Headshot of Koboul Mansour

In 2023, Koboul embarked on a new role as the Director of the Days-Massolo Multicultural Center at Hamilton College.  She finds joy and fulfillment in her current position as it enables her to integrate her professional passions, including advocacy, social justice, promoting sense of belonging, and strategic planning. In this capacity, Koboul actively supports students and collaborates with diverse strategic partners on campus and... Continue Reading

Headshot of Mishka Murad

Before coming to CIE, I worked in Pakistan, Thailand and Mexico developing interdisciplinary academic curricula, teaching, as well as doing training and program development.

 

Since graduating from UMASS Amherst in 2021, I have worked in Residential Life at Mount Holyoke College as the Area Coordinator for Community and Belonging, and as the Power & Equity Specialist in the Student Wellness Center at Dartmouth College. My most recent role at Dartmouth is as the Associate Director... Continue Reading

John D. Hatch

Following my February 2010 retirement, I was pulled back into USAID part-time for about a year as a consultant to my old office to assist with proposal development.  In addition, I immediately was swept up in various volunteer activities/committees/boards here at Asbury, a CCRC. I continue to serve on various committees both in and out of Asbury while also battling weeds to produce some vegetables in my garden. More recently, I've been "mentoring" elementary school kids in an after-school program, and recently was shifted to be a teacher-aide for the middle school's ESOL program. I also... Continue Reading

Headshot of Darish Dehghan

After finishing my doctorate in 1978, I went back to Iran. Due to the revolution, the UNESCO branch in Tehran where I had previously worked closed. Then I became the Dean of a two-year teacher training college. A year later, I took a position as one of the three teacher training policy makers for the Ministry of Education.

 

Later I served for five years as an associate professor at the Tehran University for Teacher Education. During these five years, I taught courses such as Methods of Teaching, Educational planning, and Curriculum Development. I also wrote some articles and... Continue Reading

Headshot of Luayo Mel Mwenifumbo

Lusayo is originally from Lilongwe, Malawi. After getting her Bachelor’s Degree in Communications there she became a Project Coordinator with the Center for Alternatives for Victimized Women and Children (CAVWOC).  In that position she facilitated, organized and conducted community mobilization and sensitization meetings on HIV and AIDS, Education, Women’s empowerment, Human Rights and child protection issues.  She then entered the Master’s program International Education at UMass Amherst.

 

After completing her Masters at UMass she worked as a Product Manager at Code... Continue Reading

Maguette Diame

My Ph.D. program at the College of Education is in International education and development with a focus on education policies, administration, and research. My dissertation “Integrating Traditional Values and Local Knowledge in the Formal Educational System in Senegal” discusses the issue of culturally relevant education in Senegal through incorporation of more local values and knowledge along with a greater community engagement. In addition, my studies included valuable courses relevant to the field of training, evaluation, monitoring, project planning and research, education and culture... Continue Reading

Headshot of Mario Acevedo

Mario Acevedo passed away in August 2016.  His obituary can be found Here.

 

Before coming to CIE Mario graduated from Universidad del Valle (Univalle) in Cali, Colombia and then taught there. In 1985 he was awarded a Fulbright scholarship for university professors under the LASPAU program, and went first to Pittsburg to study English and then came to CIE at UMass.  After completing his degrees, he returned to Cali and resumed his career as a faculty member at Univalle.

 ... Continue Reading

Rovshan has been working in the Government of Azerbaijan since 2002. After graduation from UMass, he joined the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Azerbaijan. He worked in various positions within the MFA and in Azerbaijan’s diplomatic posts overseas. He served in the Embassy of the Republic of Azerbaijan to the United States of America and currently serves as Counsellor in the Permanent Mission of Azerbaijan to the OSCE and other International Organizations in Vienna, Austria.

 

He was honored to attend the 2024 New Year’s Reception for the Diplomatic Corps in Vienna which was... Continue Reading

Headshot of Azat Myradov

Dear friends at CIE –

 

I am pleased to share a quick update about myself – Since leaving CIE, I have been working at the Public Diplomacy Section of the U.S. Embassy in Ashgabat, Turkmenistan where I serve as the American Center Director. Currently, my responsibilities include overseeing the work of four American Spaces in Turkmenistan. I manage grants, engage in research, and help obtain innovative educational technologies and Makerspace equipment to enhance our library collection.

 

I work closely with our key partners and implementers to provide numerous... Continue Reading

Headshot of Tariq Habibyar

In fall 2023 Tariq sent an update:

 

I resigned as Senior Counselor in the New Zealand Government and returned to campus once again - this time in Toronto, Canada. With a postdoctoral scholarship at York University, I do research and teach at the same university. This opportunity has not only enabled me to advance my expertise but has also provided a platform for reflection and scientific development. Returning to the scientific environment to update my knowledge and contribute to critical thinking is a great opportunity.

 

I hope that in the near future, the... Continue Reading

Headshot of Adama Konate

After finishing his degree, Adama returned to the National Education Ministry in Cote d’Ivoire where he held the position of Inspector of Secondary Education. He retired from the Ministry in 2003 after 19 years of service.  He then began writing English textbooks and teaching English with various business organizations.   In his words:

 

I have contributed to the writing of a series of English textbooks entitled: English for Success which are currently in use in some secondary schools in West Africa. I am also presently completing the writing of a novel in French, which I... Continue Reading

Headshot of Farideh Seihoun

Upon graduation I returned to Iran where over the next 7 years I was able to establish two colleges, one for foreign languages and one for teacher training & education.  From 1974-1979 I was Dean of the College of Education & Psychology at the National University of Iran.

 

I was in the process of starting a new K-16 institution on Kish Island for International students when the Islamic revolution intervened and I returned to the States.

 

I went back to UMass where I took courses in Special Education & Administration and became certified in those... Continue Reading

Headshot of Mary Comeau-Kronenwetter

Mary Comeau-Kronenwetter is currently a New Hampshire Humanities Scholar, doing research and lecturing on New Hampshire history.

 

In 2022 she published an historical fiction novel, Pauper Auction, which examines female economic and educational disempowerment in the New Nation period in New England. The book is available from Stone Fence Press.

 

Mary is active in sustainability and environmental education initiatives and is a Trustee and Ecology Scholarship Chair with the Eastman Charitable... Continue Reading

Alessandra Mucci-Ramos

Alessandra’s Spanish skills have been essential for reaching out to Latino students and their families (mostly from Ecuador and El Salvador) who are in need of extra support to transition to a new culture and a new school environment. Her cultural competency and anti-racism lens has given her the opportunity to participate in and co-facilitate meetings and professional development events organized by the Amherst school district addressing issues such as peer mediation, grief, hidden biases, white supremacy, anti-racism education and restorative justice.

 

Recently, Alessandra... Continue Reading

John Phillips

After I graduated from CIE in 2000, I decided to use my adult learning skills in workplace education. I first spent four years in Korea teaching ESOL. Then I took a position in management development for an 8000-employee, not for profit hospital/ health care system in Buffalo, NY.  While there, I participated in a global health ministry where I went to both Kingston, Jamaica and Port-au-Prince, Haiti to provide community primary healthcare.

 

In 2009, my roots in the US Army brought me to the Veterans Affairs (VA) Healthcare System in New Jersey for seven years as the system'... Continue Reading

Vijay Kumar

After leaving CIE Vijay spent 5 years at the University of Maine at Machias where he taught classes, introduced technology into the curriculum, and helped launch Maine’s statewide interactive telecommunications system.  He then moved to Mount Holyoke College where he directed academic computing, including some programs for the five-college consortium.

 

In 1996 he took a position at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, initially as Senior Associate Dean of Undergraduate Education, then as Assistant Provost and Director of Academic Computing. 

 

Since then... Continue Reading

Michael Simsik

I am currently in my 7th year of working with the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC), which is a small, independent agency of the US government (USG).  I am based in Abidjan, Cote d’Ivoire where I serve as the interim Team Leader for the development of a $300 million regional compact focused on the energy sector.  I relocated to Abidjan in October 2022 after the previous project I was working on for MCC in Burkina Faso (also in the energy sector) had to be abandoned following the January 2022 coup d’état there, leading to the disqualification of the country for USG foreign assistance... Continue Reading

Ron Bell

Before coming to CIE Ron was a Peace Corps Volunteer.  He was sent to Ethiopia in the fall of 1961, among the first group of volunteers requested by Emperor Haile Selassie I, to assist in expanding educational opportunities for the people of his country. Ron’s assignment was to develop a music program at the only secondary school in Wollo Province in Dessie, north of the capital city of Addis Ababa.

 

After returning home, he worked at the Peace Corps National Headquarters in Washington, D.C., for five years, with assignments including Africa Liaison Officer, in the office of... Continue Reading

Sibeso Luswata

After leaving CIE, Sibeso began working with UNICEF, first in South Africa and then in Uganda.  She then became the Chief of Education for South Sudan and was charged with leading the process of reconstruction and transformation of education in South Sudan.  She held that position from 2005 to 2011.  From 2009 until 2014 she worked with UNICEF in Ethiopia.

 

DRE met with Sibeso at a meeting of the Education Rehabilitation and Development Forum held in Juba, Southern Sudan in June 2006. Sibeso was the Chief of Education for UNICEF in southern Sudan. She was based in Juba but... Continue Reading

Tom Coon

Before coming to CIE, Tom served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Armenia. He came to UMass looking to prepare himself for a teaching career in science and EFL, both internationally and domestically.

 

After graduating he taught in Novosibirsk, Russia for a year, and then taught at a charter school in Providence Rhode Island for another year.  After that he worked for five years at the CATS Academy in Boston teaching science and ESL science. He also served as chair of the Science Department.

 

In 2020 he left the US and spent a couple of years teaching at the Haile... Continue Reading

Leslie A. Saulsberry

Before coming to CIE, Leslie was a Peace Corps volunteer St. Lucia and then continued to work with Peace Corps as a Task Force Outreach Specialist, first in Chicago and then in Washington, D.C.

 

She earned a Masters of Public Administration at Rutgers University in an accelerated program which included a year of community service in Camden as a Project Manager.  Subsequently she completed an Advanced Masters of Education degree in International Education and Policy at Teachers College Columbia.

 

During her time at UMass as a graduate student and after... Continue Reading

Ash Hartwell

Ash Hartwell has fifty years of field experience working at community, national and international levels on educational policy analysis, planning and research. He has provided technical assistance and training for the establishment and strengthening of national educational planning divisions in Egypt, Botswana, Lesotho and Uganda. In his own words:

 

I believe in the innate human love and capacity for learning (and playing), and hold that every child - and potentially every adult – has the capacity for genius (Awe, curiosity, joy, inventiveness, creativity…). In my work I... Continue Reading

Jenise Holloway

Before coming to CIE Jenise worked as a volunteer with SKIP (Supporting Kids in Peru) as the micro-enterprise manager.  She managed loans and monitored small business recipients of a program sponsored by a British NGO.

 

Jenise also worked at Williams College in Massachusetts. In the early 2000’s she was the Assistant Director of Admission.  She then worked as Director of Professional and Partnership Programs at Quest for College program at Williams College.

 

During her Master’s program she was also working as the Director of Diversity and Recruiting for IES... Continue Reading

Malena de Montis

After finishing her doctorate with CIE, Malena returned to Nicaragua where she founded two sister NGO's centered on women's economic and political empowerment: The Center for Economic and Democratic Development, CENZONTLE focusing on education, technical assistance, organization and advocacy; and FODEM-CENZONTLE, a micro-finance organization that facilitates credit. She left the executive director position at Cenzontle in 2001 having received a prize for best practice in the Latin American region.  The organization developed a methodology based on practice that articulated institutions,... Continue Reading

Mark Meassick

After completing his term with USAID in Nairobi, Mark returned to USAID in Washington, D.C. where he is now Deputy Assistant Administrator in the Inclusive Growth, Partnerships and Innovation Bureau.  In that position he is responsible for overseeing Innovation, Technology and Research and Localization, Faith Based Communities and Transformation.[10-23]

 

In June 2018, Mark Meassick was sworn in as Mission Director of USAID Kenya and East Africa.  He has worked for USAID in various capacities since 2005, most recently as the USAID Uganda Mission Director.

 

A... Continue Reading

Mary E. Courtney

In her hometown of Dallas, Mary is a Court Appointed Special Advocate (CASA) for foster children, a Lifeline Crisis Counselor for The Trevor Project, and a writer for local newsletters. She studies yoga and yoga teaching, relaxes with online language study, and creates pollinator-friendly gardens.

 

As a writer of poetry and fiction, Mary often describes the experience of those starting their lives over again—much like her four immigrant grandparents and the refugees she taught in New England and Southeast Asia. The online highlight of her month is the meeting of the... Continue Reading

Carlie Tartakov

Before beginning her studies at UMass, Carlie taught primary school in Daly City, California. She then moved to Amherst and taught in Amherst-Pelham schools for 15 years. While teaching she enrolled in a Master’s program and went on to study International Education in the College of Education at UMass.

 

Upon completing her degrees at UMass she moved to Iowa where she enrolled in a Ph.D. program at Iowa State University and subsequently received her Ph.D. in 1995. Carlie joined the faculty at Iowa State University in 1986. As a faculty member her activities included teaching... Continue Reading

Anna Swai

Before coming to CIE I had been a teacher since 2001. I have been working under the Ministry of Education and Vocational Training (MOEVT) in different schools teaching Physics and Biology.

 

When Decentralization by devolution took place in our Country, I was appointed by the Permanent Secretary of MOEVT as a District Academic Educational officer under the department of Secondary Education. I have been working under MOEVT in collaboration with Prime Minister’s Office, Regional Administration and Local Government for two years. Being an academician at District level has given... Continue Reading

Eugenie Ballering

I am originally from the Netherlands.  I began working there, and then worked in Zambia and Nepal.  After Nepal, where I met Charles Harns who convinced me to consider CIE, I came to Amherst to pursue a M.Ed. focusing on Adult Numeracy and Literacy.

 

After getting my degree I started working in the US and never left. I was a curriculum development specialist in Native Language Literacy for Adult Learners at the University of MA Boston and later I worked In DC with ... Continue Reading

Babacar Mboup

Babacar came to CIE from Senegal, where among other things he was a griot – a story teller who preserves the oral tradition and history of a village or family.  After getting his Master’s degree in education he enrolled in a doctoral program in the French Department at UMass. 

 

In spring of 2005, at one of CIE’s Tuesday meetings, he announced that he was defending his dissertation that day, almost ten years to the day from when he arrived at CIE to begin studying for his Master’s degree,   His dissertation title was Negro African Theatre: Beyond traditional boundaries,... Continue Reading

Gulzat Kochorova

Before coming to CIE, I spent five years introducing a newly developed Humanities Curriculum specifically designed for Central Asian undergraduate students at the University of Central Asia’s Aga Khan Humanities Project.  This Curriculum consisted of eight interdisciplinary courses and was intended to be taught using student-centered teaching methods, and develop students’ critical reading, thinking, and writing skills. While this kind of curriculum and teaching methods were fairly common in other countries, for the post-soviet Central Asian region it was new.

 

Feeling like... Continue Reading

Mbuyi Mutala

After completing his M.Ed. at CIE in 1986 Mutala went back to Zaire and worked as IEC/Training Coordinator for two major USAID-funded public health projects working on Nutrition Improvement and Basic Rural Health. He advocated for the use of non-formal and adult education methods and techniques in community health education.

 

In 1993, due to the volatile political situation in Kinshasa/Zaire and the subsequent closing down of all USAID projects, Mutala left Zaire and went to South Africa. In South Africa he worked with the Gauteng Department of Education in piloting an... Continue Reading

Amber Martin

Before coming to CIE, I worked for a popular education NGO in Guatemala for two and a half years. I was a community educator in rural, indigenous areas teaching about citizen participation in government. The experience was humbling and completely life changing, and I was hooked. I took a job in El Salvador with another non-profit, where I facilitated relationships between U.S.-based organizations and their counterpart communities in El Salvador which supported grassroots community development projects.

 

For a decade after graduating from CIE, I worked with 1199SEIU, the... Continue Reading

Gregory Thompson

While studying at CIE, Greg also worked as the manager of two USIA-funded projects at CIE called Teacher-Text-Technology projects – one in Somalia and one in Tanzania.   

 

After leaving CIE, Greg worked for more than a decade with United Airlines, and subsequently as Director of Sales Training for School Specialty, Inc. in 2009 Greg started a new career with Peace Corps.

 

I applied to the Peace Corps to serve as the Director of Programming & Training in any country that would have me.  Who would have guessed that the hiring official was... Continue Reading

Jacob Carter

In 2022 Jacob became the Program Assistant Director with The Partnership for Worker Education (PWE), Office of Human Resources at UMass Amherst. In July 2023 he became the Director of PWE - a collaboration among UMass HR and the staff unions (AFSCME, USA, PSU) providing services for the roughly 4,500 UMass Amherst staff members.

 

As Director he works closely with his counterparts to continue advancing innovative education, training, and career ladder opportunities for workers on campus. Upon becoming Director he... Continue Reading

Ben Herson

I was born and raised in Newton MA and grew up in a musical household where there was a constant connection between life, politics and music. It was through my experience playing Jamaican music that I became interested in the intersection of music and youth movements in the Caribbean and Africa, a subject I studied as a Cultural Anthropology major at Hampshire College. 

 

In 1999 I traveled to Senegal and discovered a young and thriving hip-hop scene there. What inspired me most about the hip-hop music in Senegal was that it was created not just to entertain but also to... Continue Reading

Kristen Lina Heaster-Ekholm

My research interests focus on the relationship between online learning and culture, with the goal of developing effective instructional design practices to meet the needs of diverse learners.

 

Before coming to CIE, I completed an M.S. in Instructional Design and Technology at California State University Fullerton that allowed me to become conversant with a large repertoire of educational technologies, provided insight into the benefits and challenges of online learning, and broadened my ability to think strategically about the interface between learning and technology. My... Continue Reading

Maria Diarra Keita

Maria Diarra Keita is the Director and co-founder, with Cheick Oumar Coulibaly and  Debbie Fredo, of the Institute for Popular Education (IEP) in Mali, West Africa.

 

Maria was disillusioned with the impact of traditional development approaches, particularly in the form of women’s literacy and income generating activities that she had spent years organizing. Inspired by rural women and their own sharp critiques of those approaches, Maria led a group of dedicated educators in the practice of alternatives, first in... Continue Reading

Jennifer Ladd

Jennifer Ladd is currently retired from her work as a Philanthropic Advisor and Anti classism/racism Trainer. She is now on the board of... Continue Reading

Samson Macjessie-Mbewe

After graduating from CIE, I returned to Chancellor College in Malawi in the Faculty of Education where I am now an Associate Professor. Since returning I have served as Head of Department, Dean of Faculty and University Senator. My responsibilities include: teaching Educational Policy and Leadership Issues and Sociology of Education both at post-graduate and under-graduate levels; conducting research and consultancies; conducting outreach activities; supervising postgraduate students on their theses writing.  I previously earned a Master of Arts (Sociology and Education) from Columbia... Continue Reading

Ella Phombeya Banda

After graduating with her Master’s degree Ella returned to Malawi to work as a Chief Research Officer at the Malawi National Examinations Board for two years. She then followed her husband to Botswana where her husband was working and she devoted her time to taking care of her children.

 

They then moved to Ohio where her husband has a fellowship.  In Ohio she is now working on her dissertation for her Ph.D. in the Research, Evaluation and Monitoring Program at UMass Amherst where she is still enrolled as a doctoral student.   She is also exploring opportunities for... Continue Reading

Since graduating in May 2014, I have been fortunate to be involved in quite a few interesting projects and programs as a consultant. In reflecting on these opportunities, there are three key ways my graduate studies at the Center for International Education (CIE) has furthered my career: 1) applying my graduate research findings to my work, 2) nurturing critical awareness of important issues in our world, and 3) encouraging exploration of interests, particularly innovation.

 

It has become evident the hard work I put into my... Continue Reading

Yaelle Stelmpfelet

Yaëlle completed a Master’s Degree at CIE in International Education focusing on the intersection of early childhood education and international development.  Her studies and research while at CIE helped solidify her commitment to holistic, culturally-relevant, and developmentally-appropriate early childhood education.

 

Before coming to CIE, Yaëlle spent over six years in Guatemala where she first managed the volunteer program of not-for-profit called Safe Passage which served children and families living around the Guatemala City garbage dump. She then taught in and ran a... Continue Reading

Cliff Myers

In 2022 Cliff moved back to the Amherst area with his family. Much to his surprise and delight he was appointed as the Interim Director of CIE in  June of 2023.  He had this to say about his new position: I recently started as the part-time, interim Director of CIE. I can’t believe how fortunate I am and how excited yet daunted I feel to take on this new challenge. Fortunately, both UNICEF and UMass have similar layers of bureaucracy and I am slowly but surely getting adjusted to the system at UMass. I now have... Continue Reading

Svetlana Pivovar Dimitrieva

After graduating from CIE in 2004, Svetlana Dmitrieva worked at the UNDP offices in Kyiv and Moscow, doing M&E for community projects affected by the Chornobyl catastrophe. Afterwards she transferred to the UN coordination office in Moscow where she prepared country programming products including the UN Development Assistance Frameworks and joint UN programs for the Millennium Development Goals.

 

Following the births of her children, Svetlana returned to doing ESL curriculum development, teaching and conducting cross-cultural training workshops in Kiev. In 2008, family... Continue Reading

Tracey Tsugawa

Tracey has extensive experience in education and civil rights. Her work history includes 15 years as a civil rights investigator, consulting for various community-based organizations and working with public and private organizations to develop more inclusive programs and cultivate greater cultural competency. She has also taught in higher education at both the undergraduate and graduate levels for more than 25 years.  

 

In 2023, she is now working as the Interim Director and Interim Title IX Officer at the University of California San Francisco.  Before that she was employed... Continue Reading

Surl Hee Kim

After graduating from CIE, Surl Hee was involved with INEE's capacity development survey doing quantitative analysis under the initiative of Stephen Richardson. More recently she has been at home in Delaware supporting her two kids, Ahron and Einne, with their remote learning.  She looks forward to going back to professional work when her kids get a little older, and schools reopen!

 

In 2020 she and her family moved to Oregon where her husband found a new job.  Then after several years, they moved again,... Continue Reading

Jann Shadduck-Hernandez

Janna Shadduck-Hernández is currently a project director at the UCLA Labor Center, where she has been for the past 15 years, and teaches for UCLA’s Labor Studies major and in the Graduate School of Education and Information Studies. Her research and teaching focus on developing culturally relevant, participatory educational models with first- and second-generation university students, community members, and youth. Her research and policy work also examine the organizing efforts of low-wage immigrant workers to combat labor and workplace violations.

 

She has been on the Board... Continue Reading

Rolf Straubhaar

Before coming to CIE, I spent several years in Brazil and after finishing my undergraduate degree, I worked as a curriculum writer for a community education program run by the nonprofit, Care for Life in Beira, Mozambique.  This program was notable in how hard it tried to solicit community involvement and stewardship in its programs, but there were many moments in which I wondered how the communities we worked in might come to further emulate what I had seen in Salvador.

 

I then taught for several years in disadvantaged communities in the US through Teach for America,... Continue Reading

Bonnie Sylwester

Before coming to CIE Bonnie spent two years as an English Teaching Fellow in Bolivia.  After that she worked as an English language teacher, teacher trainer and curriculum developer in several different countries including Namibia, South Korea, Bolivia, Spain and Mexico.

 

After finishing her Master’s degree with CIE, Bonnie moved to Hawai’i and enrolled in a doctoral program in Second Language Studies.  She completed her doctorate in 2017 with a dissertation that focused on the program assessment of an applied linguistics program.

 

Upon completing her... Continue Reading

Bonnie Mullinix

Bonnie Mullinix and David McCurry have recently headed off for their next grand adventure… in Cork Ireland.  Bonnie is currently Research Fellow at the Centre for Integration of Research Teaching and Learning at University College Cork (UCC) working on an... Continue Reading

My educational background from CIE and skills gained during my studies in CIE enabled me to join the education sector where I could apply the knowledge and skills for the development of the education sector of Afghanistan.

 

After I graduated from CIE, I rejoined Baghlan University as Assistant Professor and taught in the undergraduate program training both in-service and pre-service teachers. In 2011, I worked with World Bank as Research Consultant with the assignment to evaluate the establishment of School Management Committees.

