Alumni Spotlight: Dina Rabadi ’92

Dina Rabadi is a multicultural author, educator and activist. Born in Jordan in 1974 to a Jordanian father and a Czech mother; Rabadi and her family immigrated to the United States in 1978. She has been published in over twenty periodicals including The Boston Globe, The Chicago Tribune, The Los Angeles Times, and Fiction (2003 short story finalist.) She recently published her debut collection of stories titled Peter’s Moonlight Photography and Other Stories. She graduated from Smith College with a degree in Government (International Relations) and is now completing her MA in Education at Depaul University. She plans to specialize in writing instruction and is interested in seeing how the U.S. public education system can be improved by applying successful practices in other countries such as Finland and Costa Rica.

Rabadi has been awarded grants and awards from the Illinois Arts Council, the Vogelstein Foundation for travel to the Middle East, and completed a writing residency at the Sitka Center for Art and Ecology in Oregon. Additionally, Rabadi was awarded a merit-based scholarship to attend Squaw Valley Community of Writers in Fiction and was made a Fellow in the Arts by the Woodhull Institute for Ethical Leadership in New York.

Rabadi has lectured at Notre Dame University and Ball State University among others. Dina’s media appearances include the Chicago Tribune, Radio Islam, Emmy-award winning Theresa Carter’s “The Local Tourist” and Serena Gobbo’s Italian literary blog featuring international writers.

Nearly all of Dina’s writings deals with prevailing social problems and is most concerned with issues around immigration, international relations, gender and the environment. She founded Global Alliance of Artists to highlight the role of artists as diplomats and states, “Artists are too often marginalized in society. We have a great deal to offer the world in terms of our creative and constructive view of the world– this view, and our ideas, can be used to help solve some of the most pressing social problems of our time.”