Natasha Ridge holds a Doctorate of Education specializing in International Education Policy Studies from Columbia University, USA. Her dissertation focused on gender and the quality of secondary education in the UAE; to that end, she has conducted extensive research in UAE government schools. She also holds a Master of International and Community Development (focusing on the Middle East) from Deakin University, Australia.

Ms. Ridge has consulted on curriculum, assessment, training and other aspects of educational policy for the World Bank, UNICEF and USAID, in Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. Prior to this she worked as Faculty Head of English and ESL in schools in the UAE, Singapore and Australia helping to implement standards based curricula.