Malak Zaalouk is a professor of practice and the founding director of the Middle East Institute of Higher Education at The American University in Cairo (AUC). Zaalouk has previously served as United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund (UNICEF) regional senior education adviser for the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). Her position entailed participation and advising on national reform strategies and the establishment of regional frameworks for quality education and teacher professional development. She led a regional initiative for a comprehensive framework for teacher development. Prior to that, Zaalouk founded the Egyptian community schools and has promoted girls’ education and quality education reform and has been a noted global leader on issues of human rights and gender equity. She has also been involved globally in issues of Early Childhood Development (ECD) and has participated in the MENA region and beyond in education in times of emergencies. Zaalouk sat on numerous international boards most important of which was the UNESCO Institute of Life Long Learning, where she was the chair of the governing board; she previously sat on the Global Monitoring Report board, the International Institute of Educational Planning and a number of publication boards. Zaalouk is also a member of the Presidential National Council for Education. Recently, she was part of a group of experts supporting UNESCO's latest commission on the Future of Education. Zaalouk has published widely on issues of development in both English and Arabic. She has led a number of international development projects involving teachers. She holds a diploma in educational planning from the International Institute of Educational Planning (IIEP) in Paris, a PhD in social anthropology from the University of Hull, an MA in sociology and a BA in political science from AUC.