Meet Our Team
Alma Richeh, LL.M. Executive Director & Choir Director
Alma was born in Damascus, Syria and holds a law degree from Damascus University and an LL.M. degree in international legal studies from the American University, Washington College of Law in Washington D.C. She worked at the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in Damascus as an advocate to determine the refugee Status. In Syria, in 2001-2005, Alma studied singing with and trained by the best music and singing teachers at the Syrian Higher Institute For Music. Between 2000 and 2008, Alma was a conductor of Al Farah Choir in Damascus. She conducted the Choir’s youth division concentrating on concerts to fundraise for humanitarian causes and children’s rights.
During her LL.M Studies, she worked as a teaching assistance to Arab League Ambassador to the UN and Professor Clovis Maksoud at the American University, Washington College of Law.
After moving to Boston, she worked as a research intern at the Boston Consortium for Gender Security and Human Rights at the University of Massachusetts. Her research concentrated on the rights of women in Arab and Middle countries from legal, historic, cultural, religious and humanitarian perspectives.
In Boston, Alma was invited to perform at events to support refugees in the US and abroad. She preformed with Bassam Saba and the New York Arab Orchestra during their concerts in Boston. She also performed with the Boston Arab Music Ensemble (BAME) in residence at CAC under direction of Layth Sidiq.
Alma founded CAC Children Choir in 2014 the first Arabic Children Choir in New England.
Randa Shedid, President & Director of the Arabic School
Randa Shedid has lived and worked in Boston since 1991. Born in Cairo, she worked as an attorney in Egypt in the offices of international lawyers, El Ghatit Law Firm and Kosheri, Rashed & Riad. In Boston she held various positions in financial and legal firms, including Smith Barney (currently Morgan Stanley), Milberg Weiss Bershad Hynes & Lerach LLP, and Choate, Hall & Stewart. She was employed by the American Civil Liberties Union, Boston (ACLU), for 6 years as the attorney responsible for incoming complaints.
Shedid earned a J.D. from the New England School of Law, Boston and a law degree (Licence en Droit) from Cairo University Law School. She completed her BA in Middle Eastern Studies from the American University in Cairo, Egypt, with a year as an exchange student at UCLA. She is fluent in English, German, and Arabic with a reading knowledge of French.
Randa Shedid served as a Commissioner at the Cambridge Human Rights Commission (CHRC) for 13 years. She is a founding member and the current president of the board of the Center for Arabic Culture, Boston (CAC) and its Arabic School, which she has directed since its inception in 2006. She also serves on the board of trustees of the German International School of Boston (GISB).
Randa Shedid looks forward to continue working with the CAC Board on improving and diversifying the cultural, educational, and artistic programming of CAC; developing the brand and marketing the image of CAC and its school, and locating and acquiring a permanent home for the Center and the School in Boston.
Ikram Easton. M.S.Ed., Curriculum & Online School Director
For more than two decades, Ikram Easton has been actively involved in the field of education in different capacities both in US and abroad. She holds a Professional Educator’s Teaching License in English, ESL and Arabic from North Carolina State Board of Education and a Master Educator Teaching License (English, ESL, Arabic) from the state of Indiana and the State of Iowa. She is currently a Lecturer of Arabic at Boston College. She is a strong advocate of integrating technology in the world language classrooms. Through the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Learn- NC, Ikram designed, developed and taught the first Arabic I and II online courses for high school students using Canvas Learning Management Systems. She is a certified online Arabic language teacher who received her national Board Arabic certification from the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL) with a superior rating. In addition to teaching Arabic online at North Carolina Virtual Public Schools (NCVPS), Ikram serves as the Instructional Leader, Curriculum Developer and Content Reviewer Team Lead.
During her career, she received one of 18 national STARTALK scholarships to write and implement K-12 Arabic curricula at Georgetown University and the National Capital Language Resource Center. She is also one of 9 executive board members of the American Association of Teachers of Arabic (AATA). Through Boston College’s Center for Teaching Excellence (CTE), Ikram received a competitive internal grant with 8 professors from various disciplines to build online innovative modules to enhance instructions in traditional or online classes. Earlier in her career, Ikram worked with a wide range of students and professionals in Syria teaching the Arabic and English languages to non-native speakers. She earned a B.A degree from Tishreen University in Arabic Translation and English Literature with Honors. She received her B.S and M.S degrees from Indiana University’s School of Education in English, Second Language Acquisition and World Civilizations (Dean’s List). In 2005, she started the first public school Arabic program in the state of Iowa with four levels of Arabic courses including content and activities on Middle East culture. As a result, she received the Belin- Blank Excellence in Teaching Award from The University of Iowa. As active members in the Arab-American community in Indiana, Iowa and Boston, my husband and I strongly believe in CAC’s mission to promote the Arabic language and preserve its rich and fascinating heritage and culture. For those reasons, we have been enrolling our children in the CAC Arabic school for the past 6 years and are invested in its success
Arabic School Teachers
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Gracia Skaf
Gracia is an Arabic Native Speaker and a teacher for more than 25 years. She studied teaching Arabic as a second Language with the StarTalk program, at Boston University, a program that qualifies teachers to teach Arabic as a second language from (K0-K16). Gracia has been teaching Arabic to children and youth in (MA) for more than 8 years. She has been working with CAC for more than 9 years and very proud to be part of the team.
