Passionate about equity in education, Sarah Bracken has worked with diverse youth in public schools and non-profit programs since 2002. Before joining CPL (formerly Center for Learning in Practice) and the Refugee Educator Academy, Sarah was a secondary Language Arts and English Language Development teacher and instructional coach in Washington state, then Maryland, and finally in Alaska. She has a Masters in Teaching from The Evergreen State College and is Nationally Board Certified in English Language Arts.  Sarah currently makes her home in Chugiak, AK where she spends most of her free time with her family hiking, canoeing, and snowshoeing.

Serving as Technical Liaison between the Center for Professional Learning (formerly Center for Learning in Practice) and web development team, Laren is directing the development of our innovative online social learning platform. He serves as the web platform administrator and provides technical support and training to the team and course instructors. Laren has worked closely with the director, Diana Woolis, for over a decade on projects utilizing various social learning platforms. His background and education is in the graphic arts and web design. He is also a musician active in his own Cajun and Zydeco bands.

Zlata Gromova, Senior Project Consultant with the Center for Professional Learning, is an L&D expert and consultant with 12 years of experience in private, corporate, and government sectors. Starting as a teacher, and later as a coach and corporate trainer, Zlata has always worked with adult learners. Zlata completed her PhD thesis on psychological aspects of resistance to organizational change, a key research interest which sits alongside her other interests in resilience, evidence-based approaches, empowerment, personal responsibility, well-being, edutainment, non-violent approaches, and feedback. As a manager and leader, Zlata has built and led several teams of educators and L&D specialists.

As a Ukrainian originally from Lugansk (Donbas), Zlata has lived through a full-scale war (twice), displacement, family separation, and estrangement. Her experiences of rebuilding life from scratch with a suitcase of 3 summer dresses and a pair of shoes and never going back home since 2014 is now paired with the experience of occupation, nuclear threat, and collective war trauma. But ultimately, she says, her experience is one “of resilience and doing the best one can with what they have where they are.” Zlata loves the show Friends.

Julie Kasper has an MA in TESOL from Teachers College, Columbia University and is a National Board Certified Teacher in English as a New Language. She taught in K-12 and adult education classrooms for more than 16 years, the majority of that time in secondary ESL classrooms in New York City and Tucson, Arizona. She served as Refugee School Coordinator for Tucson from 2014-2018 and joined the Center for Professional Learning (formerly Center for Learning in Practice) in the summer of 2018 to lead the Refugee Educator Academy initiative. In addition, Julie is currently pursuing her doctorate in Educational Leadership as a University Fellow at the University of Arizona.

Sara Kassab is an educator with diverse experience, including as a science teacher, an English language teacher for refugees, and as a fellow with Teach for Lebanon. In addition to consulting on CPL’s Quality Holistic Learning Project and other global education projects, Sara is an English e-content developer at Qitabi 2, World Learning, as well as a mentor at Teach for Lebanon. She is completing he master’s degree in science education at the American University of Beirut, with a thesis focusing on translanguaging and conceptual change in the genetics classroom. Sara’s enthusiasm towards education extends beyond her job and responsibilities as she volunteers in many opportunities that strive to better teachers’ professional development.

Araz Khajarian earned an MA in International Higher Education from the Lynch School of Education and Human Development, Boston College. She has conducted and published research on academic research in Syrian universities, refugees access to higher education, the epistemology of quality in higher education and accreditation processes, and Organizational culture and context-relativity in Jordan. Araz holds a bachelor’s degree in Global Studies and International Development from Salve Regina University, and a certificate in Business Administration from the Higher Institute of Business Administration in Damascus, Syria.

Meg Riley is a native of Minnesota and longtime resident of Arizona, where she lives with her husband and dog and her two daughters (during college breaks). After graduating from the University of Vermont with a political science degree, she returned to Minnesota to work on her master’s in teaching and start her teaching career. She has worked in a variety of education spaces, including eight years teaching middle school social studies and nine years teaching high school ESL. After leaving the classroom, she transitioned into managing federal AmeriCorps grants at Prescott College. These education grants were focused on implementing a community schools strategy in under-resourced public schools to reduce chronic absenteeism and increase graduation rates and postsecondary access to college and career. She later served as program director overseeing a large education grant and an economic opportunity grant utilizing AmeriCorps members working with preschool age to high school students and developing job readiness skills for opportunity youth. Meg continued working in federal grants at a large public school district writing grants and coordinating implementation of the funds, services, and monitoring for schools identified for federal improvement. In addition, she facilitated the Arizona cohort of the pilot Refugee Educator Academy and has assisted in the revitalization of the course.

