Faculty

OUR EXPERIENCED FACULTY are all gifted language instructors who have worked as Arabic teachers at universities in the US and abroad. Our students continually bring us positive reports on how much they learned from our incredible team of educators. In the words of one 2003 graduate of the ALS Associate Degree program: "Every single one of the instructors was positively amazing. I never experienced the one-on-one attention and positive affirmation from my previous professors."

Students unanimously agree that our team of professors and teaching assistants is different: each of them is committed to helping every student grow to the best of his or her abilities. They take personal interest in every student.

DR. TAWFIQ HUSSEIN is the ALS director and coordinator. He is also a professor of Arabic and teaches the advanced and post-advanced classes in Modern Standard Arabic. Dr. Hussein was born in Bethlehem and received his B.A. Arabic Literature from Hebron University. He received his Master’s and Doctoral degrees in comparative classical literature. He has over 20 years of experience teaching Arabic as a second language, and has co-authored a text book for second and third year students.

NURA RASHID is an Assistant Professor of Modern Standard Arabic. In addition to teaching beginning classes in MSA, Nura also teaches classes in Levantine dialect. Originally from Damascus, Syria, she received her undergraduate degree in Educational Linguistics from the American University of Beirut. During the summer, she worked as an Arabic teacher at AUB’s Arabic Language Institute. She plans to go on to graduate school and eventually obtain her Ph.D. in Educational Linguistics.

MOHAMED HANI HAFEZ was born in Algeria. He received his B.S. in Engineering from the L’ecole technique in Marseilles, France. While a student, he worked as a teacher’s assistant for the foreign language department and tutored students of Arabic. After completing his degree, he returned to Algeria and worked as a French-Arabic translator at the French embassy. He is an assistant teacher to the Advanced classes as well as an instructor of North African dialect.

NADIA EL-DIN is a professor of Modern Standard Arabic and Lebanese dialect. She received her Master’s degree in Education from the University of California Berkeley and has had experience substitute lecturing for the Arabic department of the university. She has also lectured at Georgetown’s Arabic and Persian Language Institute and the American University of Beirut’s Arabic Language Institute.

NASSERA AZIZ was born in Cairo, Egypt, and is currently a student in California State University San Francisco’s nursing program. Nassera is a part-time Arabic language tutor. She also works part-time at the Egyptian embassy in San Francisco. Nassera is ALS’s teaching assistant and tutor.

SA’ID ATALLAH is a professor of Modern Standard Arabic and Egyptian dialect. He graduated from Cairo University with a degree in Near Eastern History and has taught at the American University of Cairo’s Arabic Language Institute. In 1995, he joined Cal State Sacramento’s faculty as a full time professor of Near Eastern Studies. He currently teaches courses in Middle Eastern history in addition to his position as a part-time lecturer in Arabic language classes. Mr. Atallah lives in Sacramento with his wife and two children.