Board Members, 2026
Reem Khamis, Chair
Dr. Reem Khamis, also known as Reem Khamis-Dakwar, (Ph.D., CCC-SLP) is a Professor at Long Island University Brooklyn and Director of the Culture, Language, and Society (CLaS) in SLP Lab. She is a founding member of the MENA Caucus. Her research and teaching focus on language development, processing, and clinical practice in diglossic and multilingual contexts, with a particular emphasis on Arabic. Her work engages critical and decolonial frameworks in language acquisition, assessment, and intervention.
Dr. Khamis has published extensively in leading journals, including the Journal of Child Language, American Journal of Speech-Language Pathology, Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development, and Perspectives on Arabic Linguistics. She is a co-founding member and co-managing editor of the open-access Journal of Critical Study of Communication and Disability, which advances equity-centered research, practice, and policy in communication sciences.
She is also an elected board member of the Arabic Linguistics Society. Dr. Khamis-Dakwar has served on multiple editorial boards, including as a guest editor for the Arabic Linguistics Journal and as a language editor for the Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research. Her work has been funded by ASHA, the Childhood Apraxia of Speech Association of North America, and international foundations supporting multilingual and multicultural education. In recognition of her leadership and commitment to equity, she received the 2020 CAPCSD Excellence in Diversity Award.
Email: reem.khamis@liu.edu
Hanin Rayes, Treasurer
Hanin Rayes is an assistant professor of audiology in the faculty of Medical Rehabilitation Sciences in King AbdulAziz University. She received her Ph.D. in hearing science from UCL in 2021. She is also an ASHA and American-board certified audio-vestibular clinician with an Au.D. degree from Rush university in the USA. She has strong experience in evaluating hearing and balance in children and adults.
Dr. Rayes’s research interest focuses on speech Perception and rehabilitation. She previously investigated the relationship between FM discrimination and speech in noise perception. She also developed an auditory training protocol to be used in patients’ rehabilitation process, aiming to improve speech discrimination and perception in school-age children. Dr. Rayes also published a speech discrimination test that can be used as an outcome measure for school-age children. Her latest project is developing and evaluating the Hearing Evaluation Reference, an application for audiologists to assess speech perception in paediatric population.
Email: hrayes@kau.edu.sa
Mariam El Amin
Mariam El Amin, PhD is a speech-language pathologist and researcher specializing in child language development and disorders in multilingual populations, with a particular focus on Arabic-speaking children and families. Her work directly addresses longstanding gaps in child language research by advancing the study of Arabic, a widely spoken yet underrepresented language in the field. Through her research on caregiver–child interactions, home literacy environments, and maternal linguistic input, she aims to inform culturally and linguistically responsive assessment and intervention practices. A Fulbright alumna and native Arabic speaker, Dr. El Amin is committed to equity, global representation, and open science in communication sciences and disorders.
Email:
Lama K. Farran
Lama K. Farran, Ph.D., CCC-SLP is a Professor of Communication Sciences and Disorders at the University of West Georgia and ASHA-certified speech-language pathologist with many years of clinical experience. With a background in neuroscience, Dr. Farran’s research examines the early development of speech and language as a basis for reading in infants and children from diverse cultural and linguistic backgrounds. Using a preventive, multifactorial framework, her work considers the contributions of biological, genetic, cross-linguistic, cognitive, and environmental factors in the development of language and reading, with a focus on translating research to practice. Her scholarly work has been published in interdisciplinary journals such as Reading and Writing, PLoS One, Frontiers in Psychology, Reading Psychology, and International Journal of Language and Communication Disorders. In addition to her academic appointment, Dr. Farran contributes to several initiatives that focus on the early detection of language and reading disorders. She is a member of the Board of Directors of the International Dyslexia Association in Georgia. Dr. Farran’s mission is to improve speech, language, reading, and overall developmental outcomes for our youngest learners.
Reeman Marzouqah
Reeman Marzouqah, Ph.D., CCC-SLP, SLP(C), is a Tenure-Track Assistant Professor in the Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders at California State University, Fullerton (CSUF). Dr. Marzouqah earned her Ph.D. from the University of Toronto (UofT) in Toronto, ON, Canada, where she was a member of the Speech Production Lab, studying upper airway exercises for stroke patients with obstructive sleep apnea. Throughout her Ph.D. studies, she made significant research contributions, resulting in several peer-reviewed journal publications and competitive awards. She was also engaged in community outreach and media interviews. After completing her Ph.D., Dr. Marzouqah was awarded a grant to complete her postdoctoral fellowship in stroke neurology at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre. Her current research at CSUF focuses on upper airway dysfunctions associated with neurological conditions.
Email: rmarzouqah@fullerton.edu
Maryam Salehomoum
Dr. Maryam Salehomoum (Ph.D., CCC-SLP) is a licensed Speech Language Pathologist and currently teaching at Emerson College. Maryam was born in Iran and learned Farsi as her native language. She was exposed to French and English before immigrating to the US at 12 years of age. Maryam has experienced a shift in her language dominance (from Farsi to English) but has maintained her basic conversational and literacy skills in Farsi. Maryam’s areas of expertise are primarily literacy development and deafness, but she has always had an interest in bi- and multilingualism. In addition to the languages of her childhood, Maryam has also acquired basic proficiency in Spanish and conversational fluency in sign language. Maryam has completed Farsi language assessments from time to time and is highly motivated to develop relationships with Iranian SLP scholars and practitioners.
Email: maryam_salehomoum@emerson.edu
