Eman Gaad

Eman Gaad is the Dean of the Faculty of Education and a Professor of Special and Inclusive Education at the British University in Dubai (BUiD). She is also an Affiliate Lecturer at the University of Glasgow, UK. Professor Gaad led BUiD’s special and inclusive Masters programme for many years and currently leads the Doctoral Programme. She has established herself as a world-class researcher, advocate, international social development consultant and expert in the field. Additionally, Professor Gaad is a regular invited keynote speaker, certified assessor, and a professional social trainer.  Over the last 20 years she has become a frequent national and international media figure on hundreds of live on-air radio and TV programmes, as well as writing and appearing in hundreds of articles published in local and regional newspapers. Professor Gaad is a sound academic, an External PhD Examiner for reputed universities around the world (UK, Australia and India) and is a recognized international scholar in the field of special and Inclusive Education as well as social development. She has also secured millions in funding from the government of the UAE to examine the field.  She co-founded one of the largest NGOs in the UAE, the Emirates Down Syndrome Association (EDSA), where she also acts as a Senior Educational Consultant.  Professor Gaad is one of the governors of the regionally outstanding Dubai College, and on the Board of Directors of several non-profit organizations in the UAE. She has advised policy and decision makers as a senior consultant for both governments of Dubai and Abu Dhabi on disability related issues. She is also a winner of HH Princess Haya Award for Special Education in the category of best-distinguished individual research in 2012, and in the same year was awarded the Global Leadership in Education Award from the Asian Leadership Award Board. For her services as an international leader in education, in 2017 she was awarded the ‘Prof. Idira Parikh 50 Women in Education Leaders’ which is an international award from the World Education Congress in India.  Professor Gaad is also on the international advisory board for international peer-reviewed journals and is an associate editor for two others. She is also an associate board member of The Scottish Educational Review.  She was seconded for two years as the first Director of Disability Services in Dubai Government’s Community Development Authority (CDA). In 2011, she was appointed as one of the assessors of DEGP (Dubai Government Excellence Programme) and she is certified as an international quality management assessor by EFQM (European Framework for Quality Management). A committed advocate for the educational and social rights for people with disability, she is a UNESCO Consultant on inclusion of learners with disabilities in regular schools.  Professor Gaad has published the findings of her research work in international journals and her single authored book ‘Inclusive Education in the Middle East’ by Routledge in 2010 is very popular among scholars and researchers internationally. Professor Gaad is currently, and has been since 2008, a National Representative of the World Forum on Early Care and Education (WOFO). She has extensive experience in supporting and training families and workers in the field of social development. From 2013 to 2017, she designed, delivered  and managed the first long-term parental training programme in the region (Ta’alouf) funded by Al Jalila Foundation.