Dr. Hamsa Mahafza is an Arab-American educator and researcher. She is a faculty member at the College of Education at the University of Alabama in Huntsville and is a 2022 Honors College faculty fellow. She received her Ph.D. in Culture, Literacy, and Language from the University of Texas at San Antonio. She is the 2022 recipient of the AWLA “Friend of Languages” Award. Dr. Mahafza’s passion for multicultural children’s literature motivated her to write her first book “The Arabian Cinderella and the Secret of the Woven Threads.” Her goal is to bridge the gap between cultures by using the means of culturally responsive teaching. In her spare time, she enjoys gardening with her husband, and cooking multicultural foods from around the world. Her favorite pets are rabbits; she never gets bored of talking about them.