Mona Al-Hayani teaches more than History at Toledo Early College High School. It is her passion and quest to nurture and expand the minds and hearts of her students and colleagues by utilizing education as a catalyst for effective change in this sometimes tumultuous modern world.

Al-Hayani earned her National Board for Professional Teaching Standards certification and advises the National Honor Society and Young Women for Change student-led groups while continuing to train educators on human trafficking awareness and risk factors for youth in Ohio and beyond. A two-time U.S. Department of Education Fulbright-Hays awardee, Al-Hayani has traveled around the globe as a teacher leader and researcher. She is a tireless advocate for her fellow urban school educators as the Vice President and Director of Human Trafficking, Civil Rights and Social Justice Issues for the Toledo Federation of Teachers.

The daughter of parents from Iraq and Lebanon, Al-Hayani learned that public education is an organic path to political and social justice. Being an active participant in the democratic process is a responsibility, and one that ensures equal rights, and an informed citizenry. Teaching history and social studies in the public school district she attended has propelled her to  engage students in those same life-changing lessons and values she learned early on from her parents and former teachers. Her philosophy of education is deeply rooted in the concept of the American Dream, fulfilled, for all of her students.

Al-Hayani holds a Bachelor of Arts in Sociology and a Master of Education in Secondary Education from the University of Toledo.