Rula Hijazeen
Director of Training & Translation

Rula Hijazeen was born in Lebanon to a Jordanian family who returned to their homeland in 1974 at the outbreak of the Lebanese Civil War. The year following high school, Rula moved to California where she resided 11 years.  While there, she attended college, worked as managing director for an education association, and also became a U.S. citizen. In 2001 she relocated to Washington, D.C. Her educational background includes participation in the Arabic teacher training seminar at Middlebury College in Vermont; a Bachelor of Arts in International Relations from Azusa Pacific University in Los Angeles, California; an interpretation certificate from Inlingua School of Languages in Arlington, Virginia; and a Master of Science in Marketing from the University of Huddersfield in the United Kingdom (Jordan Cohort).

Rula’s credentials as a language trainer not only stem from her first-hand knowledge of the Arabic language and the culture of the Middle East, but also from her extensive teaching experience nationwide ranging from private citizens, graduate students, congressional staffers, U.S. Government employees, law enforcements agents, as well as the military community.  In her visits to field offices Rula has offered intensive one, two, or three-week training seminars. Her presentations are custom designed to meet the learning needs of each group, which makes her a sought-after instructor.

Rula has taught Arabic full-time at the University of Maryland in College Park both for undergraduates and students in the Arabic Flagship Program; and at the Graduate School of the US Department of Agriculture.  She has served on the K-12 Arabic Project at the National Capital Language Resource Center [Georgetown & George Washington Universities, and the Center for Applied Linguistics].  And currently serves on the K-12 (Langnet) Arabic Culture Committee for the National Foreign Language Center at University of Maryland.