Dr. Hani Q. Khoury is a Professor of Mathematics and the founder of the Department of Mathematics, Science, and Informatics at Mercer University’s College of Professional Advancement, Georgia, USA, and served as its chair from 2006-2013. He has been a faculty member at Mercer University since 1994. He is also the founder and president of the nonprofit Laurice Khoury Foundation for the Support of Disabled Palestinian Students. The foundation supports college students with their tuition expenses through the offices catering for their needs at Palestinian colleges and universities.
Dr. Khoury was born in Nablus, Palestine in 1965 with a rare and progressive physical disorder known as Spinal Muscular Atrophy, a neuromuscular disease that sentenced him to an electric wheelchair by the age of 18. Despite his progressive disability, he decided to come to America to complete his higher education. He earned an Associate of Arts degree in Mathematics and Science from Onondaga Community College in 1985, Bachelor of Arts degree in Mathematics and a Bachelor of Science degree in Systems and Information Science in 1987, a Master of Science in Computer Science in 1989, and a Doctor of Philosophy in Mathematics Education in 1995, all from Syracuse University, New York.
In 1993, and based on academic excellence, campus leadership and community service, Dr. Khoury was honored by being selected as a Chancellor’s Advisor at Syracuse University. He served on the American Friends Service Committee as a Third World Coalition committee member and a Disability Issues subcommittee member (1988-1994). He also served as Executive Director of the Mayor’s Commission on Disability Issues for the city of Macon, Georgia (1999) and as a board member of the Macon Council on World Affairs (1998, 1999).
From 2010-2017, Dr. Khoury served as a member of the Arab Thought Forum based in Amman, Jordan and led by HRH Prince Hassan bin Talal of Jordan. Dr. Khoury served as a member of a task force in a series of international conferences sponsored by the Qatar Foundation in Doha, Qatar and by UNESCO. The goal of these conferences is to offer a forum for international scholars to explore the implications of their research to practical educational applications. The series began in 2004 with a forum dedicated to the Art and Science Partnership, and in 2006 the series explored Technology, Empowerment and Education. On March 12, 2007, Dr. Khoury participated in another conference to address the Literacy Challenge in the Arab States. He was invited to participate in a WISE (World Innovation Summit for Education) summit held in Doha on Nov.1-3, 2011.
In 2006, Dr. Khoury was appointed by the Georgia Professional Standards Commission to serve as a content advisory committee member to assist in the development of a new assessment program for individuals seeking educator certification in the area of mathematics in the State of Georgia. He served as a Governor’s Teaching Fellow for the academic year 2008/09 at the Institute of Higher Education, University of Georgia, Athens, Georgia. Dr. Khoury is the recipient of two Excellence in Teaching awards at Mercer University, the Muscular Dystrophy Association’s Personal Achievement Awards for Central New York in1992, and for the entire State of Georgia in 1997. In 2008, he was selected as a Governor’s Teaching Fellow at the University of Georgia, Athens, GA. In 2013, he was nominated by his college to receive the highest teaching award at Mercer University: The Joe and Jean Hendricks excellence in teaching award. For his inspirational success story and good work being done to create a better world for everyone, he was awarded the 2019 High Achieving Arab American Individual award by the Alif Institute in Atlanta, GA.
Dr. Khoury has written articles and has given numerous presentations on the quest for justice and peace in the Middle East and on empowering people with disabilities. His academic interests focus on the philosophy of mathematics, international perspectives on education, and the link between mathematics and political thought. He is the author of Giving Up Is Not An Option: Memoirs of a Palestinian American, one of 51 books nominated world-wide for an award by the London-based Middle East Monitor for the year 2022.
Jim miles of the Palestine Chronicle wrote, “ In an interesting short work, Giving up is not an option – Memoirs of a Palestinian American, Hani Khoury outlines the thread of his life from growing up in Palestine followed by his move to the U.S. for educational purposes” (April 21, 2022)
Giving Up is Not an Option - by Dr. Hani Khoury - Palestine Chronicle
In 2024, Dr. Khoury was invited by the KIT Institute in Amsterdam and by the Gaza Health Initiative to join the advisory committee of a conference dedicated to Rebuilding Gaza’s Healthcare