 

In 2013 I joined Ministry of... Continue Reading

Gopal Midha

Gopal Midha is currently in Goa and channeling his energies into setting up a center for educational research and writing a book on his PhD research experience.  The center for educational research that he is seeking support for is an ambitious enterprise to catapult India into an education research hub for the Global South. The center will work with educational leaders, teacher-leaders, and policy officials to build their research expertise and learn from them about the nuances of their complex local practice.

 

While Gopal awaits funding for the center, he is also writing a... Continue Reading

Jeanne Moulton

Jeanne Moulton worked in business development at the Education Development Center (EDC) from 2010 to 2020. Prior to that she worked at Creative Associates International for five years in project management and proposal development, and during the 15 years before that, she was an independent consultant.

 

Her consulting assignments included project design and proposal writing and a wide range of technical assistance in basic education, education policy and related areas in Asia, Eastern Europe and Africa. Her most enjoyable assignments were in Uganda, Egypt, South Africa,... Continue Reading

Headshot of Sunthorn Sunanchai

Sunthorn Sunanchai passed away in May 2023His obituary can be found Here.

 

Sunthorn had a long career in education.  He was a teacher from 1945-1951 and then worked as an Education Supervisor until 1965. Subsequently, he went on to become the Director of the Adult Education Division. In that role, he was an important partner in CIE’s NFE activities in Thailand and was instrumental in introducing both the concept and the practice of NFE into Thailand.

 

After spending several years in a... Continue Reading

Pempho Chinkondenji

Dr. Pempho Chinkondenji’s research focuses on school (re)integration of student mothers, pregnancy-related education policies, and the relationship between gender, education, and development in Southern Africa. With emphasis on African and African diaspora populations in primary, secondary, and higher education contexts, Pempho’s scholarship draws from interdisciplinary fields to address structural inequalities within educational policies and practices. In framing this work, her scholarship draws from post/de-colonial frameworks and African feminist thought to interrogate gender and power... Continue Reading

Amina Davlatshoeva

Before joining the doctoral program at CIE Amina completed a master’s degree in Education at the Aga Khan University in Pakistan.  Her studies focused on planning and policy development for educational institutions and governments, with an emphasis on education systems in Asia.  Below she recounts here experiences since then.

 

When I finished my Master’s degree in Pakistan, I found work in Afghanistan. Starting in 2004 I worked with The Aga Khan Education Services in Afghanistan as an Education Program Coordinator for Tutorial Assistance Program which helped children needing... Continue Reading

David McCurry

Bonnie (Mullinix) and I have told the story many times of how we came to CIE and UMass. While in the Peace Corps in The Gambia as volunteers and volunteer leaders (1980-1983), we encountered a few people who all shared a connection to a program called CIE at the University of Massachusetts. First there was Will Shaw, who delivered a training program for PC/TG, then "the Steves" (Anzalone and... Continue Reading

Kefah Barham

After my graduation in 2014, I returned home to West Bank, Palestine. There, I started teaching at An-Najah National University in the Faculty of Educational Sciences and Teacher Training. Besides my teaching, I got involved as a trainer - training material designers, and as the cluster coordinator in Leadership and Teacher Development (LTD), and with the Teacher Education Improvement Program TEIP 2. These projects were funded by USAID and the World Bank and aimed at enhancing in-service teacher competencies.

 

Recently... Continue Reading

Mshauri Khamis

After getting my Master’s degree, I returned to Tanzania and was posted to the Department of Secondary Education as a head of the Secondary Education Division in Zanzibar. Four months later, I moved to Dar es Salaam, after being selected to work with the Constitutional Review Commission (CRC), in the Secretariat. Once again I left my family and worked on the mainland for 14 months.

 

The task was critical and very challenging, though we succeeded in producing a second draft of the new Constitution of Tanzania. On 30 December 2014, the draft was submitted to the President, the... Continue Reading

Jean Kosha

Before coming to CIE, Jean spent 3 years in the Peace Corps working in several teacher training colleges in Cameroon, West Africa. She then worked as a lead trainer for new volunteers in Cameroon with CHP before moving on to spend two years as a Training Coordinator with the International Rescue Committee in Guinea, West Africa.

 

While doing her graduate studies she worked four years as both a resource person and an instructor in the Elementary Teacher Education program at UMass.  She then worked for seven years as an Assistant Residence Director and then a Residence... Continue Reading

Laura Ivey Dixon

Before coming to CIE, Laura spent four years in North Carolina and Malawi working with World Camp, a non-profit organization that educates primary teachers and their students on HIV/AIDS, the environment, life skills education, and gender equality

 

After finishing her degree Laura spent two years working in Malawi for AIR as the Learning Resource Coordinator for the Malawi Teacher Training Activity. Her primary responsibility was to develop learning materials, including resource manuals and handbooks for training workshops.  She also worked regularly with... Continue Reading

Barbara Huff

After graduating, Barbara worked in Washington, D.C. for six years. She then took a position as the Caribbean Regional Trainer with Habitat for Humanity.  The position was based in Guyana and involved travel throughout the Caribbean training National Directors and local staff. 

 

In 2006 she spent a year as an assistant professor at Al Akhawayn University in Morocco, teaching and advising undergraduates. In 2007 she began a two-year appointment as a Capacity Building Senior Advisor with Medical Teams International in Portland, Oregon.  In that role she provided guidance on... Continue Reading

Erin Myers

After graduating from CIE, I continued to work in direct service and community organizing both in locally and internationally. I started as the Program Director for an organization in Turners Falls called The Brick House Community Resource Center, where Joanie Cohen-Mitchell was Executive Director in the early 2000s. Joanie pioneered a number of remarkable programs, most notably, M.I.N.D., a leadership development program for women in the community. 

 

As Program Director, I was involved in... Continue Reading

Manjula Solomon

In July, 2022 Manjula announced - I have finally retired.  It was heart wrenching leaving this school, which became so beloved, a Head of School whose family became my family. And seeing it turn into a global school- with Round Square, the GEBG and the IB. We left beautiful Miami, for our beautiful Lakehouse in Mass, visiting friends along the way- there are many friends whom we have seen since that trip.

 

In early 2023, she and her husband have been spending time at their home in India. She says: That was when we realized that home is many places. Stuart wants to spend a... Continue Reading

Razia Karim

Before coming to Amherst, I worked as the English Language program Coordinator for USAID/Kabul.   Then, In 2012 I became the Executive Assistant to the Deputy Minister for Academic Affairs in the Ministry of Higher Education, Afghanistan.  During my degree studies at UMass, I worked as a project assistant on CIE’s higher education project in Afghanistan.

 

After finishing my Master’s degree at UMass I moved to Melbourne in August 2017 and started working at the Melbourne Polytechnic in September 2017.... Continue Reading

Benjamin Scherrer

Ben is currently an Instructor in Political Science at Vassar College. His interdisciplinary scholarship draws from Black Studies, river and wetland ecologies, and critical cartographic methods. Through archival study and place-based approaches to research, his current project works towards disrupting disciplined climate change education through methodological deciphering of flooding and ongoing catastrophe.

 

He is interested in practices located materially outside or outdoors, in aesthetic engagement with affective elements that enliven what is put on the page. 

 ... Continue Reading

Patrick Thoendel

Before coming to CIE I lived and worked in Japan for 2 years teaching English to everyone from 4-year-old children to 70-year-old pensioners. Despite the challenges of working in Japanese office culture I really enjoyed the work and the lifestyle. In 2006 I joined the Peace Corps and was sent to the Republic of Georgia, where I lived and worked as a secondary school TEFL volunteer for 2 years.

 

I began to see international education as a career and more than just a way to travel. This realization among other things prompted me to extend my PC service to the Central Asian... Continue Reading

Nyaradzai Changamire

Nyaradzai is originally from Zimbabwe.  Before coming to CIE in 2014 she was active in a number of educational programs. She volunteered at Mashambanzou Care Trust, a not-for-profit organization in Harare, where she contributed to community education programs that empowered youths with practical life skills and promoted positive behavioral change. Specifically, the program encouraged girls, who were the majority of high school drop-outs, to take greater control and interest in their health and welfare.

 

She also volunteered with The Brick Project Foundation, where together... Continue Reading

Gail VonHahmann

Since leaving CIE I have enjoyed working with many CIE grads in Somalia, Lesotho, Cambodia, Bangladesh, Tanzania, and Afghanistan and the US. For example, in 2008 I returned to Kabul for 2 months to work with Julio Ramirez and Chris Gamm on teacher education. I have worked as: a senior education advisor for Creative Associates International; education coordinator for the Aga Khan University in Karachi; NFE specialist for CIE in Lesotho; community/parent involvement consultant for AED in Namibia; training... Continue Reading

Joanie Cohen-Mitchell

Joanie joined USAID in Washington, DC in August 2020 as the Policy and Technical Leadership Lead at the Center for Education in the Bureau of Development, Democracy and Innovation. She was highlighted in an article appearing in USAID’s April 2023 newsletter in her role as Acting Deputy Director and Lead.  Joanie is shown (right) visiting USAID/Colombia’s Juntos Aprendemos activity.[4-23]

 

As a member of the Senior Management Group, Joanie is responsible for policy and technical thought leadership and the... Continue Reading

Kunduz Maksutova

After leaving CIE, Kunduz returned to her home in the Kyrgyz Republic where she chaired the English Department and taught in the School of International Relations at Osh State University.  She also participated in a project of the US Department of State offering workshops on credit-based higher education in the Kyrgyz Republic covering all the state universities in the country.  During that time, Kunduz and a US Peace Corps volunteer, Bethany Burns, were awarded a Peace Corps grant and created an American room with many cultural and language media resources at Osh State University.

... Continue Reading
Julia Novrita

I am originally from Aceh, the most western part of Indonesia. I started my career as a volunteer at a local NGO, where I was involved in humanitarian assistance and an alternative education program for children affected by 30 years of armed conflict. Later, I joined the Henry Dunant Center for Humanitarian Dialogue, where I was involved in facilitating the Cessation of Hostilities Agreement (2002–2003). My interest in working in the education and peacebuilding fields stemmed from those experiences.

 

Amid uncertainties about the future of Aceh, I was selected as a fellow in... Continue Reading

Vongaishe Changamire

Before coming to CIE, Vongaishe worked with World Education Inc. in Zimbabwe on improving the lives of orphans and vulnerable children and families with programs in basic education, school governance, vocational and life skills education, integrated literacy, girls and women’s education, HIV/AIDS education and prevention. She was involved in the evolution of in-school and out-of-school nonformal education programs. These NFE centers were designed to offer safe places for out-of-school children and youth to develop functional literacy and numeracy skills using an accelerated curriculum.... Continue Reading

Sayed Ahmad Javid Mussawy

Javid completed his degree in International Education at UMass Amherst in February 2023. His dissertation was titled, Accreditation of Teaching and Research Universities in Afghanistan: A Policy Implementation Analysis. The dissertation analyzes the historical development of quality assurance and accreditation systems in Afghanistan and some developing countries. During his doctoral program, Javid published four articles in peer-reviewed journal articles, an encyclopedia entry, and a media review.

 

Two of the articles were co-authored with Professor... Continue Reading

Tamara Lomiashvilli Vitolo

Since completing my doctoral degree in February 2020 I have been engaged in a variety of professional activities. I am currently employed as a researcher with EDC's school improvement portfolio. I serve as the study director for a nationwide randomized control trial investigating the impact of interactive digital games on middle school students’ historical content knowledge, empathy, and perspective-taking skills. I am also involved in a project that explores the integration of computational thinking into elementary... Continue Reading

Lauren Clarke

After graduating from CIE in 2011, Lauren worked at SIT for the International Honors Program (with CIE graduate Phil Mangis) where she worked to integrate the comparative (multi-country) programs of IHP with SIT study abroad, as well as design immersive programs with specific curricular content for U.S. universities. Subsequently Lauren was appointed Dean for International Students and Global Engagement at Amherst College.

 

Since 2017, she has been in Jakarta, Indonesia at the Putera Sampoerna Foundation (PSF), developing the first Indonesian liberal arts college. She is the... Continue Reading

Edgardo Rothkegel

Edgardo Rothkegel passed away in March 2023

His obituary can be found Here

 

Before coming to CIE, Edgardo was a Catholic priest in Valparaiso, Chile – his home town.  As a priest he worked with the Association of Catholic Universities, providing counseling to students.  He later left the priesthood and came to the U.S. in 1966.

 

In 1973 he came to Amherst with his wife ... Continue Reading

Tatiana Krayushkina

After leaving CIE Tatiana returned to Tajikistan where she did some freelancing and helped the international school, where she had worked before, to prepare for accreditation.

 

She then went to Israel for an education training course with Mashav before looking for new opportunities.  After looking at possibilities in Afghanistan, Kazakhstan and China, she decided to take a position in China.  She spent several years teaching in an international school in Wuhan where she taught first and second grade students.  The children were from many different countries.

 

... Continue Reading

Askar Mambetaliev

After graduating from CIE/UMass in 2004, Askar, who is originally from Kyrgyzstan, taught social sciences and linguistics using advanced pedagogy at various national and international universities in Kyrgyzstan. He did research with the Canadian Center of Pluralism on the peaceful co-existence of people with different ethnic and religious backgrounds.

 

In 2007, he took a month-long course in Academic Writing at the American University in Istanbul. From 2008 to 2010 he was a Visiting Scholar at the Open Society Institute at New York University, where he focused on developing... Continue Reading

Evangeline Ambat

After completing her Master’s degree Evangeline worked with Stephen Richardson as a consultant with the Inter-Agency Network for Education in Emergencies (INEE).  She was part of a team conducting a mapping and market analysis of the capacity development needs of the EiE sector as input to the capacity building strategy for INEE.

 

In 2016 Evangeline joined EDC in Boston where she is a senior training and technical assistance advisor in... Continue Reading

Lukas Winfield

After finishing his Master’s degree, Lukas spent the summer with the Asia Foundation designing a smart phone app that provides high quality early grade reading content for Skaw Karen children in Northern Thailand who lack books at home in their mother tongue, but have access to smart phones. 

 

Lukas also assisted in the design of browser-based translation tool that simplifies and facilitates the complex task of translating existing open access reading materials into local languages by utilizing teachers and community members. Both the reading app and translation tool are... Continue Reading

Flavia Ramos-Mattoussi

Flavia Ramos is currently a Senior Research Associate and Associate Director for the Center for International Studies in Educational Research and Development (CISERD) at Florida State University. Recent projects include  USAID-funded projects: "teacher Excellence Initiative in Egypt ('22-'27); Uzbekistan Education for Excellence program ('19-'23), and “Reading for Ethiopia’s Achievement Developed Technical Assistance” (READ TA) Project in Ethiopia (2012-2017).

 

Other recent activities include... Continue Reading

Rita Raboin

Rita Raboin is a Sister of Notre Dame de Namur:

 

I have been here in Brazil for 34 years. I first worked in the state of Maranhao with farmers for many years  and then on the island of Marajó as the Coordinator for the Pastoral Land Commission, which is a support of the Catholic Church for families who work on small plots of land either in the fields or, in our case, along the rivers. We seek to help the people analyze their situation and see what they can do to remain on the land.

 

... Continue Reading

Patrick Fine

In 2021 Patrick Fine joined Brookings Institute as a Nonresident Senior Fellow - Global Economy and Development, in the Center for Sustainable Development

 

Prior to that Partick worked as the Chief Executive Officer of FHI 360, a non-profit human development organization dedicated to improving lives in lasting ways by advancing integrated, locally driven solutions. 

 

Before joining FHI 360 in 2013, Patrick served as the Vice President for Compact... Continue Reading

Hollyn Green

Following an unexpected return to the Pioneer Valley after 14 years, I revived connections with long lost friends/colleagues.  With a bit of friendly pressure (read DRE), I’m taking a moment to sashay down memory lane and reconnect with the CIE community.

 

This January was my 71th birthday.  From this vantage point, I can detect patterns throughout phases of activity that were built upon the tenets of doctoral studies.  For me, the fertile groundwork for learning was first laid in mid-1980’s, when I stumbled naively into Turkey as a program developer but instead slammed into... Continue Reading

Satomi Kamei

After graduating with her doctorate in May 2016, Satomi began work in Uganda in August with JICA where she is part of a project supporting district governments.

 

My job with JICA covers two sub-regions – West Nile and Acholi – which means that I travel a lot. . Located next to each other in northern Uganda, these sub-regions are quite unique in their own ways and activities with the project are diverse as well. When not traveling, I have my office space within the Planning Department of Arua District Government. Consequently, Arua is like my host district. This work setting... Continue Reading

John Bing

In 2023, although now fuly retired John is still active in supporting Afghanistan where he was a PCV many years ago!

 

I have now retired to a small desert community outside of Santa Fe, New Mexico.  My wife Cass and I managed to sell our online applications and our business (ITAP International, which operated in the cross-cultural area) and these sales allowed us to retire from the east coast to a place called Eldorado.  Here, between the mountains and desert, I continue to hike and enjoy and respect all four seasons for... Continue Reading

Firuza Gafurova

As a Muskie Fellow, I graduated from CIE in 2005 and returned to Uzbekistan to start a teaching position at a public school.

 

While at CIE, I developed an interest in HIV/AIDS and health education, and with great enthusiasm I started teaching health education classes to high school students. This was a great experience, starting with developing my own curriculum to seeing how my students were developing confidence in discussing various health issues.

 

Additionally, I was working with elementary school students on their conversational English skills, which was... Continue Reading

Yasin Magan

I left North America when I received my degree, planning to eventually return to Somalia. I spent time in Rome and London looking for an international career, but to no avail. I then returned to Somaliland, a self-proclaimed independent entity separate from the rest of Somalia. Somaliland is a former British colony that declared its own independence without seeking international recognition.

 

Upon return to Somaliland, I took a position in a small, but promising institution known as Amoud University.  There I worked in the teacher training department.  Interestingly, this... Continue Reading

Mainus Sultan

As a literacy professional from Bangladesh, my experience with the Center for International Education (CIE) began in 1990 as a participant in the Summer Institute for Literacy Professionals. This introduction to staff and professors led me to enroll with CIE/UMass for a second Masters and later an Ed.D. Upon reflection, my two decades-long engagement with CIE enhanced my adult education skills and also equipped me to serve as an educational professional in countries such as Laos, Afghanistan, Zimbabwe, Sierra Leone and the U.S.

 

In 2003, I defended my dissertation and, later... Continue Reading

Mariam Rashid

Dr. Mariam Rashid is an interdisciplinary scholar whose research focuses on global refugee resettlement policies and practices, coloniality of displacement, and issues related to statelessness, nativity, and indigeneity within minority peoples of East Africa. Her work also critically engages with the discourse of diversity and inclusivity within higher education institutions.

 

Her current research draws on black studies, black feminist thought, and forms of diasporic feminism to explore recurring racialized, gendered, and colonial formations that are reproduced in refugee... Continue Reading

Aiah Mbayo

Before coming to CIE in 2003, Aiah worked for four years as a program assistant for UNFPA in Sierra Leone where he provided technical support for a Population Information, Education, and Communication (POP-IEC) strategy.  In 2000 he began working for UNICEF as a Project Officer for Youth Development and Emergency Education.

 

After leaving CIE he worked as a consultant for the International Rescue Committee conducting a situation assessment of education in several districts of Sierra Leone.  In 2013 he served as an adjunct professor teaching a course in Global Project... Continue Reading

Homa Sabri

After leaving CIE Homa returned to Afghanistan.  From 2001 until 2017 Homa worked as a Technical Advisor with UNIFEM/UNWOMEN.  In that role she collaborated with the Ministry of Women’s Affairs on identifying policies and projects to empower women and promote gender equality.  She commented at one point during her work there that “The men think that shelters are a concept from the West that encourages women to run from their homes. A lot of men are trying to damage the reputation of shelters because they are fearful of their girls and women actually defending their rights.”

 

... Continue Reading

After leaving CIE, Badziliyi returned to Botswana.  He wrote then:

 

I am a lecturer at the University of Botswana-Center for Continuing Education-Public Education Unit (UB-CCE-PEU). I develop, organize, and manage the provision of public education activities. To make them relevant to learners, I involve communities not only in organization of learning, but also in the education issues in which they need enlightenment.

 

Because not every community member can participate at a given time in the determination of need for educational programs, we collaborate with... Continue Reading

Siddiqullah Barikzai

I returned to Kabul in 2010 and joined Computer Science Department of Natural Science Faculty at Kabul Education University (KEU). In mid-2010, I was elected as the chair of Computer Science Department. I led the department in addition to teaching various courses in both computer science and pedagogy.

 

In fall of 2013, I developed a proposal in coordination with my department members to promote the department to the status of a faculty. I talked to administrators at KEU and the Ministry of Higher Education and presented the reasons the department should be promoted to... Continue Reading

Yetunde Ajao

Only the people who take learning, growth and skills development into their own hands will be tomorrow’s leaders ~ Alli Worthington

 

After graduating from CIE, the question I ask myself is: Given all the ways to make the world a better place, how can I have the greatest influence? My goal is to inspire and empower people and communities to thrive and be self-sufficient. Over the years, I have chosen the path that has reflected this passion. I received a B.Ed.Hons.in Adult Education and English from the University of Ibadan,... Continue Reading

George Botelho

My career since leaving CIE has focused on teacher training and school/program improvement in developing countries. Generally, my work has been divided between the South Pacific and the Middle East.

 

In Papua New Guinea I was involved in implementing the Secondary Schools Community Extension Project (SSCEP). This program brought selected schools in remote coastal and inland mountainous regions together with local village communities, to encourage the learning of traditional skills (taught by village elders), combined with active classroom learning engagement. The aim was to... Continue Reading

Anne Sikwibele

After leaving CIE, Anne earned her Ph.D. at the University of Illinois. She then embarked on a long and distinguished career in higher education in southern Africa. She held academic and leadership roles and served on various commissions relating to education policy, education technology and gender in Botswana, India, Nigeria, Zambia, South Africa, and Swaziland.

 

Her career led to her current appointment in the spring of 2022 as Acting Vice Chancellor of the University of Zambia (UNZA).

 

From 1989 to 2002 she held a variety of leadership roles at the... Continue Reading

Kip visited Amherst recently and met with BGW (DRE was on vacation).

I am still teaching ecological/environmental studies at the School of Environmental Studies, in the Dept. of Environmental Sciences and Education (ENSED) at Kenyatta Univ. I plan to retire in about 2 years. The CIE experience, and working in many team work experiences, and practical experiences in developing project proposals, and managing international education projects, helped me, and very many before me, and after many years it continues to help others to grow too. I greatly value the CIE goals and missions. [6... Continue Reading

Gordon Schimmel

It was my good fortune to meet Dwight W. Allen as I was visiting his Peace Corps training site at Stanford University in 1967.  As a staffer in the Peace Corps Washington Office of Training, one of my jobs was checking out innovative training programs and Dwight certainly was an outstanding example of what we needed to improve our programs.

 

He had just been selected to become Dean of the School of Education at the University of Massachusetts and while it was sad to lose Dwight as a project director at Stanford, his interest in starting a Center for International Education... Continue Reading

Sheyla Castillo

Sheyla Castillo created and, as the Counselor/Coordinator, implemented the Immigrant-based Support Program (ISP) for adult students of San Diego’s College of Continuing Education. Additionally, she is the co-chair of the Immigrant-based Student Support Committee for the districts’ American Federation of Teachers chapter.  In that role she is currently involved in causes such as: institutionalizing the ISP on all four of San Diego’s Community... Continue Reading

Samuel Oduro-Sarpong

For about one year after leaving CIE, getting a job in the field of International development, both here in the US and abroad, was difficult for me. I attended several interviews without success. I eventually entered into Mental Health profession, holding positions like Mental Health Counselor, Qualified Intellectual Disability Professional, and other related titles. I was also an Adjunct Professor for two years, teaching Introduction to Sociology, and Social Problems in a Community College in New Jersey.

 

I transitioned from Mental Health almost five years ago and entered... Continue Reading

Ahmed Hassan

Joining CIE was a great opportunity for me.  It allowed me to learn and better understand the concepts of non-formal education and be able to develop the skills to work with adults and help them improve their situation. Since getting my Master's degree from CIE, I have been involved in a variety of academic activities and programs. I have taught groups ranging from high school students to adult professionals and faculty members.

 

Subsequently I joined the Research and Evaluation Methods Program and received a CAGS.  Later, I enrolled in the Teacher Education and School... Continue Reading

Sainodin T. Abantas

Sainodin Abantas was one of a group of nine educators brought to CIE as part of an ADB-NFE assisted project in the Bureau of Non-Formal Education in the Philippines. Sainodin represented the now defunct Autonomous region in Muslim Mindanao. While at CIE they studied NFE philosophy and methods, and designed a series of training modules.

