Founder and president of Connecting Cultures, Inc., Ms. Ismail is a training specialist with over fifteen years of experience in the areas of cross-cultural communication, Islamic and Arab awareness, cultural and religious diversity. She holds a Master’s degree in Intercultural Relations from Lesley College and a B.A. in International Service from The American University in Washington, DC. Ms. Ismail was selected as a Peace Fellow for Seeds of Peace and a Malone Fellow in Middle East and Islamic Studies by the National Council for U.S. and Arab Relations. She has been selected to present at Iraqi Reconstruction conferences, the Arabian Society for Human Resource Management conference in Bahrain and the Society for Human Resources’ conferences as a professional on the cutting edge of emerging cultural and religious diversity issues. More recently, she has been presenting to the U.S. Military and law enforcement on Iraqi and Arab culture. Ms. Ismail has conducted training for Federal and State agencies, educational institutions, nonprofit organizations and private corporations including Walt Disney World, U.S. Department of Justice, Fairfax and Montgomery County Public Schools, Foreign Service Institute, IBM, Sunoco, Institute of International Education, ExxonMobil, NIKE, SODEXHO, Shell Chemical and Marriott International.