New Experiences of Home Are a Fantastic Privilege

Essraa Nawar is the Development Coordinator at the Leatherby Libraries at Chapman University and the Chair of the Arts, Exhibits and Events Committee at the library. Essraa joined the Leatherby Libraries at Chapman University in June 2011.

Essraa received her bachelor’s degree in commerce with an emphasis in accounting from Alexandria University, Egypt. She also holds a Master of Business Administration (MBA) from the American Management & Business Administration Institute, Cambridge, MA. She is currently pursuing her Master of Arts in Organizational Leadership (MAOL) at Brandman University.

Essraa is originally from Egypt and prior to moving to California, she served in the new library of Alexandria (Bibliotheca Alexandrina) for four years. She was involved in the acquisition of library materials through both purchasing and donations. She was actively involved in the solicitation of rare and unique gifts, and has also helped create the library’s Duplicate Materials Exchange Program. Over the years, Essraa has studied, lived, and worked in many places, including the Gulf area (Qatar) where she spent most her elementary and middle school years; Washington D.C, where she worked for The Royal Embassy of Saudi Arabia, and most recently moving with her husband and family to Orange County, California in 2009.

Essraa served as the President of the Parent Teacher Organization for the Orange Crescent Islamic School in Garden Grove for the academic Year 2010-2011.

Her professional interests include developing and implementing marketing, branding and communications practices to support the Leatherby Libraries strategic plan in attracting faculty, staff, students and other entities on and off campus, as well as maintaining an integrated external relations model targeting prospective donors, current donors, board members and external partners. She is also very interested and active in the topics of interfaith dialogue, empowering Muslim Women and embracing diversity.

In her free time, Essraa enjoys watching her boys do gymnastics and diving, in which they excel and are both part of the USA National team as well as spending time with her little baby girl.