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Dr. Häberl was born and raised in the State of New Jersey, and received his PhD in Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations from Harvard University. In addition to teaching Arabic language courses and courses on the modern Middle East, Häberl is also responsible for the Center's development and communication. In the past he has edited the official newsletters of the Semitic Museum at Harvard University and the Cyprus American Archaeological Research Institute. He is currently the English-language editor of the AIC Update, the official bimonthly newsletter of the American Iranian Council, and a senior editor for the Arab Washingtonian, a weekly bilingual (Arabic and English) based in Washington, D.C.

 Dr. Häberl's primary academic focus is upon ethnic, linguistic, and religious minorities, including the Mandaeans, Assyrian and Chaldean Christians, and Zoroastrians in the Middle East, as well as Muslims in America.  He is an active and dedicated fieldworker.  Since Rudolf Macuch's death in 1993, he has been the only linguist conducting fieldwork on the Mandaic dialect of Aramaic spoken in the Iranian province of Khuzestan and in a sizable diaspora.  He has recently completed writing a descriptive grammar of the Neo-Mandaic dialect of Khorramshahr, which will be published by the German publishing house Harrassowitz.  He is a member of the American Oriental Society (AOS), the American Schools of Oriental Research (ASOR), the North American Conference on Afroasiatic Linguistics (NACAL). He is is a frequent attendant and occasional speaker at their annual meetings, and is the official Convener for its 35th annual meeting in San Antonio. He is also responsible for maintaining NACAL's web presence.