The Fulbright Association is proud to feature the following speakers for session presentations at its Virtual 43rd Annual Conference, “Where Does the World Go from Here?”  Please note that this list is subject to change.

Opening Plenary

Caroline Levander

Vice President for Global and Digital Strategy at Rice University

Dr. Caroline Levander is the Vice President for Global and Digital Strategy at Rice University. In this capacity, she is responsible for expanding the university’s global impact through the development of new degrees, academic programs, partnerships, and research collaborations that increase the university’s global impact and innovate Rice’s educational enterprise with new technologies.

Levander joined the Rice faculty in 2001 and is Professor of English and Carlson Professor in the Humanities. She has authored many books and articles on American culture and teaches both undergraduate and graduate courses in the English department.

In her current administrative role she develops and oversees Rice’s expanding international strategy, program development, and the coordination of international activities across the university. Levander works closely with faculty to direct Rice’s growing strategy for international engagement and impact in Latin America, Europe, Asia-Pacific and Africa. The university’s global presence and international partnerships increasingly depend upon strategic use of digital education technologies, which also fall under Levander’s leadership. Levander develops all of the university’s online offerings and has built the university’s in-house provider for digital content and innovation, Rice Online Learning, which supports new degrees and the transformation of all face-to-face courses to online and hybrid modalities. Her office builds and maintains external digital education partnerships and other university collaborations, such as OpenStax.

Shakirah Simley

Director of the Office of Racial Equity for the City and County of San Francisco

In her current role, Ms. Simley is responsible for advancing a citywide racial equity framework to address the history of structural and institutional racism in San Francisco’s delivery of services to the public, and its internal practices and systems.

Previously, she has worked in food policy and community development work, and operated an artisan preserves company to channel her passion for social justice into improving the nation’s food system. She completed her Fulbright year in Pollenzo, Italy studying for her master’s degree at the University of Gastronomic Sciences.

Maulik Pancholy

Award-winning actor, author and activist

He is known for his comedic turns on television playing Jonathan on NBC’s critically acclaimed 30 Rock, Sanjay on Showtime’s Weeds, and Neal on NBC’s Whitney. He is the voice of Baljeet on Disney’s Phineas and Ferb, and the title voice of Sanjay on Nickelodeon’s Sanjay and Craig. On stage, he starred opposite Matthew Broderick and Martin Short in Broadway’s It’s Only A Play, opposite Ed Harris in Good for Otto, and recently completed the Broadway run of Grand Horizons.

In October 2019, Pancholy released his first book, The Best at It (Balzer + Bray/HarperCollins). It was named a 2020 Stonewall Honor Book, a 2019 Junior Library Guild Selection, a Chicago Public Library Best of the Best Books, and received starred reviews from Kirkus Reviews, Publishers Weekly, and the American Library Association’s Booklist. Drawn from his own experience, The Best at It is about a 12-year-old, gay, Indian American Boy coming into his own.

A longtime advocate for the Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) and LGBTQIA+ communities, Pancholy was appointed by President Obama to serve on the President’s Advisory Commission on AAPIs. During his three-year tenure from 2014-2017, he spearheaded the launch of the anti-bullying campaign ActToChange.org, an organization which he continues to Chair today.

John Sargent

Co-Founder, BroadReach Healthcare

Zurich, Switzerland

Thought leader and globally recognized innovator focused technologies of the 4^th Industrial Revolution to radically transform healthcare delivery outcomes. He co-founded the BroadReach Group in 2003, a group of health solutions businesses focused on improving the health and well-being of under-served populations around the world. He was recognized by the World Economic Forum as one of the Social Entrepreneurs of the Year in 2015, by Frost & Sullivan with the Visionary Leadership Award in Healthcare, and by Devex as one of the Top 40 Under 40 Leaders in Development.

Prior to co-founding BroadReach, John was a management consultant specializing in strategic and clinical operations projects across public and private-health sectors. He earned an undergraduate degree from Dartmouth College, a master’s degree from Oxford University as a Fulbright Scholar and an MD from Harvard Medical School.

Krishna Guha

Vice Chairman of Evercore ISI

Heads the Global Policy and Central Bank Strategy team based in Washington, D.C. In the 2019 Institutional Investor All-America Research Team, Evercore ISI’s Policy team was ranked #1 and Mr. Guha was ranked #1 as an individual.

Prior to joining the firm, Mr. Guha was Executive Vice President, Member of the Management Committee and Head of the Communications Group at the New York Fed from 2010 to 2013. In this capacity he led the New York Fed’s external relations, acted as a senior advisor to President William C Dudley on monetary policy strategy and policy communication, and served as a member of the New York Fed’s Executive Committee on Financial Stability and Regulatory Policy.

