Education

Anan Ameri, director of the Arab American National Museum, lived in Jerusalem, Jordan, and Lebanon before coming to the Detroit area. Highlights from this segment include:

• Anan obtained her doctorate from Wayne State University and briefly taught at the university level.
• Anan decided she was most comfortable doing community work. This work involves harnessing networks of people to get to a common goal.
• She views the establishment of the Arab American National Museum as the crowning acheivement of her career.
• In the near term, she is looking to expand the current location's square footage. She would also like for more traveling exhibits to originate from the current museum.
• Ultimately, she sees no reason there could not be multiple, affiliated Arab American National Museums established around the country.

As explained by Anan Ameri (download 6.5 minute iPod compatible video, 35MB), the Arab American National Museum's founding director, the idea behind the museum is to show the extent to which Arab Americans are part of the fabric of US society. Arabs first came to America in 1528, and there were 50 Arabic newspapers in publication by 1938.

As mentioned previously, momentum for the museum began to build just before September 11, 2001. That event initially slowed movement toward the museum. However, when the American Association of Museums featured the museum in its 100th anniversary publication, it became clear that the museum would be a positive vehicle for communicating the Arab American story, a story which bears no relationship to 9/11.

The museum tells its story through exhibits:

• The courtyard exhibit sets the scene with a large map of the Arab world.
• Coming to America tells the immigration story.
• Living in America describes Arab American customs.
• Making an impact highlights Arab Americans who have gained significant recognition for their contributions.

Rich Berens' 12 month goals for Root Learning are to continue to provide "blended" solutions to help its clients execute their strategies (download 5 and one half minute iPod compatible video, 28MB). Extending beyond 12 months, Rich sees some significant shifts for the company. First, he wants to increase the Root Learning's geographic reach. Currently, the firm has offices in Toledo, Chicago, and London. He would like to go to the coasts where many of Root Learning's clients are and expand the European presence.

Rich also notes that Root Learning's product footprint has evolved, and that he would like to highlight that evolution. Root used to be just about "learning maps", the company's best known tool that was featured in a Harvard Business Review article. Now, a large part of the business is based on developing digital interactive environments. Rich expects that the company's blog, increased conference attendance, and a book by Jim Haudan, one of Root Learning's founders, to help provide an expanded view of the company's capabilities footprint.

Root Learning's business is about enabling strategic change in organizations. What may not be immediately apparent is the central role of communication in this process, and communication is Root's core competency.

In this 8 minute segment (download iPod compatible video, 41MB), Rich Berens describes how Root Learning evolved from essentially a publishing business to one that has its feet firmly planted in interactive online learning environments. A key driver in this move has been customer needs. Initially customers were looking to move to online environments to drive down the cost of bringing people together to interact around a strategy. As customers became more proficient at online environments, they began to want to move toward simulation and most recently gaming.

Root's strategy has been to avoid the purely experimental and move into these delivery mechanisms as market demand makes itself apparent.