Alisa is an educator with over a decade of experience in foreign language pedagogy. She has taught Spanish, Russian, and English as a Second Language to learners of all ages. Outside of the classroom, Alisa writes language development curriculum for students in grades K-12 with a focus on interactive and technology-aided learning. She is passionate about training teachers – especially those working with vulnerable and language-minority populations – to be effective in their practice. She is a graduate of Kenyon College and holds master’s degrees from Northeastern University and the University of Massachusetts with specializations in Education and Applied Linguistics.

Oula Abu-Amsha is the Learning & Development Coordinator at INEE, Switzerland. A former Syrian professor, she completed her Ph.D in Computer Science in 1998. She has significant experience in e-learning technologies and curriculum development. Since her exile in 2012, she started her activities in Education in Emergencies working with the World Bank education team and conducting research in Lebanon. Since 2016, she has been the academic adviser of Mosaik Education. Before joining INEE, Oula served students and facilitators from Guyana to Myanmar as the Chief Academic Officer of Jesuit Worldwide Learning. Oula is a big advocate for teachers, doing her best to serve them in all the open venues.

Catherine Casserly, Ph.D. is passionate about learning eco-systems that support high quality education experiences for all. As a catalyst for openness and innovation she works with organizations, often at the time of launch, to redesign formal and informal structures for increased impact. In these efforts, she currently works with the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation and the Lumina Foundation. Previously, Casserly was a Fellow with the Aspen Institute, Vice President of Learning Networks at EdCast, CEO of Creative Commons, Vice President at the Carnegie Foundation, and Director of the Open Educational Resources Initiative for The William & Flora Hewlett Foundation. Early in her career, she taught mathematics in Kingston, Jamaica. Casserly earned her Ph.D. in the economics of education from Stanford University.

Sarah Dryden-Peterson is an Associate Professor at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. She leads a research program that focuses on the connections between education and community development, specifically the role that education plays in building peaceful and participatory societies. Her work is situated in conflict and post-conflict settings in sub-Saharan Africa and with African Diaspora communities. She is concerned with the interplay between local experiences of children, families, and teachers and the development and implementation of national and international policy. Her research reflects connections between practice, policy and scholarship, and is strengthened through long-term collaborations with UN agencies, NGOs and communities. Dryden-Peterson’s long-term research on refugee education has played a critical role in shaping global policy on the importance of quality, forward-looking education in all phases of conflict. Her critical review of refugee education formed the basis of the 2012-2016 UNHCR Education Strategy. Her recent research is published in Educational Researcher, Comparative Education Review, and Curriculum Inquiry, and preliminary findings from on-going research appear in a Brookings blog series. Raised in Toronto, Canada, Dryden-Peterson taught primary school in Madagascar, South Africa as well as the United States, and founded education non-profits in South Africa and Uganda.

Dr. Asiya Foster is an early childhood practitioner with experience in teacher training, curriculum development, policy, and systems planning. She is currently the Chief Innovations Officer for EarlystART, where she works on early childhood workforce development and advocacy issues. Dr. Foster is the Vice President of the World Organization for Early Childhood Education (OMEP) US National Committee. As a member of OMEP, she participates in the UN NGO Committee on Migration and the Subcommittee on Children in Migration. Her interests include global child development issues with a specialized focus on very young refugee and migrant children and their families. Dr. Foster has previously worked in federal universities in the Republic of Maldives and the United Arab Emirates. She holds an EdD in Educational Leadership and Policy Analysis and is currently pursuing a master’s in Global Development Practice.

Dr. Mary Mendenhall is an Assistant Professor of Practice in the International and Comparative Education Program at the Teachers College of Columbia University. Her current research and program interests include: policies and practices of refugee education across camp, urban and resettlement contexts; teacher support and professional development in crisis settings, including a new project that entails teacher training, peer coaching and mobile mentoring; and the relevance and sustainability of education in emergencies interventions. Dr. Mendenhall currently serves as the Chair of the Teachers in Crisis Contexts Working Group, an inter-agency effort to provide continuous, quality professional development to teachers working in displacement contexts. Previously, Dr. Mendenhall led the partnership between the International Rescue Committee and the University of Nairobi to develop the first-ever graduate program in education in emergencies from 2009 to 2013. She also served as the network coordinator for the Inter-agency Network for Education in Emergencies (INEE) from 2005 to 2007. More information about Dr. Mendenhall’s work on refugee education at Teachers College can be found here: <a href=”http://www.tc.columbia.edu/refugeeeducation/” target=”_blank” rel=”noopener”>http://www.tc.columbia.edu/refugeeeducation/</a>.

