectively and efficiently. My leadership is a direct result of his advice. I seek to understand how organizations function and what encourages people to work collaboratively for the good of their institution. Finally, an academic leader must be a conduit between faculty members and the field. Information should flow both ways. Such a leader must communicate to the world the value of the work of the faculty; and as a result, the leader should create new opportunities for faculty members to do their work and should bring in financial and other resources to support it. At the same time, a leader must communicate to the faculty the changing landscapes of the fields in which they work. A leader should inspire faculty members to recognize the ways in which their work must adapt to current practices and changing social, political, and economic dynamics. This sort of leadership is what I believe academia requires in the years and decades ahead. As expectations for universities shift within society, it is this particular role that I seek to enhance in my own leadership behavior.

I intended for these values and beliefs to manifest in my daily behavior in the following ways. (1) Empowerment of individuals and teams. I believe that micromanagement kills enthusiasm. I also believe that diversity must be present in every aspect of decision-making and production. As a leader, I seek to provide constant feedback with plentiful opportunities to change direction, learn from mistakes, teach me what I may not know, etc. (2) Conduit Between Institution &  the External Environment. My main external role as a leader is to communicate the value of the institution's personnel's work and secure resources. I seek constant communication with personnel and  governance regarding the changing landscapes of their fields. And I aim to ensure that the public, media, politicians, institutions, families, and businesses know my team well. (3) Credit Where Credit is Due. Organizational achievements never occur solely through a leader's actions. Shared governance, especially in higher education, exists because it has proven to be effective. Capacity building is a precondition to excellence. Thus, I aim to put people in places where they can obtain opportunities to receive their due credit.

TEACHING PHILOSOPHY

My teaching philosophy is centered on the conviction that education must be rigorous, engaging, and fundamentally relevant to the learner’s specific context. Having begun my career as an English teacher in diverse schools throughout Los Angeles, I learned that effective instruction requires building bridges between students’ existing experiences and complex academic concepts. In the sphere of higher education, I utilize technology to expand access and deepen engagement, as seen in my efforts to disseminate high-quality online education in Arabic across the Middle East. Ultimately, I believe that teaching must be inextricably linked to real life; thus, I have focused on, for example, transforming academic programs into practice-based doctoral models that empower professionals to address real-world challenges through a diagnostic and evidence-based lens.

PROFESSIONAL-SCHOLARLY VALUES

I have maintained this list since I was 16 years old, revising slightly every few years. These are professional-scholarly values (to some extent, philosophies) that I rely upon to guide my leadership, research, teaching, and behavior: (1) Global knowledge and local culture can amalgamate, but only when each side is open to the other. (2) While food, shelter, health and security are essential to development, few other things can offer more impact than education that is, in its deepest pursuit, intended to provoke human transformation. (3) Knowledge can lead to enlightenment, and skill can lead to dignity. But not always. (4) Employability and tertiary-to-work transitions in increasingly technological, competitive, and globalized labor environments are preconditions to prosperity and security. (5) Pursuit of truth in the modern world is best mediated through modern academic processes and norms. For better or for worse, those norms are usually tacit. (6) The only form of development that holds legitimacy is that which is fully possessed by the community, and for which sustainability is intrinsic to the plan.