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Sandra McNabb: From Global Telecoms to AUC Classrooms

Sandra McNabb’s recent generous gift to AUC tells a story that spans cultures and decades of professional achievement.
  1. Giving
  2. Sandra McNabb: From Global Telecoms to AUC Classrooms

September 3, 2025

Born in Virginia and raised in the Chicago area, McNabb (ALU '05) demonstrated an early aptitude for languages, studying Spanish, French and Russian in high school. “I was quite international, quite interested in the world outside the U.S.” This linguistic curiosity would prove prophetic, eventually leading her to study Arabic and make Cairo her home for nearly a decade.

Her academic journey took her from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where she studied linguistics and psychology, to Indiana University at Bloomington, where she earned her PhD in cognitive psychology. “My PhD focused on how the brain processes information and stores that information in memory. The leap for me came in my computer science classes when I had computers mimic the brain." The insight later became instrumental in her groundbreaking achievements within the telecommunications field.

A Career Defined by Innovation

After beginning her career as a professor at Hunter College in New York City, she joined Bell Labs in Holmdel, New Jersey, where she would spend 15 transformative years. 

At Bell Labs, she produced patents that revolutionized telecommunications, “I put more ‘intelligence’ in the networks. That increase in intelligence enabled companies to have their 800 calls be both incoming and outgoing. This was a game-changer; before that, the calls could only be incoming or outgoing, which meant the companies had to buy a great many lines. My work was awarded a patent.”

Her expertise led Bell Labs to send her to Belgium, where she spent four years as the only American, the only expatriate and the only woman overseeing a product line — a challenging but formative experience that prepared her for future international roles. 

She then moved to AT&T in London as IT director, helping establish the company’s new UK network.

McNabb’s international career continued to flourish. After leaving AT&T, she worked as a consultant in Amsterdam while living in London. Level 3 Communications then recruited her for a role in London, where she created holistic IT systems that unified customer data across different departments — pioneering work in enterprise architecture.

Her expertise was particularly valuable during the Y2K crisis, where she conducted extensive simulations to prevent system failures. Later, at T-Mobile, she led organizational restructuring efforts across its London and Bonn offices.

An Unexpected Turn

While at the height of her telecommunications career, McNabb was quietly studying Arabic on her own. In 2002, a UN report on development in the Arab world sparked something deeper: she saw an opportunity to contribute to Middle East development, particularly in supporting women and information technology advancement.

In a move that surprised many, this successful vice president at T-Mobile sold her London home, packed eight boxes of books and moved to Cairo to enroll in AUC’s intensive Arabic program. 

Suddenly, the corporate executive with an American passport became a student with a red backpack, navigating the vibrant streets of Cairo.

A Home in Cairo

Egypt embraced McNabb in unexpected ways. As an American woman, she found herself invited to numerous events and functions. Her telecommunications expertise quickly caught the attention of Orascom, which hired her as a consultant for network acquisitions across multiple countries.

She then became chief of party for a USAID project focused on webpage development and internet access for Egyptian hotels, a two-year role that connected her with countless Egyptian professionals and further deepened her love for the country.

After studying Arabic at AUC for a year, she settled into Egyptian life, eventually purchasing a townhouse in El Gouna while continuing to rent in Cairo. When Nile University was founded as a business and technology institution, she joined the faculty, creating an innovative course on the emerging-market countries of India, China and Brazil, comparing their development paths to Egypt’s journey.

Following the February 2011 revolution, McNabb realized that her time in Egypt was coming to an end. After 20 years abroad, she returned to the United States, settling in Tucson, Arizona. 

A Gift of Gratitude

McNabb still had the property in El Gouna and was considering its future. AUC presented an ideal solution. She could donate her property to the University and, with its sale, create a scholarship fund for future students who intend to study Arabic at AUC. In addition, as an American, she would benefit from a charitable tax deduction for her gift. “AUC made it easy for me to donate my townhouse in El Gouna,” she reflects. “It was so simple; I felt so good about it.”

Today, McNabb continues teaching courses on the Middle East and other topics, sharing her unique perspective as someone who lived and worked across cultures. Her gift to AUC will allow future students to benefit from their own unique experience of Cairo, just as her time in Egypt continues to enrich her teaching and inspire her students.