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May Mayyasi
May Mayyasi holds an MA in Fine Arts, an MA in Community Development, and a BA in Teaching from the Lebanese University in Beirut. For over 17 years, she has made it her mission to incorporate her expertise in all her fields of study, in her teaching style, both in Lebanon, Texas and Massachusetts. Her goal is to empower women, children and families. She had taught in Elementary Schools and other Community Settings as well as in her private practices in both Lebanon and the USA.
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Razek Siriani
Razek Siriani is a Syrian American with BA in English Literature from the University of Aleppo-Syria, and a Master of Education in Adult Education from the University of Manchester UK. Mr. Siriani was the Director of the Education Department at the Middle East Council of Churches between 1991 and 2001. He was the Director of International and Humanitarian Relief for northern Syria between 2003 and 2013 and worked as a free-lance translator Arabic-English-Arabic. Razek taught Arabic language at CAC School between 2014 and 2016. Some of his hobbies are watching sports games especially soccer, serving communities, and spending time with family.
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Nisreen Sukair
Nisreen was born and raised in Syria where she received her bachelor degree in Teaching. She started her career in 1998 teaching math, music, art, science and sports to K-6 age children. For Nisreen, teaching young children is a great vocation, one that is shared responsibility and partnership between both parents and teacher. Ms. Shukair worked with children of different ages and special needs. She was also a basketball player and coach for many years. Nisreen volunteered at different humanitarian organizations in Boston. She was recently awarded the President Bronze certificate for helping the community.
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Hadeer Radwan
Hadeer Radwan is a criminal lawyer and freelance Arabic and French teacher by education and profession. She immigrated to the United States from Alexandria, Egypt.
Hadeer loves Photography and lives in Brockton, with her husband and their twins.
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Rania Nasser
Rania is from Lebanon. She has 2 Bachelor degrees obtained from the American University of Beirut: one in Electrical Engineering and the other in Physics. Despite her scientific background, she stores an innate passion for Arabic. She has been in love with the language ever since she started learning it in elementary school. Being born to a father who was an Arabic literature teacher has furthermore boosted her energy to dig in the deep mines of the language. The person he was, together with the rich resources he provided, were enough of an inspiration that Rania’s passion for Arabic grew deeper and stronger. It is the same passion that drives her to try passing it to as many people as she can. And that’s how her story with CAC started.
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George Marayati
Georges Marayati holds a bachelor’s degree of Science in Civil Engineering from the University of Aleppo. He is an Aleppo native, and has been teaching, editing, and writing in the Arabic language for more than 40 years. Since 2012, he continued teaching Arabic and developing curricula at North Carolina Virtual Public Schools, where he was nominated for the 2017-18 NCVPS Teacher of the Year Award. Thousands of students have graduated from his classes throughout his career as an educator in Aleppo and have become successful leaders in the many fields of higher education. He wrote in local periodicals and journals, published poems, articles and studies in many newspapers and websites and has presented in conferences and seminars. In addition to his work in teaching, he has also edited several books published in Arabic. Most recently, he edited the Arabic and French sections of the Syriac Dictionary in Four Languages (English, French, Arabic, and Syriac) published online by the American Foundation for Syriac Studies in New Jersey, and The Encyclopedia of Syrian Paper Money and Syrian Money, Early 20th Century to the Present Day published in Beirut, Lebanon. He is an active member of the American Association of Teachers of Arabic AATA and the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages ACTFL and contributes to the growth of the field of Arabic Language acquisition along with the introduction of students from many nationalities in the United States and around the world to Arab Culture and Heritage.
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Hanan Haddad
Hanan Armaly Haddad, a Palestinian artist residing in Boston MA, holds a BA in Fine Art, and a BA in Arabic Language and Literature. Hanan is from northern Palestine, Shefa’amr, located between Nazareth and Haifa. Hanan says, “The pencil has accompanied me since I was young until I joined the university and studied Arabic and fine art and took them as a profession. I taught children (3-15) fine arts, held individual art exhibitions and participated in group exhibits. After the birth of my son, I decided to combine my profession and my passion, so I started writing in children’s literature. “The World of Razzi” project is distinguished by its sincere writing, and its orientation to children as the foundation of society and the hope of this planet.”
