Niviana Academy for Educational Training and Consultation

Niviana is a privately owned faculty development academy in the beautiful Niagara Region within the Province of Ontario in Canada. Niviana stands out as a unique provider for pedagogical training and educational consultation with special focus on service-learning, diversity and inclusion, and international students. The academy offers tailored and affordable in-person and virtual training and consultation grounded in research innovation, progressive knowledge, classroom experiences, and ethical practices to advance educators' instructional skills enabling them to excel in their teaching and contributing to their professional development. Workshops are tailored to meet each institution’s unique needs.  

Why Pedagogical Trainings and Educational Consultations?

Niviana recognizes that faculty members are experts in their subject matters. They are, however, not necessarily trained to communicate their knowledge effectively to their students. With the growing emphasis on student-centred learning, the traditional roles of professors have changed, and new pedagogies have emerged. 

Because of the increasing diversity in the student population, cultural trainings should be available to faculty members such that they develop the intercultural competencies necessary to cultivate inclusive learning environments for their students, regardless of their diverse backgrounds.

Immigrant populations invest considerably in running private schools that offer an extra curriculum component to transmit their native cultures and languages to their children. To achieve this goal, individuals with specific cultural and lingual skills are recruited to fill in teachers’ positions. However, these individuals are not necessarily certified teachers.

Because of the growing globalization, the workforce has become more diverse. To enhance the workplace culture for employees from different backgrounds, industries and enterprises need to enhance their workplace diversity and inclusion to improve metal health and increase employee productivity.

Niviana Academy fills these needs by offering pedagogical trainings and educational consultation to equip faculty members with the required competencies to succeed and excel in their teaching roles.

Founding Executive Director

Dr. Neivin Shalabi, Ph.D. is the founding executive director of Niviana Academy for Educational Training and consultation. In addition to earning doctorate and master’s degrees in Higher Education from the University of Denver, CO, U.S., she has an advanced professional diploma and a bachelor’s degree in Teaching English as a Foreign Language (TEFL) from Mansoura University in Egypt. She also completed a bachelor’s degree in English Language and Literature from Tanta University, Egypt.

Besides her advanced academic degrees, Dr. Shalabi completed competitive training programs in TEFL at prestigious universities, including Georgia State University and the American University in Cairo. Given her research activities, Dr. Shalabi was recognized as an Engagement Scholar and completed highly selective trainings administered by the American Educational Research Association and the National Outreach Scholarship Conference, and the in the U.S., among others.

Dr. Shalabi’s teaching portfolio is rich with instructing several courses on higher education, educational administration, mixed methods research, curriculum development and assessment, critical pedagogy and social justice, intercultural communication, creativity and critical thinking, leadership, and international and comparative education, among others! She has taught diverse bodies of domestic and international students at the graduate and undergraduate levels, as well as in certificate programs in several universities in Canada, U.S., and Egypt. Having grown up in Egypt; pursued her M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in the U.S.; and immigrated to Canada as a skilled professional, Dr. Shalabi capitalizes on her international background to connect with a broad range of individuals and groups from diverse backgrounds. She is known for her ability to build rapport with, and cultivate transformative learning environments for, her students. Dr. Shalabi has earned several awards in recognition of her passion for, and dedication to, teaching, including excellence in teaching awards from the Faculty of Education and Centre for Pedagogical Innovation at Brock University.

Dr. Shalabi’s research interest is grounded in the Scholarship of Engagement. Her main line of research focuses on community engagement in higher education, particularly on university-community partnerships for service-learning. Leveraging this research expertise, she cultivates service-learning opportunities for her students affording them opportunities to apply their learning in real-life contexts to enhance their understanding of the subject matter while making a positive difference in the community and building their characters.

Informed by her longstanding teaching experience with international students, Dr. Shalabi recent research explored the potential of academic service-learning for facilitating international students’ transitions at Brock University in Canada. Her past research focused on service-learning partnerships in Egypt.

The second area of Dr. Shalabi’s research is concerned with inclusive education through which she explores the experiences of minoritized students on university campuses. By highlighting the underrepresented voices in the literature, she aims to cultivate safe and welcoming learning environments in which students succeed and thrive irrespective of their diverse backgrounds. Her research is disseminated in peer-review journal articles, guest speaker sessions, and at academic regional, national, and international conferences. Her work is funded by successful grants from universities, city councils, and research agencies.

Dr. Shalabi is a passionate advocate for knowledge mobilization and bridging the gap between research and application. She has cultivated experiential learning and service-learning opportunities for her students, facilitated pedagogical trainings for professors and teachers, and provided consultation services to industries and local community-based organizations.

At the local level, Dr. Shalabi worked with multiple education sectors including Brock University and the District School Board of Niagara. At the international level, Dr. Shalabi conducted training and professional development programs for faculty members and senior administrators at Minjiang University in China, Delta University for Science and Technology in Egypt, and in the Egyptian Ministry of Education, among others. In addition to her work with universities and school boards, Dr. Shalabi consulted with the Niagara Falls Small Business Enterprise Centre, collaborates with the cultural services in the City of St. Catharines, and worked with community-based groups, such as the Learning Disabilities Association of Niagara Region (LDANR) and Supporting Neurodiversity through Adaptive Programming (SNAP) as well as local mosques, including the Peace Mosque and AlNoor Mosque.

Dr. Shalabi started Niviana Academy to share her passion for teaching and expertise in training with fellow educators and other professionals committed to professional growth and development. She brings specific expertise in service-learning; diversity and inclusion; and international students, in addition to a wealth of experience in pedagogical approaches; instructional skills; intercultural communication; curriculum development and assessment; and capacity and character building.

Explore Dr. Neivin Shalabi’s Profile to learn more about her expertise.