The ACW Board of Directors

Board of Directors of the Arab Center of Washington

The board is composed of seven people; one director, a vice-director, one treasurer, one secretary and three members at large. Elections are held in February for two-year terms. Nominations are accepted at any time. Forms are available at the bottom of this page.

2009 Board Members

Huda Giddens, Board Director
In Huda's words: Interestingly, I was born in Cairo, Egypt, to Palestinian parents, and my early life covered some years  in Cairo, some in Jerusalem, and some in Lebanon, where I earned a B.A. degree from the Beirut College for Women.  I came to the USA in 1959 to Iowa State University where I received a Master's degree in Child Development and Early Childhood Educaiton (ECE).  Shortly after graduation I married and joined my husand, Ellis Giddens, in Okinawa, where we spent the next 3 years.  During this time, I taught undergraduate courses at the University of Maryland's Far East Division, and also taught English to Okinawans, subsequently becoming the President of the American Volunteer Teachers' Association.  Upon returning to the USA, we settled in Michigan at MSU, Lansing, where Ellis worked on and earned a Ph.D. and I taught courses in my field.   Our son, Bryce, was born in 1966 there.  In 1968, Ellis accepted a research position at the University of Washington.  I taught young children, students at the college level, trained teachers, and also began to teach Arabic, both individually and at language schools.  However, after much deliberation, my crowning accomplishment was to start a school, with a distinctly strong foundation in sound learning principles, implemented by child-appropriate teaching techniques.  It is now named the Giddens School and accepts all children from preschool age to the fifth grade.  At 36 years of age, it is still vibrant and pertinent to our time, and stands out in its strong program of diversity, peace and justice.  I taught in and directed it for 14 years.
In 1986, a call came from a friend, who was an Early Childhood Consultant to the Quaker Kindergarten Program in Gaza, inviting me to accept a 2-year position as the Arabic-speaking ECE Consultant and Teacher Trainer to that program.  I accepted and left Seattle a year later.  Upon finishing my work with the Quaker program, I joined OXFAM as the ECE Specialist, with an assignment to develop an extensive ECE Project to include teacher training, parent education and the establishment of preschools in Bedouin communities in southern Israel (the Negev).  I was also the Curriculum Advisor at Bethlehem University, assigned to upgrade their ECE program from a 2-year to a 4-year curriculum, and to teach some of the upper level courses.  I then moved from Gaza to East Jerusalem, to allow myself ease of movement to the various places of work, which included teacher trainings in Gaza.  This lasted 12 years, during which time I also travelled widely in the Middle East and elsewhere.
I returned to Seattle in the Fall of 1998 to recreate my life in this city.  It became my mission to teach Arabic and familiarize the Seattle public with Arab culture.  I did some interpreting at first, but then seriously focused on teaching Arabic.  I taught at Seattle University, Fort Lewis, Lowell Elementary School and taught individual students.  Through a federally-funded program, I am currently becoming certified as a teacher of Arabic.  Having lived in Seattle for the majority of the last 40+ years, my connections are deep and wide.  Skills in organizing, teaching and relating to a variety of people become the wellspring from which I draw to serve the Arab Center of Washington.  It gives me a great deal of pride to be its director.

Hassan Jazaeri, Vice-Director
Hassan was born in Damascus, Syria in 1976.  His family moved to Jeddah, Saudi Arabia when he was 2 years old and he was raised there in a multicultural environment.  He graduated from high school and decided to come to the US to pursue his dream of becoming a dentist.  He arrived in Seattle in November of 1996 and graduated from the University of Washington with a B.Sc. four years later.  During that time he was an active member of the Arab Student Organization on campus.  He moved to Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio for five years to complete his dental degree and a year of residency in implant dentistry.  Hassan practices family and implant dentistry in Woodinville, WA and enjoys spending time with his wife and two young children.

Mona Stucki, Secretary
Mona is a Palestinian-Canadian living in Arlington, WA with son Joe and husband, Jeff, of 23 years. She was born in Syria, and lived in Lebanon for 10 years before immigrating to Canada, and then moving to the US after completing studies at the University of British Columbia. Mona holds two Masters Degrees, one in Science (UBC) and one in Non-Profit Leadership (Seattle U). She has over 15 years experience in the non-profit sector working with small to medium sized organizations in health, education, human services, arts and culture, both locally and internationally. After holding several different positions within non-profit organizations, including front line staff, management and as a board member, Mona started her own business called Surge Consulting in 2003. Surge is an advocate for the building and strengthening of community by connecting people, organizations, and businesses to higher purposes, with a focus on grants, strategic planning and fund development. Since then, Mona has secured funds from private and public funders raising over 5 million in grants, and facilitated strategic planning and fund development plans for her clients, both here and abroad. Currently, she is working to center more of her energies toward development work in the Middle East.

