Alia Ammar is passionate about education, equity, and teaching English Language and Literature. She first earned her Bachelor of Arts in Psychology with a minor in English Literature (2007) and then earned a Master of Arts in International and Comparative Education with a concentration in international education development and policy (2014) from the American University in Cairo (AUC). With these two complementary degrees in hand, Alia served as an International Baccalaureate (IB) English Language and Literature Department Leader and taught IB English Language and Literature, Humanities, and Drama for six years at Green Land Pre Vert International School (GPIS) in Cairo, Egypt.

In order to deepen her knowledge of both English language learning and equity in educational policy she decided to pursue a PhD at Drexel University. She has been working with Drs. Lori Severino and MJ DeCarlo on the Adolescent Comprehension Evaluation (ACE) app and serving as the site director for their literacy intervention summer camp. She serves a teaching assistant in special education for Dr. Severino’s Literacy and Content Skill Development in Individuals with Disabilities course and has taught two course as an adjunct professor at Drexel University, Fundamentals of Special Education and Teaching Individuals with Low Incidence Disabilities. During her second year she completed her Wilson Reading System (WRS) certification, which qualifies her as a practitioner in the WRS multisensory reading and writing intervention program. Her research interests include equitable special education policy and English language reading intervention programs. The focus of her dissertation is on special education in Egypt.