I am from Afghanistan, a country where I believe that education is THE ONLY option IF its people want to survive and bring lasting peace to their homeland. My passion with education and working with academia, during the past few years, led me to CIE where I believe I can earn food for thought to consume during the rest of my life in the development of education and higher education sector.

Before coming to CIE I founded a non-profit organization, the Pentok Institute, to promote quality education for Tibetan girls. Together with my team, we raised millions in grants for the programs. We worked closely with ten public schools and 7,000 children in the communities. We provided “culturally relevant curriculum” and teaching practice via several programs during summer and winter holidays.

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, 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.

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.

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.

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. 

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.”

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]

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.