A native Washingtonian and Palestinian-American, Leila graduated from the University of Maryland with a degree in broadcast journalism after studying in France at the American University of Paris. Before starting her career at Cengage in 2007, Leila worked for Al-Jazeera America and the National Geographic Society’s Image Collection. Her love for photography blossomed working under National Geographic photographer Annie Griffiths, who runs Ripple Effect Images, a nonprofit collective of world-class storytellers documenting women and girls and the aid groups working to empower them. Fluent in French, Leila also has a working knowledge of Arabic. In her free time, she enjoys surfing at Assateague Island with her husband, visiting local farms with her children, and running with her beloved chocolate Lab, Cali.