Al-Bustan Seeds of Culture

Al-Bustan Seeds of Culture’s Board of Directors includes members of the Arab-American community and those interested in Arab cultural education — parents, educators, and professionals with various community affiliations. In Fall 2006, we established “Friends of Al-Bustan,” a committee of volunteers to support the board and raise funds for the organization.

To contact members of Al-Bustan’s board, please visit our contact page.

Hazami Sayed, Executive Director

Ms. Sayed, an Arab-American and graduate of Columbia University and Stanford University, is an architect and has worked in the fields of architecture and urban development in Philadelphia and New York City. Her past areas of research were community development and affordable urban housing in which she was a consultant and taught a seminar at the University of Pennsylvania. She is also a photographer and has exhibited her work in Philadelphia. As the founder of Al-Bustan Seeds of Culture, she has been responsible for developing and managing the various initiatives. She is the mother of two boys, ages 16 and 12 years.

Andrea Imredy Saah, Chair and Treasurer

Ms. Imredy Saah, a Hungarian-American married to a Palestinian-American, is an estates and trusts attorney in private practice. She has been involved in cross-cultural education initiatives since childhood, having lived in German-speaking countries for 9 years and traveled extensively in Eastern and Western Europe. She earned a J.D. from the University of Maryland School of Law, an M.A. in Intercultural Administration from the School for International Training in Vermont, and a B.A. in Political Science and Economics from the University of Kentucky. In addition to her work in estate planning, she has devoted much of her working life to nonprofit organizations seeking to bring economic, political and social justice to disadvantaged communities. Her two sons have attended Al-Bustan’s summer camps and percussion workshops.

Lamia Barakat, Secretary

Dr. Barakat, an Arab-American, earned her Ph.D. in Clinical-Community Psychology from the University of South Carolina.  Currently, she is Director of Psychosocial Services in the Division of Oncology at The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and Associate Professor in the Department of Pediatrics at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine. Her pediatric psychology research program is focused on the adaptation of children with chronic health conditions and their families, particularly sociodemographic and family factors in disease management and quality of life and the development of evidence-based interventions to promote adaptation.  She served on the board of the Philadelphia Chapter of the Arab-American Anti-Discrimination Committee from 2001-2003.  Her three daughters, ages 15 and 10-year-old twins, are regular participants in Al-Bustan programs.

Khalil Bdeir

Dr. Bdeir, a Palestinian born and raised in the village of Kofor-Kasem, north-west of Jerusalem, has a Ph.D. in Pharmacy/Biochemistry from Hadassah Medical School of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He joined the University of Pennsylvania’s School of Medicine as a post-doc in 1997 and was appointed research assistant professor in 2003. As the father of four boys, two of whom have been repeat campers at Al-Bustan Camp, he has a personal interest in supporting educational and cultural initiatives within the Arab-American community and encouraging cross-cultural exchanges among youth and families.

Omar Harb

Dr. Harb is a Palestinian-American who grew up in Ramallah. He obtained his bachelors from Earlham College in Richmond, Indiana and a PhD in Microbiology from the University of Kentucky in Lexington, KY. After completing a Post Doctoral fellowship at the University of Pennsylvania, he joined the genomic database group at the University’s Department of Biology where he works as their scientific outreach manager. The genomic database provides online tools for scientists worldwide working on parasites like those that cause malaria. Dr. Harb and his family have attended several Al-Bustan music performances and are firm believers of the role that music can play in cross cultural communication and understanding.

Nader Hebela

Dr. Hebela, an Egyptian-American, is an Assistant Professor of Orthopaedic Surgery in the Department of Orthopaedic Surgery at the University of Pennsylvania Health System. A graduate of Dartmouth College and the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, he completed his residency in orthopaedic surgery at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania and a fellowship in spine surgery at Saint Joseph Medical Center in Maryland. Dr. Hebela’s clinical interests include surgery of the cervical, thoracic and lumbar spine. His research interest focuses on the biology of bone formation in the spine and extremities. As an active member of the Arab American community in Philadelphia, he has volunteered his professional expertise to Palestine Children’s Relief Fund and Egyptian medical groups.

Anne Hess

Ms. Hess, a general and vocal music teacher at Germantown Friends School, has over 10 years of music and teaching experience in Philadelphia and abroad. She developed a love for cross-cultural living and learning as a child, growing up between France and the U.S. After earning a B.A. in both Biology and Music at Lehigh University, she moved to Guatemala to teach and work in community development for four years. For the last seven years, Ms. Hess has been creating and implementing new curricular ideas specifically geared toward middle school music students at GFS. Her musical interests include singing, piano, percussion, and ethnomusicology. She has enjoyed working with Al-Bustan through programming at GFS over the years and took the Intro to Arabic Music class in June 2010. She is currently completing a Master’s in Music Education from Boston University. She is also the mother of two boys, ages 3 and 5 years.

