Damascus to assume a research professorship on Islam in Europe at the University of Copenhagen, Denmark. He can be reached at jsn[at]teol.ku.dk.

1980s

TIA: This is Africa

Rami Khal (BBA ’80)
We reached Uhuru, the summit of Mt. Kilimanjaro, “the difficult mountain” (kilima: mountain; njaro: difficult), the highest freestanding mountain in the world, and one of the world’s largest volcanoes. There were three camps en route to the summit. All camps consisted of huts with no heat… We slept in sleeping bags. After a threeday walk, we reached the first camp, Mandara (2,700 m); then the second, Horombo (3,720 m); and finally the last, Kibo (4703 m).

We were supposed to have been 25 climbers, but nine dropped out at the start and only six reached the summit: three English, one American, one Swiss, and myself.

We started the final climb in heavy snow with temperatures around 15 °C below zero. There was no light, not even moonlight. Our headgear flashlights guided us along icy ledges as narrow as 30 cm with steep drop-offs on one side…

Dawn cracked to reveal blue skies, 20 below at the top, but the view was breathtaking.

The feeling cannot be described. It stays with you always and marks you forever…

After the climb I visited the beautiful island of Zanzibar and enjoyed the sun and deep sea diving…

TIA: To see is to believe.

Walid S. Arnaout
(BS ’81, MD ’85), a boardcertified general surgeon and a fellow of the American College of Surgeons, has been appointed to the Department of Surgery at Buffalo Medical Group. Arnaout completed his residency and research fellowship training at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville. He is affiliated with Kenmore Mercy Hospital, where he is a member of the Department of Surgery. He is also a staff surgeon at Buffalo General and Millard Fillmore Suburban hospitals.

Lina Zawati Shamma
(BAr ’80) is part owner of Easyinfo, a Jordanian IT company that recently launched a multi-lingual audio tour of Petra and the Royal Automobile Museum in Amman, Jordan. The prerecorded audio tour is delivered through a handheld device or can be accessed by cell phone. She can be contacted at laloun[at]googlemail.com.

Elie Safar
(BBA ’86, MBA ’88) was recently elected president of the Board of Governors of the Institute of Internal Auditors (IIA), Lebanon for a two-year term. Safar is currently head of consulting at the Business Risk and Advisory Services of Usamah Tabbarah & Co. of Nexia International.

1990s

Fouad Jaber
(BS ’92, MS ’95) has accepted an assistant professorship and extension specialist position at Texas A&M University’s Biological and Agricultural Engineering Department. After receiving a BS in agriculture and MS in irrigation, he completed a PhD in agricultural and biological engineering at Purdue University. He then joined the University of Florida as a post-doctoral research associate for five years. His new position at Texas A&M involves developing outreach and research projects in integrated water resources management to sustainably meet future water needs while protecting the environment. He is working at the Urban Solutions Center in Dallas, Texas.

Ahmad Elesber
(BS ’95, MD ’99), an interventional cardiologist, has joined the medical staff of King’s Daughters Medical Center and the physicians at SV Cardiology in Ashland, Kentucky. Elesber completed his residency and two fellowships at the Mayo Clinic College of Medicine in Rochester, Minnesota. He is board certified by the American Board of Internal Medicine and Cardiology. Recently, Elesber completed the 2007 Examination of Special Competence in Adult Echocardiography, which determines special competence in the field of diagnostic cardiac ultrasound.

Ghassan Haddad
(BS ’96, MD ’00) has joined the Houston Fertility Institute. Haddad specializes in infertility, reproductive endocrinology, and in-vitro fertilization. He completed his residency in obstetrics and gynecology at the University of Mississippi Medical Center and a fellowship in reproductive endocrinology and infertility at the University of Cincinnati Medical Center. Dr. Haddad is a member of the American Society for Reproductive Medicine, the Society for Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility, the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology, as well as the Alpha-Omega- Alpha Honor Medical Society. He has authored multiple book chapters and peerreviewed articles and presented many papers in the field of infertility at national meetings. He is boardcertified by the American Board of Obstetricians and Gynecologists.

