Dr. Pam Olsen moved to the UAE in 2007 to open a branch of the award-winning New England Center of Children (NECC). Dr. Olsen has called Abu Dhabi home ever since, and now leads a team of teachers and staff, representing 40 different nationalities, who provide services to 230 Emirati children.
The partnership dates to 1997, when NECC was asked to provide a private consulting program in the region. NECC Abu Dhabi was established 10 years later to replicate the comprehensive range of educational services, graduate training, and research available at its namesake facility in Southborough, Massachusetts.
Today, the renamed Mohammed bin Rashid Center for Special Education operated by the New England Center for Children (MRC-NECC), plays an important role in autism awareness and education in the region and represents the culmination of a successful knowledge transfer between the UAE and the United States.
