User:Childrenofheart

Omar Imady
Omar Imady
Born	8 July 1966 Damascus, Syria
Nationality	Syrian - American
Occupation	Author

Omar Imady (Template:Lang-ar; also transliterated Omar Imadi) is a Syrian American novelist, poet, and scholar who is presently the Deputy Director for Outreach of the Center for Syrian Studies at the University of St Andrews. Imady's novel The Gospel of Damascus, published in April 2012, has been translated to French (Edilivre, April, 2014) and is presently being translated into Arabic and Spanish.

Early life

Imady was born in 1966 in Damascus to an American mother (Mildred Elaine Rippey), from Palisades, New York, and a Syrian father (Muhammad Imady). His parents met at New York University in 1956, and were married shortly after. Imady's mother is a published author. His father, a non-Bathist technocrat, is the longest serving Minister of Economy in modern Syria. Imady moved to Kuwait at the age of thirteen when his father became the President of the Arab Fund for Economic and Social Development. In 1984, Imady graduated from high school and enrolled in Maclaester College, a liberal arts college in St. Paul, Minnesota. In March, 1986, Imady was married to Tamara L. Gray. In May, 1988, Imady graduated from Maclaester College, majoring in Middle East Studies. Subsequently, he moved with his family to Philadelphia where he enrolled in the graduate program of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies of the University of Pennsylvania (since changed to Arabic & Islamic Studies). He obtained his MA in 1990, and his Ph.D in December 1993, working with several Penn Scholars including Roger Allen, George Makdisi, and Thomas Naff. His Ph.D. dissertation focused on how the institutions of civil society in Muslim countries evolved over the period (1871-1949).

Career

Imady returned to Damascus in December 1993, and in March 1994 joined the United Nations Development Program in Damascus as a National Program Office and Head of the Program Support Unit. Abdullah Dardari had joined the UNDP a few months earlier as a National Program Officer and Head of the Program Unit, and together they helped design and oversee several important development projects in Syria. induing a microfiannce project known as Community Development at Jabal al-Hoss. When Dardari left his position at UNDP in December 1997 for a job in the Arab Monetary Bank, Imady took on his responsibilities, and in February, 2000 was promoted to the position of Assistant Resident representative. In April 2001, Imady opted to leave his post at UNDP and to work instead as a freelance UN consultant, focusing primarmrly on poverty alleviation programs through culturally consistent microfinance programs. The model he designed in partnership with Dr. Hans-Dieter Seibel became a regional pilot program and was replicated in Jordan and Lebanon.