Mayssa Zayat
(BS ’96, MD ’00) is part of a sister/brother team that’s hard to beat, especially if you’re feeling a little queasy. Mayssa and Estephan provide abdominal relief to the citizens of Wichita, Kansas— she to the children and he to the adults. After surviving the hardships of the Lebanese civil war, and a senior year elective course at Baylor College of Medicine where she discovered an unexpected passion for gastroenterology—her last choice for a specialization—Zayat has learned that there are a couple of things in life that you just can’t handle without a little help—and both of them are under five. So when she called her mother in Beirut to come pitch in, the Lebanese extended family proved once again to be an invaluable resource—providing the support that allowed Dr. Zayat to continue to be Wichita’s only pediatric gastroenterologist.

Rima Nakkash
(MPH ’98) completed her doctoral studies in public health in September 2007 at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. Nakkash is now an assistant research professor in AUB’s Faculty of Health Sciences’ Center for Research on Population Health.

George Tabakian
(BEN ’99) currently lives in Dubai where he is a project manager for Meridium International, a leading firm specializing in asset performance management (APM) solutions. Tabakian got married last year.

2000s

Grace Abou-Jaoude
(BEN ’01) After graduating with distinction from AUB, Abou-Jaoude worked for a year at Dar Al-Handasah (Shair & Partners). In August 2002, she went to Purdue University in the United States where she earned a master’s degree in geotechnical engineering and, in December 2006, a PhD in civil engineering. She is now an assistant professor at the Lebanese American University in Lebanon. She says, “I believe that the experience and knowledge I gained during my years at AUB had a major impact on my career path. I particularly would like to extend my deepest appreciation and thanks to my AUB professors, who have always been a source of inspiration and support in all my endeavors.” Abou-Jaoude can be reached at grace. aboujaoude[at]lau.edu.lb.

Habib Haddad
(BEN ’02) knows that necessity is the mother of invention, and with that in mind he and fellow entrepreneur Imad Jureidini created Yamli.com, a web-based tool that empowers users to easily use and access the Arabic web. In times of crisis, when Internet access is the only lifeline to loved ones for many people, the limitation of the English keyboard is a frustrating impediment. Arab speaking web users often resort to spelling Arabic words out phonetically using English characters. Yamli allows users to readily transliterate English characters into Arabic words, and might soon be available on social networking sites such as Facebook where users can communicate in Arabic using Yamli. Haddad and Jureidini are also looking to license their technology to third party websites and companies.

Haddad, 27, grew up in Lebanon. After earning his BE in computer and communications engineering at AUB, he went on to earn his master’s degree in electrical engineering at the University of Southern California. Internet usage is growing exponentially across the Arab world, but access to and the development of Arabic content has been difficult, in part due to the complexity of typing Arabic. Yamli.com of Language Anaytics LLC, the company founded by Haddad and Jureidini, just made things a whole lot easier. Contact Haddad at habib[at]yamli.com.

Diana Hadi
(BA ’03, TD ’03, MA ’07) is now the English coordinator and a high school teacher at the Westwood School in Bshamoun, Lebanon. Hadi recently started a doctoral program in linguistics at the Beirut Arab University. She can be reached at dth02[at] aub.edu.lb or at 03 00 86 75 (cell).

Khaldoon Ghassan Said
(BS ’03) After graduating, Said started working as an Oracle database developer for MENA eSolutions, which has a long-term project with the Ministry of Umra and Hajj in Saudi Arabia. He quickly became certified in Database Management Systems DBMS, designed the Umra database schema, and wrote the entire Umra code/program. Said also writes weekly IT articles for Al Sharq Al Awsat newspaper as a freelancer. His blog (http://khaldoonsaid.blogsome.com) includes all of his approximately 250 published articles.

Mohammed Al Masri
(BSN ’05) recently moved to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to become the manager of the Medical Claims Department and deputy medical director of Cumberland Insurance & Reinsurance Company. He plans to begin graduate studies soon. Al Masri would like to hear from his classmates. He can be contacted at mmasri[at]cumberlandksa.com.

Ziad Mounayar
(BS ’06) is in the United Kingdom completing his MS in marketing and international management at the University of Reading Business School. He was recently awarded the HUCK Scholarship, a competitive merit-based award. After graduating from AUB with a degree in food science and management, he worked for Gandour as a QA supervisor.