 

Being passionate about public service and armed with his new experience and training gained while he was at CIE, he continued his advocacy of Adult Education and worked with NGOs for the implementation of projects and programs such as ADB-... Continue Reading

Fatimah Ihsan

For the past 10 years Fatimah has been an Assistant Professor at the Centre of Excellence in Gender Studies (CEGS) at Quaid-e-Azam University, Islamabad where she has taught for over ten years and supervised numerous research studies.

 

Prior to joining the university Fatimah worked for two years as a Women’s Rights and Policy Advisor with the Emergency and Reconstruction Project with ActionAid Pakistan. In that role she was responsible for promoting and integrating women’s issues and highlighting the rights of people in... Continue Reading

Sherry Russell

Since graduating from CIE, Sherry has worked both in the US and abroad.  She is passionate about work that connects people meaningfully to each other across both similarities and differences.  These connections foster the types of networks and relationships that address inequity, promote peace and generate innovative solutions that build on strengths while addressing challenges.

 

During her years at CIE, Sherry’s focus was on adult and nonformal education. During that time, she worked with literacy and participatory education projects in Massachusetts as well as abroad.... Continue Reading

Rebecca Paulson Stone

In 2022, Rebecca accepted a new position as the Technical Unit Director for Education at Creative Associates International. In this role Rebecca will lead Creative's education technical team to grow their education portfolio and provide evidence-based technical assistance to development programs globally.  Previously Rebecca was a Principal Researcher and Program Director at the American Institutes for Research (AIR) where she was for almost 10 years prior to moving to Creative.

 

At AIR, Rebecca oversaw the collection and dissemination of evidence on early grade literacy (... Continue Reading

Alimen Sencil

Alimen came to CIE as part of a group of 9 educators sponsored by the Bureau of Non-Formal Education in the Philippines.  While at CIE they studied NFE philosopy and methods and designed a series of training modules.

 

After returning to the Philippines, Alimen worked as a training officer at the University of Southern Mindanao (USM), Kabacan, North Cotabato and in 1998 was promoted to Training Specialist II.  Subsequently in 2007 he became the Deputy Director for Extension at the same university, and then Director from 2009 to 2011.

 

From 2013 until his... Continue Reading

Mohamed Ibrahim Elgadi

Since I last updated my CIE profile, there are a few things that I would like to share with you. As you may expect, based on my long work on human rights, most of these additions are in the same field. The highlight of my work was the success in bringing to court the head of security of the former regime of the longest African religious dictatorship. In January 2020 during the short-lived democracy of Sudan, the governmental authorities represented by the Attorney General‘s office, listened to my testimony on the 118 days of detention in a secret torture center run the government. 

... Continue Reading
Pamela Sequeira

After leaving CIE, Pamela spent the next 20 years working in a variety of roles in the development sector in Pakistan. 

 

Initially, she worked for Save the Children, USA as the Information Systems Manager, conducted research on various components of assistance to the Afghan Refugees and designed their reporting systems. 

 

From 1999 until 2005 Pamela worked as the Management Information Systems Advisor/Program Officer with United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) where she was responsible for developing and implementing the results framework and implemented... Continue Reading

Eunice Kua

After leaving CIE, I returned to my previous position as a literacy specialist supporting mother tongue literacy initiatives among Darfur refugees in eastern Chad. It was good to be back with some new ideas and inspiration after my time at CIE. My team leader retired not too long after, so I am now the project coordinator and spend a lot more time in the office these days, writing reports and proposals.

 

Some notable changes in the project after my return included looking more systemically at mother tongue literacy initiatives in multiple camps rather than just those closest... Continue Reading

MIchael Havilland

Michael reports on some of his recent activities:

 

At present I am the director of International projects at  a Rotary Club in Denver. Our club  cooperates on international project  and usually makes modest contributions to projects re education and basic health in Central America. [2-22]

 

Earlier: During the coming months my Rotary group is sending a container of medical equipment to a small town hospital in El Salvador.  I also led three projects in Costa Rica over the past couple of years.  I play tennis in good weather and fly fishing whenever I get near a... Continue Reading

Whilma Orbeta

Before coming to CIE I worked as a district nonformal coordinator in Gandara 1 and at the same time also served as the district clerk. Gandara is the second largest town in Western Samar.

 

I came to CIE as part of a program sponsored by the Bureau of Non-Formal Education in the Philippines.  A group of 3 adult educators came to CIE in the fall of 1996.  We were joined by 6 additional adult educators after 4 months – from Mindanao, Bicol and Western Visayas.  While we were at CIE we produced four training modules on literacy.  One of the things I remember most about CIE were... Continue Reading

Fulgence Swai

Another update from Swai at the end of 2021:

 

I am now a Senior Lecturer and Head of the Department of Human Development and also an Associate Dean of the School of Education and Human Development at the Tumaini University Dar es Salaam College, which is a constituent college of Tumaini University Makumira.

 

On a personal note he says: My wife Imelda and I (rght) have just celebrated our 50th Golden Wedding Anniversary on December 22, 2021. Our three Grand Daughters, (left to right) Tamara, Tamica and Thereza read a poem that made us feel great. [12-21... Continue Reading

Arlen Etling

Arlen retired as professor emeritus from the University of Nebraska in 2011 after 36 years in higher education at NU, Penn State and the University of Arizona. He has worked with faculty, students and local residents in the three states and 50+ countries to expand opportunities for international teaching, learning, research and outreach.

 

His book, Liderazgo Efectivo, was published in 1998 by Editorial Trillas, Mexico City (ISBN 968-24-3450-5). It describes leadership skills that are needed by... Continue Reading

Befecadu Adeye

Adeye visited CIE in June 2010 where she sparked a reunion of the old Ethiopian network at CIE - Ron Bell, Ash Hartwell and David Schimmel. She was accompanied by her daughter who had just gotten her Ph.D. in astro-physics.

 

I returned home to Ethiopia after 3 years in the US in 1974 and contrary to everyone’s expectation was immediately employed by the Ministry of Education as a secondary school teacher in Hossana, a small town around 200 kms south of Addis Ababa. I then spent five years at the Mass Media Agency in the MoE. After that I was promoted to the planning... Continue Reading

Hassan Aslami

Since finishing my Ph.D. degree in September 2021, I have been working as the Senior Research Fellow for the University of Massachusetts Boston. I am mainly responsible for managing the education sector portfolio of the USAID-funded Advancing Higher Education for Afghanistan’s Development (AHEAD) project. 

 

In 2015, after completing coursework for my doctorate, I returned to Afghanistan and served as the Senior Manager for Associate Degrees and the Senior Representative of UMass/CIE in Afghanistan for the USAID-funded Afghanistan University Support and Workforce Development... Continue Reading

Sushan Acharya

For the last 20 years Sushan has been a faculty member at Central Department of Education, Tribhuvan University (TU) in Kathmandu Nepal. Besides teaching she is engaged in several different research and innovative projects.  Sushan was a core member of a recently completed 7 year-long NORHED funded joint project between Tribhuvan, Kathmandu, and Oslo Metropolitan universities on innovations and challenges in Nepali teacher education. A book Innovative Technologies and Pedagogical Shifts in Nepalese Higher Education published by BRILL was a result of the project in which Sushan has co-... Continue Reading

Kimberly Parekh

Hi CIE family!

 

I came to CIE to better understand nonformal and complementary education for children, having previously worked in implementing such programs for various national and international NGOs in South Asia. Fortunately, I was able to do just that, as well as forge meaningful and lasting relationships with faculty and classmates! I began as an Ed.D. student and candidate from 2006-2009 and graduated with an Ed.S. in 2019.

 

Since my CIE days, I have been a full-time consultant on varied education policy and programming consultancies working with the... Continue Reading

Margaret McLaughlin

Max sent an update for 2021. She and her husband Steve have relocated to Cape Cod where both are now retired.

 

Margaret regularly conducts life coaching on a gratis basis for female clients through various social service organizations including her local jail. She also volunteers at her town food pantry and works to support an organization in Haiti.

 

I have been involved with Haiti and St. Vincent’s Center for Handicapped Children ever since the 2010 earthquake. I now serve as... Continue Reading

Steve McLaughlin

Steve sent an update on his current activities in 2021 now that he and his wife Margaret are fully retired.

 

Since moving to Cape Cod in the fall of 2019, I haven’t completely settled on all the activities that will keep me fully engaged in my "rewirement," using Jan Droegkamp's definition of retirement. On the cerebral side, however, I am involved in the "Wake Up Cape Cod" group that meets regularly to discuss global issues... Continue Reading

Jan Droegkamp

I retired from the University of Illinois Springfield in 2006 and am currently a professor emerita. There, I served as a faculty member in the School of Innovative and Experiential Learning, receiving three major faculty awards during that time – the 2006 Naomi B. Lynn Award for Outstanding Contributions to Women, 2005 Robert Spencer Award for Service and the 1994 Distinguished University Service Award for Teaching.

 

After retiring from UIS, I accepted a position with the Peace Corps as an assistant director of Training and Programming in Albania and Uganda, where I... Continue Reading

Rosen David

David has worked in alternative education, out-of-school youth education, adult literacy and nonformal education, all of which he says were themes of his studies at UMass.

 

 "My education journey with C.I.E. began in 1969 with a Teacher Corps M.Ed program that was unequaled in it's opportunities for academic and community-based learning in competency-based, culturally appropriate and non-formal teaching and learning.  I continued with an Ed.D.program that both provided me with more in-depth education research and evaluation opportunities and through which... Continue Reading

Yaqubi Sayed Sarwar

Since 2018 I have been serving as the Dean of the Education Faculty at Jawzjan University in northern Afghanistan which keeps me busy with the administration affairs of the Education Faculty.

 

When I returned to Afghanistan in late 2009, in personal life I got married and now I have three healthy children. In the academic area I returned to my position as a lecturer in the math department of the education faculty of Jawzjan University. At that time, in addition to teaching some mathematical and educational subjects, the university authorities asked me to take on other... Continue Reading

Paul Jurmo

In July 2021, ProLiteracy published a paper by Paul entitled “Basic Skills for Community-Oriented Development: A Resource Book for Educators and Other Partners.” The document explores the history of basic skills education in developing countries and how to build on that to develop effective services for diverse populations.   Paul says the publication contains information about CIE’s work and draws upon his experience at CIE. 

 

Paul has been a prolific writer on adult education, producing learning materials, opinion pieces and books. See his... Continue Reading

Sumon K. Tuladhar

Sumon is currently working as an Equity Specialist with British Council/ADB Nepal and is responsible for ensuring equity in the School Sector Development Plan of the government of Nepal.

 

Previously she worked as the Nepal Team Leader for the project “Youth and Uncertainty: Marginalised Young People's Strategies in Fragile and Conflict Affected Situations in Ethiopia and Nepal,” funded by the Economic and Social Research Council of the Department for International Development (DFID) Poverty Fund. (2016 to 2019).

 

From 2014 to the present, she is also working... Continue Reading

Antonieta Bolomey

After leaving CIE, Antonieta worked as a consultant for various organizations, including ITD in Amherst, John Snow, Inc., and Greater Options for Adolescent Lives, Inc.  She then spent more than 15 years working with the Boston School system.  She served in multiple roles there including working as an Analyst in the Office of Language Learning and Support Services, as the Senior Director for Research & Instruction, and as the Assistant Superintendent for English Language Learners.

 

Recently she reported that I became an ESL teacher for Central American and Caribbean... Continue Reading

Grant Suhm

After finishing their course work at CIE in 1990 Grant and Marisa Suhm spent six years in Micronesia, working as faculty members at the College of Micronesia where Grant was the Founder and Director of the Department of Agriculture. Grant also worked as the Training Director for Peace Corps in Micronesia and later in Ecuador and Sri Lanka.

 

They returned to the states in 1995 to complete their doctorates and also began working at Texas A&M University where Grant started as a program development officer for the... Continue Reading

Marisa Suhm

Since leaving CIE, I have had an eclectic and fulfilling professional life and worn many hats. CIE gave me the confidence and the tools to be creative, to contribute, and to thrive anywhere.

 

For six and a half years, Grant and I lived in Micronesia, where our son, Morgan, was born. I was faculty member in the College of Micronesia, Consultant for Peace Corps, and Education Director for the Utilities Company.  We also produced reports on the impact of climate change and see-level rise on micro islands, and created... Continue Reading

Javad Ahmadi

Javad Ahmadi completed his degree requirements at the end of 2016 and returned to Afghanistan. His dissertation focused on capacity development and workplace learning at the Afghan Ministry of Education, Department of Planning.

 

During the last couple of years, in addition to working on my dissertation, I had the honor to work with American University of Afghanistan (AUAF) as the Director of Student Affairs and Assistant Professor of Education. AUAF is a young and growing institution that follows the American style of higher education. Because AUAF is a beacon of hope for... Continue Reading

Abedrabu Abu Alyan

Abedrabu Abu Alyan is an assistant professor in the English department at the Islamic University of Gaza, Palestine. He teaches both BA and MA courses focusing on developing students’ oral communication skills and intercultural communicative competence. Besides teaching in the master’s program, he supervises graduate students and serves as both internal and external examiners with other supervisors.

 

Abedrabu was the deputy head of the English... Continue Reading

Tashi Zangmo

After graduating from CIE, Dr. Tashi Zangmo undertook the challenge of creating an NGO called the Bhutan Nuns Foundation under the patronage of the Queen Mother of Bhutan. The Foundation is dedicated to improving the education and living conditions for the Buddhist Nuns in the country.  Creating a new organization turned out to be a formidable challenge, but she persevered.

 

In September 2011, Tashi was a speaker at a reception to generate support for the Bhutan Nuns Foundation which also featured the Prime Minister of the Kingdom of... Continue Reading

Beverly Lindsay

Recently Beverly Lindsay, professor emerita of education at Penn State University, was selected as an evaluator for the Canadian government’s National Research Chairs (NRC). NRC nominees will be reviewed by the evaluators, who are recognized as world leaders in their fields, and they will award chairs to Canadians who are outstanding global researchers. Beverly's expertise is in higher education and international policy studies.

 

In summer of 2020 Beverly authored of an article in the magazine Diverse Issues in Higher Education. The article titled “... Continue Reading

Pat Maguire

After 25 years as a faculty member at Western New Mexico University in the Gallup Graduate Studies Center, Pat retired in 2011 and is now a Professor Emeritus. During her career she published many articles and book chapters based on her career-long commitment to Participatory Action Research, particularly as it links to feminism and teaching.  Her most recent publication was a book chapter entitled “Considering challenges with enacting conventional ethics in teacher action research” in which she discusses the conflict between modern IRB procedures and the principles that underlie action... Continue Reading

Halona Agouda Black

Since completing my master's degree at CIE in 2008, I spent some years as an adviser in community colleges in the Washington, DC and Maryland area. I had fun supporting adult students, young and seasoned, with planning their life paths.

 

I then wanted some autonomy from working in the formal education system and turned to entrepreneurship. I started a health blog about women's health and wellness and grew a small but mighty global audience. I wrote a short book concerning my own health experiences and eventually created a curriculum and started teaching healthy cooking... Continue Reading

Many things in my life have changed since I left Amherst in 1994, but some things remain constant: I am still working on a UMass campus, still doing union and community organizing, still in a socialist group, and still being nagged by DRE to submit past-due writing.

 

When David asked me to update the CIE community on my ‘career,’ and kindly offered to draft something from my CV, it struck me that I am on a different track from many CIE graduates. For one thing, I haven’t updated my CV or LinkedIn profile in 10 years! But being committed to revolution doesn’t require dropping... Continue Reading

Lindiwe Chide

After graduating from UMASS in 2005, I went back to my teaching job at Lilongwe Girls Secondary School in Malawi. Then in May 2005, I was posted to the Planning Department of the Ministry of Education as a Monitoring and Evaluation Officer, where I was responsible for coordinating the development and implementation of the Research, Monitoring and Evaluation systems for the Ministry of Education. While there I was given an extra portfolio of Public Relations Officer for the Ministry responsible for all PR activities for the ministry but was also the official Spokesperson for the Ministry of... Continue Reading

Nanette Brey Magnani

After finishing at CIE I soon went to work as World Education's Director of Training Services for five years in the early nineties with David Kahler (Downloads a pdf file) and John Comings. I then took a break and did some consulting work in nonprofit board development. 

 

In 1997 I was recruited to work with the NYS Dept. of Health AIDS Institute as a Quality Improvement and Management consultant working with... Continue Reading

Jaya Gajanayake

Jaya Gajanayake is now retired and lives in San Antonio, Texas.  She is a native of Sri Lanka and has been a U.S. citizen since 2000.  At the time of retirement, she was the Senior Training Advisor at the International Training Office, at Northern Illinois University (NIU).  Her responsibilities included conducting training needs assessments, planning, implementing and evaluating training programs for international professionals, mainly from Asian and African countries, building linkages with international development organizations, and developing funding proposals. 

 

Jaya... Continue Reading

Jean Blaise

Since completing my doctoral degree in the Department of Educational Policy, Research and Administration at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst, I have taught at a number of institutions of higher education in Western Massachusetts, including the University of Massachusetts-Amherst, Westfield State University, and Elms College. I am currently a Lecturer at the University of California, San Diego. I teach courses mainly in the realms of social sciences and education, dealing with issues related to power, wealth, and inequality in human development.

 

As a teacher, I... Continue Reading

Nolizwe Mhlaba

Nolizwe's global experience in advocacy and policy work and in youth development organizations led her to CIE. She is a graduate of McGill University and holds a master’s degree from the School of Oriental and African Studies in London. Prior to her studies at UMass, Nolizwe taught African Studies and History for five years at the Johannesburg-based African Leadership Academy (ALA). While at CIE, she conducted research on youth livelihoods in Burkina Faso and completed a short stint in the New York City Department of Education.

 ... Continue Reading

Rahela Kamyar

Rahela is originally from Afghanistan.  Before coming to CIE she left Afghanistan to work with the United Nations Volunteer Program in Laos from 1994-96.

 

After completing her Master’s degree, she worked in a several administrative positions with a medical complex in California and subsequently at several different high schools there. As part of her pursuit of work in humanitarian assistance, in 2017 she attended an intensive training program at Fordham University where she received an International Diploma in Humanitarian Assistance.  She also held an adjunct faculty... Continue Reading

Ken Ndala

Upon leaving CIE Ken returned to his post as a lecturer in Education Policy, Planning and Leadership at Chancellor College, University of Malawi.  In 2005 he enrolled in the University of Witwatersrand in Republic of South Africa and pursued his PhD focusing on Educational Policy and Planning. Upon return to Chancellor College, he was subsequently appointed Director of the newly established E-Learning Centre at the University.

 

Interestingly,  Antonie Chigeda became the acting director of the E-Learning Centre... Continue Reading

Saeed Fahia

After graduating from UMass in 1992, I resettled in Canada and volunteered with the Somali Canadian Youth Association of Ottawa, Ontario. I assisted the with after school programming and fundraising for the youth.

 

Subsequently, I moved to Minnesota and was selected by the Somali elders there to lead the Confederation of Somali Community of Minnesota as its Executive Director. For a period of 16 years, community leaders and I assisted the Somalis of Minnesota to integrate into American society, and in the process we rubbed shoulders with the general public, community leaders... Continue Reading

Ana Eligia Murcia

After leaving CIE, Eligia worked for World Education in Kenya. In 1996-97 she worked for ACDI under a USAID contract during which she wrote a series of illustrated training manuals for the Agricultural Cooperative Finance Company in Honduras, The manuals focus on training members of cooperatives in a variety of areas, including marketing, finance, economics and record keeping.  (The last topic was the subject of a Technical Note which she published while at... Continue Reading

Lucia Nunez

I am currently the Vice President of Equity and Inclusion at Madison College, one of the sixteen technical colleges in Wisconsin. Previous to this position, I served as the Director of the City of Madison Department of Civil Rights for ten years and prior to that, I was the Equal Rights Division Administrator for the Wisconsin Department of Workforce Development. I also served as the Deputy Secretary for the Wisconsin Department of Workforce Development. From 1999-2003, I was the Executive Director of Centro Hispano of Dane County... Continue Reading

Donald Back

I currently serve as director or the Language and Culture Institute (LCI) at Virginia Tech, where I have been employed for the last 15 years.  In my role as a leader in international affairs, I represent the university with EducationUSA offices, foreign universities, international aid organizations, scholarship offices and globally minded businesses. Over the last several years, I have visited nearly 20 countries and given presentations on Virginia Tech to over a dozen leading universities.

 

I founded the LCI, a unique office... Continue Reading

Layton Montgomery

Since 2005 Layton has worked as a Senior Data Analyst with the Victoria State Department of Health in Melbourne, Australia.   In that role he develops and manages projects for data analysis, forecasting and database activities for the state.  He also produces short- and long-term forecasts of hospital in-patients and emergency departments.

 

In 2013 he also worked as a Learning and teaching Data analyst at Victoria University.  Earlier he was a Research Assistant at Charles Sturt University.  There he conducted a qualitative study of the status of flexible and blended... Continue Reading

Angela Yang-Handy

Over the last several years, I have had a diverse and fulfilling career that has included working with K-12 schools, higher education, for-profit education service companies, as well as with NGO/non-profit community organizations focused on educational initiatives in a range of countries across six continents. 

 

After spending a few years living in the Philippines while I finished my dissertation, I returned to the U.S. to direct the Center for International Education at Northfield Mount Hermon (NMH), a college preparatory, independent high school located in western... Continue Reading

Jennifer Flemming

During her degree program Jenn worked as a research assistant on the USAID Education in Crisis and Conflict Network project, whose research team was based at CIE.

 

Before coming to CIE she interned for the U.S. Department of State, developing curriculum for the Resilient, Entrepreneurial and Dynamic Youth Initiative. Past work includes case management and social services for resettled Iraqi refugee populations in Denver, Colorado, management of women’s cultural mountain climbing... Continue Reading

Mohamed Dirir

My Family and I live in West Hartford, Connecticut where I have worked for over 28 years at the Performance Office of the Connecticut Department of Education as a senior psychometrician. My role has been to conduct or supervise all psychometric work for the Department, such as test construction, equating, scaling, and validation. I also coordinate test data management, auditing, and analyses. My team and I check yearly test results, and ensure the accuracy of scores for all students.

 

Besides my regular job in Connecticut, I have done other consulting work within the USA and... Continue Reading

Anita Nazareth

Anita Nazareth is a Singaporean who has lived in seven countries and worked in over 25 countries as an Education Planner and Training Specialist over a span of 35 years. Before coming to CIE in 1981 she earned a BSc (1976) and PGD Ed. (1978) from Singapore.  

 

Her first summer internship out of CIE in 1982 took her to the World Bank where she developed Education Planning spreadsheet models to project school enrollments, teacher supply and demand and learning materials supplies with capital and recurrent expenditures.  She stayed on at the World Bank for 9 years until 1991... Continue Reading

Michael Frith

I spent 10 years living and working in Asia on a variety of projects.  Stemming in part from my dissertation research on rabid dogs in Guayaquil, Ecuador, I worked in Nepal with World Health on a rabies eradication program.  In Sri Lanka I worked on a UNICEF project on women and children nutrition – the Mahawelli Rice Project.

 

While in the Philippines I worked on a huge national literacy campaign managed by the Bureau of Non formal Education. And in Singapore, I worked with the Asian Media and Information Center that publishes Media Asia, a scholarly journal.  

 ... Continue Reading

Hassan B. Bangura

For many years Hassan has worked in Head Start programs serving Arlington County in Virginia. He has also been teaching in an elementary school.  In 2016 medical issues forced him to stop teaching. Prior to that he was an admissions officer at Strayer University, and earlier a counselor at the Community Residences for the Arlington Virginia Mental Retardation Program. He trains and works as an advisor with clients with mental or physical disabilities.

 

He assists his clients with their education as well as helping them to manage their finances. Hassan says that he enjoys his... Continue Reading

Catherine Bachy

After graduating from UMASS with a M.Ed. from CIE, my partner (now wife) Peg Giffels (UMass M.Ed. 1993) and I moved to Seattle and have grown roots here.  I taught ESL in the Seattle area Community College system for a couple of years.  Then I joined Starbucks Coffee Company to assist in the development of the Starbucks Foundation’s literacy and young entrepreneurs’ grant program.  I enjoyed a ten year career at Starbucks and was part of the creation of the company’s Corporate Social Responsibility Department.

