Amine Mechaal is a multi-faceted international education professional with a passion for bridging cultures and fostering international collaborations. As the Director of Global Engagement at Teachers College, Columbia University (TC), Amine is responsible for overseeing the College’s international initiatives and engagement with international partners (governments, donors, and organizations).
Prior to working at TC, Amine worked as Customized and Faculty-led Program Manager at IES Abroad. He developed and implemented over 120 programs in Europe, Asia, Africa, Australia, and South America for 65 U.S. universities and colleges in the northeast region. Amine also was an Assistant Director for Academics and Customized Programing at IES Abroad Rabat, where he oversaw the academic governance and operations of the center, led the center’s strategic planning, and supervised the implementation of faculty-led programs.
Amine served as Director and Managing Partner of House of Words Institute, an educational institute specialized in customized language programming for Moroccan and international adult students between 2014 and 2017. Amine’s expertise in international education has been recognized through a Fulbright grant he received in 2017 to teach Arabic and study at the City University of New York. He also received a number of awards including the Teaching Excellence Award from the University of Minnesota’s CARLA Institute, Study Abroad Impact Award from IES Abroad Rabat, and the Social Enterprise Award from the World Bank and the United Kingdom’s Foreign and Commonwealth Office.
He holds a vocational bachelor’s degree in Teaching from Mohammed V University in Rabat. At the graduate level, Amine studied International Relations and Andragogy at the City University of New York and Translation and Simultaneous Conference Interpreting at the King Fahd School of Translation in Tangier. As a professional interpreter, Amine was contracted by the United Nations offices in Morocco and New York, foreign embassies, the Moroccan Parliament, and other international governmental and non-governmental organizations. He is currently studying for another Master’s degree in International Education Development at Teachers College.
Amine Mechaal’s areas of interest include study abroad, experiential learning, teaching, curriculum design, micro credentialing, international job market trends and accessibility, comparative and international education, internationalization of higher education, international governance organizations, international education CSOs, education policy, translation and conference interpreting, international affairs, and parallel diplomacy.