Pascal Jabbour

Dr. Jabbour is a Lebanese who grew up in Beirut where he earned his MD at St. Joseph University School of Medicine. He specialized in neurosurgery at Beirut’s Hotel Dieu de France Hospital, University Of Colorado, and Thomas Jefferson University Hospital where he also did a fellowship in open vascular and endovascular neurosurgery. He is currently Assistant Professor at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital, Department of Neurological Surgery-Division of Vascular and Endovascular Neurosurgery, and he is Director of Stroke Services at Chestnut Hill Hospital. Dr. Jabbour is widely published in his field and serves on numerous medical committees and associations in the US and in Lebanon. Outside of work, he enjoys classical music, opera, swimming, skiing, biking, and hiking with his wife and two young boys.

Malek Kamoun

Dr. Kamoun, a Tunisian-American, obtained a M.D. and Ph.D. from the University de Pierre et Marie Curie and is currently Professor of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania and Director of the Clinical Immunology and Histocompatibility Laboratory at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine. Dr. Kamoun’s biomedical research interest lies in the immune mechanisms of organ transplant rejection and autoimmune diseases, a subject in which he has published extensively. As the father of three college and highschool-age children, he has a keen interest in Arabic and Middle eastern classical music.

Nadia Moukarzel

Ms. Moukarzel, a Lebanese-American, has a BA in Economics from St. Joseph University in Lebanon, a MA in Economics from Sorbonne University in Paris, and an MBA from Hartford University in Connecticut. While in Lebanon, she worked in the banking sector and taught economics at the Lebanese University and BUC. She lived for 12 years with her husband and three children in Ghana where she joined an organization of international women and led their welfare department, helping to build schools and supporting impoverished women. In 2000 she moved with her family to the U.S., and currently resides in Philadelphia. She is committed to promoting Arab culture, supporting disadvantaged families in educational opportunities, and encouraging cross-cultural understanding.

Robin Muse

Ms. Muse, a general music teacher at Penn Alexander Elementary School, has over 20 years of music and teaching experience and has worked with children of all ages around specialized music instruction and program development. Earning a Masters of Music degree from Westminster Choir College with a variety of performance certifications, Ms. Muse accommodates different learning styles within her classroom by using an array of educational methods, combined with recorder instruction, movement, drama, art, listening and singing. Ms. Muse recently was the author and recipient of a three year, $150,000.00 grant to enhance the music instruction at Penn Alexander. Arab Percussion has been a major component of the grant program for middle school music instruction. She is currently enrolled in the Principal Certification program at Temple University.

Naomi Shihab Nye, Advisor to the Board

Ms. Nye is an acclaimed Palestinian-American poet, novelist, teacher and anthologist. A self-described “wandering poet,” Ms. Nye has spent more than thirty years traveling across America and around the world, leading writing workshops that inspire children and adults alike. Born in the U.S. to a Palestinian father and American mother, her writings reflect the intricacies of living as a product of two worlds. Throughout the twenty volumes that she has written or edited for readers of all ages, Ms. Nye’s work emphasizes her desire to build bridges for peace in the midst of dissonance and diversity. Her poetry and prose, which places special emphasis on the nuances of the “ordinary,” has been featured on National Public Radio, PBS, and literary magazines across the country. Ms. Nye has been recognized as a Guggenheim Fellow, a Witter Bynner Fellow at Library of Congress, and a visiting professor of creative writing at universities across the U.S. She has received numerous coveted poetry prizes in praise of her writing. Most notably, in 2001, her work garnered national attention when a book of poems, 19 Varieties of Gazelle, was named as a finalist for the prestigious National Book Award. Ms. Nye was a visiting poet with Al-Bustan in February 2009.

Thea Abu El-Haj, Advisor to the Board

Dr. Abu El-Haj, a Palestinian-American, is an educational researcher and teacher educator. She began her career in the field of education developing cross-cultural curriculum and then working as an elementary school teacher for many years. Since receiving her doctoral degree from the University of Pennsylvania in the anthropology of education, she has been researching, writing and teaching about socio-cultural processes and education. She is a faculty member at the Graduate School of Education at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, New Jersey. One of her current areas of research is the ethnography of Arab-American youth focusing on the needs of the Arab American community and the importance of educational programs in developing youth leadership. Her two daughters, ages 14 and 9 years, are regular participants in Al-Bustan’s programs.