Education

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AUB appoints Lebanese-American Dr. Fadlo Khuri as new president

(BEIRUT, LEBANON) — The American University of Beirut (AUB) has voted to elect Fadlo R. Khuri, MD, as the 16th president of the university.

Dr. Khuri, who has been an AUB trustee since 2014, is presently Chairman of the Department of Hematology and Medical Oncology at Emory University School of Medicine in Atlanta, GA.

He will be installed as the successor to Dr. Peter Dorman, who has served AUB since his appointment in March 2008.

The announcement followed an intensive international search commissioned by the AUB Board of Trustees that included direct input from AUB faculty, staff, and global alumni communities.

AUB Board Chairman Dr. Philip S. Khoury, who co-chaired the search committee with Trustee Dr. Huda Zoghbi, said they were searching for a candidate that had international recognition and proven ability.

“The committee was particularly attentive to the needs of the university as defined by its own constituents,” Khoury said. “We found great consistency in the attributes AUB students, faculty, alumni, and other stakeholders identified as critical for the university’s leadership and we are completely confident that Dr. Khuri embodies those attributes.”

Dr. Khuri was born in Boston, Massachusetts and brought up in Beirut, where he attended AUB from 1981-82. He moved to the US in 1982, and earned his bachelor’s degree from Yale University, in New Haven, CT, and his MD from Columbia University, College of Physicians and Surgeons, in New York, NY.

He completed his residency in Internal Medicine at the Boston City Hospital, Boston, MA, and his fellowship in Hematology and Medical Oncology at the Tufts-New England Medical Center.

“President-elect Khuri is a highly accomplished educator and researcher and an articulate voice on the imperative of liberal arts education in the Arab world,” said Khoury. “Equally important, he is a person of profound personal integrity.”

Dr. Khuri has led the recruitment of over 90 faculty including 60 clinical investigators to Emory University, helping oversee an increase in adult cancer patients from 143 in 2002 to over 650 in 2014.

“It is a genuine honor and a privilege to have been selected to lead AUB into its 150th year,” said Dr. Khuri. “The legacy of this remarkable, world class institution is evident in the breadth and depth of contributions its faculty, students and alumni have made to every aspect of life in Lebanon, the region and the world.”

Incumbent President Peter Dorman, who announced his intention to resign in June of last year, will take a sabbatical with the intention to return to the AUB faculty in 2016.

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Lebanese professor killed in South Carolina university shooting

(RICHMOND, SC) — A Lebanese professor from the University of South Carolina was shot to death by his ex-wife in a murder-suicide on the fourth floor of a campus building, according to Richland County Coroner Gary Watts.

Dr. Raja Fayad, 45, died of multiple gunshot wounds to his upper body inflicted by his ex-wife Sunghee Kwon, 46, whom he continued to live with after their divorce.

Fayad, a graduate of the Aleppo University School of Medicine in Syria, was the head of applied physiology at the University of South Carolina. Media reports say Fayad traveled to Lebanon each summer to visit his mother.

Fayad and Kwon reportedly moved to South Carolina from Illinois in 2008, after USC hired him from the University of Illinois-Chicago.

According to students, he was a highly regarded and well-liked professor and an expert in colon cancer at the Arnold School of Public Health.

“He was an excellent teacher and highly respected by his university colleagues,” said Harris Pastides, president of the university. “I would like to thank the university’s extended family from around the country who have been in touch with us to express their sympathy.”

Neighbors were shocked of the news and described Fayad as a “great person.”

“Every time I saw him he had a pleasant look on his face,” neighbor Carl Council said.

Larry Durstine, department chair in exercise science at the university, helped recruit Fayad to USC.

“He always raised spirits of those around him,” Durstine told South Carolina-based newspaper, The State. “As department chair, you’re not supposed to let them know when your spirits are down. But Raj could tell when I was down, and he’s say ‘Let’s go for a walk.'”

Durstine said Fayad often organized birthday parties and award celebrations for co-workers.

“He was one of the nicest guys I’ve ever known,” Durstine said.

Police say Fayad was shot with a Hi-Point 9 mm semi-automatic.

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LAU team of students, staff climb Mount Kilimanjaro

(BEIRUT, LEBANON) — A team of staff and students from the Lebanese American University (LAU) climbed Mount Kilimanjaro in January to raise funds for the Exoskeleton Project, which aims to research and develop the ability for a paralyzed person to stand-up, walk, and climb stairs.

