Distinguished Regional External Program consultants honored with Hallab Service Excellence Award at AUB

The Regional External Programs (REP) at the American University of Beirut (AUB) organized the Abdul Hamid Hallab REP Service Excellence Awards ceremony to recognize the accomplishments of outstanding REP consultants from the AUB community who with their work have reflected AUB's core values and commitment to service excellence.

Professor George Araj from the Faculty of Medicine and Associate Professor Antoine Ghauch from the Department of Chemistry in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences were selected for the award because of their client focus, commitment to service excellence, dedication to their project, and team work. Their contributions were identified by REP Vice President, Dr. Hassan Diab, as contributing to AUB's mission of serving “the peoples of the Middle East and beyond" and supporting REP's mission of providing “the Middle East and North Africa with world class professional services."

Professor George Araj ('76) is Director of Clinical Microbiology at AUBMC. He was awarded for his project which has positively impacted the health sector in Palestine (West Bank and Gaza) and was instrumental over the past decade in the implementation of a health project, funded by the Medical Welfare Trust Fund (MWTF), which trained 16 cohorts of almost 300 health care professionals.

Professor of Environmental Chemistry and Instrumental Analysis at AUB, Dr. Antoine Ghauch, contributed to several projects including developing the largest project in Lebanon's public education sector, Rehabilitation Assistance to Schools and Teacher Improvement (DRASATI), which was implemented in coordination with the Ministry of Education and Higher Education and funded by the USAID. The project had a major impact on the reform of the public education sector. DRASATI I & II allowed AUB to lead a nation-wide initiative to train hundreds of public school teacher-trainers and teachers.

Both awardees presented their projects and emphasized the importance and positive impact REP has made throughout the region and over its 40-year history.

The Abdul Hamid Hallab REP Service Excellence Award Ceremony has been organized annually since 2009 and bases its selection on extensive reviews and testimonies of colleagues and stakeholders on qualitative and quantitative evidence for excellence in consulting work.

The Award is in honor of Dr. Abdul Hamid Hallab, founding Vice President of REP. He administered REP's operations for over two decades, as he served as its Vice President since he oversaw the establishment of the office during a challenging period in 1976, until 1997. He served AUB for over four decades as professor, administrator, and advisor to the president of AUB.

“It is my utmost pleasure to celebrate this award with AUB today," said Dr. Hallab. “I am happy to see that REP is carrying the mission and mushrooming in its projects and achievements. They are the reason for us believing in Lebanon and AUB thrives in the region with its good name."

“Our REP consultants are our ambassadors who carry the AUB values forward and take them to countries where we can make a big difference," said AUB President Dr. Fadlo R. Khuri. “Our extraordinary faculty members being honored today give above and beyond their daily work to export AUB's knowledge beyond our walls, in the spirit of Dr. Abdul Hamid Hallab."

The REP office has contributed to founding high quality education in the region through establishing or assisting 30 universities in 11 countries in the MENA region, or 40 universities in 15 countries globally.

“I would like to acknowledge the excellent efforts made by hundreds of REP consultants which provided over the years outstanding work in over 1,000 projects, and, needless to say, our outstanding REP team that has worked tirelessly and devotedly over so many years," said Dr. Hassan Diab. “[Through this award], REP proves its commitment to service excellence and provides incentives for AUB faculty and staff to serve as REP consultants."

Scholarship endowment for CEC's top students

VP Hassan Diab announced at the event the creation of a scholarship endowment of $100,000 presented to a main component of REP, the Continuing Education Center (CEC), by the Worldwide Alumni Association of AUB (WAAAUB) Abu Dhabi chapter, represented by its president Mr. Elias Assaf. The endowment is CEC's first and is allocated to fund scholarships to its top three to four graduates annually, to fund their continued studies for a diploma at the Center.