For 20 years, Dr. Amani Wazwaz has connected with her students using thoughtfully curated, hands-on and immersive teaching methods that empower them to explore storytelling and literature. Her commitment to student success earned her the 2026 Professor of the Year Award.

Wazwaz was recognized in 2021 as the college’s Master Educator, demonstrating that her outstanding impact has been recognized for many years. Wazwaz, who received her Ph.D. in English from Loyola University and her Master of Arts degree from Saint Xavier University, always felt a pull toward Moraine Valley. “Long before I came to Moraine Valley, I feel as if I was being guided to coming here,” she shared. From friends mentioning the college, to her sister displaying works in the campus gallery and her friend showing her the newspaper ad for a Communications instructor position, Wazwaz was impressed by the college.

“On a beautiful, rainy day in March of 2005, I locked myself in my office at Saint Xavier University as I answered one question after another during the telephone interview. About two weeks later, I carried my poetry activity assignment to demonstrate my teaching style,” she recalled.

Wazwaz’s impact as an instructor stems largely from her passion for her subject matter. “Cultivating what is best in you and about you will help students appreciate their learning experience tremendously,” she reflected. Students see Wazwaz’s passion and enthusiasm reflected in the classroom. In a 2024 Velocity article, author Samaa Yousef shared student insights about Wazwaz’s teaching. In the piece, then-student Amalia Thompson said of Wazwaz, “I think in her teaching, and in her personality, she genuinely just wants to see people succeed, just to better themselves. She wants people to succeed in anything they’re doing. And her kindness is also undeniable. Even if you don’t know her, and you just met her, you can already tell how genuine of a person she is, too. She’s just unapologetically herself in everything she does.”

To better connect with students, Wazwaz uses technology through her YouTube channel, which provides how-to and tutorial videos and lessons that support classroom learning. As an instructor responsive to her students’ needs, she adjusts research topics every year in response to current issues while teaching COM 102: Research Source Based Writing. Over the last two decades, she has selected a wide range of American, multiethnic and international literature for students to interact with in class. Additionally, she rearranged her Non-Western and African American Literature courses to expose students to the arts and music of performing artists from the United States, as well as one Muslim majority country as part of the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation-funded MOSAICS project. In response to the 2020 pandemic, Wazwaz led Moraine Reads, a collaboration between the college Library and the Communications Department that encouraged anyone to record themselves sharing their favorite fiction or nonfiction texts.

Moraine Reads also inspired the Library’s Arab Heritage Month Curated Collection and The Daily Read Room Library video series.

Wazwaz’s background, passion and experience led to her aiding in the college grant-supported project Mosaics: Muslim Voices in America. She helped devise several artistic ideas to engage students and employees with understanding Muslim culture, especially through House of Wisdom programs and activities, which she also integrated in her course curriculum. While the program largely focused on performing arts and music, she proposed exploring the impact of Muslim scientists through the House of Wisdom.

For all her accomplishments and legacy at the college, Wazwaz hopes one thing for her students. “I want students to see they are also shapers of their own stories and thus of their own destinies,” she shared. “I want them to know so much that literature, storytelling and writing are integral parts of their lives. In a world that no longer privileges reading, I hope so much they read. I hope so much they see that the novels bear reflections of their realities, with some bearing more relevant meaning to their lives than others.”

Wazwaz shared that she is honored and filled with gratitude to be recognized as Professor of the Year. “I can never capture how I was uplifted and humbled that the college and my colleagues selected me as this year’s Professor of the Year,” she said. “Their belief in me means the world. I said a prayer of gratitude to family, friends and colleagues who have supported me and stood by my side in times of joy and hardship all these years. Their unwavering belief in the power of education to guide, secure and uplift students has always been a source of inspiration. I am humbled that my name will be placed alongside previous Professor of the Year awardees, and with great anticipation, I look forward to witnessing the joy of future awardees.”