Alia Gilbrecht
Houston
Summary
Passionate educator with ten years of experience successfully spearheading, implementing, and expanding new and innovative projects and collaborations within the Palestinian and global higher education landscape. Proactive leader with a strong ability to assess and meet community needs through collaborations with diverse stakeholders.
Overview
14
14
years of professional experience
3
3
Certifications
Work History
Director of Virtual Exchange and Innovative Partnerships
An-Najah National University
09.2020 - Current
- Led an institution-wide initiative to cultivate and expand international virtual exchange (IVE) projects to facilitate transformative global learning and cross-cultural engagement opportunities within academic curricula
- Enabled over a thousand university participants to access quality IVE education through 50+ different courses
- Run a European Commission virtual mobility project 'CliVEx,' with MENA and European partners to engage 2500+ students and educators in cross-cultural virtual exchange and dialogue facilitation training on climate justice and sustainability
- Recipient of two grants from the Stevens Initiative to implement virtual exchange programming 1000 students from An Najah and Arizona State University through resilient building design for vulnerable communities in intercultural dialogue and collaborative project based learning
- Initiated and oversee student participation in a cross-cultural dialogue IVE program for course credit
- Grew student participation by five-fold in 2 years, resulting in An-Najah having the highest participant rate of over 200 partner institutions across MENA, Europe, Asia, and North America
- Member of the University's 21st Century Skills Committee
- Co-developed monitoring and evaluation of curriculum reform to enhance 21st Century Skills in students (June 2021-present)
- Organized and managed delegations and conferences, including over 50 events ranging from small local workshops, ceremonies, virtual student dialogues, and panel discussions to international and intercollegiate conferences
- Forged over 25 successful COIL partnerships and agreements and active programming.
Coordinator of Debate Education and Training
An-Najah National University
01.2017 - Current
- Founded the An-Najah University Debate Society in 2017, the first Palestinian debate team to be represented at the European and World Universities Debate Championships
- Team ranked in the top 5 teams in 2022 and top 10 in 2023 in the international and regional Arabic debate championships organized by Qatar Debate
- Organized the first 5 international debate championships in Palestine (2017-2023), first novice Arabic debate competition at An-Najah (online, 2020), and 4 hybrid national and international debate competitions (2019-2023)
- Created a for-credit elective course available to undergraduate students at An-Najah titled 'Introduction to Debate' (Spring 2020 - present)
- Created the 'Virtual Debate Seminar' program in 2021, bringing over a dozen high level political and human rights researchers and analysts to present on Palestine
- This has included a seminar collaboration with the European Universities Debating Championship's (EUDC) 2021 and Human Rights Watch.
U.S. Embassy Programs Coordinator
An-Najah National University
09.2013 - Current
- Coordinated communications for on behalf of University for all U.S. Embassy programs.
- Spearheaded and oversaw Fulbright Scholar projects (Core, Flex and Specialist), positioning An-Najah as the leading host among Palestinian universities
- Initiated two national intercollegiate conferences on American Studies with international keynote speakers and student research from across Palestine
- Initiated and served as Conference Coordinator for the first international conference in Nablus related to gender, patriarchy, and colonialism (April 2019) and the first TESOL national conference in the Northern West Bank (2023).
American Corner Nablus Coordinator
An-Najah National University
10.2013 - 12.2017
- Managed all aspects (budget, project design and implementation, assessment and reporting) of cultural exchange and professional development programs serving between 150-400 monthly participants from the University and local community
- These programs included girls coding camps, afterschool programming for secondary students related to sustainability and entrepreneurship, English and professional skills building workshops
- Increased annual budget for the American Corner Nablus programming by five-fold in 4 years.
Market Research Recruiter and Trainer
Fleischman Field Research
07.2010 - 02.2013
- Organized market research focus groups and interviews for clients in technology and gaming, such Xanga and twitter, as well as food and beverage companies
- Supported development of survey designs and led introduction to market research workshops/trainings
Education
Bachelor of Arts - Sociology
San Francisco State University
San Francisco, CACertification
COIL Design Workshop Certification (Issued by Florida International University, 2023)
International Conferences And Research
- Co-presented two research papers at the International Virtual Exchange Conference 2023, 'Assessment of International Virtual Exchange with Engineering Students from the US and Palestine: Educational Needs and Learning Opportunities in a Conflict Zone; 'Design Thinking, Social Entrepreneurship, and Cross Cultural Dialogue: A Case study of a Trinational virtual exchange.' Panelist, 'Emerging Voices'
- Enhancing Global Competencies through Cross Cultural Dialogue in International Virtual Exchange - Qatar Debate and Dialogue
- Co-Authored research 'Assessment of an International Virtual Exchange Project with Civil Engineering Students from the US and Palestine: Global Competencies, Perceived Value, and Teamwork' in the Journal of Engineering Education 2023
- Association of American Colleges & Universities' (AAC&U) 2022 Virtual Conference Transforming Global Learning Practice: Time for Action. Poster Session on 'Leverage International Virtual Exchange to Cultivate Diversity, Equity and Inclusion within Global Learning'
- 25th Annual Colloquium on International Engineering Education Connecting Engineering with the Humanities (ACIEE)Presenter 'Development of Pre-Engagement Modules to Promote Effective Intercultural Competency Through Cross-Cultural Dialogue for International Virtual Exchange (IVE)'
- Awarded research grant through the Stevens Initiative's 'Catalyzing Research in Virtual Exchange' to evaluate what competencies are strengthened through an international virtual exchange (IVE) project-based learning (PBL) experience (2022-present)
- Soliya's Summer 2021 Facilitation Fair (September 3rd, 2021) Led an international seminar for Soliya's dialogue facilitators on 'Integrating Debate Pedagogy into Cross-Cultural Dialogue Programming.'
- WAIMH 2021 17th World Congress Creating Stories in Infant Mental Health: Research, Recovery, Regeneration (June 22-26th, 2021) Brisbane Australia. Co-author of poster presentation on PAR research project completed 2020 'Young Children Living in On-Going Emergency Settings, A Cross Cultural Participatory Action Research.'
- British Council's Going Global 2021 Conference (June 15-17th) Presented on VE research findings from An Najah debate and cross-cultural dialogue programming. Panelist
- Erasmus+ Virtual Exchange Webinar 'Integrate Erasmus+ Virtual Exchange in your courses: examples and opportunities' (June 16th, 2020). Speaker
- IEEE Women in Engineering (WIE) Palestinian Leadership Conference (Nov. 9th, 2019) Ramallah, Palestine. Panelist
References
References available upon request
Volunteer Experience
- Cross-Cultural Dialogue Senior Facilitator, Coach, and Training Moderator for Soliya's Connect Programs (March 2021 - Present)
- Volunteer English teacher in Balata and Askar refugee camps, Palestine (2013 - 2014) through An-Najah National University.
- Volunteer youth listener, shift supervisor, and intern at LYRIC Youth Talkline for LGBTQ+ youth (2002-2004)
Timeline
Director of Virtual Exchange and Innovative Partnerships
An-Najah National University
09.2020 - Current
Coordinator of Debate Education and Training
An-Najah National University
01.2017 - Current
American Corner Nablus Coordinator
An-Najah National University
10.2013 - 12.2017
U.S. Embassy Programs Coordinator
An-Najah National University
09.2013 - Current
Market Research Recruiter and Trainer
Fleischman Field Research
07.2010 - 02.2013
Bachelor of Arts - Sociology
San Francisco State University
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