Sanaa Makhlouf

Senior Instructor II
Department of Rhetoric and Composition (RHET), Academy of Liberal Arts 

First Place Recipient of the Merit Award for Excellence in Academic Service 2020-2021

Among her many services to AUC, Makhlouf's thoughtful review of the sections of the faculty handbook, which affect instructor-level faculty, was extremely important, especially since this community within the faculty had been under-appreciated and under-represented. Makhlouf developed a comparative chart that tracked all sections relevant to the instructor-level faculty in an old manual (known as the PPP) and correlated them with sections in the new faculty handbook . This was a laborious task made all the more difficult by uncertainties brought about by the January 25 revolution of 2011. As a senator, Makhlouf continued working on the handbook and the rights of instructors and all faculty benefits. Her work was recognized by the senate when she received the Distinguished Senator Award.

After a hiatus, Makhlouf returned to the senate in 2017 and served two terms as secretary of the executive committee, an extremely time-consuming office, and as a member of the faculty affairs committee. “My involvement with the senate embodies what I regard are the true values of the institutional citizenry and the principles of shared governance between a faculty that is committed to the welfare of its institution and its serving bodies," Makhlouf commented.

Makhlouf was part of the original team of course designers in 2013 for the new rhetoric/core curriculum courses. She developed new courses for the department, collaborated with other rhetoric and Arabic language instruction faculty to help them develop new themed courses, mentored faculty from the English language instruction who were interested in teaching those new courses, and as theme leader for two courses assisted faculty teaching those themes. She also acted as a member of the policy and procedures committee to help develop criteria and benchmarks for promotions and contract renewals and to update governance. In addition, she was chair of the grants and professional development committees in the Department of Rhetoric and Composition. She has labored to produce and win acceptance of fair evaluation criteria for instructor-level support grants. All of these efforts have been informed by the belief that faculty support grants should be seen holistically, the goals being to improve the professional capacity of all AUC faculty and to enhance the quality of teaching.

In 2010, Makhlouf was approached by the President of Al-Azhar University to help Al-Azhar develop programs to improve the education of Imams, so as to better serve Muslim communities in the West, and to counter the influence of extremist and radical Islamists. She worked pro bono to develop such training workshops, curricula, course design, course materials as well as help found a translation unit and training for Al-Azhar staff. She was also invited to join the Azhari delegation in Muslim-Christian summit meetings in Washington DC, and later in Beirut and Cairo. She worked closely in these interfaith dialogue meetings with representatives of different organizations such as the World Council of Churches and the Vatican.

She has also worked to foster an inclusive teaching environment for our students with visual disabilities. She worked closely with Univeristy Academic Classroom Technolog (UACT), the Library and the emerging Office of Student Well-being, to develop an awareness of the needs of all students with disabilities.

These comments highlight only a small portion of her record of service over several decades. Her efforts have substantially forwarded AUC’s mission to provide effective support to its faculty and students and to assist in the development of regional and the global communities. For these reasons, she is a worthy recipient of the award for Excellence in Academic Service.