The World of Razi: A project that combines literature, art and knowledge in carefully written stories and carefully designed events for the beautiful minds of our children who always deserve the best and the finest. Razi’s World is a personal project, idea, and foundation. The basis of the project is writing in children’s literature and providing valuable linguistic content and fine art that suit children of all backgrounds especially children of Arab descent.
The project was written and designed with Arabic content of high artistic quality, and included the most amazing professional women from Palestine, Jordan, Algeria, France, Russia, Romania, Canada and Brazil to launch the first edition of the “Razi Collection”, which includes five stories: Razi loves to read, Razi eats vegetables, Moody Razzie, Razzie and the Cute Snail and Razzie and the Basic Colors, which were a hit within only four months of starting the marketing process for the first edition. Today, Hanan is working on the second edition, in addition to writing a new collection of short stories.
The themes of the stories are taken from our daily lives, but the way they are presented is unconventional. Full of humor through graphics and text, the interior design is exciting, and the graphics have been worked on to fit the child’s world through the colors, details and symbols, which are important for children mental and physical development.
Orchestra Teachers
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Layth Sidiq
Violin and Orchestra Director
Layth Sidiq is an award-winning violinist, composer and educator and the current artistic director of the New York Arabic Orchestra and the Center for Arabic Culture's Youth Orchestra Program. He has toured the world and shared the stage with major artists such as Simon Shaheen, Danilo Perez, and Jack Dejohnette, as well as performing in prestigious venues like the London Jazz Festival, Boston Symphony Hall, WOMEX Expo, Panama Jazz Festival and more. He is featured on multiple award-winning albums and his first record Son of Tigris was premiered at the Montreal Jazz Festival in 2016.In 2018, Layth won 2nd place at the Seifert International Jazz Violin Competition as the first Arab to ever participate, and he was also recently awarded 'Best International Artist' at the 2020 Boston Music Awards. He also directs the Center for Arabic Culture's Youth Orchestra Program in Boston and was a faculty member at Carnegie Hall’s ‘Music Educators Workshop’. Layth is lead vocalist and violinist for the new Assassin’s Creed game ‘Mirage’, which will be released in 2023.
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Bengisu Gökçe
Violin and Junior Ensemble Director
Turkish born and raised, Bengisu Gökçe is a multi-genre Violinist and Singer, known for combining in her music the Turkish roots with Eastern-European and Middle-Eastern traditions.As a professionally renowned performer, Gökçe's versatile playing has led her to share the stage with several music icons including Mark O’Connor, Tigran Hamasyan, Aynur Dogan, Shreya Ghoshal, Toninho Horta, Shankar Mahadevan, Simon Shaheen, Amal Murkus, and Pablo Ziegler to name a few.
Throughout her career she has performed in various distinguished venues such as Carnegie Hall (NY), Lincoln Center (NY), Boston Symphony Hall, American Repertory Theatre, MFA Boston, Roulette Intermedium (NY), Shapeshifter Lab (NY) and Monte Carlo Salle Garnier (Monaco).
A multi-award winning, Gökçe is a classically trained violinist and a performance alumna of Mersin University State Conservatory in Turkey, ‘Hanns Eisler’ School of Music in Berlin, Germany and Berklee College of Music in Boston, MA.
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Ghassan Sawalhi
Oud, Senior Ensemble Director
Ghassan Sawalhi is a Hip Hop artist, Music producer, Audio engineer, Composer, Arranger, and Multi-instrumentalist from Yafa, Palestine.
Ghassan graduated with honors from the esteemed Berklee College of Music in the field of Music production and engineering in 2017. He has been working ever since with the Arabic community in Newton and the greater Boston area through workshops, private lessons on the Oud and Percussion, as well as helping the CAC (Center for Arabic Culture) found their Arabic Youth Orchestra and is currently the Artistic Director there.