The exoskeleton was first tested on Michael Haddad, a 33-year-old activist with a spinal injury who lost control of over 75 percent of his body.

Dr. Barbar Akle and a group of engineering students at LAU teamed up with the university ‘Surivial Team,’ which hosts intense training programs that promote survival, first aid, navigation, climbing, shelter building, among other projects.

The team of students and staff, ranging from ages 20 to 60, organized a 5,895 meter hike up Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania.

The 7-day hike from January 23 to January 29 was accomplished by six students and two staff members, including Dr. Elise Salem, Vice President of Student Development and Enrollment Management at LAU.

LAU’s engineering students are continuing research on the exoskeleton to further develop an innovative system that helps paralyzed individuals climb stairs and walk longer distances.

If you’re interested in donating to the LAU Exoskeleton Project, click here.

WATCH the LAU team climb Mount Kilimanjaro:

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Texas parents upset over name of ‘Lebanon High School’

(FRISCO, TX) — Some Texas parents are angry over the name of a new high school set to share its name with Lebanon, saying it doesn’t fit their community, which historically shared the same name.

“The present-tense name of a country that was in the news all the time with reference of war and battleground was always what was on my mind when I would say the name ‘Lebanon,” parent Liffey Skender told the Frisco school board last month, according to the Dallas Morning News.

Skender alleges receiving more than two dozen phone calls and 100 emails from concerned parents who object to the name, “Lebanon High School.” She urged the board to consider “Freedom High School” instead.

“The word ‘Lebanon’ still reminds me of all the sad and turmoil that goes on in the Middle East,” she said.

But the school district says the name will honor the town’s history, which was called Lebanon a half a century before the city of Frisco was established.

“Memories of Lebanon may be found throughout Frisco,” the school district said. There’s a road and a Baptist church that still bear the name, and there even used to be a Lebanon school, although it closed in 1947, according to BBC News.

School district Spokesman Shana Wortham told the Dallas Morning News that the school board may add another word to Lebanon, such as “community,” to avoid confusion.

There are 16 cities in the United States named “Lebanon.”

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 City Beat, News, Raleigh

University to launch center for Lebanese diaspora studies

For more than 150 years, millions of Lebanese have been emigrating from Lebanon to create successful diaspora communities around the world. Yet there has never been a center outside Lebanon devoted to learning their stories.

An $8.1 million gift from Dr. Moise A. Khayrallah and his wife, Vera Khayrallah, will change that.

With the support of the Khayrallahs — who moved to the Triangle from their native Lebanon in 1983 — NC State will soon be home to the Moise A. Khayrallah Center for Lebanese Diaspora Studies, a thriving international hub for research into Lebanese immigration and migration more broadly.

Housed within the College of Humanities and Social Sciences (CHASS), this will be the first privately endowed center at NC State. It follows the creation in 2010 of the university’s Khayrallah Program for Lebanese-American Studies, which sought to preserve and publicize the history of the Lebanese community in North Carolina.

“We felt it was critical to show how this one community established itself here in North Carolina and then contributed to local commerce, education and success,” said Moise Khayrallah, who has founded several drug-development companies in the area. “And that was a very, very successful program, I have to say.”

Dr. Akram Khater, professor of history at NC State, serves as the program’s director. Like the Khayrallahs, he first came to the United States from Lebanon to further his education. Years later, he and Dr. Khayrallah met over coffee to draw up a public history project.

“We were discussing how, after 9/11, the prevailing narrative about Arab-Americans — including the Lebanese — became focused on terrorism or tabouleh, violence or salad,” said Khater. “Conspicuously absent was any sustained mention of the richness of the culture, of the heritage and of the myriad contributions of Lebanese-Americans to America for over a century and a half.”

Funding from the Khayrallahs and the resources of a vibrant public history program in CHASS have enabled Khater and other NC State researchers to spotlight those contributions. Lebanese-Americans in North Carolina have generated an estimated $4.5 billion of revenue. Among the 16,000 people who make up the community today are the Georges of Hickory, whose legacy includes Lowes Foods, and the Koury family, who own the Greensboro convention center of the same name.

By retracing the steps and recording the stories of Lebanese immigrants to the state, Khater and graduate students in the department of history unearthed enough material to sustain an online archive, a PBS documentary, a K-12 curriculum and a multimedia museum exhibit, Cedars in the Pines.

“As I saw him and his team at the Department of History and other departments at NC State come together and bring all of these programs and activities to life, I was very impressed,” said Moise Khayrallah.