During the past couple of years Mona has had the pleasure of meeting several members of ACW, attending an impressive Arab Festival and participating in a board discussion on strategic planning. She found her interactions inspiring and made her long to be more of an active member of this great Arab community. It is her desire to reconnect to her Arab roots and to contribute to promoting Arab culture and heritage through her skill set and networks. Mona believes ACW has a lot of potential to grow and expand in the NW and would be honored to be part of that vision.

Rasha Qamheyeh, Treasurer
Born in Kuwait, Rasha moved to Amman, Jordan as a young adult. In Amman, she received a B.Sc. in Physics from Jordan University and spent over eight years in teaching physics and mathematical physics to high school students with ardent passion. She was recognized for her commitment for achieving high standards of competence and using creative methods that would inspire and positively influence her students, some of which went on to win internationally acclaimed prizes in physics under her supervision.
In line with her determination to effect change on a larger scale, she set herself to learn the intricacies of today’s global economy; with concentration in economics and finance she earned her MBA with honors from the New York Institute of Technology and embarked on working in the financial sector in positions that empowered the public to make informed decision concerning their financial matters whether through her detailed research reports or through the financial planning services she offered through her work in the corporate world. Rasha was always in touch with the non-profit sector promoting cross cultural understanding. She is a volunteering member of the United Nations and is  always looking for opportunities she can extend quality service to others in need.  Her involvement and contribution to an open university curriculum that offers distance learning opportunities to people around the globe is indicative of her intrinsic motivation to reach far beyond her geography.
Now residing in Washington with her husband Hatem Zeine, Rasha hopes that serving as the treasurer on the board of the Arab Center of Washington would provide her with the opportunity to bridge a network of members and volunteers of different origins and backgrounds that would act as a liaison between the Middle Eastern and Western culture.

Shada Al-Nasser, Member at Large
Shada Al-Nasser is an Iraqi-American born in the United States, raised and educated in Baghdad, Iraq. She completed her Bachelor Degree in Control and System Engineering at the University of Technology and served as a Teacher Assistant in the Department of Electrical Engineering in Baghdad University. She moved to Tunisia for some time and worked with the Arab League and IRSIT in Tunis. Then moved to the United States where she completed her Masters Degree in Computer Science at Boston University in Boston, MA. From the New England area, her involvement with the Arab Community started; through Arab Student Organizations, Book clubs and Arab American Professional groups, as well as her career path with several private companies (CableTron Systems, Avaya, Lucent Technologies and Symantec). She moved to the Seattle area in 2004 with her husband Piyush Lumba. Currently, they are living in the Eastside, have two kids and working at Microsoft. Shada goes back to join the ACW Board of Directors as Member-at-large, a post she previously held in 2005-2006.

Yazid Boutejder, Member at Large
Yazid Boutejder is originally from Morocco.  He has been living in Seattle for a little over ten years.  After finishing his studies at the University of Washington in Informatics, he started working for several start up companies in Seattle and Los Angeles.  Currently, he holds a Network Engineer position with Internap Network Services Corporation.  Yazid has been involved in civic work with WAMA (Washington Moroccan Assocation - see http://wama-us.org/) and other non-profit organizations directly or indirectly for several years.  He is currently the Vice President ofWAMA.  He is also an active member of AMPA (Assocation of Moroccan Professionals in America - see http://www.amp-use.org/).

Mohammad Kaddoura, Member at Large
Born in Amman, Jordan, he came to the US in 1996. Mohammad holds a degree in industrial engineering and an MBA. He currently works at Microsoft as a program manager. He is a co-founder of the Arab American Community Coalition (AACC) and a past president of the institute of Industrial Engineering in the Puget Sound area.

Tarik Rahmani, Member at Large
Tarik was born in Beni Mellal, Morocco. He spent 5 years of undergraduate school in Tunisia, and then moved to the US after graduation in 2001. He lived in Las Cruces, New Mexico, for 8 years before moving to Seattle, in September 2008. He is a Senior Economist and Financial Forecast Analyst at Seattle's DOT. Tarik has been an active member of the Muslim and Arab community since he moved to the U.S. He volunteered in many activities, including teaching Arabic to young adults.

Amer Elmughrabi
Amer is Jordanian of Palestinian origin. He came to the U.S. 2 years ago, and holds a degree in computer science. He is currently working at Microsoft and enjoys meeting new people, learning from them, and benefiting from their experience. He is enthusiastic about highlighting the positives of Arab culture, and was a very active volunteer during the 2009 Arab Festival.

Past ACW Board of Directors Members

Today's Arab Center of Washington is the result of years of hard work of dozens of board members many of whose names are listed on this page. (please be patient with us as we work to fill in the missing names)

Click on the Link Below for A Nomation Form