Professor Aldawood is a native Arabic speaker born and raised in Saudi Arabia. After obtaining a BA in Accounting from the University of Oregon, he went on to pursue an MA in Arabic with an emphasis on instruction from DePaul University in Chicago. He previously taught Arabic at Lewis University and DePaul University as well as to diplomats at the Foreign Service Institute (FSI), US Department of State before joining American University as a full-time instructor in 2019.