Join Amina as she sits down to talk with Dr. Ilham Nasser from the IIIT (International Institute of Islamic Thought) about AEMS, the Advancing Education in Muslim Societies program. Dr. Nasser particularly focuses on the Mapping the Terrain study, a research project which investigates the conditions and status of education in Muslim societies while focusing on the person as a whole and more specifically at the socio-emotional and spiritual aspects of his/her being. It is about “learning to be” where education is not only about knowledge and skills but also about being a human being. Dr. Nasser talks about the different "constructs" or concepts chosen for the survey in the 2019 annual study which all relate to well-being either directly or indirectly.Dr. Nasser is the Director of Pedagogy and a Senior Researcher for the AEMS research team at IIIT. She is also a former Chair of the Peace Education Special Interest Group at the American Education Research Association (AERA) and has spent over twenty five years in teacher training and research in different educational settings in the United States, Africa, and the Middle East. Dr. Nasser was an associate professor in Early Childhood Education at George Mason University for 12 years. Her research interest includes studies and publications on the topic of global teachers’ professional development and more specifically, teacher preparation and professional development in social and political contexts and ways these influence children’s outcomes. Previously, she led the modernization of the curriculum for kindergarten in Iraq and the design and development of the first national curriculum for kindergarten in Palestine. Dr. Nasser has researched and published on education for forgiveness in the Arab World. Currently she is the Dean for the School of Education at Virginia International University.