Dr Rana is CEO/Principal of GEMS World Academy - Dubai, Chief Education Ambassador for the Varkey Foundation and Founding Trustee of The Shahnaz Foundation. With a background in school improvement in inner-city schools, and a PhD in Education, Dr Rana has worked in areas with high deprivation indicators throughout her career, combining traditional school improvement techniques with a commitment to collaboration between the local community and businesses in order to accelerate regeneration and raise standards.
Dr Rana has worked as a senior educational consultant for Cambridge Education Islington with a particular focus on Teaching and Learning, Raising Standards, ICT, Assessment for Learning, Curriculum, Change Management and Building Schools for the Future. She has also served as a panel member and subject expert on several programmes and projects for the Department for Education (DfE) and the Office for Standards in Education for Children’s Services and Skills (Ofsted), providing guidance on quality assurance, delivery and professional standards.
She has presented academic papers on Policy, ICT, Globalisation and Secondary Education at the Institute of Education, London, Trinity College, Dublin, The Knowledge Lab, London as well as at International conferences in Europe, the USA and China.
Dr Rana has also devoted herself to a variety of charitable educational projects, with a particular passion for building schools for poor children across the globe. She is the trustee of charitable schools in Pakistan and Kashmir, and provides teacher training to schools located in slum areas in Pakistan, India, Afghanistan, Sudan and other parts of Africa. She is a global ambassador for Girls Education initiatives and is a mental health ambassador for Refugee Mothers, where she has worked with a number of organisations to support language learning. She also supports several street schools in India, Pakistan and Afghanistan. Her latest project is to build an orphanage and technical skills college in a deprived area of Pakistan. She believes passionately that education is the answer to eliminate poverty, inequality, and injustice, and has dedicated her career to the ideal of giving every child a world class education.