Instructor Information
Dr. Salah Ayari & Ms. Iman Hashem د. صلاح عياري وأ. ايمان هاشم
Dr. Salah Ayari is an Assistant Professor of Arabic and the Director of the Arabic and Asian Language Office at Texas A&M University. He has taught Arabic at the K-12 and college level for over 14 years. He continues to be involved with K-12 Arabic programs through training and regular site visits to K-12 Islamic schools. Since 2007, he has also taught short term courses to teachers of Arabic through the STARTALK summer program run by Concordia College. He also served as the Chair of the ACTFL Arabic Special Interest Group from 2008 to 2010. Dr. Ayari earned his Ph.D. in Curriculum and Instruction from the University of Minnesota in 1997.
Iman 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, and CLTA's President's Award for Leadership in Language Education in 2003.
