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.

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. 

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.

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.

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.

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. 

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 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. 

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.

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.