Current & Former Doctoral Students​

Diana Rodríguez-Gómez

Ed.D., International Educational Development, 2016
Diana is an assistant professor in the Department of Educational Policy Studies at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. Her research agenda engages with the fields of anthropology of the state, refugee studies, education in emergencies, and comparative and international education to examine the internal workings of educational systems concerning peace-building efforts. With a regional focus on Latin America, through qualitative and ethnographic methodologies, she explores the everyday experiences of education stakeholders.

Sandra Sirota

 Ed.D., International Educational Development, 2017
Sandra’s research and teaching expertise center on human rights and social justice education in formal and non-formal settings in the United States and South Africa. She is a post-doctoral fellow with the Human Rights Institute at the University of Connecticut. Her recent publications explore teacher education in human rights, human rights education in South African textbooks, and human rights education in curricula and classrooms in the United States.  

Kayum Ahmed

Ph.D., International and Comparative Education, 2019
​Kayum is the division director for Access & Accountability at the Public Health Program (PHP) of the Open Society Foundations in New York where he leads PHP's global work on access to medicines and innovation. He also teaches a class on socio-economic rights as an adjunct faculty member at Columbia Law School.

Marlana Salmon-Letelier

Ed.D., Internationl Educational Development, 2019
​Marlana is an adjunct professor at Teachers College, Columbia University, research consultant for World Bank Group, workshop facilitator at International Young Scholars, and founder of Kaleidoscope Travel, a study abroad company dedicated to expanding student’s knowledge of conflict in various conflict settings around the globe.

Daniela Kempf

Ph.D. Student, International and Comparative Education
​Daniela's research examines the role of citizenship education in inculcating democratic norms and behaviors. She is especially interested in exploring the relationship between deliberation-focused pedagogy and students' democratic competencies in the post-socialist context.

Tobore Egborge

Ed.D. Student, International Educational Development
Tobore's research focuses on the role of civic education in the construction of national identity and citizenship in African contexts.

Paula Mantilla-Blanco

Ph.D. Student, International and Comparative Education
Paula's research and scholarly interests include education in post-conflict and transitional contexts, as well as the construction and transmission of collective memories of violence. She is particularly interested in the use of memory sites, such as museums and memorials, as pedagogical tools for teaching about a violent past and educating for peacebuilding. Most of her work focuses on issues in Colombia, her home country. ​

Katrina Webster

Ph.D. Student, International and Comparative Education
Katrina is interested in the role of multi-national corporations in funding and supporting global education, particularly within education public-private partnerships. Her research centers on understanding the sense-making process of different stakeholders in these partnerships, how partnerships are portrayed versus enacted, and how private actors' decision-making to align with SDGs varies across different historical, political and economic contexts in the Global South. 

Livia Calvet

Ed.D. Student, International Educational Development
Livia's research interests converge around formal and informal education structures in conflict and post-conflict settings; internal displacement and increasing access to education for refugee populations; post-conflict/post-genocide memory and trauma; the role of education in local and international transitional justice mechanisms; language, identity and peace-building; and decolonizing curriculums and reclaiming narratives. Her geographical knowledge and areas of interest include the Great Lakes Region of Africa (particularly Democratic Republic of Congo and Rwanda), Palestine, and Lebanon.

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