The Khayrallahs’ gift will allow NC State to build on these successes through the creation of the Khayrallah Center, a groundbreaking international institution that Khater will helm. A home for scholars and students from around the world, it will establish NC State as the premier research and outreach site for the Lebanese diaspora. At another level, the center will allow NC State to engage in vital national and international debates about immigration and its global impacts.

“Creating the first endowed center at NC State is a real signature landmark for us,” said Dean Jeffery P. Braden of CHASS, noting that this is the largest gift in the college’s history. He added that the center’s mission — deepening the American public’s understanding of migration — makes it a perfect fit for NC State.

“Part of it is our land-grant tradition,” said Braden. “Part of it is our ‘Think and Do’ culture. But we really have the structure of bringing our disciplinary knowledge and the scholarship that we do out of the university, out of the academy, and bringing it into the community.”

For the Khayrallahs, that kind of outreach is key to revealing the contribution of immigrants to American life.

“We all have so much in common, but a lot of times people don’t even notice those commonalities,” said Vera Khayrallah. “But we are all one people, and we all went through the same things to bring us here.”

To learn more about the Khayrallah Center, click here.

Source: North Carolina State News – Original Source

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United States donates $41.2M to Lebanese public schools

(BEIRUT, LEBANON) — United States Ambassador David Hale announced a $41.2 million to Lebanese public schools on Nov.5, which will be used to launch the “Improved Basic Education Services Program (IBESP)” in the country.

Hale and Lebanese Minister of Education Elias Bou Saab announced the contribution at the Daroun Mixed Intermediate Public School in Keserwan, which has been renovated by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).

Hale says USAID will provide the funding for this new project, which will reportedly “(strengthen) classroom instruction, community engagement, and Screen Shot 2014-11-11 at 5.31.10 PMeducation management.”

According to the Lebanese National News Agency, nearly two-thirds of students in Lebanon attend private school, which creates a “quality gap” between citizens who can’t afford private school tuition.

The new U.S.-funded program seeks to “close the gap” by focusing on three specific tasks, including an emphasis on “reading skills,” providing “expanded” access for vulnerable children, and “managing education monitoring” systems in public classrooms.

“Over the past 10 years, America has invested more than $150 million in education to help this latest generation of Lebanese,” Hale said. “These initiatives are a testament to our joint belief in education, our cooperative and enduring relationship, and the resilience of your commitment to education in the face of political, economic, and security challenges.”

IBESP will reportedly be implemented by World Learning in partnership with Management Systems International, Ana Aqra’, and AMIDEAST. USAID will work closely with the Lebanese Ministry of Education and Higher Education and the Center for Educational Research and Development to ensure progress is “institutionalized” and “sustainable,” according to the National News Agency.

“We believe that Lebanese children will excel even more when they are better prepared with the basics, like reading, when they see their school as a sanctuary for learning, and when their communities actively participate in the process,” Hale said.

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United States donates $3.5M to Beirut school, universities

(BEIRUT, LEBANON) — The United States Agency for International Development donated $3.5 million to a Beirut school and two universities, the U.S. Embassy said in a statement Friday.

The Lebanese American University Medical Center – Rizk Hospital will receive $1.3 million, the American University of Beirut (AUB) will receive $1.7 million, and the American Community School (ACS) will receive $500,000, according to the statement.

The announcement was made during a visit to Lebanon by Katherine Crawford, director of the aid agency’s American Schools and Hospitals Abroad program. This was the first visit of a senior “American Schools and Hospitals Abroad” (ASHA) official to Lebanon in 50 years.

“These initiatives enable Lebanon to remain at the forefront of scientific progress and continue its tradition of excellence in education,” she said in a statement.

The grant to LAU’s hospital will include “lifesaving supplies,” and go towards enhancing the trauma care facility and training medical staff, the statement added.

At AUB, $1.7 million in ASHA funding will help launch new advanced programs of study in applied science and rehabilitate a medical laboratory at the Medical Center.

At the American Community School, the half million dollar donation will purchase equipment and materials for new high school science labs.

ASHA has provided $297 million dollars to its Lebanese partners over the last 40 years.

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AUB receives $8M endowment for Palestinian students

(BEIRUT, LEBANON) — The American University of Beirut (AUB) received an $8 million endowment from the Kamel Abdel Rahman Endowed Scholarship Fund to support Palestinian students on Tuesday. AUB says this is the largest single endowment for scholarships in the history of the university.