 

In 2008 I left Starbucks and went back to graduate school full... Continue Reading

Doug Passanisi

Dear long lost but not forgotten CIE friends, 

Since the last update in 2008, I retired from the UN as Chief of Staff to the Assistant Secretariat General for UNDP’s partnerships and resource mobilization division.  I continue to consult for the UN, coaching country and agency teams as well as co-teaching leadership and management courses for the UN Staff College. I have been facilitating a host of virtual teams throughout the pandemic, mostly regarding psychological safety, communication, strategic planning, and imagining a future office.

 

I am a group advisor/coach... Continue Reading

Wendi Wheaton

Wendy Wheaton is currently (2021) working as a Senior Education Advisor for USAID. She has over 20 years of experience in developing educational standards, policies, guidance, programs, and technical response modalities in Africa, with particular expertise in conflict and crisis settings.

 

Prior to joining USAID, she was Senior Director for Education and Protection at Plan International's Headquarters and held previous positions at the World Bank, UN, and international NGOs over the years. She served in representational roles at the global level across the humanitarian and... Continue Reading

Kalyan Pandey

After Graduating from CIE in 1982, I returned to Nepal and joined a semi-governmental institution as Training Director until April 1993. During this period, I lead a project in decentralized planning training funded by Swiss Development Agency and implemented by FAO, Rome. I was fully in-charge of the implementation of the project and responsible for working in collaboration with FAO.

 

During this period a series of Training Manuals on Decentralized Planning was developed and more than 3000 Nepalese Agricultural and Rural development Planners were trained. I was one of the... Continue Reading

David Walker

While still working in Nepal on my doctoral research (Understanding Pictures), I was hired as World Education’s technical adviser on a USAID grant to design a nonformal education program for rural villagers. From 1979 to 1986, I worked with the Center for Research, Innovation and Development (CERID) at the Ministry of Education.  Initially, the program focused on visual materials to stimulate discussion and generate awareness, but the groups kept asking when we were going to teach them to read and write. So that led our team over the next few years to develop Nepal’s national literacy... Continue Reading

Nigel Brissett

After graduating from CIE, I have been working in the department of International Development, Community and Environment (IDCE) at Clark University as a fulltime faculty (first as visiting and then as Assistant Professor) since September 2012. I teach courses across a broad spectrum of international development, including education-specific classes, but also courses on development theory and management, the global development goals (MDGs and SDGs), and courses at the... Continue Reading

Hassan Farah Warfa

I have been involved in education, primarily in middle schools, high schools and colleges, since the early 1980s: in Africa, Canada and here in the United States. I was one of the founding teachers of the Lilla G. Frederick Pilot Middle School in Dorchester, Massachusetts. I served as a member of the instructional team and a teacher for multilingual classes.

 

Most of my experience as an educator, however - here in the U.S.A, has been as a Transitional Bilingual Educator for international English... Continue Reading

Manaslu Gurung

Since graduating from CIE in 2004, I have been living in New York City. My first big project in NYC was working as an assistant editor for the documentary Sari Soldiers which was filmed during the height of the civil war in Nepal. When the civil war ended, I returned to Nepal, my childhood home, for a year and worked as a Child Protection Officer for the United Nations Mission in Nepal in 2007/2008.  Following a historic transition to a democratic republic in Nepal, I came back to New York, and worked for six years with a small non-profit that runs a high school student exchange program.... Continue Reading

Mukul Acharya

Mukul Acharya is currently working in academic affairs at Kean University. He provides leadership and support of Kean’s accreditation and assessment. Institutional accreditation has been his major focus for a year and will continue to be a significant priority for another year and a half as Kean is currently undergoing its self-study, a requirement for renewal of its accreditation with the Middle States Commission on Higher Education.

 

Guiding and supporting over 30 academic programs in their specialized professional... Continue Reading

Keshab Thapaliya

In the early 80s I began my journey in the field of education and community development by joining a team at the Ministry of Education in Nepal as a curriculum specialist, where I was exposed to the work of Brazilian educator Paulo Freire. It led me to become interested in CIE’s work, after which I enrolled in its M.Ed program in 1987, and the Ed.D in 1990.

 

I returned to Nepal in 1995 and worked for Pact developing an income generating program for post-literary adults. As a founding member and director of Education, Curriculum and Training Associates (... Continue Reading

Ryke Pribudhiana

After graduating from CIE Ryke returned to his position as Assistant Manager with the Ministry of Education and Culture, Directorate General of Early Childhood, Non-Formal and Informal Education.  In that role he was responsible for conducting evaluations of various programs and leading workshops.

 

In 2015 he was promoted to be the Head of Cooperation Affairs in the Directorate General of Early Childhood.  Since then he has conducted a variety of evaluations and was responsible for the campaign for National Accreditation for international kindergarten and playgroups in 2015... Continue Reading

Andrea Rocha

I’ve been living in the San Diego/Tijuana Border region for over 15 years now doing everything from grant-making to wine-making! Professionally-speaking, and ever since graduating from CIE in ‘96, I’ve worked within the non-profit & philanthropic sectors, focusing my work on social justice issues within immigrant, refugee, indigenous & border-based communities of the US and Mexico.

 

From 2004 to 2006 I did program design and evaluation with the Alianza para el Desarrollo Sustentable (ADESU). ADESU’s work was based in Baja California, Mexico.  My work with them was... Continue Reading

Tony Sadvie

In 2021, Tony Savdié is back in his village in the western highlands of Guatemala, a place he has called home since concluding his time with CIE's Proyecto COMAL in 2000. After twenty one years in Guatemala he has put in his papers and hopes to get his Guatemalan residency shortly. He feels he has devoted sufficient time to meditating on this important decision.

 

The year of the pandemic caught Tony by surprise. The fortnight he was meant to spend in Paris with friends and family turned into an eight-month, three-season sabbatical in the town where he was born. He... Continue Reading

Haili Cheng

Haili has been working in Beijing for an education company for the past several years. She helps with the talent acquisition, especially the recruitment of foreign teachers who are willing come to China to teach. 

 

Before coming to CIE she was a classroom teacher for four years in China. She then went to the University of Calgary in Canada to pursue her first Master’s degree in Education in 2003.   

 

She then worked as a staff member on the Strengthening Capacity in Basic Education in Western China which was a Sino-Canadian educational development project. It... Continue Reading

At the end of 2020, Judith joined the EU Delegation to Myanmar as senior education specialist to work on the EU’s largest budget support program in education and TVET.

 

Earlier, she worked in Haiti, where she oversaw the education and TVET programs. As part of her functions, she participated as an advisory member to the national technical committee in the development of the Haitian national education sector plan Plan Décennal d'Education et de Formation (PDEF, 2020-2030) and assisted the Ministry of Education in the conduct of Haiti’s first public expenditure tracking survey... Continue Reading

Shekhar Regmi

Shekhar Regmi is currently the Chief Undergraduate Advisor & Admission Chair with the University Without Walls program at UMass Amherst. 

 

Shekhar has spent a large part of his professional and academic career in activities related to adult education. His extensive and practical cross-cultural and community development experiences have exposed him to a wide range of resources and approaches. His scholarship is grounded in theories and methods found in the field of education and social psychology with application to... Continue Reading

Christina Yixiu Chen

After graduating, I returned to my home state of Minnesota and worked with CAPI USA to provide community engagement and civic education to refugees and immigrants. I then worked with the Community Education department of Minneapolis Public Schools where I managed an afterschool program for international baccalaureate students with a focus on socio-emotional learning and culturally responsiveness as well as piloted community outreach strategies in order to attract diverse students. 

 

I currently manage the Open Door... Continue Reading

Wendi Carman

Wendi has been a Senior Education Specialist for the past 15 years with the American Institutes for Research where she is project director for international education and youth programming, including youth violence prevention in the Latin America and Caribbean region.

 

Earlier she was employed by Creative Associates International as the Deputy Country Coordinator in Dushanbe, Tajikistan.  She provided technical oversight for a local team implementing a USAID-funded school dropout prevention program. She led the writing and revision of manuals for training teachers, school... Continue Reading

Elias Chakwera

After leaving CIE, Elias returned to Domasi College of Education where we resumed his role as Principle. Domasi is the largest Teachers’ Training College in Malawi which trains teachers at both Diploma and Degree.

 

In 2014 he was elected to Parliament representing the district of Dowa Ngala. During the five years he served in Parliament he held various additional positions. He was chairperson of the Education, Science and Technology Committee.  In 2017 he was also the chair of the Parliamentary Committee on Education. Additionally Elias was the Director of Elections for the... Continue Reading

Karma C. Dolma

I am presently teaching EAP/ESL at Qatar University (QU) and this is my sixth year here.  I have also been active in organizing the annual international ELT conference here at QU for several years. My department reminds me very much of the culture at CIE due to its innovative nature as well as the cultural diversity of the faculty. 

 

Many years ago, when the late Professor David Kinsey (my advisor) mentioned that he had a doctorate in Islamic Studies, I realized that I would somehow develop close ties with the Islamic region! The journey started with a U.S. English Language... Continue Reading

Peggy Antrobus

I completed my doctorate at CIE after retirement. In the preceding decades my work in the Caribbean and my involvement in a network of feminist, activist researchers from the economic South promoting Development Alternatives with Women for a New Era (DAWN) had pointed me to questions I wanted my research to answer: What impact was the policy framework of the Washington Consensus having on poor women in the economic South and to what extent had programs and projects at the micro level of women’s daily lives served to mitigate the effects of... Continue Reading

Nigar Khan

I recently retired from the University of Massachusetts Amherst after spending more than four decades in the academic administration. My association with the School of Education goes back to the 1970’s when I had just completed a Master's degree in Political Science. It was the start of a beautiful relationship, as my career and education at the University went side by side until I completed my doctorate in 2012.

 

At the University, I have had the opportunity to serve in numerous senior-level positions. My most significant accomplishments as the Associate Graduate Dean were... Continue Reading

Carl C. Stecker

Carl retired from the Catholic Relief Services (CRS) at the end of 2020 after almost 20 years as a Senior Technical Advisor specializing in HIV programs.  He currently continues to work part time to complete two pediatric HIV research projects in Uganda and Zambia, and a third neonatal HIV study in Zimbabwe. 

 

Other than a brief period from August 2012 - February 2016 when he was based in Chicago as Director for Diakonia (International Development and Disaster Response) for Global Mission of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA), Carl worked for CRS and was... Continue Reading

Karin Wachter

Karin is now in her fourth year as an assistant professor at Arizona State University, School of Social Work.  Her research focuses on the intersection of violence against women, social support, and forced migration.  She has published multiple journal articles and technical reports.

 

After leaving CIE she completed her doctorate in social work at the University of Texas at Austin. She also worked at the Institute on Domestic Violence... Continue Reading

Hilda Kokuhirwa Sinkonde

Hard to believe that in 2021 on the first day of September it will be 45 years since I first walked into UMass! My first sight of snow falling and the CIE Tuesday meetings have stayed with me all these years. I left CIE in 1982, and retired in 2013 after 31 years of working for various government and non-government organizations, education and training institutions, the United Nations and other development organizations.

 

Just before retirement, I worked with International Training and Education Center for Health (ITECH) Tanzania under the University of Washington Seattle as... Continue Reading

Colleen King Mchugh

After completing my master's degree, I worked for Springfield public Schools for 7 years and continued my learning at Springfield College to become a Special Education teacher. I also worked in international student travel and for Elderhostel international, mainly in West Africa.  For the past two years I have been working as a special education teacher in Northampton, MA.

 

I maintain relationships with some of my CIE cohort, though they are spread across the globe. I met my husband, Sam, as I was finishing my program at CIE, and now have two sons Ezra and Moses. Unlike many... Continue Reading

Hafez AbuAdwan

Hafez AbuAdwan is from the Gaza Strip, Palestine. In a video interview, he describes his extraordinary journey from life inside Gaza to his journey west, Mr Abuadwan concludes: “a refugee has the power of achieving sustainable development. A refugee can actually make a change in their own society, economically, socially and politically. The world needs refugees to be empowered, so we can actually achieve peace and justice.”

 

After... Continue Reading

Charles Harns

Charles’ career continues to focus largely on government capacity building in the many areas related to migration and governance.  Building on earlier work with migrant and refuge communities in New England during his years at CIE, and subsequently as a member of the senior management team at the Philippines Refugee Processing Center in Bataan until its closure in 1994, Charles then joined the International Organization for Migration (IOM), now the UN’s migration agency.  He served in programmatic and senior management positions in Georgia (Tbilisi), Italy, Geneva, again the Philippines... Continue Reading

Ellen Licht

I am still living in the Northern Bay Area in California, still teaching ESL at Santa Rosa Junior College, and quite involved in making bridges to help non-traditional students to succeed at Community College and in other higher education settings. I enjoy teaching at community-based sites and also on campus, in the high-level academic writing courses. It's all interesting to me. My students are the salt of the earth.

 

I also recently obtained a certificate in American Sign Language. I first had a Deaf student a few years ago and he inspired me to start learning the... Continue Reading

Barbara Howals

I moved to San Francisco in 2006 after many years living in Washington (and a few African countries) working for some wonderful NGOs as both a consultant and on staff. My beat was mostly francophone Africa, and mostly in small business and NGO development. My last seven years in DC were with USAID’s Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance, where I was in charge of staff training and also supporting OFDA partners on institutional/staff development.

 

I went back to being a consultant once I settled in SF, and was busy and happy doing training, evaluation and curriculum... Continue Reading

Erica Piedade

Erica Piedade is currently the Director of Local Public Health Initiatives with the Office of Local and Regional Health, Massachusetts Department of Public Health (MDPH).  Her focus is capacity building for rural boards of health and workforce development for local public health professionals as part of the OLRH mission to support the 351 local boards of health and the two federally recognized Tribes in Mass.

 

She is a co-chair of the Inter-Agency Tribal Partners Work Group, currently comprised of 5 state agencies focusing on enhancing access to services by and developing... Continue Reading

Lebohang Ramohlanka

In July of 2020, Lebohang Ramohlanka was sworn in as the Deputy Speaker of Parliament in Lesotho. She brings considerable experience to the post having previously served as Clerk to the National Assembly from 2007 to 2012.  In that role she was the Chief Accounting Officer and also acted as the Chief Advisor on Practice and Procedure. 

 

At her swearing in she said “I am most humbled to stand before you today to make these remarks in acceptance of the huge honour that has just been bestowed on me… As some houourable members might recall, I have served before as Clerk.  I am... Continue Reading

John Pontius

John Pontius, who, after a long struggle, finished his doctorate at CIE in the late 80’s (he doesn’t remember what year exactly) has lived in Indonesia for most of the time since then.  He writes this brief from a café in Jogjakarta, a city of art and longing on the island of Java.  He has lived in the area since 1990. 

 

Over the almost 30 years that he has struggled both professionally and not so professionally in Indonesia he has been associated with several wildly successful projects.  Not a single one of which was found to be less than fantastic despite investigations by... Continue Reading

After many years working in communications, adult education and political action with the garment workers’ union, Sherry now oversees an adult education program for the Consortium for Worker Education focusing on ESOL and computer skills at various sites in New York City. 

 

She is a founding Board Member of the Remember the Triangle Fire Coalition, which is currently spearheading the building of a memorial to women, workers, and immigrants at the site of... Continue Reading

Michael Basile

Fully retired from Murray State University for a few years now, I’ve turned my attention to local community activities - all volunteer work in this western corner of Kentucky. Volunteering means being on our free clinic board, as well as membership on a new soup kitchen board, plus a few church activities, among them a diocesan curriculum development project focused on Pope Francis’s Encyclical on Climate Change and Inequality: On Care for Our Common Home. The target audience is adult education for parishes.

 

Jan and I spend time traveling to knock things off the bucket list... Continue Reading

Falai Riva Taafaki

After finishing my degree at CIE, I took a position as a development consultant with Mottahedeh Development Services (MDS), a private foundation with headquarters in Stamford Connecticut. MDS is a small foundation that provides seed money for various community development initiatives - adult literacy, health, teacher training, project planning, vocational institutes, and school curriculum development - in countries such as India, Thailand, Haiti, Sikkim, and even Samoa in the South Pacific.

 

In 1992 I was asked by the Baha’i International Council to go to the Republic of the... Continue Reading

Dale Kinsley

In 1971 I left UMass to accept a job at the University of California/Santa Cruz to work with Joe Blackman, a fellow Charter member of CIE, on a Teacher Corps/Peace Corps program.  Later I became a faculty member and Director of Teacher Preparation at UCSC. I also was elected and served on the School Board of the Santa Cruz City School District from 1977 – 79.  

 

In 1979 I decided to take a two-year leave from UCSC in order to join another CIE'er, Jim Hoxeng, at USAID in Washington, D. C.  I couldn't decide at the time... Continue Reading

Aukram Burton

Aukram became the Executive Director at the Kentucky Center for African American Heritage (KCAAH) in 2015. KCAAH's goals are to enhance the public's knowledge about African Americans' history, heritage, cultural contributions in Kentucky, and African Diaspora. In addition to its commitment to preserving the past's traditions and accomplishments, the Center is a vital, contemporary institution, providing space for exhibitions and performances of all types. A video interview with Aukram about the center can be viewed... Continue Reading

Sue Tatten

Sue is currently (2020) the Legal and Policy Advisor for a USAID-funded Economic Policy project in Liberia which provides support to key government ministries in developing legal and policy frameworks to promote economic growth for Liberia’s economy.

 

Prior to that she served in a wide variety of positions as a human rights attorney with the UN in Kosovo, Liberia, South Sudan, Sudan, Somalia, and Afghanistan. Earlier she also worked as an online English tutor for China and Japan, was an election observer in in Armenia and Ukraine, and worked with the American Bar Association... Continue Reading

Antonia Tingitana

About ten years ago, we left the city of Dar Es Salaam to return to the community in Kilimanjaro where both my husband and I were born. Our goal was to add value to the lives of the community members. We started with the most basic need: clean and safe water. With help from our friends within and outside our community, we spearheaded a fund drive and raised enough money to sink a well, 92 meters deep. The water quality turned out to exceed WHO standards.

 

The impact of that project was immediate. It literally saved lives especially of young children. The lives of women and... Continue Reading

Ray Young

After completing his Master's degree at CIE Ray worked as an associate dean at Landmark College in Putney, Vermont for four years before returning to UMass to complete his Ed.D. in Teacher Education and Curriculum Studies. His dissertation explored the long term impacts of an international study tour to Southeast Asia for public school teachers.

 

He then served as an assistant professor at SIT Graduate Institute for seven years while also teaching as an adjunct at the UMass School of Public Health and Health Sciences. In addition to continued affiliations with both SIT and... Continue Reading

Mjege Kinyota

I am currently a lecturer in STEM education at Dar es Salaam University College of Education, a constituent college of the University of Dar es Salaam.

 

Apart from academic roles, I also serve as an administrator in the position of In-charge of Internationalization and Advancement. Under this role, I coordinate all matters related to linking our University with other institutions abroad such as exchange programs.

 

My experience at the Center for International Education (CIE) at the University of Massachusetts Amherst nurtured my passion for international... Continue Reading

Farida Fleming

I came to CIE after working in international development for 10 years. Doing my masters at CIE helped me set my practice in a theoretical framework. And I developed relationships with a group of wonderful and committed educators who became my friends. I feel very privileged to have been able to study full time in a new country in the middle of my career. 

 

After finishing my Master’s degree, I returned to Australia. Since then, I’ve provided monitoring, evaluation and learning (MEL) services in the Pacific and South East Asia. My work is in support of social justice in the... Continue Reading

Headshot of Rema Pai Nanda

After finishing her doctorate, Rema worked with a variety of United Nations agencies including UNDP, UNIFEM, and UNICEF.  Her principal activities included Multi-Country Programming and Grants Management; Metrics and Evaluation; Public Relations; High level advocacy with UN Missions and Embassies; and Representation at conferences and meetings.

 

In 2003 she became the Director for Public Health with the American India Foundation which is committed to improving the lives of India’s underprivileged, with a special focus on women, children, and youth.

 

She then... Continue Reading

Ann Hartman

Ann Hartman is Dean of the East-West Center Education Program. Founded in 1960, the East-West Center (EWC) promotes better relations and understanding among the people and nations of the United States, Asia, and the Pacific through cooperative study, research, and dialogue.

 

As Dean, Ann provides overall leadership for the Center’s graduate student programs, which provide scholarship funding and a dynamic living... Continue Reading

Kerry McCollum

For the past five years, Kerry has been back at the Peace Corps, where she started her career so many years ago. In her current position as the Chief of Staff for Professional Development she very happily gets to work with U.S. and host country staff around the globe on their professional development needs and due to the 2020 evacuation of all 7000 PC Volunteers, the demand for staff development has exploded! Peace Corps is hoping to get the Volunteers back out to the field in 2021.

 

After leaving CIE, Kerry returned to Morocco (where she had served as a Volunteer) and... Continue Reading

Maxwell Nkhokwe

Upon graduating from CIE, Maxwell returned to his position as a Senior Planning Officer in the Ministry of Education. In 2006, he became the Managing Director of Max Development Consultants, which provided services in program planning, participatory M&E, and training development.  In 2010 he took on the voluntary role of Country Director for the Chiyembekezo Trust.

 

In 2012, Maxwell was hired as an Education Specialist with the Malawi office of the Japan International Cooperation Agency where... Continue Reading

David Donaldson

As a graduate student at CIE I studied the inclusion of children with varied abilities in BRAC non-formal primary schools in Bangladesh. After my graduation I worked with a variety of schools and organizations in both the international and domestic education arena.

 

As an education program specialist at the U.S. Peace Corps and director of education at the U.S. Fund for UNICEF I helped to design and develop K-12 classroom resources and teacher trainings for U.S. educators. These experiences helped to inform my later work at the National Education Association and the District... Continue Reading

JoDe Baker

JoDe combined her M.Ed. from CIE with a Master’s in Public Health from UMass Amherst and has worked in public health administration since 1997.   

 

Almost all of JoDe's career has been in the orbit of the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) Program. Twelve years have been with the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).  At the inception of PEPFAR, she worked as the Coordinator of a CDC workforce development program to prepare professionals for international fellowships and overseas assignments.  This was followed by 5 years as an independent... Continue Reading

Valerie Haugen

“The SDGs are underpinned by a commitment to inclusive development. But we don't really know how to 'do' inclusive development, including in the education sector…”

 

Valerie Haugen visited CIE in November 2016. She spoke at the ribbon cutting ceremony for Montague House and interacted with current students in an informal meeting the same day. A busy education and international development consultant with extensive... Continue Reading

Nancy Sosnowski

Since graduation 2002, as an instructor/adjunct faculty member I have developed and taught a number of courses in global and multicultural education for preservice and graduate teacher program at UMass Amherst, Salem State University, Northern Essex Community College and the Northeast Consortium For Global Education. I also worked as a substitute teacher for 5 years at all grade levels and special education in 5 districts in Boston’s North Shore area.

 

Unfortunately, I was hit by a car while in a pedestrian crosswalk in 2008 and was lucky to have survived. I sustained a... Continue Reading

Frtiz Kadyoma

When I returned home, I worked at Malawi Institute of Education (MIE) for 10 years as a Chief Curriculum Specialist and Director of Curriculum Development. The leadership, policy and planning skills and knowledge that I acquired from UMass have to date made all the difference in my new roles.

 

In 2014, I joined the NGO sector as the Technical Programme Manager for World Vision International, and then moved on to become Country Director for Link Community Development International between 2015 through 2019. During my time, Link grew exponentially in terms of income, staffing... Continue Reading

Grant Steve

In 2014, Johns Hopkins University Press published Steve's second biography, Collecting Shakespeare: The Story of Henry and Emily Folger. In the years since then, he has given over 80 talks on the Folgers, including six across the pond in these locations: London, Oxford, Cambridge, Bath, Stratford-upon-Avon, and St. Andrews in Scotland. Brits are a tad jealous that the largest Shakespeare collection is not in the UK but in Washington, D.C. Book reviews, videos, book trailers, and blog posts are available on Steve's Web site.  He... Continue Reading

Juliette Van de Geer

Since graduating in 2006, Juliette has worked at the Center for International Educational Exchange (CIEE), based in Portland, ME. She has held several different positions within the organization and is currently the Director of Grant Programs.

