Senior Leadership Team

Rania Maayeh joined the RFS team as Head of School in July 2021. She is a long standing RFS community member having been a parent of three alums, a teacher and a former student. Rania brings with her broad experience in Palestinian education and management that spans three decades.

Frieda was appointed as Lower School Principal in 2016. She is a graduate of the RFS (1983) and a mother of three sons, two of which are RFS alumni and the youngest is attending the RFS. She holds an MA in Peace Education from Notre Dame University in Indiana, where she worked as a teacher assistant and a research assistant for one year. She also worked as case manager with Madison Center – USA. She earned her BA in English Literature from Birzeit University and started her career as an English teacher in 1988 at Ramallah’s Al-Ahliyyeh College, and was later appointed as their first Deputy Principal. She served as the director of the YWCA Vocational Training Center in Jerusalem from 2001 to 2002. She has worked as project coordinator for a local NGO (WATC) on women empowerment. In 2005, she became the Deputy Principal of the Lower School. In 2010, she was assigned as Acting Principal for one year and returned to her previous position until she was reappointed as Interim Principal in 2015.  Frieda attended and conducted various local and international training workshops.

Mohammad Habbas was appointed as Upper Campus Principal in August 2024.

Habbas joined the Ramallah Friends School teaching staff as a high school Math teacher in 1997 and was one of the school's first group of teachers to implement the International Baccalearuatte Programme. He had earned his B.A in Mathematics from Birzeit University in 1990, and his M.A in Education from Birzeit University in 2000.

He has been an IBMYP Coordinator and IBDP Math teacher since 2003. Habbas possesses great experience in the IB program and has excellent experience in the field of education and administration, including school management.

“You are the bows from which your children as living arrows are sent forth”

                                                                                                Jibran Khalil Jibran

I am honored to serve as a member of the Ramallah Friends School team. Inspired by Jibran, I believe that education is about empowering our youth with the knowledge, values and skills to pursue their passions in life and to give back to their community wherever they may set foot. The RFS is unique in providing a rich experience for our students that allows them not only to carry with them their heritage and roots, but also to embrace the beauty of difference and originality. I believe too that only by all of us - staff, parents, and leadership - collaborating together, we can continue to foster the environment needed to inspire our students to carry forward and be the living testimony to our core RFS values of excellence in education, equality, mutual respect and social responsibility in Palestine and around the globe.

I wish everyone a prosperous and productive year. 

Salem was appointed as Dean of Student Affairs for the Middle School in August 2024, he had been appointed as Dean of Student Affairs Assistant at the Upper Campus in 2023. Salem has been an IBDP Math teacher at RFS since 2016, and served as IBDP Coordinator Assistant in 2022-2023. 
He earned his B.A in Mechanical Engineering in 2016 from Birzeit University. Salem is now working on his M.A in Management in Education at Birzeit University. Salem possesses extensive experience in the International Baccalaureate Programme and has served in the School's Discipline Committee for years.

Raneem was appointed as Head of the Kindergarten of the Lower School in 2019, after serving for one year as Interim Head of KG. She is a mother of two children, who graduated from RFS in 2021 and 2022. Raneem was the Deputy Head of the KG from 2014 through 2018. She had been a teacher at the KG level since 2005 at RFS and had taught at other schools before that. Raneem earned her B. A in Early Childhood Education from Bethlehem University in 2001, and earned her M.A in 2017 from Birzeit University in Educational Management. Raneem possesses extensive experience in early childhood education.

Nariman joined the RFS as a teacher in the year 2000. She has a B.A in Psychology and Sociology from Birzeit University, and she achieved a Diploma in Education and Training for Development and School Counseling, from Birzeit University, in 2004. She is married to an RFS graduate, and the mother of two RFS graduates and her youngest daughter is currently an RFS student.