Zaina Fareed Zaidan

Chief Executive Officer

Tel: 920029522

Zaina Zaidan is a passionate educator with more than 15 years of experience in teaching and presenting educational workshops. She is committed to improving individual talents, and diverse educational needs, and advancing cultural growth and independence to its fullest potential. Zaina holds a bachelor’s degree in Special education and human development from Boston College (Massachusetts) and a Master’s degree in Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) from Dar-Al-Hekma University in Jeddah. While in the United States, Zaina obtained her MTEL License and received the Massachusetts teacher certification. Zaina began her career in teaching at the elementary level in Al-Khobar for two years. She, later on, worked as a consultant for assessing special needs and became the assessment leader at a private special needs centre in Jeddah.  Zaina continued her work in the special needs field at the University of Business and Technology in Jeddah heading the academic support centre. She, later on, managed Enchanted Garden; the leading child’s enrichment centre in Jeddah for 12 years, The centre catered towards children’s after school activities ranging from sports to the arts, sciences, languages, and social skills where she was responsible for supervising the morning pre-school teachers’ scope of work and taught curriculum, along with managing the centre’s offered after- school programs including seasonal camps and running many educational campaigns. Zaina believes in the power of operational training to improve socially significant behaviours and communication skills based on her solid education experience in ABA which leads to helping teachers design a systematic plan to effectively use the empirical methods of applied behaviour analysis in the general and special education classrooms.  Zaina is an established children’s book author and has published four children’s books in both Arabic and English. In 2022 Zaina joined SAUT as the chief executive officer determined to employ her credentials towards the organization’s operations management, and administration of staff with her main priority to oversee the many services the SAUT schools offer to individuals and families of the Down Syndrome society.  

Reem Hashem

Human Resources

Reem Hashem heads the Human Resources department where she is responsible for recruiting, staffing and retention of employees, compensation and benefits administration, and the development of processes and metrics that create an employee-centric culture emphasizing quality, productivity and performance. She is also responsible for employee safety, welfare, and wellness and provides assistance with performance measurement across departments. Reem brings over 20 years of experience to this role. She began her professional career with the Saudi Arabian embassy in Damascus where she worked in the consular section before moving on to manage the affairs of Saudi nationals residing in Syria. Upon moving back to Riyadh in 2002, she joined the Al-Nahda Philanthropic Society for Women as an HR supervisor and then moved to Saut in 2010 to head the Human Resources department. Reem holds a Bachelors degree in Public Administration from King Saud University.

Cynthia Branson

Consultant

Cynthia Branson, MA CCC-SLP specializes in Speech-Language Pathology and has been a consultant at the Mohammed bin Naif bin Abdulaziz Schools for Down Syndrome (formerly Al-Nahda Schools for Down syndrome) since 1995. She has an extensive background in child language development and early childhood intervention derived from more than twenty years experience as lecturer at the University of Washington (Seattle WA USA) in the Speech and Hearing Sciences Department. She was program supervisor in pediatric speech-language pathology at Mary Bridge Children’s Hospital and Health Center (Tacoma WA USA) as well. Her research and treatment interests are in the area of genetic disorders. She published The Student with a Genetic Disorder (with D. Plumridge, R. Bennett and N. Dinno) and worked on diagnostic teams evaluating children with Down syndrome, Prader-Willi syndrome and Fragile X syndrome. She also has taught in the area of typical and atypical language development, early language intervention and development of social communication.

Susan Sandall

Consultant

Susan Sandall, Ph.D. is Director of the Professional Development and Applied Research Units at the Norris and Dorothy Haring Center, University of Washington (UW), Seattle, Washington USA and has been a consultant at the Mohammed bin Naif bin Abdulaziz Schools for Down Syndrome since 2010. She is also on the faculty in the Area of Special Education at UW. Her research interests include effective instructional strategies for young children with developmental disabilities; play, interaction, and social-communication of very young children with disabilities; and the changing roles of teachers and the implications for personnel development. She was a long-time board member at the Division for Early Childhood of the Council for Exceptional Children. She co-authored DEC Recommended Practices in Early Intervention/Early Childhood Special Education and Building Blocks for Teaching Preschoolers with Special Needs (with Ilene Schwartz). Susan began her association with the Norris and Dorothy Haring Center as a graduate student in the Experimental Education Unit. She has taught in the early intervention program, provided courses and training opportunities for teachers and student teachers, and conducted research in the Experimental Education Unit classrooms.

Marge R. Luthman

Consultant

Marge Luthman began consulting at the Mohammed bin Naif bin Abdulaziz Schools for Down Syndrome in 2015. Her specialty in occupational therapy began in 1986, when she became a staff occupational therapist at at the Mercy Hospital and Medical Center in Chicago Illinois. From there, she focused on pediatric services, providing diagnostics and treatment to children facing sensory and motor challenges. In addition to working directly with children and their families, she began teaching graduate students and occupational therapists through workshops and courses in various institutes and universities. She is currently the Occupational Therapist/Education Coordinator at The Children’s Therapy Center in Kent, Washington where she provides occupational therapy treatment to children of all ages with a variety of diagnoses.

Marge received her Masters of Science in Occupational Therapy from Colorado State University in 2005 and is certified in Neurodevelopmental Treatment as well as the Administration of the Sensory Integration and Praxis Test (SIPT). She has published research articles, chapters in textbooks, and developed a series of workshops on the theory and treatment of sensory integration orders and autism. She is a member of the American Occupational Therapy Association, the Washington Occupational Therapy Association and the Alaska Occupational Therapy Association.