 

In this capacity, Juliette works with Department of State, fully-funded scholarship students, who participate in exchange programs with a J1 visa. These youth ambassadors are participants of the Congress-Bundestag Youth Exchange Program (CBYX), Future Leaders Exchange (FLEX) Program, and the Kennedy... Continue Reading

Karen Elam

Karen has more than 25 years of experience working with non-profit and community service agencies focused on social justice issues.  She currently works for the Jewish Federation of Greater Rochester (NY) as the Director of the Levine Center to End Hate, leading a new $1 million initiative to eradicate destructive, hateful influences in the region.  She also serves as the Director of Community Relations in the same organization, leading legislative advocacy efforts on behalf of the Federation and developing programming to... Continue Reading

Bob Chulu

Dr, Chulu served as Dean of Education at the University Malawi, Chancellor College from 2013 to 2014, as Deputy Dean of Education from 2011 to 2012, and as Head of Educational Foundations Department at the same college from 2007 to 2010. He is currently a lecturer in psychometrics in the Education Foundation Department where he teaches undergraduate and postgraduate courses in measurement and evaluation, research methods and statistics, monitoring and evaluation and item response theory.

 

He has also taught measurement courses at the Kamuzu College of Nursing (KCN) and has... Continue Reading

Kaylen Jorgensen

October 2020 finds me living in a small town in Tasmania, working with local government in the area of land management. I live off-grid where I enjoy watching the sun rise over the ocean each morning and receive regular visits from wallabies, pademelons (right), possums, echidnas and a wide array of birds.

 

Since graduating from CIE in 2002 (just a few years ago), I have earned a PhD in anthropology based on my ethnographic field research in Bolivia on the subjects of identity, belonging and contested space. I also pursued a graduate degree in creative writing from the... Continue Reading

Abrahm Sineta

After graduating from UMASS in 2012, I returned to Malawi and continued to work as a District Education Manager for Zomba rural District. There, I worked with Primary school Headteachers of more than 200 primary schools, overseeing the implementation of education activities at that level.

 

In 2015, I was promoted to Education Division Manager responsible for Central West Division. This Division has six education districts of Lilongwe rural East, Lilongwe rural West, Lilongwe Urban, Mchinji, Ntcheu and Dedza. This position involved working with Secondary School Principals in... Continue Reading

Luis Galarza

In early 1997 after finishing my studies at the CIE, I returned to Mexico to continue to work in distance education, my professional passion since my early days of grad school at UMASS.  While in Mexico I worked at Monterrey Tech as a graduate program director and subsequently for a large Mexican corporation in the cement and concrete industry.  In those days, I had the responsibility of training the company’s personnel in multiple international locations as it expanded to become one of the largest multinationals in the country.

 

Soon after my oldest daughter, who was born... Continue Reading

Martha (Nyongani) SIneta

After completing my degree at CIE I returned to Malawi and continued with my work as a district education manager. My job involves overseeing all the educational activities at the district level, working under the Lilongwe City Council as the Director of Education, Youth and Sports in Lilongwe district. There are three district education managers (now called Chief Education Officer) under me plus the youth and sports officers. I coordinate the work of these five plus all those under them. In total I look after slightly over 550 primary schools in Lilongwe district. I also coordinate youth... Continue Reading

Rebecca Macugay

Rebecca G. Macugay (M.Ed. 1985)

Rebecca is originally from the Philippines. Before coming to CIE, as a Maryknoll Sister Rebecca worked as a member of the team that set up the Bugando Hospital at Mwanza, Tanzania, and trained lab technicians. In 1975, she went to Kenya, where she served in a variety of ministries, including high-school teacher, youth worker in a non-school setting, and Development Education trainer for adult literacy teachers in various Catholic dioceses in the country.

 

After getting her degree at CIE, she served several years as vocation minister for... Continue Reading

Vicente Arredondo-Ramirez

Since leaving CIE my professional practice has been to promote and apply a comprehensive approach in dealing with social issues. This has been done in federal government positions, training activities in the private sector, grassroots promotional work, academic work, and also in building and developing grant-making institutions.

 

My first position was as deputy director of Planning in the Technical Direction of the Instituto Nacional para la Educación de los Adultos, in charge of planning, programming and budgeting at national and state level.  I then moved on to a position... Continue Reading

Mantina Mohasi

Dr. Mohasi is now retired after many years as a senior lecturer in the Adult Education Department at the Institute of Extra Mural Studies of the National University of Lesotho. Her responsibilities included coordination of the B.Ed. Adult Education Programs. In 2007 she played a key role in the introduction of the Master’s Program in Adult education. [10-20]

 

Prior to that she served as head of the department from 2000-2003, and acting dean of the Institute from November 2003 to October 2004. She facilitates undergraduate courses such as Introduction to Distance Education,... Continue Reading

Nancy Moling Longatan

After graduating from CIE, I spent 10 years in Nepal, 4 years in Japan, and 7 years in the Philippines. I have done some freelance writing on the edited website "Suite 101" as well as some print publications, but mainly have been working on language and cultural immersion among the indigenous peoples of the Cordillera of Northern Luzon. I also started teaching an online course in cross-cultural communication and culture shock.  It is a basic introduction for anyone about to go and live in a new and strange place.  It's a self-paced course that should take about six weeks to complete.

... Continue Reading
Timothy B. Mitchell

After founding and then directing a youth entrepreneurship/job readiness/financial literacy education organization in Orange, MA for 14 years, I moved to the DC area in 2013 to join Joanie and our son Noah, settling in the cooperative New Deal-era community of Greenbelt, Maryland.

 

I created and ran a social enterprise development program with 3rd to 5th graders in an underserved part of the city. They planned and started a business selling bicycle-blended smoothies at community events. It was fun translating content geared towards teenagers to the younger set, half of whom... Continue Reading

Ahmad Khalid Mowahed

After graduating from CIE in 2009, Ahmad Khalid Mowahed returned to Afghanistan and his teaching position at Balkh University (BU). From 2010-2017, he taught undergraduate algebra and statistics courses for pre-service and in-service high school teachers in the Faculty of Education. His main area of interest is helping students to become effective mathematics teachers for today’s high schools. He also taught the Quantitative Methods course for master’s degree students in the Faculty of Economics at BU with the technical and financial support of USWDP, a USAID-funded project which CIE was... Continue Reading

Silva Kurtisa Kate

After graduating from CIE, I returned to Latvia to work as The Director of an innovative Education Department at the Liepaja City Council (a city of 100,000 people on the Baltic Sea coast). This position involved advancing educators' ideas, acting as a liaison between businesses, the federal and local governments, and educators, as well as submitting improvements for legislation.

 

In 2004, life brought me back to the US and I had an opportunity to join a team as a research analyst at the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University in Illinois.  In 2010, I moved... Continue Reading

Laura Gluck

After completing my master’s degree at CIE, I worked at WestEd's Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) Program as a researcher for 6 years. One big project I worked on was a federally-funded, longitudinal randomized controlled trial examining the impact of a math intervention in low-income preschool and kindergarten programs. I also worked on a number of edtech evaluation and research projects related to different educational areas including special education, early childhood education, English language learners, math, science, and computer coding.

 

I'm now... Continue Reading

Debbie Fredo

Deborah Fredo spent fifteen years residing in Mali co-founding and working at the Institute for Popular Education (IEP) before returning to Elmira, NY in 2011.  Prior to those years, she worked at World Education for West Africa programs and since those years has worked at Education Development Center (EDC) as Senior International Technical Advisor. 

 

During her years at IEP, Deborah worked in national language literacy and adult education, curriculum design in... Continue Reading

Becky Bunnell

After completing her masters at CIE in 1989, Becky worked in Uganda with Médecins Sans Frontières and then with TASO, Africa’s first indigenous HIV/AIDS NGO. This work led her to get her doctorate in Public Health at Harvard. In 1996 she joined the Centers for Disease Control as an Epidemic Intelligence Service (EIS/Disease Detective) as a post-doc. At CDC, she has served in Atlanta and California, and then ten years in Uganda and Kenya. Becky has also worked on numerous epidemic responses, including in the 2014-15 Ebola outbreak in Sierra Leone.   Before coming to CIE she was a Peace... Continue Reading

Will Shaw

I came to CIE in 1979 via nine years in Nepal/Asia working in agriculture, fisheries, ESL, and Peace Corps training and three at the East-West Center, swapping the cool breezes of Oahu for the brisk winds of Amherst at the urging of John Comings, who said it was the right place for me to do my doctorate.  He was correct.  I found a vibrant learning community of kindred spirits, all of whom had significant development experience like the folks in my group such as Mike Basile, Margaret Maxwell, Kofi Bioh, et. al., and a talented faculty who were smart, practical, committed, available, and... Continue Reading

Michael Marzolla

In 2011 I retired after a thirty year career with the University of California Cooperative Extension in Santa Barbara and Ventura Counties. Since that time I have done two short term work assignments in Jordan and Morocco, both focused on environmental education. Since then, Rose and I have been catching up on our travels. In 2017 we visited our dear friend Juan Aulestia and his wife Cathy Walsh in Quito and spent time in the Galapagos.

 

In late 2018 we traveled to Chile where we spent time in Patagonia, Santiago and then on to Rapa Nui (Easter Island). There we attended a... Continue Reading

Sue Thrasher

Before coming to UMass Sue spent more than 20-years involved in social activism in the South. In 1964, she helped organize the founding meeting of the Southern Student Organizing Committee (SSOC), an organization dedicated to engaging white southern college students in the civil rights struggle. After spending the summer of 1964 as a volunteer with Mississippi Freedom Summer, she returned to Nashville to work full time with SSOC.  

 

In 1970, she co-founded the Institute for Southern Studies which published Southern Exposure magazine. In 1978, she joined the staff of the... Continue Reading

Hatsue Kimura

In spring of 2006, Hatsue began working for KRI International which has a contract from JICA to implement a literacy program in Afghanistan. Starting in April, Hatsue was in Kabul for several months and thereafter will spend about half her time in Kabul and half in Japan. Her assignment is to develop a database to monitor the progress of the literacy program. She will be working to develop the local capacity to collect and manage data generated by the various literacy classes. She is also hoping to draw upon CIE's experience with the recently completed... Continue Reading

Jill Tucker

Jill has lived in Hong Kong for the past 6 years where she heads up the labour rights programme for the Laudes Foundation.  She says of life in Hong Kong:

 

Despite a recent spike in Covid-19 cases, people all wear masks here and are observant of measures needed to get things under control.  The political situation is a mess, but it's inspiring to live in a place where the majority of the population feels and acts passionately to protect their (beleaguered) democracy. 

 

After leaving CIE, Jill... Continue Reading

Ellen Kornegay

 

Ellen passed away on July 4, 2021 in South Africa

 

Since her retirement in June 2014, Dr. Kornegay has worked on the drafting of South Africa’s Fourth National Plan of Action for Children (2019-2024). In 2016 and 2017 she conducted the annual pre-screening and pre-ranking of South African applicants for the Senior Fulbright Research program.  In 2016 she co-supervised UNISA second year social work group work students.

 

Prior to her retirement she worked in various capacities for the Government of South Africa from 1997 to 2014.  Her... Continue Reading

Berengere DeNegri

Since graduating from CIE, Bérengère has been based in Washington D.C. working mainly with The Academy for Education Development (AED) and its successor FHI360. 

 

Her work has been focused on social behavior change (SBC), adult education, training, capacity building for institutions and community organizations, advocacy, interpersonal communication, national communications strategy, learning materials and participatory research methods. Her experience includes working with HIV/AIDS, family planning, maternal newborn child health, malaria, tuberculosis, water sanitation and... Continue Reading

Mokubung Nkomo

After graduating from CIE Mokubung spent 15 years on the Faculty of Education at the University of North Carolina in Charlotte where he taught, advised students and pursued his research interests. During this period he published numerous articles and several books, including his well-known and often-cited Pedagogy of Domination (1990) as well as Student Culture and Activism in South African Universities (1984).

 

He returned to South Africa in 1998 where he became the Executive Director, Education and training, with the Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC) in Pretoria. ... Continue Reading

Carla Clason

I am now living in Cape Coral, Florida.  It has now been 8 years since I packed all my precious belongings, loaded a big truck and drove to Fort Myers, Fl.  I had never been to Florida before, and never thought I would live in such a place!  But, I had to move to a warmer climate!  I got a map of Florida, found a place called Fort Myers, did a bit of research and simply decided that I would try this place.  I did not do this alone!  That was a huge undertaking.  My sons Mikael and Daniel, and Sogol, Daniel’s soon to be wife, took turns driving.  This adventure ended up being a four-day... Continue Reading

Phyllis Robinson

Phyllis founded an organizational development and consulting firm called Courageous Crossings which provides training, coaching, leadership retreats, and teaches contemplative practices to aid development workers during their R&R from refugee hot spots to help reduce stress/burnout.

 

She has been living on the island of Maui since 2005 where she served on the Maui County Board of Water Supply for five years and served as Chair in her final year.

 

Then as President of a Maui Chapter of the Hawaii Farmers Union United she co-founded a beginning farmer... Continue Reading

Joan Dixon Heckel

After leaving CIE and finishing up the contract for the Nepal Literacy Linkage Project in 1996, I moved to Indonesia where I spent the next 3½ years working as a consultant for the Directorate of Community Education (DIKMAS) developing the Adult Functional Literacy Program. This was the third World Bank funded project continuing the work CIE started in the 1970s. Many of the Indonesians I worked with knew the principles of NFE because of the foundation laid by CIE.

 

In 2000, I moved back home to Provo, Utah and began working as an adjunct faculty member at Brigham Young... Continue Reading

Andrea Ayvazian

Since completing her studies at CIE, Andrea has worked as a lecturer in the Department of Health Promotion and Policy, School of Public Health and Health Sciences at UMass Amherst.  Her areas of specialization include community health education in vulnerable populations; community-engaged research to reduce health disparities; learner-centered curriculum design and teaching; women’s reproductive health; and global health.

 

Andrea teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in Community Health Education and has re-designed the popular general education course My Body, My... Continue Reading

Sahadat Chaudhury

When I arrived at the CIE in Fall 2003 to start my Ed.D. program, my experience included several years in the Bangladesh Civil Service in various roles, including working as Assistant Director of Planning in the Directorate of Non Formal Education in Bangladesh for seven years. My major responsibilities included doing research, developing projects, and liaising with international agencies. My job also gave me a unique opportunity of interacting with differently literate rural people, observing and understanding their life, perspectives, educational priorities, and rural employment. I... Continue Reading

Morongoe Ntloedibe

After leaving CIE, I worked at the WK Kellogg Foundation as a Visiting Professional for one year before returning to Botswana.  I then joined the University of Botswana as a part-time Lecturer while looking for something more interesting. (1994 -1997).  I later landed a position with a PACT project as OD Advisor and later on as Co-Director. (1995 – 1998)

 

I went into consultancy work for a few years after leaving PACT (August 1998-2005).   During this period, I did a lot of work for the British Council’s Interaction Leadership Program, facilitating a leadership development... Continue Reading

Mayuree T. Wadhawan

After graduating from CIE and returning to Thailand, Mayuree joined Department of Nonformal Educadtion. She was first appointed Director of the National Book Donation Center where she administrated and organized the book donation program and campaigns. A year later she moved to the Education Technology Center where she put together a five-year master plan to establish a new educational television Chanel 11 that is now fully operational.

 

She returned to the United States a couple of years later to join her husband, who is an engineering UMass graduate.  In the U.S. she... Continue Reading

Gudrun Forsberg

After 10 years working as a Principal Education Specialist with the Asian Development Bank (ADB) in Manila, Gudrun retired in 2003.  During her time there, she worked with governments in various Asian countries, designing and supervising education projects of the Bank.  Since retiring, she has worked on various tasks as an independent consultant.

 

Before joining the ADB she worked as the Chief of Education for UNICEF in Bangladesh for three years. Prior to that she spent seven years working in Africa, including as a basic education specialist in Lesotho on a CIE project.... Continue Reading

Donna Lopp

Donna works with the ICAP program at Columbia University where she is in charge of training for the Population-Based HIV Impact Assessments (PHIA) project. In that role she trains and mentors trainers and supervisors in adult learning theory, experiential learning pedagogy, and research methods for an HIV research project conducted in 15 African countries and in Haiti.

 

She develops and manages training curricula in collaboration with... Continue Reading

Judy Hofer

Since graduating from CIE, Judy Hofer has spent her entire professional career immersed in literacy education. As a fresh graduate, she ran the Ware Adult Education Center, a site of The Literacy Project, where she started a lifelong journey of addressing the impacts of violence and trauma on learning, especially on women. To this day these first students remain her inspiration for having taken such personal risk in naming the violence they experienced and creating a video to encourage others to get support and speak out.

 

During the 1990s in western Mass, Judy transitioned... Continue Reading

Lasha Kokilashvili

Since graduating from CIE I have been working at the National Assessment and Examinations Center (NAEC) Georgia. In the past two years, I have been the National Project Manager for Georgia in the 2018 PISA study and currently I am serving as a Research Consultant and a member of the Group on Research and Psychometrics at the same center. Needless to say, the knowledge and skills that I gained from both quantitative and qualitative research methods courses that I took at the CIE have been very valuable for my work.

 

I have... Continue Reading

Richard & Penelope Betz

Besides Peace Corps, my work in international development included four years in Lesotho as CoP at the Lesotho Distance Teaching Centre for a USAID project backstopped by Jim Hoxeng; five years in Botswana with AED as Deputy CoP/In-Country Training Coordinator for a USAID private sector & manpower training project; two years as CoP to a USAID training project in Swaziland backstopped by Patrick Fine

 

After that, my activities included: numerous short-... Continue Reading

Mark Demoranville

Since graduating in 2002, my professional time has included a balance of teaching in higher education, non-profit management, educational program development, and volunteer service promoting environmental sustainability and a green and prosperous economy.

 

Teaching has included undergraduate and graduate courses in both the School of Education and the Office of Professional Studies and Continuing Education at Rhode Island College, as well as undergraduate courses in the School of Communication at The University of Rhode Island, the English Department at the Community College... Continue Reading

Mohammad Hossain Vahidi

After studying at CIE, in 2013 I began working as a Senior Research and Evaluation Specialist for the Ministry of Education (MoE) to design and structure the annual review of MoE’s strategic plan including collecting, analyzing, and interpreting findings, and drafting the review reports.

 

In 2016, as UNESCO consultant, I conducted a baseline study of the extent to which Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) streamlined in the Afghanistan’s policy papers and general education curriculum. This project was part of a bigger project aiming to review the current state of education... Continue Reading

Mei Lan Frame

Greetings! My name is Mei Lan Frame and I came to the Center of International Education after 15 years of working in education as a teacher, trainer and consultant across several countries in the Asia and South Asia region. Throughout my work and research, I have engaged issues that include rural education in India, China, and Thailand, teacher education and professional norms amongst teachers in Beijing, and the role that culture (both institutional and social) plays in shaping education.

 

My experience in education has given me first-hand knowledge of a variety of... Continue Reading

Vamessa Merine

After completing her degree at CIE, Vanessa began working in the Admissions Office of Florida International University in Miami.  She began as a Senior Evaluator/Advisor and in 2012 she became the Assistant and then the Associate Director for Transfer and Transition Services where, among other duties, she was responsible for the redesign and management of their web site.

 

In 2015 Vanessa was appointed as the Director of Admissions Operations where her primary responsibility was to oversee the business processes and student information data across all departments that enable... Continue Reading

Sonia Lindop

During and after studying at CIE, Sonia has been working with the Human Resources department of UMass Amherst, first as a multicultural evaluator and adult education trainer.  More recently she became the Project Manager with Partnership Worker Education with a focus on career ladders development and multicultural workplaces.

 

Before coming to CIE She worked as a commercial television producer in Lima, Peru producing a variety of programs from soap operas to children’s and sports programs. She received a Master’s degree in... Continue Reading

Karen Binger Marshall

After graduating from CIE, Karen moved to Boone, NC and began working at Appalachian State University  in international admissions helping to increase international enrollment as part of the effort to internationalize the campus. 

 

In 2015 she transitioned to the Office of International Education and Development at Appalachian as the Assistant Director of International Student and Scholar Services and Outreach and has enjoyed working with international students from all over the world ever since. [4-20]

 

... Continue Reading
Ramoshebi Ishmael Moletsane

Dr. Moletsane passed away in October 2012

 

Dr. R. I. M Moletsane comes from Lesotho where he served in many senior leadership roles. Since retiring he has been active in the area of rural and sustainable development. At the time of his passing he was the Minister of Development Planning for Lesotho.  Prior to coming to CIE, Dr. Moletsane was appointed as the Dean of the Faculty of Education at the University of Botswana, Lesotho & Swaziland- the predecessor of the National University of Lesotho (NUL).  He later served as Professor of Education at the... Continue Reading

Alicia Fitzpatrick

After studying at CIE Alicia joined the International Rescue Committee in what would become a career of 10 years with them, mostly based in Sierra Leone.   She began as a Distance Education Specialist, then moved up to being the Child and Youth Protection and Development Coordinator, and then the Education Consortium Coordinator.

 

In 2014 she became the Deputy Director for Consortia Programs with IRC Sierra Leone and then in 2017 Deputy Director, Programs. In this role, Alicia was responsible for leading IRC’s annual planning for Sierra Leone, along with implementation of... Continue Reading

Naeem Khawaja

After graduating from CIE, I joined The University of Azad Jammu and Kashmir, Muzaffarabad as an Assistant Professor at the Institute of Education.  The Institute was established in 2009 and offers four-year pre-service teacher preparation programs (B.Ed. Hons.) for prospective elementary and secondary school teachers. The Institute is located in a building constructed in 2016 with funds from USAID. The Institute also offers M.Phil. in Education.   Recently I became the Coordinator (Head) of the Institute of Education. Along with a... Continue Reading

Marla Solomon

After completing her degree at CIE Marla began teaching at SIT in Vermont.  In 1999 she spent a year back at CIE as a faculty member, after which she returned to teach at SIT. In 2006 she became Dean of Graduate Programs at SIT.  In that role she oversaw academic quality and operations of seven graduate programs, with 600 students a year comprising an international, multicultural student body focused on social change, global development, and social justice. She continues to hold an appointment as a faculty member there to this day.... Continue Reading

Yi Sun

While finishing her doctorate Yi Sun worked as an English instructor with Workplace Partnerships at UMass Amherst. Her class content is based on employees' needs at work and at home with the goal of improving their communication skills and enhancing the cultural competence of the workplace.

 

Before starting my degree at CIE, in 2009 I was a program editor with the Zhejiang TV International Channel in China, where I helped build economic and cultural ties between US, China and France. In the same year, I also worked as an intern at Zhejiang City Express, where I started to... Continue Reading

Valerie Miller

Since graduating from CIE, Valerie has worked in advocacy, international development, gender, and human rights for more than 30 years. She has collaborated with grassroots organizations, social movements, NGOs, and international agencies as an organizer, advocate, popular educator, evaluator, and researcher. Valerie is a founder and an active leader of Just Associates (JASS), a women’s collective dedicated to strengthening the collective organizing power of women.

 ... Continue Reading

Mekhribon Abdullaeva

While finishing my dissertation I have been working with the Woodhull Institute for Ethical Leadership in New York City. We organize various trainings, workshops and retreats to empower women and develop ethical leadership skills. I have also been working as a program officer with the Eurasia Foundation in New York.

 

My interest in educating women’s issues is closely connected to having received the World Bank’s Margaret McNamara Award and a P.E.O.  International Scholarship for commitment to the wellbeing of women and children in developing countries. Through the School for... Continue Reading

Zia Andar

Zia passed away on November 5th 2020.  Zia's obituary.

 

Zia Andar completed his Master’s degree in International Education in 2018 at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, supported by the Fulbright Scholarship program. Coming from an aid dependent country, Zia’s research focus was on effectiveness of international aid in educational programs.  His Master’s project is available on the UMass Scholarworks site here.

 

... Continue Reading

Ola Khalili

After completing her degree, Ola worked with the Ministry of Education in Ramallah, Palestine as the Head of the Assessment and Evaluation Division. In that role she designed national tests and developed teacher training programs. She is also an Assistant Professor in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction at Birzeit University.

 

Before coming to CIE she worked for 7 years in the Ministry of Education and Higher Education. She served as a coordinator for National Teams conducting National Achievement Tests in Mathematics. She was also the National Research Coordinator... Continue Reading

Duong van Thanh

Duong van Thanh is currently an assistant professor at the SIT Graduate Institute as well as being the Country Director and the Academic Director for SIT Study Abroad, based in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. She has held these posts since 2008.  The program is a 16-credit training course that provides American students with exposure to different environmental and cultural sites of Viet Nam and Cambodia.

