School of Education Professor Shereen Kader Named to Prestigious Editorial Board

 New Mexico Highlands University School of Education faculty member Shereen Kader was named to the editorial board of a new international journal, Thinking Skills and Creativity.

Kader joins other distinguished board members who are also pioneers in the field of teaching for creativity and innovation such as Howard Gardner of Harvard University and Pamela Burnard of Cambridge University.

 

Kader joined the School of Education faculty this fall as a professor in early childhood education, special education, and literacy. 

 

“Dr. Kader has outstanding specific expertise and a set of diverse experiences that add depth to the School of Education faculty,” said Michael Anderson, dean of the School of Education. “She will help us expand our early childhood education program.”

 

Previously, Kader was an early childhood education professor at Harris-Stowe State University in St. Louis, MO where she received an international 2009 Heartspring Award for Innovation and Creativity in Special Education.

 

Earlier in her career, Kader was an assistant professor in the Kindergarten Teachers’ College at Cairo University in Egypt. She is a native of Cairo.

 

Kader said she’s an advocate for finding and nurturing creative potential in students within the context of needed educational reform.

 

“In order to meet the challenge in the new century, we need to build a creative society,” Kader said. “As the volume and access to information explodes exponentially, our future depends on our ability to perceive, understand and solve problems creatively. Children and adults need to acquire creativity and innovation as life skills so they can contribute effectively in the changing world.

 

“My vision and dream is that the day will come when creativity is recognized and highly appreciated in all aspects of life, especially in education. Children with special needs are uniquely creative, which must be considered when planning educational programs and services to maximize their potential,” Kader said.

 

Kader earned her Ph.D. from Pennsylvania State University in early childhood education and also holds a master’s degree in education with an emphasis on literacy from Indiana University of Pennsylvania.

 

She also earned a master’s degree in mental health from Zagazig University in Egypt.

 

Kader’s research is widely published in international scholarly journals. It focuses on creativity and identifying ways it can be nurtured across the life span. She has authored chapters in 18 college-level education textbooks.

 

Kader also serves on the editorial board for the Mid-Western Educational Researcher journal, is a book reviewer for the American Psychological Association, and is a panel reviewer for the National Science Foundation.

 

She is representing Highlands in a grant proposal to the U.S Department of Education that focuses on innovations in early childhood education.

 

“I was seeking an innovative university that is open-minded as well as future and globally oriented,” Kader said. “That’s why I chose Highlands.”

 

Kader has developed a one-of-a-kind model for a Center for Creativity that she hopes Highlands will one day establish. She plans to write grants to help fund the initiative.  

 

“The center would advance the knowledge and practice of creativity through research, teaching, learning, service and outreach,” Kader said. “It would be interdisciplinary, inclusive, cross cultural, and intergenerational.”

 

Kader lives in Las Vegas with her husband, Eslam Hamouda, and their daughter, Lamisse, 9, and two sons, Moamen, 11, and Ahmed, 6. All three children attend Las Vegas City Schools.