About

Lana Kreidie is a Juris Doctor and criminal defense attorney with experience in criminal, immigration, juvenile and education law. After serving as a deputy public defender from 2005 to 2016 in Riverside County, she is now the principal of the Law Office of Lana M. Kreidie practicing in both San Mateo and Santa Clara counties. In her capacity as an attorney and litigator, she has presented continuing education lectures to attorneys, legal professionals and criminal justice students on varying topics including public defense, due process of law, juvenile delinquency and the intersection between litigation and technology. Ms. Kreidie earned certificates in Supervision and Management through the Center for Government Excellence in Riverside County and a Bachelors degree at UCSD in political science and communications with a regional specialization in the Middle East. Over the last 20 years, Lana has served in different leadership capacities both with non profits and educational institutions to empower communities and build opportunities for adults and youth alike. Lana is eager to serve the BAAS community and school in its pursuit to provide a quality education and an exceptional experience to our youth and their families.

Dalia R. Rayes has served as a Board member since June 2017. Dalia is a leader in the pharmaceutical industry with over 18 years of experience in sales and marketing. Her experience and background spans across different biopharmaceutical, biotechnology, and pharmaceutical products launched in the US and globally. She continually leverages her expertise in strategy design, multi-channel marketing, product life cycle management, and effective selling methodologies to drive revenue growth and achieve objectives. Dalia currently serves as Senior Director and Business Unit Lead at Actelion Pharmaceuticals, where she provides leadership to a commercial organization. Earlier in her career, she advanced key initiatives at Algorithm Pharmaceuticals, based in Lebanon, which included managing brand teams across 13 countries in the Middle East and North Africa. Ms. Rayes earned a Bachelor of Science in Pharmacy from Beirut Arab University and a Master of Business Administration from Lebanese American University. Dalia has been a parent at the Bay Area Arabic School since 2015, and is very passionate about having her two children learn Arabic.

My name is Huda Ali and I teach Arabic for green class at BAAS. I earned my bachelor’s degree in Science and Education from Tanta University, Egypt. I have worked as a Math teacher for over 20 years and as an Arabic Teacher for over 5 years. I have taught Arabic at Al-Arqam School, and Cordoba Academy.

I am a very passionate and goal-oriented type of person. I love teaching and strive to make my students the best. My main teaching method involves experiments and hands-on activities for my students. One of my duties as a teacher is to help my students discover their own talents and work on their creativity. I look forward to implementing that into this coming beautiful and exciting school year.

I am Rasha Dahmash and I am one of the Arabic and Islam teachers of the upper level in BAAS. I have a Masters in Gifted Education from Northeastern Illinois University (NEIU), a bachelor’s in Arabic literature, and a post-bachelors Diploma in Teaching Arabic from Damascus University. This summer I was lucky to earn a certificate from Stanford University for implementing technology in teaching Arabic. In addition to my long journey (10+ years in teaching Arabic inside and outside the United States, I am an Arabic language expert at Facebook. I, along with my 3 children were fortunate to join BAAS 4 years ago. Being a teacher has given me a wonderful opportunity to share my expertise with native and non-native Arabic speakers. This has been a very satisfying journey for me so far and I’m very excited to see the BAAS community grow and thrive.