 

Because the underlying philosophy of SIT is rooted in experiential learning, she travels with the students to a variety of cultural and ecologically important sites in the... Continue Reading

David Bell

Since leaving CIE, David Bell has held a faculty position at Clarke University in the Department of International Development, Community, and Environment. (IDCE).  He is currently the Professor of the Practice of International Development and Social Change. He is also currently IDCE Coordinator of Experiential Learning.

 

Bell's early research and consulting focused on the intra-psychic processes of empowerment and social transformation and on the impact of... Continue Reading

Monica Gomez

Things have been very busy here for the past few years. I have been working as Professor and Coordinator of the M.Ed. program at the Institute of Educational Development, BRAC University since December 2011. In developing this innovative MEd Program, the Center for International Education (CIE) has been my valuable guide. During the five years of my doctoral program at CIE, the rich experiences and deep insights that I had in understanding what education is all about and how to enable learning to happen have made my... Continue Reading

Mahboob Morshed Mohan

Upon finishing my Ph.D. at UMass in September 2018, I returned to Bangladesh and accepted a faculty position in BRAC University where I teach and lead two postgraduate programs. I am coordinating the M.Ed. in Educational Leadership and School Improvement and the M.Sc. in Early Childhood Development programs at the BRAC Institute of Educational Development. Both programs bring students from the government, leading NGOs and INGOs and private sector to provide a rich academic and professional experience and an... Continue Reading

Anne Dodge

After graduating from CIE with a CAGS, Anne continued as a nonformal education consultant wprlomg mainly in West Africa, but also in Yemen and Haitil.  From 1995 Anne worked with a group of hospitals in New Hampshire as the Oranizational Development and Training Specialist. 

 

In 2003 - 2006 she worked from Senegal as a Regional Planning and Training Manager for Peace Corps with 7 West African countries.  Upon returning to the US, she and her husband opened and ran a Bed and Breakfast in their home in Newburyport for 11 years until fully retiring in 2018. 

 

... Continue Reading

Sumera Ahsan

After graduating from CIE in September 2018, I returned to my home country, Bangladesh, and joined my old work place, the Institute of Education and Research (IER), University of Dhaka as an assistant professor. I always loved teaching, and still love to learn from my students. However, teaching has become more challenging now after experiencing the teaching-learning pedagogy of our scholar-practitioner faculties at CIE and UMASS. I am continuously trying to improve myself applying new and innovative ideas of teaching, assessment, and... Continue Reading

Foster Kamanga

After graduating from CIE, I went to Malawi and started volunteering for Outernet, which is an Open Access education project initiated by several professors at UMass Amherst. Based at the National Library in Blantyre, I worked on systematic evaluation of the initial sets of transmissions to the Malawi schools and libraries that UMass Amherst has been supporting.

 

While working as a volunteer, I was also helping college students who came to the National Library with research design and methods. This work challenged me to deepen... Continue Reading

Nina Papadopoulos

In 2011 Nina joined USAID in Washington, D.C. as the Senior Advisor in Education in Crisis and Conflict. In that role she provided technical support and oversight to ensure the effective operationalization of the Education Strategy related to EiCC.  Starting in 2015 she became the Team Lead of EiCC, directing technical assistance to 23 USAID missions in program design support, implementation of research, monitoring and evaluation, and capacity development for education staff in policy development, program design, and implementation. She took the lead in designing and managing the Education... Continue Reading

Noorullah Noori

Since my graduation from CIE in 2013, I have had the honor of working with various international aid agencies and professionals in Afghanistan and USA. In December 2013, I joined the Collective Transformations Organization (a local Afghan civil society organization) as the Country Program Manager. I managed and supervised the programmatic activities (e.g. civics education, teacher education, career-skill building, community mobilization, rule of law, women empowerment and youth advocacy networking) throughout the country.

 

In early 2015, I joined the Afghanistan Institute... Continue Reading

Sebastian Lindstrom

Sebastian Lindstrom was born and raised in Sweden, leaving at the age of 20 to explore a passion for film. He set off on a journey to visually represent the resilience and togetherness of humanity and the environment. In doing so, he founded What Took You So Long - an international collective with 15 full-time employees. They have filmed across 100 countries frequently partnering with the United Nations and nonprofit and development organizations. Sebastian got his undergraduate from Hong Kong University and his master’s degree in... Continue Reading

Susan Carpenter

Looking back over the past four decades of my professional life, I realize how my experiences at CIE, in both in its formal education offerings and CIE’s modeling of collaborative processes, gave me a solid foundation for my future work.

 

Although I am supposedly semi-retired, during 2019 I completed my 19th year of teaching international students at Berkeley’s Environmental Leadership Program and working with their Master’s degree of Development Practice.  I also continued my work on a variety of initiatives with the... Continue Reading

Michael Tjivikua

I am currently Director of Research at the Namibia Institute of Public Administration and Management. My responsibilities include designing, planning, implementing, and monitoring research projects to support the civil service agenda and national developmental priorities. I also work with various agencies and organizations in the field of education on projects and initiatives aimed at reforming and improving the system at various levels.

 

From 2004 to 2016, I was the founding Director of the Center for Teaching and Learning... Continue Reading

Valerie Kurka

Immediately after graduating, I worked with Ash Hartwell and CIE students Jacob Carter and Milka Ndura on the Global Citizens' Initiative which brought 13 leaders from around the world to Amherst for a 2-week course in Global Citizenship.

 

From 2013-2015, I worked in my home state of Wisconsin at the Social Development Commission in Milwaukee where I managed a federal Office of Refugee Resettlement program that trained refugees in financial... Continue Reading

Paul Frisoli

In January 2020, Paul joined the LEGO Foundation as a Senior Program Specialist supporting the foundation's new humanitarian portfolio with a focus on reaching school-aged and out-of-school children in crisis settings with Learning through Play interventions. The foundation supports holistic childhood development using play as a vehicle to build upon children's cognitive, social, emotional, physical and creative skills.

 

Paul oversees a... Continue Reading

Helen Fox

Although I used to think I would teach forever, I made the decision to retire from the University of Michigan in 2013. I had some issues with the frozen North, as well as another book to write. That book, “Fractured: Race Relations in ‘Post-Racial’ American Life” (2015, Peter Lang) contains what I began to learn about race at CIE in the 1980s and then, after a good deal of study, what I taught at the U of M for nearly 20 years. It’s a little dated now that President Trump has made racism great again, but the premise, that racism in white liberal spaces is unspoken, unacknowledged, and... Continue Reading

Laureen Pierre

In September 2018 Laureen joined the Bina Hill Institute Youth Learning Center as its Principal. The center is the only tertiary educational institution in the country’s hinterland, located in Guyana’s North Rupununi district.  Although the two-year syllabus includes English and math, classes focus on areas relevant to life in Guyana’s interior, such as agriculture, natural resource management, forestry, tourism, traditional crafts and Makushi, one of the local indigenous languages. 

 

She said she is keen to encourage a well... Continue Reading

Tsoaledi Thobejane

Dr. Thobejane is currently an Associate Professor in the Institute for Gender and Youth Studies and is also serving as the chairperson of the Research and Publications Committee in the School of Humanities and Social Sciences at the University of Venda in South Arica. The University is situated in Thohoyandou, Limpopo province.

 

He visited UMass in September 2013 to participate in the annual Re-thinking Marxism conference, where he presented a paper titled Re-envisioning Radical feminism:The case for... Continue Reading

Adriana Gomez Rothkegel

After leaving CIE, I worked for many years at the UN. My last post was in Thailand as deputy director of UNAIDS regional Office for the South East Asia and the Pacific. Since retiring I have been living in Chile where I participate in a rural community school, among other things.

 

I am involved with the Association of Former Civil Servants (AFICS) where I have been the President since 2017.  Previously, at the international level, I was Vice President of the Federation  of Associations of Former International Civil Servants and now I am part of the Board of United Nations... Continue Reading

Mohammad Tareque Rahman

Mohammad Tareque Rahman completed his Ph.D. at University of Queensland, Australia in 2019 and returned to Dhaka, Bangladesh where he is currently Associate Professor at the University of Liberal Arts Bangladesh (ULAB) teaching in the general education program.  He is also Director of the Center for Excellence of Teaching and Learning (CETL) at ULAB. [12-19]

 

In the spring of 2018... Continue Reading

Mishy Lesser

I am co-founder and Learning Director of the Upstander Project, a small Boston-based nonprofit that helps “bystanders” become “upstanders” through social issue documentary films and related learning resources. I spend much of my time curating primary source materials related to our films, creating learning activities with those materials, and working with secondary history and social studies teachers.

 

In 2013, we were given permission to document the work of the Maine Wabanaki-State Child Welfare Truth and... Continue Reading

Stephanie Pirroni

Since graduating from CIE in 2019, I have been working as the Director of the Institute for Studies in Global Prosperity (ISGP). The efforts of the Institute are organized around two main lines of action—educational efforts with university students, and research initiatives on social phenomena.  

 

The seminars for university students offered by ISGP, in different regions of the world, support young people in gaining insight into how their studies and professions can be applied towards constructive social change... Continue Reading

Daniel Koroma

After graduating from CIE, I returned home to Sierra Leone, West Africa in January 2008. I got a job in February 2011 with a multinational company called Addax Bioenergy, (S/L) Ltd. based in Switzerland.  As the Social Affairs Coordinator I was the middle man between the Company and local communities within the project area.

 

The company was making a huge direct foreign investments in Sierra Leone of over four hundred million dollars. It developed a large sugar estate for the production of ethanol for export to Europe and a biomass electricity plant for local use. With my... Continue Reading

Anita Anastacio

In May 2019, Anita joined the LEGO Foundation as Senior Program Specialist supporting the foundation's new humanitarian portfolio with an initial focus on reaching the youngest children in settings of conflict and crisis, from birth to six, with Learning through Play (LtP) interventions.  The initiative aims to equip young children to develop the breadth of skills needed to thrive throughout their childhood and in adulthood.

 

At the LEGO Foundation she oversees the $100 million Play to Learn grant... Continue Reading

Phillip Mutisya

Professor Mutisya has more than 30 years of experience in academia – in Instructional Leadership in Education, Instructional Training and Development in Education, Curriculum Development (Policy and Research Evaluation, Program Designing, Assessment, and Evaluation), and Professional Development for faculty and Education Professionals (K-20), at National and International levels. He has been a faculty member at North Carolina Central University since 2001.

 

He has been an Adjunct Full Professor at North... Continue Reading

Andrew Jilani

In the fall of 2019, Andrew published an article about twin Cambodian boys who were separated in childhood by the violence and reunited more than four decades later.  Read the story of resilience and hope here. Andrew commented: The education sector still bears the scars of the Pol Pot regime. In my work here, I know so many families whose relatives were either killed or separated. [11/19]

 

Since 2014, I have been working in the Education sector in Cambodia. As a Technical Education... Continue Reading

Dwaine Lee

Dwaine Lee first learned about CIE while serving in Uganda with the Peace Corps from 1995-1997.  CIE was working on a USAID education program strengthening the Ugandan primary education sector and Dwaine was assigned as a teacher trainer in the same schools and teachers’ colleges where CIE was engaged.  Through that work, he met CIE’s Renuka Pillay, who was working for CIE in Uganda.

 

Dwaine said, “That was really a life-changing moment for me. Before meeting Renuka I didn’t know about academic degrees in the field of international education and knew little about the work of... Continue Reading

Robert (Bro) Russell

In October, 2019, at the annual meeting of CRNI, Bro was honored by having the annual CRNI award renamed in his honor as "The Robert Russell Award for Courage in Editorial Cartooning." The society has been presenting this award for the past 15 years.  At this year's ceremony it was noted that last two or three recipients had either been freed from prison, or in some cases, relocated to safe haven countries where they could continue producing hard-hitting, political commentary... Continue Reading

Lisa Deyo

In a recent update Lisa reports:

 

Since March 2018, I have been working with Creative Associates International as the Deputy Chief of Party for the READ II project in Ethiopia. In that role, I oversee the technical components of the project. I'll be finishing up here at the end of October.  I am looking forward to spending more time in the US. [8-19]

 

Lisa wrote to CIE in 2007:

 

I'm back in Kabul as Institutional... Continue Reading

Ezekiel Babagario

My studies at CIE helped shape my perspective of how the world of education works. I left a career in the Nigeria Air Force because of the incessant interreligious conflicts between Christians and Muslims in northern Nigeria and came to CIE in order to learn how education could be used to contribute to peaceful coexistence among the adherents.

 

While studying at CIE I continued to be involved in peace education programs in Kaduna and Jos respectively. As a founding member of the Abrahamic Peace Center... Continue Reading

Mbarou Gassama

Mbarou Gassama will retire from UN Women in April 2017. The USAID-funded Senegal reading program implemented by Chemonics and Cambridge offered her an advising position starting in March. She will be doing advocacy for policy change and supporting their research.

 

Until then, she will continue as Program Coordinator for UN Women in Dakar, based in their regional office for West and Central Africa. The objective of the program, which focuses on financing for gender equality, is to increase investment in women through support for making national budgets and sectoral policies... Continue Reading

Mohlabi Kenneth Tsekoa

Since completing my Master’s degree at CIE, I have been exploring a forest of challenges and inspirations.  In brief, here is some of what I have been up to:

 

When I returned to Lesotho, I was took up the post of Director of the Lesotho Distance Teaching Centre. With a team of about 50, led, managed and ensured the provision of NFE and basic education for youth and adults. Then, I graduated (reluctantly) to a position of Deputy Principal Secretary, Ministry of Education where I eventually became Principal Secretary.

 

After serving seven busy/hectic years with... Continue Reading

Marcel De Stefano

One of my favorite quotes belongs to Lao Tsu, a Chinese philosopher, who said that "a journey of a thousand miles begins with one step." My journey started in Argentina, the country in which I was born and raised by a single mother in a low-income family. Neither my mother nor my father completed high school, but both had a strong belief in education.

 

I love to travel and learn about different cultures. I received several scholarships and studied in Santa Fe and Buenos Aires in Argentina, Madrid, Pittsburgh, Amherst, Miami and New York. Each of these experiences helped me... Continue Reading

Habibullah Wajdi

Habibullah Wajdi, originally from Afghanistan, is an educational development professional with over 19 years of experience in various areas of education development. During his career he has worked nationally and internationally with governments; well reputed national and international organizations; civil society, and donors on various educational projects and programs.

 

 

Wajdi joined the Center for International Education (CIE) as a doctoral student in September 2007. Prior to coming to CIE, he worked as an Education Specialist with the World Bank in Kabul... Continue Reading

Smith William

Bill Smith was the Executive Vice President of the Academy for Educational Development in Washington, DC. for over twenty years where he led the Academy's work in public health communication and social marketing programs in over 65 countries around the world. Bill is now retired but just as creative and busy as ever.

 

His wife Ginger sends periodic updates on Bill's activities....

 

He continues to consult with Compassion & Choices -- in fact he catches the train tomorrow for a meeting with them.  Their... Continue Reading

Ayman Khalifa

Before beginning my studies at CIE, I worked as science teacher with UNRWA in Palestinian refugee camps. I also worked as a lecturer at Al Quds Open University teaching Educational Psychology, Creative Thinking and Coexisting with Technology courses. In addition I worked as an educational researcher with the private sector where I had the opportunity to train teachers in the use of technology in teaching.

 

Since graduating from CIE, I have worked as an Assistant Professor teaching Arabic Composition/Contemporary Arabic Literature and Thought at The Honors College for Liberal... Continue Reading

Hong Sah-myung

I retired from Korea Research Foundation (KRF) in 1998. Since then, I have been teaching at Hankuk University of Foreign Studies in Korea and now I have one more year to go. I am blessed by God for enabling me to teach at this age.

 

Looking back on my days with the Foundation, I was heavily involved, as director of the Inter-Country Scholar Exchange Program, in the development of Korean Studies at overseas universities. In this regard, I contacted the Five College Consortium to explore the possibility of creating a tenure-track position, to be supported by the Korean... Continue Reading

Fan Yihong

Fan Yihong was a professor of Higher Education at the Institute of Education Research, Xiamen University, P.R. CHINA from 2004-2015, then an advisory professor at the Center for Faculty Development, Southwest Jiaotong University (SWJTU) from 2015-2017, and finally is now in the Dean’s Office at SWJTU, 2018-2019.

 

From 2006 to 2010, she received a Ministry of Education grant for a comparative study of Faculty Development between Chinese and European Universities, during these years she visited many European... Continue Reading

PDaul Englesberg

Paul retired from Walden University in 2018 after teaching in the Ed.D. programs in Adult and Higher Education and in Research Quality.  He also was the editor of the Journal of Educational Research and Practice, published by Walden University.  Paul previously taught in educational foundations at the Western Washington University in Bellingham, WA and directed the Asian American Curriculum and Research Project.

 

Currently Paul is writing a book about immigrants, racism, and conflict in the Pacific Northwest, focusing on the arrival of several hundred workers from Punjab,... Continue Reading

Iqbal Halimi

I have had several notable accomplishments in my life. Probably the most notable was that I completed my master’s degree in international education at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. The master’s degree program equipped me with the significant knowledge, skills, and tools that I needed for my work in managing development and humanitarian projects. I would like to thank the Center for International Education (CIE) at UMass Amherst for providing me with an assistantship and the opportunity to work at the University Support and Workforce Development Project (USWDP). I learned a great... Continue Reading

Mark Protti

Mark has been the Executive Director at the Institute for Training and Development (ITD) in Amherst since 2003 and has overseen the development and implementation of grants and programs totaling millions of dollars and reaching thousands of participants.  Prior to joining ITD, Mark served as director of training at Heifer International, where he oversaw training in more than 30 countries around the world. 

 

In addition, he has worked in the capacity of project director, trainer, education advisor, facilitator or... Continue Reading

Christopher Naunje

After completing my Master’s degree, I resumed my position as a District Education Manager back home in Malawi. In 2010 I was transferred to the Ministry Headquarters to head the Education Sector Wide Approach Secretariat, a position I held up to 2016 when I was appointed Education Division Manager (Provincial).

 

I retired from Government in 2017 from the Division Manager position. Now I lead the Project Facilitation Team for a GPE supported basic education project which is working with the Ministry of Education. The four year Project is managed by the World Bank at country... Continue Reading

Headshot of Renuka Pillay

Renuka Pillay passed away in February 2019.  Her obituary can be found Here.

 

Renuka is originally from South Africa. Before coming to CIE she was living in exile in East Africa where she continued her activism against the apartheid regime in South Africa.

 

While working on her dissertation at CIE Renuka spent time working for CIE on the Support for Uganda Primary Education Reform (... Continue Reading

Hnrey Gwede

After graduating from CIE in 2004 I returned to my job at the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology (MoEST) as a District Education Manager coordinating primary school education activities.

 

In 2011, I was posted to Malawi College of Distance Education (MCDE) as Acting Deputy Director. I was responsible for the development and production of Open Distance Learning instruction materials for distance education students at secondary school level. While at MCDE, I had a privilege of working together with Dezie Trigu... Continue Reading

Dezie Trigu

After completing his Master’s degree at CIE, Dezie returned to his job with the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology where he started work in 1991.  He had worked variously as a teacher, Methods Advisor and Tikwere Outreach Coordinator for the Malawi College of Distance Education.  In 2013 he retired from the Civil Service after 22 years of service.

 

Upon retiring, Dezie sent this update about un-retiring: Having thought of quickly retiring from retirement, I met Hatsue Kimura. She is with JICA Malawi. The job I had applied and interviewed for was offered to Maxwell... Continue Reading

Simeon Afouda

In February of 2019, Simeon visited CIE in its new home in Montague House.  He met the new Director and some old friends.  He shared the following about what he has been doing.

 

I have spent the past five years in the Dammam, Saudi Arabia, working for a Saudi company, where my main responsibilities are teaching English as part of pre-employment training for recent college graduates.

 

Since graduating, I have continued my interest in studying obstacles to girls’ education in developing settings.  I my home country of Benin, I conducted site visits and class... Continue Reading

Doris de Zambrano

After returning to Cali from that exciting and stimulating time at CIE, I felt full of energy and "power" and as if anything I wanted to do I could do.... but, that is not the way things turned out!

 

First, the "leftist" (read that as "Marxist!") current going through the Universidad del Valle at that time led them to decide that since I had outside support — from a working husband — I did not NEED to occupy a slot teaching History at the University which could be occupied by someone who needed the pay more than I — So I was unceremoniously kicked out.

 

Which... Continue Reading

Ruth Njiri

Ruth Stutts Njiiri passed away in November 2022View her obituary

 

Retirement has allowed me to make visits to Kenya to reacquaint myself with Njiiri family members and friends.  To my surprise, during my first trip, a reporter from the Daily Nation, Kenya's premier newspaper, called to ask for an interview the day before my departure.  On my return to the States, I was amazed when I started receiving e-mails from friends in Kenya telling me that an extensive coverage of the... Continue Reading

Alan Hurwitz

Alan, a.k.a. Dr. Hurwitz, has continued his very eclectic OD practice, though at a slower pace than at most times during his checkered career - e.g. coaching et al with a Global Health project in Washington, helping to reinvent an environmental monitoring organization in the Adirondacks, helping a large Mexican magazine company turning itself into a full media operation, among others. He currently considers himself semi-retired, with the accent sometimes more on the "semi", and other times more on the "retired." He is definitely open to relevant consulting activities related to the Center'... Continue Reading

Guild Stephen

After serving as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Sierra Leone and working in the Peace Corps headquarters in Washington, DC and the Virgin Islands Training Center, I came to the new School of Education at UMass as a founding member of CIE and a planning doctoral student.  We spent many hours, and not a small amount of uncertainty and confusion deciding what a center for international education was and should be.  Although it did take some years to create the Center, those years were exciting times, full of exploration and creativity.  I received my doctoral degree in 1973 and was director of... Continue Reading

McNerney & Yijie

Frank McNerney and Yijie Zhao, husband and wife graduates of the Center, are now both in Washington,D.C. Yijie is teaching Chinese at the Foreign Service Institute. After working at AIR for awhile, Frank is now a freelancing consultant and a volunteer development worker.

 

Frank describes some of his consulting work:

 

I have been working in Nepal, Bangladesh and Myanmar for the past five years, mostly as a volunteer/consultant with the Partnership for Transparency Fund based in Washington DC.  We have been strengthening CSOs in these countries to interact... Continue Reading

Haleh Arbab

Since graduating my career has focused on building systems that permit individuals, groups and institutions to gain knowledge and abilities to participate in constructive societal change.

 

From 2005 until 2018 I served as Director of the Institute for Studies in Global Prosperity (ISGP).  The Institute develops learning environments - engaging in research, writing materials, training people, and implementing programs - oriented toward bettering social conditions.  With a strong team of collaborators, the Institute has developed... Continue Reading

Kevin Jacobson

Based in Chicago, Kevin works in the Global Mission unit of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) as Manager for Relationships to East and Southern Africa.  Kevin's main responsibility is facilitating and strengthening existing relationships between various Lutheran churches across the East and Southern Africa region with different expressions of the ELCA: congregations, synods, colleges/universities and seminaries.  He is involved in strategic planning for the relationships, conducting orientation programs and seminars for travelers and visitors, establishing dynamic networks... Continue Reading

Wendy Schaerer

Greetings from Ithaca, New York!   I retired from Cornell University in 2009 after 28 years in international student services including advising, admission, recruitment and many professional activities with colleagues at other universities and schools around the world.   I must have feared not being busy enough, and so often found myself working long hours with the Unitarian Society board and in the refugee community in Ithaca.  I’m getting better, slowing down to enjoy extended family, friends and all this vibrant community has to offer and – oh yea – the health club.

 

... Continue Reading

Kaki Rusmore

The statement from the new director of CIE prompted some reflections from Kaki about her experience at CIE.

 

One of the joys of joining CIE after 15 years in the field was finding a group of people committed to liberationist, emancipatory perspectives and approaches.  As I called it, reading books by people who thought like I did, and then having a healthy, grounded debate about what works or doesn't in the real world. The diversity of ideas and perspectives available was fabulous.

 

One of the ideas I took away from CIE is that of being a deep practitioner, of... Continue Reading

Ashley & Darren Hertz

Husband and wife CIE graduates, Ashley Clayton Hertz and Darren Hertz, recently relocated to Bangkok, Thailand. Ashley completed her doctorate in September 2017 and is now consulting remotely with the University Research Co, LLC supporting Reading within Reach (REACH) to develop tools and resources for members of the Global Reading Network. She is currently leading the development of REACH's Classroom Observation Toolkit which will provide guidance for conducting classroom observations in early grade reading programs. 

