Allie Ojjeh

Allie Ojjeh is a 7th grade special education teacher at Herndon Middle School in Fairfax County, Virginia. She is in her 5th year of teaching, and she recently completed her master’s degree in special education at Marymount University where she had some opportunities to engage in experiences in international special education. Allie wants to obtain her doctoral degree in special education. Originally, she wanted to pursue studies and a career in the criminal justice field, but when she learned of the high percentage of prisoners with disabilities, she decided she could make the greatest impact by becoming a special education teacher. Currently Allie is working with students with learning disabilities and emotional and behavioral difficulties.

In graduate school she did a lot of research on a variety of disabilities: Autism, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, learning disabilities and intellectual disabilities. While working on her master’s degree in special education, she presented on special education practices in Saudi Arabia at the Global Perspectives: Instructional Strategies for the Special Education Needs of ALL Students Conference at Marymount University.  Allie attended the DISES Conference in 2018 in Cape Town, South Africa and presented on autism with her peers.  Additionally, she spent time in Johannesburg with Dr. Clara Hauth and Dr. Rebekka Jez with their Changemaker Project.

After the DISES conference in South Africa, Allie became a DISES member. She especially enjoys being a DISES member because of the personal contacts, the information and literature available, and feeling herself grow as an educator.