Dr. Rima Al Hasan, Assistant professor of operations management and innovation and the assistant dean of quality assurance affairs at the school of business, has been selected as the only Jordanian to participate in the Leaders Lead On-Demand Quality Controls and Accreditation in Business and Entrepreneurship Academic Programs exchange program in February 2023 which was Funded by the U.S. Department of State and organized by World Learning. The Program is a two-way exchange for professionals from the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) and the United States who are active in their fields of entrepreneurship and innovation intending to deepen cross-regional connections. Dr. Al Hasan is one of 15 participants selected from the MENA region. The representative includes one person from Lebanon, Qatar, Libya, Palestine, Egypt, Morocco, Tunis, Oman Bahrain, United arab emirates, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, and Jordan.
This program included intensive interactive training events, experiential and immersion study tours, and at U.S. Universities in different states at the east coast, including Pennsylvania, New York, North Carolina, Florida, and a final segment in Washington, DC. Throughout the program, representatives from U.S. and MENA institutions discussed key focus areas under the entrepreneurship and innovation theme, such as U.S.-MENA partnerships, sustainability, and social impact, linkages between universities' entrepreneurship and innovation programs design and the labor market, and quality controls in business education.
The visit was based on holding several meetings with institutions, representatives from the local community, entrepreneurs, academics, and researchers in the field of innovation and quality management.
The program concluded with a visit to the U.S. state department, where the group discussed plans for sustaining the program and its outcomes. During this visit, the group spoke with leaders from the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, EducationUSA, USA StudyAbroad, and the U.S. Fulbright Program to discuss opportunities for student exchange, joint research projects, and other common topics of interest.
In turn, the Dean of the School of Business, Prof. Dr. Raed Masadeh Bani Yaseen stressed the importance of academic participation in outstanding international programs for developing the educational and research process at the school of business. Suggesting that these events facilitate academic exchange and open opportunities for conducting joint international research.
Dr. Rima Al-Hasan indicated that her participation in this exchange program represents a unique opportunity to learn from the American universities' approach to managing entrepreneurship and innovation in their institutions, communicating their social impact and contribution to society, and in maintaining the programs' quality requirements. She added that the program provides different avenues for collaboration with both the universities in the Middle East and North Africa, and with institutions, universities, and academics in the United States of America. Given that, she will work with the various parties at the University of Jordan to expand and leverage these opportunities.