... Continue Reading
Ashley & Darren Hertz

Husband and wife CIE graduates, Darren Hertz and Ashley Clayton Hertz, recently relocated to Bangkok, Thailand. Darren is working as the Country Director for the International Rescue Committee (IRC) supporting the Burmese refugee population in nine border camps in Thailand.  Ashley completed her doctorate in September 2017 and is now consulting remotely with the University Research Co, LLC supporting Reading within Reach (REACH) to develop tools and resources for members of the Global Reading Network. She is currently... Continue Reading

Michael Acosta

As my Fulbright Public Policy Fellowship at the Ministry of Education, Science, and Technology in Pristina, Kosovo comes to an end, here are some of my reflections.

 

During the period from September 2017-July 2018, I worked at the Ministry of Education, Science, and Technology (MEST), in the Department of Higher Education (DHE) as an Education Specialist. I also engaged in a side project working with Roma Versitas Kosovo - an EU supported organization that promotes retention/graduation of Roma, Ashkali, and Egyptian-Kosovar students in higher education through various... Continue Reading

Carol Martin

Carol Martin is celebrating 50 years of residing and working in a number of African countries long term in the field of education and social development, starting in newly independent Botswana in 1968. She retired to Capetown, South Africa, in 1996 to pursue her projects in youth creative education, namely jazz music, and with justice and human rights advocacy for people at risk. She has managed two NGOs in the Cape Flats (Gugulethu and Turfhall) engaging youth with music education and performance.

 

Having served three months as a Peace Monitor in the West Bank with EAPPI (... Continue Reading

Jimmy Weir

After finishing my Masters at CIE I subsequently enrolled in  a PhD program in cultural anthropology at the Graduate Center, CUNY.  In 2004, I was based in Kabul to conduct fourteen months of dissertation field research that involved travel to central, northern and western areas of Afghanistan, and the collection over one hundred life story interviews.  During this same period, I organized the Afghan Oral History Project at Kabul University, and directed the American Institute of Afghan Studies.  My dissertation, entitled We Went to the Hills: Four Afghan Life Stories, was successfully... Continue Reading

Verity Norman-Tichawangana

Verity Norman-Tichawangana is the Executive Director of Jitegemee Children's Program in Machakos, Kenya. "Jitegemee" means "to sustain yourself" in Kiswahili, and the program provides formal and non-formal educational support and other social services to vulnerable children in the community. Recently, fellow CIE graduate, Martina Ochiel Amoth, joined the Jitegemee Board in Kenya.

 

... Continue Reading
Harold Weaver

Hal Weaver is retired but continues to be active in working toward transnational cultural relations, cross-cultural communication, respect and understanding through film, media, education and the arts.

 

In Spring of 2018 he spent time at the Pendle Hilll Quaker center working on his memoirs.  While there he presented an informal evening discussion titled Balck Fire: An African American Quaker Seeker-Activist in a White Supremecist Nation.  He shared insights and experiences from his poursal journey through life.

 

Recent activities include a lecture on “... Continue Reading

Oberto Ochoa

After leaving CIE Alberto Ochoa was hired as a faculty member and served as Chair of the Department of Dual Language and English Learner Education at San Diego State University for 15 years. He also served as the Academic Director of the Joint Doctoral Program between Claremont University and SDSU (1999-2005). In the PLC Department, he has been responsible for the implementation and evaluation of the bilingual teacher education programs at the elementary and secondary levels.

 

He has maintained an... Continue Reading

Catherine Mukimba

The opportunity to grow up with multiple educational and work experiences in a global context has made me the kind of educator I am today: one focused on using the extensive opportunities I have had to foster positive change to improve lives through education. Studying at the Center for International Education at UMass nurtured my practical approach to education and my role as a global citizen.

 

Since my graduation, I have concurrently worked as educator on two fronts that are dear to my personal and professional goals.

 

First, I have worked in various... Continue Reading

Tom Neilson

May 2018 will be the 30th anniversary of Tom completing his doctorate, but a more significant date for him was February 1986 when colleague Bonnie Mullinix told him he should get together with her husband, Dave McCurry and with Mark Lynd, to start playing music. They encouraged him to record his music and 16 albums later, he has performed his award-winning songs of humor, compassion, and political... Continue Reading

Julio Ramirez-de-Arellano

I have been a Center member for so many years and I still feel  part of this large, multinational community. Most of my career has been in Central American and Afghanistan.

 

I have been in Afghanistan since 2007 as a Chief of Party of a large in-service teacher training project, of a workforce development project and, now, of a Ministry of Education capacity building project. I plan to be here for another year. I have been back in Afghanistan since November 2016 and plan to leave in 2019, when I should be replaced by an Afghan national. Then I will go back home to Maryland... Continue Reading

Yuri Kumagai

Yuri had the following to say about “Life after CIE?”

 

I've been teaching at Smith College as a senior lecturer at the Dept. of East Asian Languages and Literatures after I received my Ed.D. from Language, Literacy and Culture at TECS in 2004. Besides teaching language and culture courses, I have been involved in numerous critical pedagogical projects that are collaboratively designed and conducted with language teaching practitioners all over the world. That resulted in 2 co-authored books... Continue Reading

Kathy cash

 

In January 2018 Kathy’s book Sex, Shame and Violence: A Revolutionary Practice of Storytelling in Poor Communities was selected by Choice as an Outstanding Academic Title of 2017.  During 2017 Choice reviewed over 5,300 titles from which they selected 504 as outstanding Academic Titles.  From those the editors chose their top 25 titles which included Kathy’s book.  The book describes her gender-based... Continue Reading

 

Dan was recently received a national award for teaching undergraduate public health education  The 2018 Riegelman Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Public Health Education.  The award will be presented at the next national meeting - the Association of Schools & Programs for Public Health 2018 Undergraduate Public Health and Global Health Education Summit in Washington DC in  March.

 

Dan Gerber is currently Associate Dean of Academic Affairs and Assistant... Continue Reading

Ed Graybill

When I last posted on the CIE website in 2010, I had recently started work as Chief of Party of AED’s Improving the Quality of Primary Education Program in Ethiopia.  That was one of USAID’s last broad basic education improvement programs before early grade reading became the agency’s primary focus in education.  I completed the assignment in Ethiopia in August 2014 (AED in the meantime had morphed into FHI360), took some time off in Florida, and then in March 2015 started work as Chief of Party of RTI’s Early Grade Reading Program (EGRP) in Nepal. 

 

EGRP is a Nepali... Continue Reading

Toon Fuderich

Toon and Rob Fuderich have returned to Amherst, although this time not for the usual two-three week home leaves as has been the case during their three-decade journey, but to stay for a while.   

 

During the past three decades, Toon has been involved in a myriad of interesting and challenging education positions.  Her activities have included working with a USAID teacher training project in Quetta, Pakistan, working as an elementary guidance counselor in the Amherst Schools (while Rob was in Afghanistan), directing an adult... Continue Reading

Tossaporn Sariyant

Pan retired from the Office of Nonformal and Informal Education of the Ministry of Education, Thailand after 37 years of service. She taught part-time at the Chiang Mai University School of Education until October 2016, and is now relaxing and going through old papers, as well as meeting occasionally with her 3 doctoral and 2 master’s advisees from Chiang Mai University.

 

In 2017 she began teaching basic English (after school) for primary school children – see photo.  She also spent time following up on the Hill Areas Education program which she participated in developing... Continue Reading

Judith Obiero

Dr. Judith Akinyi Obiero is the Associate Director for the Archer Center for Student Leadership Development at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, New York. The Center is responsible for leadership and professional development of students as well as the non-technical skills they need in order to be successful in their academic and professional engagements.

 

Judith teaches several required courses, coordinates the Professional Leadership Series (PLS), and also facilitates custom-designed workshops and programs for... Continue Reading

Greta Shultz

Greta Shultz is an independent consultant, conducting applied research, program evaluation, and policy studies for state and federal education agencies, non-profit and philanthropic organizations, and community-based groups. In June 2017, Greta founded a small consulting business, Green River Research, LLC. She is currently building a roster of consultants with diverse backgrounds and skill sets, and is also seeking new client relations. Greta would welcome new or renewed connections with CIE members.

 

From 2000-2016, Greta was a senior research manager in the UMass Donahue... Continue Reading

Patricia Guild O'Rourke

This past fall my Peace Corps group from Senegal had its 50th reunion.  Most people had not been in touch in many years.  We talked about what Peace Corps had meant to each of us, and our life path in the 50 years since. 

 

For me it led to CIE and a commitment to experiential and cultural education.  I finished my degree when I was a local public school principal in the Amherst area, then moved to Seattle and spent about 20 years as university faculty member and an education consultant, nationally and internationally.  My doctoral work was the basis for a book on learning... Continue Reading

Lillian Baer

Leaving Senegal in the early days of 2007 allowed me to recreate myself in new images. After 32 years living in Dakar, Senegal, working first with Peace Corps, and then a YMCA development program, followed by co-founding Africa Consultants International, aka The Baobab Center for the final 22 years, I thought that it would be interesting, and easy, to take the leap. Mmm...

 

A year in Rome, Italy, sloppily learning Italian and exploring the city on foot and by mouth, and the countryside by wheels, was what I needed and loved. Then a move to Seattle at the end of 2007, thanks... Continue Reading

James MacNeil

James MacNeil is currently Vice President of the Asia and Special Projects Division at World Education, based in Boston and overseeing education and development programs in Nepal, Indonesia, Cambodia, Thailand, Myanmar and Laos. [Left - in Thailand]

 

James joined World Education in 1999 after graduating from CIE. He coordinated programs in Asia, with a focus on Indonesia and India. He provided technical assistance and managerial oversight to school governance and nonformal education programs in Indonesia, and... Continue Reading

Rob Fuderich

Rob and Toon Fuderich have returned to Amherst, although this time not for the usual 2-3 week home leaves that have been their practice in the past, but to stay for a while.

 

Rob retired in June 2016, after 30 years in international development/humanitarian affairs since graduating from CIE. He spent 25 of those years with UNICEF, extensively but not exclusively in the Central and Eastern Europe/Commonwealth of Independent States Region (CEE/CIS), and the last 12 years serving as UNICEF County Representative in Kosovo,... Continue Reading

Hye Seung Cho

I am now an Associate Research Fellow at the Korean Women's Development Institute, which is a leading government-funded women's research institute under the Prime Minister's Office in South Korea. My job is in the Center for International Development & Cooperation within the institute. I am in charge of research and projects regarding gender equality issues, especially at the international level. I am also involved in developing international cooperation projects to spread gender-equal culture and to improve awareness of it in... Continue Reading

Jeetendra Joshee

Jeet Joshee is currently Associate Vice President for International Education and Dean of the College of Continuing and Professional Education at California State University, Long Beach (CSULB). In the first capacity, he advises the President and Provost on all matters related to international education, including international student admissions and recruitment, study abroad programs and partnerships with overseas institutions. In the second, he is responsible for a wide variety of degree and certificate and online CPE programs.

 

Prior to moving to CSULB, Jeet was Dean of... Continue Reading

Headshot of Basha Hicks

Basha Hicks passed away in February 2017Her obituary can be found Here.

 

Before coming to CIE Basha was a PCV in Venezuela where she did field work and helped with management, designing and developing trails for the Guatopo National Park.

 

While at CIE her studies focused on ecology, planning and development and their educational application. Her dissertation was a study of environmental perceptions of peasants... Continue Reading

John Comings

Before I came to CIE, I worked in Nepal for six years. I started as a Peace Corps Volunteer working in fisheries extension (my BSc in Zoology was preparation to become a marine biologist, and so Peace Corps sent me to a landlocked country), where I became interested in why it was easier to work with farmers who had some education.

 

After my volunteer service ended, I directed some Peace Corps training programs and worked on two research projects. I started at CIE in February 1976. At CIE, I had a chance to explore the question I had when I was working with farmers in Nepal [... Continue Reading

Natalia Kovalyova

Natasha (Natalia) Kovalyova is Assistant Professor of Communication at the University of North Texas at Dallas. Her areas of expertise include communication studies, rhetoric and language and political communication.  

 

Her research interests at UNT Dallas, which she joined in 2010, focus on “the intersections of discourse, power and persuasion in a variety of contexts, from presidential communication to media reporting to interpersonal communication. Her recent research focuses on the emergent public forums... Continue Reading

Karla Sarr

Karla Giuliano Sarr is an assistant professor in International Education at the SIT Graduate Institute in Brattleboro, Vermont and a co-chair of that department. She instructs both face-to-face and online and teaches courses focusing on an overview of international education, M&E, Indigenous education, non-formal education and language issues in education.

 

Karla had the pleasure of taking a group of graduate students to Senegal in January... Continue Reading

Elena Khatskevich Nuciforo

Elena received her Master of Education degree at the UMass Center for International Education through an Edmund Muskie Fellowship provided by the US Department of State to the countries of the former Soviet Union. Elena came to CIE in 2000 from the city of Ulan-Ude in Eastern Siberia where she was a lecturer of English at Buryat State University.

 

After completing her Master of Education, Elena returned to Russia to work as a program manager at the Center for Communication Programs of Johns Hopkins School of Public Health in Moscow.

 

In 2014, Elena received a... Continue Reading

Suzanne Kindervatter

Suzanne Kindervatter is currently an independent consultant based in Washington DC. She retired from InterAction in the fall of 2013, after 19 years of service.

 

During her 10 years as InterAction’s Vice President of Strategic Impact, Suzanne oversaw work on priority international development issues, gender integration and women’s empowerment.

 

In the course of her career, Suzanne has worked in 20 countries, in the areas of adult and nonformal education, microenterprise development, organizational... Continue Reading

Vachel Miller

Vachel Miller is currently Associate Professor in the Leadership and Educational Studies Department at Appalachian State University in Boone, North Carolina. He teaches courses on research methodologies, globalization, sustainability and leadership, connecting local and global contexts.

 

He recently edited a new book on educational leadership titled Apocalyptic Leadership in Education: Facing an Unsustainable World from Where We Stand (2017, Information Age Publishing).  ... Continue Reading

Benjamin Oganga

Benjamin Oganga is currently serving as an Assistant Director for Secondary Education in the President's Office (Regional Administration and Local Government) in Dodoma, Tanzania. He was previously Education Coordinator and Principal Education Coordinator.

 

Oganga has also worked as a monitoring and evaluation specialist for the Ministry of Education and Vocational Training as well as for the Kigoma Regional Administration, focusing on the Kigoma Special Economic Zone.

 

He wrote to CIE about this work after he graduated in 2013:

 ... Continue Reading

Genge family

After several years in Bolivia, Cole and Jenny Genge moved to Bangkok, as Cole took a job in a regional environmental protection project in South East Asia. [12/07]

 

Prior to this, Cole was working as Conservation Projects Coordinator for Bolivia in the Southern Andes Conservation Program of the Nature Conservancy. He managed 3 projects: Parks in Peril, which provides assistance to 2 national parks in a high conflict area; Multi-Sites—mostly financial support for the national system of protected areas and cross-border... Continue Reading

Lulu Davies

I am currently involved with some research in Sierra Leone, on the privatization of our alma mater, St. Joseph's Secondary School, in Freetown. I am working with Nalinie Kouame, a British-trained lawyer who served as the most recent outgoing president of our USA alumni organization. She and I are both graduates of St. Joseph's.

 

Our research will examine the viability of privatization as an alternative to the government-funded option currently in place. We will be examining research from other West African countries, especially in Ghana and Nigeria, to gain further insights... Continue Reading

Majid Khan

Majid Khan is currently a Director at the Commission on Science and Technology for Sustainable Development in the South (COMSATS) in Islamabad, Pakistan. His role involves strategic management, administration and educational outreach, including development and implementation of educational programs with national and international centers and organizations.

 

He is also co-PI on a research project on high performance work systems funded by the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).

 

Prior to this, Majid spent 5 years as Assistant Professor in the... Continue Reading

Karen Campbell Nelson

Karen Campbell-Nelson is a professor in the Faculty of Theology of Artha Wacana Christian University in West Timor, Indonesia. She teaches courses in theological English, gender and theology, and social research methods, and serves on the editorial board of the graduate program’s academic journal, Eureka. Her research focuses on gender, human rights and transitional justice. [2/17]

 

Previously, Karen worked with the Indonesian National Commission on Violence Against Women to set up a program... Continue Reading

Duc Le Nguyen

After graduating from CIE, I decided to continue on the academic path. I was accepted to the Master’s program in Project Management at the George Washington University School of Business. Having enrolled as a part-time student, it takes me longer than usual to finish the degree but I’m happy since I can both work and study at the same time. I’ve changed a couple of jobs and World Learning is my most recent stop.  

I am currently working as a Program Associate for the Global UGRAD program in the Capacity-Building Services Office of World Learning in Washington DC. This is a... Continue Reading

Elias Moning

Elias Moning is currently Director of Gaharu Kencana Estate Villa or “Ghrookeville” in West Java, Indonesia, an agro-eco-property development that emphasizes economic and environmental values by using traditional architecture for building, conserving the endangered Gaharu species by planting Gaharu trees, and facilitating the cultivation of durian and mangosteen fruit trees over their 6 hectares of land.

 

Elias also continues to run Outreach International, a company he founded in 2005 which promotes a program called Jatropha PLUS3, involving the planting of Jatropha trees... Continue Reading

Mark Lynd

Mark Lynd was just elected as Vice-Chair of the Basic Education Coalition (BEC) Executive Board for 2017-2018. The Coalition is comprised of 26 member organizations working to ensure that all children around the world have access to a quality basic education.

 

Mark co-founded an NGO called School-to-School International (STS) in 2002 and currently serves as its president. STS works on the basis of a “Whole Child Model”, a holistic approach that integrates... Continue Reading

Yang Gyeltshen

Yang Gyeltshen is currently leading a group of five teachers for Lhomon Education, a project of the Samdrup Jongkhar Initiative, a registered civil society organization in Bhutan. The Initiative aims to bring education alternatives to eastern Bhutan and beyond.

 

Lhomon Education (LME) provides students with “the opportunity to learn and prepare themselves for their lives and to fulfil their daily needs through practical hands-on experience. LME endeavors to make... Continue Reading

Susie Rauch

Susie Rauch founded and served for 17 years as Executive Director of Interconnections 21 (IC21), a non-profit organisation based in Jackson, Wyoming, dedicated to helping US schools and communities “learn about critical world concerns and take action”.

 

During her time there, she brought in prominent national and international speakers, sponsored Model United Nations conferences and oversaw student study and service learning trips abroad. Other programs included fundraising to build and support a school in Sierra Leone and... Continue Reading

Steve Anzalone

Steve Anzalone retired from regular work in international development in 2017 after 46 years of service. The last half of his career was spent at Education Development Center (EDC) in Washington DC. He was involved in EDC’s work in educational technology and leading EDC activities in Asia.

 

Starting in 2015, Steve worked with Nancy Devine as Senior Vice President and Co-Director for EDC’s International Development Division (IDD).

 

Shortly after completing his doctorate at CIE, Steve and fellow CIE graduate... Continue Reading

Tigran Tovmasyan

Tigran is currently with UNICEF Armenia as Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) Programme Officer. His responsibilities include enhancing project effectiveness in preschools and schools, including special schools; coordinating the development of an action plan for capacity-building activities in education in emergency preparedness and response; supporting national stakeholders for the setup of a coordination mechanism for DRR in education, and promoting the establishment of a national mechanism to provide psychosocial support to and prevent the trafficking of children in emergencies.

 ... Continue Reading

Patricio Barriga

Patricio Barriga passed away June 26, 2019 Obituary

 

Patricio Barriga is currently a policy advisor to the Presidency of Ecuador. In January 2017, he was also in Honduras running an ethnographic research workshop for graduate students (right) at the School of Medicine in Tegucigalpa. 

 

He wrote to CIE in 2016:

 

I was Chief of Party for CIE's nonformal education project in Ecuador from 1971-1976. This was the beginning of my interest in nonformal education as a tool for... Continue Reading

Saida Nabiyeva

First, I have to say that my academic background in International Education gained during my graduate study at UMass Amherst considerably broadened my knowledge and expertise in education. The courses that I took at the UMASS School of Education, particularly in the Center for International Education (CIE), contributed tremendously to my professional growth and helped me acquire advanced practical and research skills, as well as strategies necessary for successfully “navigating” in the job market. The courses such as Program Evaluation, Curriculum Development, Research Methods etc.,... Continue Reading

Ali Hikmat

Since graduating from UMass, I have been involved in academic activities here at Bamyan University, Afghanistan. At the beginning of my work I developed a proposal to establish an English department at Bamyan University. Fortunately it was accepted by the Ministry of Higher Education (MoHE) and the fourth cohort is now celebrating its graduation from the English department. At first, I worked as the head of English department for one year (2010) and then was appointed as the Dean of the Education Faculty, a position which I still hold.... Continue Reading

Fritz Affolter

After 10 years in Afghanistan, Angola, South Africa and Sudan, the Affolter family moved back to the United States in 2012. Fritz took a position as Programme Manager of the Peacebuilding, Education and Advocacy (PBEA) Programme at UNICEF Headquarters in New York, where he is still working presently.

 

The PBEA programme is designed to strengthen resilience, social cohesion and human security in conflict-affected contexts, including countries at risk of, or experiencing and recovering from conflict... Continue Reading

Marilyn Gillespie

Marilyn Gillespie is an educational researcher and specialist in college/career readiness and literacy. Since leaving CIE, her work has focused on research, planning and evaluation of literacy education, English language learning, and workforce education.

 

Recent projects include the Global Reading Network, a community of practice for improving early grade reading in developing countries; revising the literacy and work readiness components of a 3-year program for Liberian youth; and developing standards for the Oregon Adult Basic Education System.

 

Marilyn... Continue Reading

Kathe Conrad

Kathe Conrad is now retired, pursuing interests in memoir writing and photography. She continues to be amazed at how long it takes to produce a written or pictorial slice of her life. She takes classes at Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at George Mason University and volunteers with Fairfax County Pets on Wheels Program with canine friend, Casper. She continues to explore the world and write about her travels.

 

Kathe wrote to CIE in 2013:

 

After graduating from CIE, Roger and I spent several years in Africa and Czechoslovakia before we decided to come back... Continue Reading

Cynthia Shepard Perry

Cynthia Perry is now retired, after serving her country with distinction as US Executive Director of the African Development Bank in Cote d’Ivoire and Tunisia from 2001-2007 and as US Ambassador to Sierra Leone from 1986-1989 and to Burundi from 1989-1993.

 

In a video profile for UMass, she said:

 

When I was still in high school, we were required to take a course called civics. The teacher—his whole concept was service. The reason why you are here on Earth is to help... Continue Reading

Hassan Ali Mohamed

Dr. Hassan Ali Mohamed is a development practitioner specialized in education program planning and management in both humanitarian and development settings with over 25 years of field experience in North America, South Asia, Middle East and Africa. Hassan holds a Doctorate and Master’s degrees from the Center for International Education at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.

 

In his work he sometimes meets up with other CIE graduates. 

 

Several years ago I ran into Toon and Rob Fuderich in Istanbul, Turkey (pictured right). We were... Continue Reading

Salma Nazar Khan

My doctoral program specialization in international development allowed me to observe the evolution of different educational practices, whereas my voyage in doctoral studies in Educational Planning, Research & Administration (EPRA) provided me an opportunity to gain the knowledge and experience to make research more focused and doable in terms of reliability, resources, and time constraints.

 

Studying at CIE exposed me to various development trends—in educational organizations, and local communities—around the world. My Program of Study was designed to make maximum use... Continue Reading

Sara DeTurk

The paperback edition of Sara DeTurk's recent book on Activism, Alliance Building, and the Esperanza Peace and Justice Center has just been published by Lexington Books.

 

Based on ethnographic work, the book presents "an instructive case study of the importance and challenges of uncompromisingly confronting injustice in all of its manifestations. Through building and maintaining alliances, deploying language strategically, and using artistic expression as a central organizing mechanism, The Esperanza Peace and Justice Center demonstrates... Continue Reading

Konda Reddy Chavva

Konda Chavva is a consultant with FAO India. He provides technical assistance in the design and implementation of "Farmer Field Schools (FFS)" in India to improve farmers’ adaptive capacity and strengthen their resilience to climate change and variability.

 

He helped design the FFS curriculum on improved goat management practices for the South Asia Pro-Poor Livestock Promotion Program. He was also part of the global team of FFS trainers and experts who drafted the FFS Guidance Document, which provides insight into programming and implementation.

 

Konda has... Continue Reading

Michele Sedor

Michele Sedor has worked at the System for Adult Basic Education Support (SABES) in Massachusetts since 1999. Formerly the Western Regional Director, she now works with the SABES PD Center for Educational Leadership and Strengthening Programs. SABES provides professional development for adult basic education programs and staff throughout the state. 

