Dr. Eman Gaad is the Dean of the Faculty of Education and a Professor of Special and Inclusive Education at the British University in Dubai (BUiD). She is also an Affiliate Lecturer at the University of Glasgow, UK. Professor Gaad led BUiD’s special and inclusive Masters programme for many years and currently leads the Doctoral Programme. In 2022 she became a Goodwill Ambassador for Bangladesh. She has established herself as a world-class researcher, advocate, international social development consultant and expert in the field.
Additionally, Professor Gaad is a regular invited keynote speaker, certified assessor, and a professional social trainer. Over the last 25 years she has become a frequent national and international media figure on hundreds of live on-air radio and TV programmes, as well as writing and appearing in hundreds of articles published in local and regional newspapers. She co-founded one of the largest NGOs in the UAE, the Emirates Down Syndrome Association (EDSA), where she also acts as a Senior Educational Consultant. She has advised policy and decision makers as a senior consultant for both governments of Dubai and Abu Dhabi on disability related issues.
A committed advocate for the educational and social rights for people with disability, she is a UNESCO Consultant on inclusion of learners with disabilities in regular schools. Professor Gaad has published the findings of her research work in international journals and her single authored book ‘Inclusive Education in the Middle East’ by Routledge in 2010 is very popular among scholars and researchers internationally.