Lobna “Luby” Ismail, founder and president of Connecting Cultures, Inc., is a training specialist with over fifteen years of experience in the areas of cross-cultural communication, cultural competency, Arab and American cultures, Islamic awareness and religious diversity. She is the author of “Doing Business in the Middle East and North Africa” and “Finding Diversity.” She is frequently used as an expert by national media and major international news programs and recently received press in Associated Press, The |
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Washington Post, BBC World News and PBS’ Religion and Ethics NewsSelected as a Peace Fellow for Seeds of Peace and a Malone Fellow in Middle East and Islamic Studies by the National Council for U.S. and Arab Relations, Luby participated in a study visit to Saudi Arabia. She has been selected to present at Iraqi Reconstruction conferences, the Arabian Society for Human Resource Management conference in Bahrain and the Society for Human Resources’ Workplace Diversity and annual conference as a professional on the cutting edge of emerging cultural and religious diversity issues and Islamic awareness. Luby has been providing training for hundreds of law enforcement and military officers on Arab and Muslim Americans and on Iraq and Iraqi cultural considerations. She holds a Master’s degree in Intercultural Relations from Lesley College in Cambridge, Massachusetts and a B.A. in International Service from The American University in Washington, DC. She has traveled throughout Europe, including Spain, Bosnia and Croatia, and the Middle East, including Iran, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, UAE, Jordan, the West Bank, Jerusalem and Israel. Luby is married and has three children, Sharif, Zakaria, and Laila.
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| The Team |
Connecting Cultures is made of a diversity of people who range in backgrounds, professions, faiths, age and educatioin and experience. All united by shared commitment to bring greater understanding and ability to work and interface in diverse settings.
Our team includes:
| Alexander Kronemer | top |
Alexander Kronemer is a frequent writer and lecturer on religious diversity, Islamic awareness and cross-cultural communication. He has a Master’s Degree in Theological Studies from Harvard University, where his research concentrated on the philosophy of religion and comparative religion. In 1996, he was awarded a Joseph J. Malone Fellowship for Middle East and Islamic Studies, which funded him for a study tour of Saudi Arabia and Bahrain.
Mr. Kronemer has published essays in numerous newspapers and journals, including the Christian Science Monitor, the Los Angeles Times, the San Jose Mercury News and The Washington Post. His articles have been included in several book anthologies, including “What Would Muhammad Say About Terrorism,” in the September 11 memorial book, Up From the Ashes, and “Islam and Democracy” in Taking Back Islam.
He has received numerous writing awards, among them a 2000 grant from the Montgomery County Commission on the Humanities and a 1989 Halberstam Writing Fellowship.
As a lecturer, he has delivered talks on religious diversity and Islam for the World Affairs Council in Washington, D.C., the National Council on U.S.-Arab Relations, numerous colleges and universities, including Princeton, Cornell, Yale and Harvard University, and for private corporations, including Nike, Aetna, and Walt Disney World.
He has appeared as a CNN commentator on several occasions, including during CNN’s historic live coverage of the Hajj in 1998, which was broadcast to 400 million viewers. He has also been heard in many radio interviews, such as NPR and the Voice of America.
In 2000, Mr. Kronemer served a one-year appointment at the Bureau of Human Rights in the U.S. State Department focusing on U.S. foreign policy and Islam. During that year, Mr. Kronemer also served as a delegate to the United Nations Human Rights Commission in Geneva, Switzerland.
He is the co-founder of Unity Productions Foundation and creator and co-producer of the popular PBS documentary Muhammad: Legacy of a Prophet. The program received a national broadcast on December 18, 2002, and received funding from the Corporation of Public Broadcasting, the David and Lucille Packard Foundation, and over 2,000 other individual, business, and institutional donors. Currently he has completed Cities of Light: The Rise and Fall of Islamic Spain, Prince Among Slaves and On a Wing and a Prayer, about an American Muslim’s dream to receive his flying license. His latest film is www.allahmademefunny.com, UPF’s first theatrical release.
| Jean Abinader | top |
Jean AbiNader has spent more than 30 years in the fields of education and training, marketing, association management, international relations, public affairs, and human resources development.
He holds a B.A. in Political Science; an MPIA in Intercultural Communications; and completed post-graduate studies in Organizational Communications at the University of Pittsburgh.
Capabilities in Training, Education, and Advocacy
Mr. AbiNader began his more than 30 years of global experience as a training consultant to American and foreign government agencies and private companies in the development of management and personnel systems for international start-up and expansion projects, particularly in the Arab world.
Jean has developed and managed a variety of training/coaching programs in a variety of disciplines and environments:
• Cross-cultural briefings for employees/professionals from the U.S. to various overseas destinations
• Cross-cultural briefings for employees/professionals from Arab countries to the U.S.
Mr. AbiNader writes frequently on topics related to US-Arab relations including corporate and government policy analysis, public diplomacy, economic reform and development, and intercultural communications. He has chaired and participated in international conferences on US-Arab relations, and provides analyses to Arab and American government clients on trade, investment, education, and economic development issues activities. He has extensive media contacts to national and international media ranging from BBC and CNN to Reuters, international news outlets, satellite broadcasting, and public policy organizations.
He has wide-ranging experience and expertise on information programming for Arab and American clients including the production and management of small and large scale exhibitions, special events, trade delegations, speaking tours, advertising supplements, and other projects to promote messages, enhance and articulate positions, and advocate issues. political, social and economic development issues.
| Barbara Ferguson| top |
Barbara G.B. Ferguson gained extensive experience on international affairs while employed as a journalist and editorial administrator for several national and international newspapers and magazines. Working the last 24 years as a journalist and bureau chief in Paris, London and now Washington, she has developed an expertise on Middle East affairs. She speaks French and Arabic.
She currently is the Washington Bureau Chief of Arab News, the leading English-language daily in the Middle East; headquartered in London with its editorial staff based in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
Ms. Ferguson has also served as a regional expert for the Washington Times, writing "Country Reports" from Bahrain, Morocco and Kazakhstan. Each report required her to reside a minimum of two months in each country.
Ms. Ferguson was an embedded war correspondent with Marine Wing Support Group 37, 3D Marine Aircraft Wing, 1st Marine Expeditionary Force, during the Iraq War in Spring, 2003.
At the request of then Maj. Gen. James Amos, Commanding General 3rd MAW, under whom she was embedded, Ms. Ferguson has regularly trained Marines being redeployed to Iraq on “Arab Culture and Islam.”
Ms. Ferguson has received several journalism awards, including the "Outstanding Support Award, U.S. Intelligence and Threat Analysis Center, The Pentagon," for analysis during the first Gulf War.
Ms. Ferguson was born in Essex, Connecticut; and is married to Tim Kennedy. She attended Colorado Women's College and graduated from the University of Minnesota. She did graduate work at the Sorbonne University, Paris, France, where she learned Arabic. A technical researcher at UNESCO before starting her career as a journalist in 1980, she worked in Paris for 16 years before being transferred to London, England, where she continued her career in journalism from 1988-1990.
Ms. Ferguson is co-Chair of the International Correspondents Committee at the National Press Club, Washington, D.C., and serves on the board of directors of the National Health Association in Tampa, Florida. She was selected for Who’s Who in America and Who’s Who is the World.
A speaker and trainer for Connecting Cultures, she appears regularly on national and international television and radio.
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You must not lose faith in humanity. Humanity is an ocean; if a few drops of the ocean are dirty, the ocean does not become dirty.
- Mahatma Gandhi