Dr. Carol R. Rodgers is an associate professor of education at the University at Albany, State University of New York.  Her work has focused on reflective practice, the educational philosophy of John Dewey, presence in teaching, the theory and practice of a humanizing pedagogy, the history of progressive teacher education and language teaching. Her publications include “Defining Reflection: Another Look at John Dewey and Reflective Thinking,” Teachers College Press (2002), which was given the AERA Award for Exemplary Research in 2004; “Seeing Student Learning: Teacher Change and the Role of Reflection,” Harvard Educational Review (2002); “Presence in Teaching,” Teachers and Teaching: Theory and Practice (2006), co-authored with Miriam Raider-Roth; “Attending to Student Voice,” Curriculum Inquiry (2006); “Development of the Personal Self and Professional Identity in Learning to Teach” Rodgers, C. and K. Scott (2008), in Cochran-Smith, Marilyn and Sharon Feiman-Nemser, (Eds.) Handbook of Research in Teacher Education; and “A Humanizing Pedagogy: Getting Beneath the Rhetoric,” in Perspectives in Education(2012), a South African journal. She has taught English as a Foreign Language (EFL) in Senegal, West Africa as a Peace Corps Volunteer, been a master teacher in EFL in the refugee camps of Southeast Asia (Indonesia), and consulted in Pakistan, Japan, Thailand, and the United States in EFL and ESL teacher education and teacher professional development. In the 2011 academic year she was a Fulbright Scholar at Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University in Port Elizabeth, South Africa. In the summer of 2014 she was named a noted scholar by the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada.

Jennifer Tracy is a marketing specialist who has given vital marketing assistance to the Center for Learning in Practice. She is currently an SVP at Viacom leading marketing strategy for all Viacom ad partners across MTV, VH1, CMT, Nickelodeon, Comedy Central, and Logo.

Mona Younes is an independent consultant in the field of ‘Education in Emergencies’. She has been conducting consultancies for international organizations, including the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, War Child Holland and Plan International in the Middle East and North Africa region. Her passion and specific niche of expertise lies in the area of using EdTech to empower refugee learners. Mona is currently conducting her PhD research at Lancaster University in the United Kingdom, aiming to understand the potentials of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) based learning in empowering secondary refugee students in Jordan. Mona has a Master degree in Online Education from the University of Southern Queensland. In 2008 she was awarded Certificate of Recognition for Outstanding Research Project by the Australian College of Educators for her research on “Perceptions and Attitudes of Arab Learners towards Online Learning.” She has been in the field of teaching, teacher training and curriculum design since 1987 and has worked in Egypt and Qatar.

Nancy White treasures her multiple identities as collaborator, connector, facilitator, learner, graphic recorder, provocateur, chocoholic, grandmother, gardener, etc. Her vocations include online interaction designer, technology steward, facilitator for communities of practice, learning, distributed teams, the generative application of social media and facilitation of online communities. Through her consultancy, Full Circle Associates Nancy helps organizations connect through online and offline strategies.  She has a special interest in the NGO/NPO sector and has worked extensively in international development. Nancy blogs , teaches, presents and writes on online facilitation and interaction, social architecture and social media. She is co-author with Etienne Wenger and John Smith of “Digital Habitats: stewarding technology for communities.” Prior to her solo career, Nancy helped run an internet start up, worked in maternal and child health, and broadcasting, appreciating the diversity and similarities of all these callings.

Marissa Ricamara Winmill was born, raised, and educated in the Quezon Province, Philippines. She spent her first ten years of her career teaching in Catholic schools in Manila. In 2002, she landed a teaching job in La Joya, Texas, as a reading specialist, and three years later, she made a move to Washington, where she now resides. She teachers ELLs at Kent-Meridian High School, one of the most diverse high schools in the nation. The nearly 200 refugee students she serves and teaches, inspire her to continue to advocate for access, social justice, equity, and excellence in her school, district, and state. Marissa holds her National Board Certification in Teaching English as a New Language, and a master’s in educational leadership with principal certification. She is currently working on her doctorate in educational leadership. She serves as a board member for the Washington State Professional Educator Standards Board and as a leader for a network of Teachers of Color in Washington. Marissa led the Refugee Educator Foundations of Practice Washington pilot cohort, which drives her in building an inclusive and dynamic community of refugee teacher practitioners committed to supporting students of refugee backgrounds to not only survive but thrive.