Ghassan is also a 2019 and 2021 TedX speaker, multiple time scholarship receiver and a very active member in the Arabic Alternative Music Scene. -
Afarin Nazarijou
Qanun
Afarin is an award-winning Qanun player from Iran who has participated in various national and international music festivals and performed with acclaimed artists such as Negar Kharkan, Mahsa Vahdat, maestro Dariush Talaei and Mohammadreza Fayaz. She started playing the Qanun at the age of five, and since then has graduated with a bachelor and masters degrees in performance from Tehran University and is now pursuing her second masters degree at the New England Conservatory with a specialization in contemporary improvisation. Afarin has ten years of experience in teaching the Qanun at the Pars Music Institute, one of Iran’s most prestigious institutions. -
Naseem Alatrash
Cello
Acclaimed Palestinian multi-style cellist/composer, Naseem Alatrash is a striking example of a unique musical voice from the Middle East. An accomplished classically trained musician and improviser in diverse styles, Alatrash has earned a reputation for blending Arabic, jazz and classical western music into his performances. After studying at the Edward Said National Conservatory of Music in Palestine, Alatrash was awarded a full scholarship to attend the Berklee College of Music in Boston where he received his Bachelor and Masters degrees for cello performance studying with Eugene Friesen, Owen Young, Rob Thomas, and Simon Shaheen. As a soloist, recording musician, chamber musician, and teacher. Currently serves as a Tufts faculty directing the Arab Music Ensemble. Naseem enjoys a global performance career. He tours with Danilo Perez’s Global Messengers and Amir Elsaffar’s Rivers of Sound Orchestra. He performed at many International festivals and performance venues such as the Detroit Jazz Festival, Boston Celebrity Series, Bimhuis in Amsterdam, Bozar (Belgium), Nancy Jazz Festival, Lebanon’s Beit Aldeen Festival, Jerash Festival, The Kennedy Center Wigmore Hall, Kennedy Center, Royal Albert Hall and many other. -
Tareq Rantisi
Percussion
Tareq Rantisi is a world percussionist, composer, and educator. Initially self-taught in Arabic percussion, he received a B.A. in Performance from Berklee College of Music in 2011 and a Master’s from the Berklee Global Jazz Institute in 2019. His varied experience has brought him into deep dialogue with jazz, Afro-Cuban, Indian, West African, Brazilian, and other traditions that continue to transform his approach to music and performing.Tareq has developed a wide body of educational work, offering master classes, workshops, and private lessons in collaboration with Arabic Music Retreat, Brandeis University, The Center for Arabic Culture, NAFDA. He lives in Boston and performs throughout the world.
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Hazar Eneyni
Piano performer and educator
Hazar was born and raised in Syria. She studied piano and voice privately in Syria, and continued with her lessons after moving to the US. She received a Bachelor’s degree in Architecture in Syria, and taught in both domains for several years. However, her passion for music was greater than that of architecture and she decided to focus solely on music full-time.
Playing and teaching piano has been a significant part of Hazar’s life from a young age. She worked as an accompanist for many years for several choirs in churches and schools, both in Syria and in the US. Currently, she teaches at White’s Music Educational Center in North Attleboro, Massachusetts, as well as providing private lessons.
Hazar has also been a choir singer for over forty years. Joining choirs is her favorite thing in life, as she gets introduced to different kinds of music genres including Arabic, Sacred music, Early music, Classical, Contemporary, and Jazz. In addition, she had the privilege of working under the direction of many well-known conductors in Syria and in the US. Currently, she is a soprano singer in Rhode Island Civic Chorale and Orchestra, where she takes part in big productions and music masterpieces.
In her free time, Hazar loves to arrange any melody that touches her heart and soul. She tries to reflect what she holds inside of her heart and memory by transforming them into music.
Join the team
Interested in becoming an intern, learn more how you can join us by clicking on the button below.
CAC Valued Interns
Yvette Easton, Online School Marketing Intern
Yvette Easton is a Sophomore in high school. She is very passionate about languages; she takes Latin & French in school, and has been learning Arabic here at CAC since she was 7 years old. Her High Honor Roll performance in school reflects her hardworking and determined personality as an intern. Over the summer, she helped create engaging activities to further enhance the Online Arabic Summer Workshop curriculum. Yvette holds a large interest in using her language skills to connect with people from Arab countries, and advocate for refugees and human rights.
Fun facts: Yvette is on the varsity volleyball and tennis team at Westwood High, and enjoys playing the piano in her free time. Her favorite Arabic song is (Atini Naya Wa Ghanni) by Fairouz. She also loves to read, travel, and roll grape leaves (Warak Dawali) with her family :).
Kate Harrison, Grant Research Intern
Kate is a recent graduate who studied international relations and Middle East. She is interested in the politics of the Middle East, US foreign policy toward the Middle East, and gender issues. Kate’s professional experience ranges from working as a case manager in nonprofits combating homelessness, to working as a research assistant in think tanks. She lives in Vermont with her dog, Chase.
Gemma Francis, Program Development Intern
Gemma Francis is a Lebanese-American, born and raised in Massachusetts. She recently graduated from Boston College with a Bachelor of Science in Neuroscience. Gemma is a program development intern at CAC, a role that helps her stay involved with the Arab community and the culture.