Zeina Tawil
(BGD ’05) and Souheil Jammal were married on January 19. After a grand wedding and dinner at the Gefinor Rotana, the couple traveled to Thailand and Malaysia for their honeymoon. Suheil is a Lebanese entrepreneur in the hospitality industry; Zeina has been a graphic designer at the AUB Office of University Publications since 2005. She has designed a number of creative publications for AUB including MainGate magazine and official university logos.

Amjad Beainy
(ME ’07) is head of the Technical and Training Department at Libanica sa. Previously, he worked at Packeteer, a Lebanese company that distributes bandwidth network solutions in the Middle East and the Levant. Beainy is a Packeteer certified instructor and conducts training sessions in many Arab countries. He can be contacted at azb02[at]aub.edu.lb.

Stephanie Fellas
(BS ’07) graduated with distinction in biology in June 2007. She is currently a medical student at AUB and can be reached at saf07[at]aub.edu.lb.

Ali Ghaddar
(BEN ’07) is working at Nokia-Siemens Networks in Riad-el-Solh, Beirut as a systems testing engineer. He can be reached at amg06[at]aub.edu.lb.

Rola Khairallah (BA ’07)
graduated with a degree in public administration. She is currently the executive officer of VP Samer Maamari at AUB. Khairallah can be contacted at: rk29[at]aub.edu.lb.

Walid Saad
(ME ’07) is pursuing a PhD in wireless communications and game theory at the UNIK Graduate Research Center in Kjeller, Norway. He can be reached at saad[at]unik.no.

Recently Honored

Albert Hazbun
(BE ’59) is one of six people recently honored by the El Dorado Irrigation District (EID) Board of Directors as the first recipients of its annual Citizen Recognition Award. Hazbun was recognized for his longstanding involvement with the district’s initiatives and his leadership in establishing EID’s recycled water program.

Nabil Kronfol
(BS ’65, MD ’69) recently received the Dr. A.T. Shousha Foundation Prize for 2007 to honor his significant contribution to public health in the Middle East and the Mediterranean region as a whole. He is now president of the Lebanese Health Care Management Association. He also has a PhD in public health (’79) from Harvard University. Dr. Kronfol has been a full professor in health services administration since 1985 at AUB.

Dr. Ahmad A. Ajarimah
(BA ’71, TD) was honored on November 1 by the American Association for Adult and Continuing Education (AAACE) and the International Adult and Continuation Education Hall of Fame (IACEHF) for his distinguished achievements in the fields of adult education and human resource development in the service of Saudi Aramco, the GCC region, and the Arab world. Dr. Ajarimah, who is a Jordanian citizen, is the first Arab national and also the first educator from the Middle East to receive this prestigious honor.

President John Waterbury awarded Laila Baroody (BA ’54), the chairperson of the President’s Club, the President’s Medal for Outstanding Voluntary Service during a fundraising gala dinner held on October 26 at the Bristol Hotel. The award was given in recognition of her long years of service to AUB through the successful leadership of AUB’s President’s Club. The club raises money for projects that improve student life on campus both inside and outside the classroom. “When I assumed the presidency of the club in 1981, Lebanon was in the midst of war and as a result many university budgets were suspended. It was a challenging time since we had to use the club’s funds to help the library acquire books and equip labs,” said Baroody.

The President’s Club recently refurbished and equipped an on-line exam room in Bliss Building, refurbished Mary Dodge Hall with a reading and activity room and equipped two student lounges in the Diana Tamari Sabbagh Building. The club has also been a strong supporter of music and art at AUB. An ongoing fundraising effort is the “Adopt a Bench” campaign, in which donors have their names permanently inscribed on the benches of AUB campus. So far 35 benches have been adopted.

The President’s Club provided Baroody with an opportunity to put her student experience to work. “My experience as an AUB economics student influenced my decision to support the President’s Club. I knew what needed fostering—such as arts, music, and lab equaipment, and I was aware of what students needed.”

After 26 years, Baroody may soon leave the position to someone else. “I am glad that the President’s Club has become an integral part of the University... Being involved with the President’s Club has kept me close to AUB and this is very important to me since I consider it to be my second home.”

send class notes to maingate[at]aub.edu.lb