My Background

Before joining the OISE Higher Education program, I was a Visiting Assistant Professor of International Comparative Education at Teachers College, Columbia University. In this role, I was affiliated with the Middle East Institute at Columbia, and the Sheikh Saud Bin Saqr Al Qasimi Foundation in Ras Al-Khaimah, UAE. I joined Teachers College from FHI360’s Education Policy and Data Center in Washington DC, where I was a Senior Research Associate.

In 2014, I completed a PhD in International and Comparative Education and Sociology and Education at Stanford University’s Graduate School of Education. I have researched various aspects of globalization’s effect on education, including: textbook portrayals of globalization, the growth of English language learning, and the privatization of higher education.

My dissertation examined the privatization of higher education worldwide and specifically, the process of higher education policy reform in Jordan, Morocco, and Tunisia. I was a 2013-2014 Spencer Dissertation Fellow. I have also received dissertation research grants from the Council of American Overseas Research Centers (CAORC), the American Institute for Maghrebi Studies (AIMS) and an NSEP Boren Fellowship to carry out fieldwork in Jordan, Morocco and Tunisia. Additionally, in 2011-2012, I was the recipient of an NSF Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant, which I am using to compile a database of university enrollments in public and private universities worldwide from 1955-2010.

I also have a regional specialization in the Middle East and North Africa, where I have studied the expansion of higher education in the region, and the link between education and employment. I was a Fulbright grantee to Morocco in 2006, and was a recipient of a Critical Language Scholarship to Oman in 2008. I have presented research in conferences in Morocco, Egypt and Turkey, Canada, and throughout the US, including at the American Sociological Association (ASA), Middle East Studies Association (MESA), and American Educational Research Association (AERA).

In addition to my academic research, I have as a consultant and researcher with numerous non-profits and international development organizations. I am currently a consultant with FHI 360 on the Middle East Education, Research Training and Support Initiative, funded by the USAID’s Middle East Bureau.

From 2010-2012, I served as a Research Assistant for the Arab Reform Project at Stanford University’s Freeman Spogli Institute (FSI). I have also carried out consultancies for the Academy for Educational Development (AED) in Morocco, Save the Children in Egypt, and the Syrian Trust for Development in Damascus. I speak Modern Standard Arabic, as well as the Moroccan and Levantine dialects and French. I hold a Masters of Arts in Sociology from Stanford, and a Bachelor of Arts in Educational Studies and Sociology/Anthropology from Swarthmore College, where I graduated with Highest Honors. 

I currently live in Toronto, where I love biking, exploring Toronto’s diverse neighborhoods, eating my way through the city’s dynamic animal-friendly food scene, photography (see below!), and taking advantage of Toronto’s direct flights to multiple continents!