Brief History

NESA began in the early 1960’s as a group of administrators meeting informally and has evolved into a world class organization that serves more than 3500 educators working in more than 75 American/international schools.

During the administration of President Kennedy, Dr Finis Engleman (for whom NESA’s prestigious award is named) was asked to conduct an evaluative survey of schools in the Middle East and the Asian subcontinent that were attended by dependents of US government employees working in this part of the world.  As a result of Dr. Engleman’s study, the Office of Overseas Schools (known as A/OS) was established at the US Department of State with Dr Ernest Mannino as the founding director.

Among A/OS’s first initiatives was assisting an informal grouping of administrators working in schools from Greece to the Asian subcontinent, known as “NESA”, which stood for “Near East South Asia". It’s boundaries were fixed to encompass the area from Greece to Bangladesh.

However, the need for a more structured organization became evident, and in 1964 the first by-laws were drawn up. In 1968, the Near East South Asia Council of Overseas Schools was formally established and in the 1970’s, was incorporated in the US state of Delaware.

In its early years, NESA was run on a cooperative basis with logistical and administrative work being done by volunteers in member schools.  In 1974, a part-time executive secretary was hired.  Dr Stanley Haas, superintendent of the American Community Schools in Athens, was appointed executive director in 1978, and the NESA Center was established at its present location on the campus of the American College of Greece, a NESA member institution that same year. Following the death of Dr Haas in 1995, Mary Anne Haas served as interim executive director. David Chojnacki, superintendent at Cairo American College, was then appointed executive director and assumed the position in 1996.

Currently, NESA includes more than 40+ Regular Members (American/overseas schools),  60+ Associate Members (international schools; colleges and universities; special institutions), and  35+Supporting Members (textbook publishers, consultants, school suppliers and other businesses). NESA serves over 24,000 students and over 6,400 professional educators.