 

Michele was recently appointed to a three-year term on the Adult Basic Education Advisory Council to the Commissioner of Education. She lives in the woods of Shutesbury,... Continue Reading

Mindy Eichhorn

I am currently an assistant professor in the Education Department at Gordon College, where I teach undergraduate and graduate-level courses in special education, assessment, and early childhood / elementary math methods.

 

I am involved in a pilot study investigating the challenges out of school youth face in learning mathematics in Mumbai and Bangalore, India. These students face hardships at home – most of them live in extreme poverty, and encounter many environmental stressors, including trauma, which impact their learning in the classroom.

 

Additionally,... Continue Reading

Jennie Campos

Jennie is currently an international development consultant specializing in participatory research and evaluation. Recent work includes facilitating a kick-off retreat for the USAID Economic Growth Team in Rwanda in December 2015, and consulting for Creative Associates International, including a stint in Kabul, Afghanistan in 2013.

 

She has worked in over 33 developing countries in different parts of the world.  

 

Jennie’s work took “quite a leap in a very different direction” when she became a certified Six Sigma expert working at an engineering company in... Continue Reading

Jane Benbow

Jane is currently retired and living in her home state of North Carolina. She does the occasional education consultancy, while also exploring her interests in politics, art, music and documentary research.

 

Most recently, she has been involved in work around early grade reading. She provided leadership in developing an international network for early grade reading, including supporting training for professionals in the early literacy community. She has also designed projects and workshops in early grade reading and education in emergencies, and provided field-based technical... Continue Reading

Endang Sumantri Nawawi

Endang Sumantri is retired and is Professor Emeritus at the Indonesia University of Education (UPI, formerly IKIP Bandung), where he served as Senate Chairman from 2006 to 2011.

 

Endang and his family came to Amherst for a visit in October 2016. He was happy to be back on campus after so many years—he completed his Master’s degree at CIE in 1980 and his doctorate in 1988. During his recent visit, he met with the interim Dean, toured the new College of Education facilities and reunited with DRE, who was the chair of... Continue Reading

Recently Oliver came out of retirement as he was appointed as Chairman of the Tanzania Teacher Service Commission. The commission is in principle the employer of all teachers in Tanzania a primary and secondary schools and in teacher training colleges. [8-16]

 

I am now retired after working as a civil servant for almost 40 years. I last served as the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Justice and before that for many years in the Ministry of Education. After retiring, I am working with St. Joseph University of Engineering and Technology on special duties.

 

... Continue Reading
Ricardo Gomez

After completing his doctoral program at CIE, Ricardo returned to Colombia. He is back at University of Antioquia, his home institution, working as a teacher of quantitative research and evaluation methods. He also works as a policy analyst and consultant for several government agencies and private organizations.

 

Before completing his doctorate, Ricardo received a Bachelor of Education degree from La Salle University and Master of Education from Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand. Ricardo has been a full-time lecturer and researcher at University of Antioquia... Continue Reading

Here in Tanzania we are healthy, trying cope with challenging social and economic dynamics. There are a lot of educational reforms taking place in the country. I'm now working for the National Council for Technical Education (NACTE). I'm grateful for the competence I gained at CIE, it makes my life easier to adapt the changes quickly!

 

I hope the entire CIE family is doing fine. You are all in my heart, my best family in Amherst. [5/16]

 

Email: asselaluena@yahoo.com

luena@... Continue Reading

The BRIDGE Project, where I have worked for 11 years ended in December last year but some few officers proceeded up to May 2015. My contract ended March 27, 2015. 

 

I stayed out of job for just two months then I was called to come and finish the work someone was doing because she has been promoted to Deputy Chief of Party. The project is called Health Communication Capacity Collaborative (HC3).  I'm on temporary basis i.e. It's a temporary job just for 4 months. I'm developing materials on hormonal contraception and potential HIV risks. We have also developed the Malawi... Continue Reading

When Bella Halsted graduated from CIE she decided to become a writer—of fiction and poetry—and to lead creative writing workshops in the Valley for a living—and did so for the following twenty years.  During this time, she also worked as newsletter editor for the American Friends’ Service Committee, the Peace Development Fund, and more recently, the Markham Nathan Fund—all organizations involved in fundraising for grassroots groups in this country.

 

She began taking painting classes at UMASS, and later, through the excellent art program at Greenfield Community College. ... Continue Reading

Antonie Chigeda

Greetings from Malawi. Since my days at UMass several opportunities have allowed me to utilize my knowledge and skills from CIE to develop and grow academically as well as professionally. Six months after graduating from a CIE’s Master of Education program in Policy Planning and Leadership, I joined Moi University in Kenya for a Master of Philosophy degree specializing in Philosophy of Education. I returned to University of Malawi, Chancellor College where I taught graduate and under graduate level courses for our Master’s in Policy, Planning and Leadership as well as bachelor of education... Continue Reading

After finishing her Master's degree, Dawn went on to complete her doctorate in Instructional Leadership (Cultural Diversity and Curriculum Reform) at UMass  in 1993.  She then worked in Boston in inner city schools, in Hawaii in educational research and with Hawaiian Education, and as a Race Relations/ Multicultural Consultant with the Vancouver School Board.

 

Dawn spent four years in south East Asia (the Philippines and Indonesia) doing working in non-formal Education, and intercultural communication. She has also taught as a sessional instructor in the Native Indian... Continue Reading

Jenkins Charles

For CIE's 40th, Charlie reflected back on his active career. For other aspects of his career before he became an educator, you may find the recent article at MassLive blog of interest.

 

Life continues to present interesting challenges! Like my CIE colleagues my professional career has focused on making a difference. We know that educational development continues to be a viable force for young people and adults alike. As an educator, achieving this goal and deciding which direction... Continue Reading

Jones Dube

Elvyn passed away on November 14, 2012.   Obituary

 

Elvyn continues with her private practice in psychotherapy, is an adjunct professor at the Graduate School in the College of New Rochelle. At the end of 2007 she sent along this update:

 

I continue in my second profession as psychoanalyst and mental health specialist, which arose out of my experiences of living abroad for over twenty-five years.  During that time, I became aware of the paucity of knowledge and services available to indigenous... Continue Reading

Holmes Henry

Hank has spent the past 25 years or so in Thailand where he has pursued a career in teaching as well as founding and becoming the managing director of Cross-Cultural Management Co. Ltd. The firm has developed a series of focused training courses to assist expatriates working in Thailand to be more effective in communicating and working with Thai colleagues. To facilitate that goal he co-authored a book entitled: Working with the Thais: A Guide to Managing in Thailand. The book is intended for both newcomers and seasoned foreigners in Thailand. It... Continue Reading

Hiigginson Peter

A recent update from Peter since he has moved to Cambridge, MA:

I hit the big seven zero mark last August, a milestone I would be happy to forget. But I draw inspiration from a bumper sticker I saw the other day which read "Born just fine the first time". And in all candor, rocketing back and forth from extremes seems to suit me. Let me explain myself.

 

While I have a 45 year-old son who is a tenured professor at Bryn Mawr, I also have a 10 year-old half Samoan little bomber who rejoices in the name of Roxanna Ataata-o-Mauga (try saying that fast).  Through guile,... Continue Reading

Angelo Priscilla

I have now entered a life chapter I call reinvention (others call it retirement) and love scheduling my own priorities. When I first  retired, I took classes at the RI School of Design to learn something about  architecture and design. I would like time for a second career in architecture  but decided it was getting too late.  So instead, I learned just enough for  us to design a new home that we had built on Narragansett Bay. And  I loved the opportunity for such a creative process. It reminded me of  the creative times higher education administration offered in the 60's and  70's! ... Continue Reading

Pearson Robert

Since leaving the Center in 1972 I’ve been an Education Professor at Swarthmore, Lafayette and Muhlenberg colleges, the director of a drug and alcohol education agency, and the director of a USAID project in Romania dealing with the awful orphanage situation there which you undoubtedly remember from the media coverage in the early nineties.  Since 1992 I’ve been “semi-retired”, spending much of my time playing serious senior softball (tournaments etc.), reading, writing, and occasionally consulting. Since 1993 I’ve directed a Peace Corps training project in Albania, worked with Muslim... Continue Reading

Billimoria Roshan

After being out of contact with CIE for many years, Roshan reflects on her journey since leaving CIE below.

And there were those blessed ones that pointed the way: Dwight Allen sitting in our living room in tiny-town, Panchgani - India, who invited me to be part of the excitement of building this world of my dreams; Dave Evans and George Urch, who gave me the once-over before I joined the Montague House clan(1970) and then continued to inspire and guide me by their example - long, long after I had left the fold for adventures elsewhere; Arthur Gillette who in essence handed me a... Continue Reading

Woolmer Timothy

Tim has pursued two careers, one as educator and one as psychotherapist, and ended up as a manager in both. He spent 5 years in the north west of Pakistan, as Principal of Edwardes College in Peshawar, and then returned to what is now Roehampton University in London.

 

From 1991until retirement 11 years later he was National Director of The Westminster Pastoral Foundation, a counselling and psychotherapy charity. Since then he has been a part-time director of the West London Mental Health NHS Trust, and a director of Richmond Adult and Community College.His current passions... Continue Reading

Jane Vella

After finishing her studies at CIE, Jane Vella taught at North Carolina State University and The University of North Carolina before founding the Jubilee Popular Education Center, now Global Learning Partners, Inc (GLP). Jane has worked in education since 1953, in over forty countries around the world. As a Maryknoll Sister, she taught at the University of Dar es Salaam in Tanzania where she where she lived from 1955 - 1977. Jane has spent the past fifty years developing new ways of thinking about learning and teaching. She advocates a... Continue Reading

Somtrakool Kia

At the present, I'm still working so as to fulfill my life in many ways.  I am teaching in a Ph.D. program in ASEAN Cultural Science in two universities where I meet many young students from different nations.  I am also working part time as an advisor in the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Culture.  In that role I have the opportunity to travel to many ASEAN countries such as, Laos, Myanmar, Malaysia, Singapore, Cambodia, Vietnam, Indonesia and China. I'm still utilizing all of my knowledge and experiences much which I have learned from the CIE.

 

When not working... Continue Reading

Phil Christensen

Recent update from Phil: I retired in January 2017, I'm getting married again on July 16th (it's been almost 8 years since Deb passed), and I'll be moving back to the States (DC area) to be with my wife - leaving Africa after 37 years of international development work on this continent. [6-17]

 

How did I get here? Well, after leaving the School of Education in 1973 I spent a couple of years in the Chicago area working on Bahá'í teaching and youth programs, then moved to Eastern Ontario to work for five years as the instructional systems specialist at a technical community... Continue Reading

Gillette Arthur

Arthur passed away in June of 2016.  Arthur's obituary

 

After 25 plus years of service to Unesco, Arthur retired from his last position as Director of Youth and Sports Activities in April 1998. He has since enthusiastically pursued a diverse agenda of activities, some of his recent ones are chronicled below.

 

* A series of short videos about the history of Paris on the web. To see the complete selection of more than 40 videos go to... Continue Reading

Silva-Juan Jose

Juan visited CIE in Fall 2013 and took the opportunity to reflect on his time at CIE and his career as a popular educator in Chile over the years since then.

 

It is true though, that I did not study much, but in exchange I stole an idea from a project sponsored by CIE in the Ecuadorian sierra of using the so-called "salon games" or card games as educative tools for impoverished adults. As a matter of fact, I never had the chance to see the game "La Hacienda", as it was being developed at the time and used in the context of such project However, it became clear in my mind... Continue Reading

Kalim Qamar

For those CIE affiliates who were not yet born or were still rolling around in a cradle, I am one of the early faculty members, recruited at CIE in 1975 as Assistant Professor, to develop and teach graduate courses in non-formal education for rural development. It was my first job after my Ph.D. studies at Cornell. Working at CIE was indeed a learning experience in itself, which I found of great value in my future career development. I left CIE at the end of 1977, with memories that I still cherish. Who will forget the 1970s colleagues like David Evans (evergreen), John Bing, David Kinsey... Continue Reading

Thisyamondol-Patrada Yomnak

 I am now running an activity center for children as well as a co-ed international British curriculum school, Bangkok International Preparatory and Secondary School (Bangkok Prep) catering for 3-18 year olds. We are in our 11th year and have an enrolment of 731. We will be expanding to serve 780 students next year. I am here as the License Holder, Manager and Director of the school. [6-14]

 

I have been teaching part time at schools and running a Computer- English after school programme called System's Training. I also set up 2... Continue Reading

Njoku Raphael

Each day of my life, I continue to live with the pleasant memories of having the very best of education at UMass and being a part of the CIE family.

 

On my return to Nigeria, I served in the state schools system of Imo State in the South Eastern part of Nigeria, as a high school principal. In 1998, I went private and set up a Secondary School – City High School, Owerri - in Imo State as an institution where youth, apart from attaining academic and moral excellence, can appreciate and uphold democratic values. The school is already making an impact among the rural population... Continue Reading

Lois Martin

Lois Martin passed away in December 2020.  Her obituary can be found Here.

 

Upon retiring from teaching at Salem State College (now University), I moved into the Arizona sun.  Aside from the sun, I was drawn to Tucson where I hoped to be able to delve heavily into Latin America activism—a continuation of the focus that had occupied my spare time for many years.  In fact, I could not have made a better choice.  Tucson is at the epicenter of the humanitarian crisis in the Sonoran... Continue Reading

Mary Lugton

This spring, Mary applied for and received a one-year sabbatical from her current job working as a teacher trainer in English Language Development (ELD) for the West Contra Costa County Unified School District in the East Bay, CA.

 

She has been accepted by International Educators for Africa – a project of the USAID-funded program International Foundation for Education and Self-Help (IFESH), was founded by Dr. Leon H. Sullivan – to spend the year in Ethiopia working at the Bahirdar University, Faculty of Humanity as a pre... Continue Reading

Chokocha Selemani-Mbewe

After graduation, I was promoted to Dean of Education and later to Chief Lecturer. I served as Dean of Education from 2003 to 2006. Later on I served as Student Advisor or Dean of Students from 2007 to 2010.

 

Recently he sent this update on his new activity.

 

Greetings to all. Just to let you know that I am now at University of Pretoria. . I will be studying for my PhD in Assessment and Quality Assurance. My studies are going on well. I am doing it by research. I have met with nice people at the Centre for Assessment and Evalaution (CEA) just like CIE. I thank... Continue Reading

Magda (Abunama) Ahmed

 

Salaam CIE, I am back to Amherst after three years in Afghanistan. In the last three years, I worked with USAID as a Program Field Officer to cover education, health, and gender in two provinces in the East Region. In this capacity, I was working as a bridge to bring USAID vision and program policy as close as we could get to Province Reconstruction Team (PRT) and the local government of Afghanistan (GIROA), working in the design and implementation of USAID and PRT transition plans, by keeping government officials totally engaged and buying-in to the plan, and building the... Continue Reading

McKinney Phoebe

I recently completed a three-year assignment in Liberia, where I worked for FHI 360 as the Senior Director for Teacher Education for the USAID-funded Liberian Teacher Training Program (LTTP).  Prior to that, I consulted for FHI 360 as a Fragility/Conflict Education Specialist for Educate a Child in Doha, Qatar for five months.

 

After more than ten-years of living and working in international education overseas, I have decided to remain largely stateside for the coming period.  I was recently offered - and have accepted - an exciting position with San Francisco-based World... Continue Reading

Taylor Timothy

After a decade, it’s about time for an update. I’m now in my seventh year as a senior fellow at the Hong Kong Institute of Education and my thirteenth year in Hong Kong.  Prior to coming here, I spent three years in Mainland China at Hebei Teachers’ University, first conducting the research for my dissertation and then staying on to teach.  Thus my ‘one year in China’ evolved from interview research to university teaching to ESL program development, a lovely wife and two children, curriculum development for a new university, teacher education work, some curriculum consulting and a total of... Continue Reading

Headshot of David Kahler

David Kahler passed away in September 2015.  His obituary can be found Here.

 

Before coming to CIE, David was a Peace Corps volunteer in Senegal. He then moved to teaching in classrooms at the Lowville Academy in New York and afterwards in Honduras between 1970 and 1973. He began a lifelong focus on evaluating integrated literacy programs in 1974, working with the International Institute for Adult Literacy Methods (IIALM), in Teheran, Iran.

 

After receiving his doctorate David joined... Continue Reading

Headshot of Nana Seshibe

Nana Ruth Seshibe passed away in June 2015Her obituary can be found Here.

 

Originally from South Africa, Nana was active on behalf of the Pan African Congress and as a result was forced to flee to Tanzania where she continued her fight against apartheid. In 1963 she moved to the U.S. to get her Bachelor’s degree before coming to CIE.

 

Her research at CIE was based on both her own and others’ experiences as refugees. She undertook a detailed review of policies of organizations... Continue Reading

Hunter writes from Bangkok where he is working on a second Master’s degree and is doing an internship in the summer of 2015.

 

Aside from this internship, I’m also keeping busy with my role as the Outreach and Recruitment Coordinator for my program which means that I help with internal/external communication strategies, production of promotional items, and forge partnerships with institutions and organizations in the region. I’ve finished my classes for the Master’s program, next step is the thesis proposal. I’m looking to conduct qualitative research that captures the... Continue Reading

Headshot of Kotsho Lloyd Dube

Kotsho Lloyd Dube passed away in December 2014His obituary can be found Here.

 

Before coming to CIE Kotsho was an active supporter of Zimbabwe’s struggle for independence. He worked for several years at the then Bank of Rhodesia and Nyasaland before moving to New York City to represent PF-Zapu at the United Nations and South America. There he was responsible for promoting Zimbabwe's struggle, lobbying and securing pro-freedom policy assets from governments, trade unions, students and the public.... Continue Reading

Headshot of Mercy Rapelesega Montsi

Mercy Montsi passed away in November 2013Her obituary can be found Here.

 

Although she was originally from Botswana, before coming to CIE, Mercy worked in the Ministry of Education in Lesotho as the head of the Child Guidance program. 

 

While at CIE her studies were focused on health and counseling of youth.  Her dissertation explored the self-concept of Basotho male and female adolescents in secondary schools in Botswana.

 

After leaving CIE Mercy returned to Lesotho to... Continue Reading

Headshot of James E. Hoxeng

Jim Hoxeng passed away in August 2013.  His obituary can be found Here.

 

Jim arrived at CIE in the fall of 1968 as one of the founding members of the Center.  He was instrumental in introducing CIE to the concept of nonformal education which was a new idea in the early 1970s. He helped organized a trip to a conference in Washington D.C. where Paulo Freire and Ivan Illich were featured speakers.

 

Contacts made with the speakers at that conference led to a series of... Continue Reading

Headshot of Douglas Russell Dilts

Russ Dilts passed away in October 2011His obituary can be found Here.

 

In 1975, before coming to CIE, Russ worked in Indonesia as part of Stanford’s Volunteer in Asia program, first as a volunteer and then as VIA’s Indonesia organizer. He then worked for World Education in Indonesia and Thailand. In the 1980s while at CIE completing his doctoral program he was actively engaged in Indonesia’s emerging NGO movement.

 

He then began what would become his signature accomplishment with the... Continue Reading

Headshot of David Styles

David Styles passed away in October 2010.  His obituary can be found Here.

 

Before coming to CIE, from 1974-76, David was Peace Corps Volunteer in Yap, one of the Federated States of Micronesia. He then received a degree in Agricultural Extension from the University of Tennessee.  He then spent a total of five years in Southern Africa, first working as a lecturer in the School of Agriculture at the University of Swaziland and then for Academy of Educational Development in Botswana.

 

... Continue Reading

Headshot of Eloy Anello

Eloy Anello passed away in October 2009His obituary can be found Here.

 

Eloy lived in Santa Cruz, Bolivia, beginning in the early 1970’s. He was the leader of a group that included his brother Francisco Anello, which founded Unversidad Nur in 1985, a private university in Santa Cruz based on the universal principles of the Baha’i faith.

 

Nur University was the first to provide extended education for women and teachers in the villages... Continue Reading

Retna Burham

After a long interval during which CIE received regular Holiday cards from Retna, but then lost contact, we again have email contact. She sent this update on the state of NFE and the activities of some of her cohort who were at the Center in the 1970s.

 

Here is some information about the progress of NFE in Indonesia. Up to now there is only one state educational university (IKIP Bandung) in West Java, which offered NFE Masters and doctoral degree programs. Our friends Djudju Sudjana, Endang Sumantri... Continue Reading

Headshot of James Mangan

James Mangan passed away in August 2008His obituary can be found Here.

 

Before coming to CIE James worked in multiple capacities in Asia. He spent a year with the International Voluntary Services working with the International Rice Research Institute in the Philippines.  He then went to Vietnam where he worked restoring and planting rice paddies during the Vietnam War. In 1968, he worked in Taiwan for two years, teaching English as a second language.

 

While at CIE his research focused... Continue Reading

Headshot of Don S. Graybill

Don Graybill passed away in August 2008.  His obituary can be found Here.

 

At the time of his passing Don was the Director of BEPS Activity working in Indonesia as the Chief of Party of USAID’s Indonesia Decentralized Basic Education III project with Save the Children.

 

Before going to Indonesia, Don worked concurrently as the Director of the BEPS Activity and Deputy Director of the Education and Social Mobilization Division at Creative Associates International, Inc (CAII). Under Don’s... Continue Reading

Headshot of Kay Pfeiffer

Kay Pfeiffer passed away in May 2008Her obituary can be found Here.

 

Before coming to CIE, Kay was a PCV in Botswana. She then worked with a youth program in Boston.

 

While a student at CIE, she also worked for the Workplace Education program at the University of Massachusetts and the National Priorities Project in Northampton.

 

In addition, while living in Amherst, Kay played a key role in the development of the Center for Community Education and Action (CCEA), a... Continue Reading

Headshot of Mose Tjitendero

Mose Tjitendero passed away in April 2006

His obituary can be found here

 

It is with great regret that CIE announces the passing of one of our most distinguished graduates, the Hon. Dr. Mose P. Tjitendero. Mose, who was a former Member of Parliament of Namibia, died in the hospital in his homeland on the morning of April 26, after a long illness.

 

Among his many accomplishments, Mose served as the first Speaker of Namibia's National Assembly between 1990 and 2004. As Speaker, he built and... Continue Reading

Headshot of Mansour Fakih

Mansour Fakih passed away in February 2004. His obituary can be found Here.

 

Before coming to CIE Mansour worked at the Institute for Research, Education, and Social and Economic Development (LP3ES) as a member of the field staff and a researcher.  While there, he worked with a group of others to renew and develop methodologies of education and training. In that group was an activist from Volunteers in Asia (VIA), Russ Dilts, with... Continue Reading

Headshot of James M. Dawson Jr.

James Dawson passed away in December 2003His obituary can be found Here.

 

Before coming to CIE, ‘JD’ as he liked to be called, was a civil rights activist fighting injustice in America and a union organizer fighting for the rights of blue-collar workers.

 

His first international experience was as a PCV in Maharashtra, India. There he helped establish a poultry project and a community library. After completing his service with the Peace Corps, he moved to St. Thomas, Virgin Islands... Continue Reading

Headshot of Leon E. Clark Jr.

Leon Clark passed away in October 2003His obituary can be found Here.

 

Prior to joining CIE, Leon held a number of positions in the field of International Education. His interest in international education grew out of his years of teaching and community development work in Bangladesh, India, and countries throughout Africa.

 

In his role as the deputy director of the Governmental Affairs Institute in Washington (GAI), D.C., Leon administered rural development programs overseas and was... Continue Reading

Headshot of Norman Mhilu Hiza

Norman Hiza passed away in January 1999His obituary can be found Here.

 

Originally from Tanzania, Norman was a well-known educator in his home country.  He also was an officer in the Tanzanian Army and was part of the force that invaded Uganda in 1978 to overthrow the regime of Idi Amin.

 

Norman learned about CIE in the 1980s when he worked as an employee of CIE’s Teacher-Text-Technology project in Tanzania – a project that focused on strengthening the teaching of science, math and... Continue Reading

Headshot of David Lee

David Lee passed away in December 1995His obituary can be found Here.

 

Before coming to CIE David earned a Master’s degree in International Affairs with a specialization in Russian Area Studies from Columbia University. He then served as a PCV in Zaire where he taught English and worked as a teacher trainer at the Advanced Pedagogical Institute of the National University of Zaire.

 

... Continue Reading