The fund, which is named after a Palestinian AUB graduate and businessman, will support tuition scholarships for Palestinians from refugee camps, according to the university.

“This very generous gift will give opportunities to countless future students who, in turn, will make their contributions to their societies and the world,” AUB President Peter Dorman said.

Rahman was born in Haifa, Palestine, in 1907 and studied business administration at AUB. Upon graduating in 1931, he returned to Palestine and founded the Contracting and Trading Company (CAT) before he was forced to come back to Lebanon during the Nakba in 1948.

The company, which is headquartered in Athens, currently has 110,000 employees according to its official website. In 2013, the company’s revenue was more than 2.2 billion.

After selling his shares in the company and retiring from in 1976, Rahman established an education fund to support Palestinian students. After his death in 1980, the fund trustees decided to allow AUB to manage the fund.

“AUB had such a profound impact on the life of Kamel Abdel Rahman and on our own lives,” said trustee Isam Nubani. “We know that AUB will ensure that this fund will benefit deserving Palestinian students for generations to come.”

“Financial aid is one of AUB’s highest priorities, and scholarships support academically qualified students who would otherwise not be able to attend university,” AUB provost Ahmad Dallal said in a statement. “This extraordinary endowment from Mr. Abdel Rahman will impact so many students, their families and communities.”

Approximately 40 percent of the undergraduate student body receives some kind of financial aid to afford annual tuition, which AUB says has increased in recent years.

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 City Beat, Detroit, New York, Photos

PHOTOS: Lebanese American University leaders visit Detroit

(DETROIT, MI) — Lebanese American University (LAU) officials visited Detroit this week to network with local Lebanese-Americans and potential scholarship donors during planned banquets and private gatherings.

LAU Vice President for University Advancement Marla Rice-Evans and LAU Assistant Vice President of Development Robert Hollback visited St. Sharbel Maronite Catholic Church on Friday, touring the church and joining potential donors for a dinner at La Saj Lebanese Bistro.

LAU operates a $20 million scholarship budget, which requires corporate and individual financial contributions and grants.

“Any student who has the credentials should be able to come to the university regardless of their income,” said Robert Hollback, LAU Assistant Vice President of Development.

The Lebanese American University is a private American university and research institution located in Lebanon. The university is chartered by the Board of Regents of the University of the State of New York.

The university receives financial assistance from the United States government and other educational aid organizations.

In a past news release, the U.S. Embassy in Beirut said LAU gives students a chance “to pursue American-style education that promotes tolerance, gender and social equality and challenges students to develop leadership skills, critical thinking, and initiative.”

According to Rice-Evans, LAU has over 8,200 students in their Beirut and Byblos campuses and around 2,300 graduating students each year.

IMG_2093(Left to Right) Prominent Lebanese-American Attorney Joumana Kayrouz, LAU Vice President for University Advancement Marla Rice-Evans, and Chorbishop Alfred Badawi of Saint Sharbel Maronite Catholic Church.

IMG_2087(Left to Right) Dr. Wissam Shaya, LAU Vice President for University Advancement Marla Rice-Evans, and Chorbishop Alfred Badawi.

IMG_2112(Left to Right) Local businessman George Habbouche, LAU Vice President for University Advancement Marla Rice-Evans, and pharmacist Pierre Boutros.

IMG_2105(Left to Right) LAU Vice President for University Advancement Marla Rice-Evans, La Saj Lebanese Bistro owner Alex Awada, and LAU Assistant Vice President of Development Robert Hollback.

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Lebanese schools to implement patriotism and human rights clubs

(BEIRUT, LEBANON) — A collaboration between the Byblos International Center for Human Sciences and the Lebanese Education Ministry was organized on Friday to create clubs in public schools that advocate national patriotism and human rights.

Lebanese Education Minister Elias Bou Saab has agreed to collaborate on the project, which will offer these clubs for eight grade public school students. The program will only be offered to schools chosen by the Directorate General of Higher Education, which released a statement on behalf of the Education Ministry this week.

“This is a leading and one-of-a-kind step in Lebanon,” read the statement.

This project, explained the center’s Director Adonis Akra, is part of an agreement signed in June this year between the organization and the Arab Institute for Human Rights in Tunisia.

The clubs “aim at introducing and informing students about the principles of patriotism, human rights and public life essentials,” said Akra in the statement. The $120,000-a-year project is similar to initiatives launched in Tunisia in 2012.

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