About
After 9.11, she was called by the Department of Justice Community Relations Services to help calm and ease the tensions and backlash targeted at Arab and Muslim Americans.
Luby learned early on to connect across cultures and faiths. An Arab and Muslim American growing up in a small town in the South, Luby was ‘different’. Overcoming differences as ‘the only one’ profoundly influenced her. This led her to pursue international relations and intercultural communication, founding Connecting Cultures.
Identified as a trusted intercultural and diversity expert, she produced First Three to Five Seconds for the Department of Justice after 9.11 for first responders to engage with Arab Americans and American Muslims. Luby’s mission to promote interfaith and intercultural engagement, she developed 20,000 Dialogues to stimulate constructive conversations with Muslims.
Luby has received national and international coverage of her work including the Washington Post, HR Magazine and Diversity Inc. Stories featuring her and Connecting Cultures aired on PBS’ Religion and Ethics News, BBC World News and NBC Working 4 You for her training in Murfreesboro, TN.
A selected Peace Fellow for Seeds of Peace and Malone Fellow in Middle East and Islamic Studies, she was in Jordan, Palestine, Israel, Bosnia, Croatia and Saudi Arabia for peace and coexistence.
Often receiving highest ratings at National and International conferences, she was a repeat invited speaker at the Human Capital Forum in South America, Arabian Society for Human Resource Management Conference, International Society for Intercultural Education, Training and Research, World Trade Center Institute and the Society for Human Resources Management.
A sought-after speaker, she has appeared across the U.S. and in England, Belgium, Bosnia, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, United Arab Emirates, Peru, Singapore, Colombia, Mexico.
Her clients include Federal and State agencies, educational institutions, nonprofit organizations and corporations including Microsoft, Walt Disney World, U.S. Department of Justice, Campbell Soup Company, CVS, Darden, King Abdullah University for Science and Technology, Foreign Service Institute, Shell Chemicals, Institute of International Education.
She is the recipient of the Parent of the Year by the National Multiple Sclerosis Society and the Arab American Anti-Discrimination Achievements of Extraordinary Arab-American Women’s Award.
Luby holds a Master’s degree in Intercultural Relations from Lesley College in Cambridge, Massachusetts and a B.A. in International Service from The American University in Washington, DC., the selected Commencement Speaker in 1984.
At The American University, she met her husband, Alex Kronemer, a documentary film producer and they have 3 children, Sharif, Zakaria, Laila.