Mr. Guha also chaired the New York Fed’s policy speech-writing process, co-chaired its housing policy working group and managed a department of about 60 officials. As a Member of the Management Committee, he shared responsibility for charting the overall strategy of the New York Fed, developing its capabilities and evaluating and managing risks faced by the institution.

Selma Jeanne Cohen Lecture Awardee

Janaki Patrik

Artistic Director, The Kathak Ensemble & Friends/CARAVAN, Inc.

Trained in both classical north Indian Kathak dance (PadmaVibhushan Pt. Birju Maharaj, beginning 1967) and Merce Cunningham modern dance technique (1971 to 1978), Janaki Patrik has choreographed thirty full-evening productions and numerous shorter works exploring an eclectic range of poetry, mythic storytelling, classical and contemporary music and dance.

Artistic Director and Founder (1978) of The Kathak Ensemble & Friends/CARAVAN 1978, Janaki has presented solo and group productions at venues including Lincoln Center Out-of-Doors Festival, Symphony Space and Carnegie Hall in New York City; The Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C.; Indian International Center/New Delhi and Bindadin Maharaj Rangmanch in Lucknow.

A dedicated teacher, Janaki has trained dancers to perform an extensive repertoire of classical Kathak, as well as her new choreography. Teaching and performing in inner-city schools through Urban Gateways/Chicago and Young Audiences/New York for forty years, Janaki has embodied the power of dance and music to communicate the interconnections of all cultures. Read More.

1946 Session

John Zogby

Pollster, author, trend-spotter, and thought leader

John has spent the past four decades as one of the most accurate pollsters in the world, conducting business in 80 countries, and leading the way in finding the meaning, story, direction, and usefulness of the data collected.

His client list is a Who’s Who of Fortune 500 companies (GE, Microsoft, Cisco Systems, Coca-Cola, IBM); global NGO’s (UNAIDS, the World Health Organization); and government agencies (the US State Department, US Department of Defense, the Mayors of New York City, Houston, Miami).

His unique data-driven analysis has led to board and commission memberships for think tanks (the Center for Strategic and International Studies Commission on Smart Power and the Advisory Commission on Biotechnology); the Congressionally-appointed Advisory Commission of Public Diplomacy; global non-governmental organization like Sudan Sunrise (which he chaired for four years) and the AMAR Foundation; economic development and entrepreneurial promotion (Upstate Venture Connect); and health care (Bassett Health Care Network) — among others. He has found time to mentor hundreds of students over the years.

He has received three honorary doctorates and one Chancellor’s Award for Excellence. His three sons have followed in his footsteps. He lives with his wife, Kathy, a former special education teacher and children’s book author, in Upstate New York.

Panel Sessions

Session #1 – Race, Racism, and Diversity

Ashleigh Brown-Grier

Increasing Diversity in International Exchange

Ashleigh Brown-Grier is pursuing a Ph.D at Howard University in the Higher Education Leadership and Policy Studies. Her research focus is internationalization at Historically Black Colleges and Universities—specifically international student support. As an IIE Fulbright Alumni Ambassador, she assists with conducting outreach for the Fulbright Program. She is also a Graduate Assistant at the Center for Honor and Scholar Development at Howard University.

Ashleigh was a Fulbright English Teaching Assistant in Malaysia during the 2016-2017 grant year. Her experience as a Fulbright English Teaching Assistant (ETA) highlighted a disparity amongst Black students and graduates of HBCUs. With this knowledge, she founded Fulbright HBCU, social media pages (FB, IG, Twitter), to highlight HBCU Fulbright grantees; and spread awareness about the Fulbright program to HBCU students.

Andrea Joseph

Using Critical Race Theory and Trauma Informed Care to Identify and Address Racialized Trauma Experienced by Youth

Andrea Joseph is an assistant professor of social work at the University of Tennessee Knoxville – College of Social Work. She earned her PhD at the University of Pittsburgh where she studied the impact of restorative practices on reducing racially disproportional school suspensions. Her inspiration for this research area was developed during her year as a Fulbright Post Graduate at the University of London – Institute of Education. Prior to this, Andrea worked for the Anti-Defamation League facilitating Anti-Bias trainings in K-16 settings. She continues to do this work in schools and various organizations through consultation work.

Peeriya Pongsarigun & John Joseph Viano

Promoting Racial Integration in Children’s Books

Peeriya Pongsarigun and John Joseph Viano are award-winning translators, who are current and former lecturers at Chulalongkorn University, Thailand, respectively. They have authored three dual-language books and translated over 100 books and have provided translation services to organizations. Peeriya Pongsarigun was a Fulbright Language Teaching Assistant at the University of Pennsylvania between 2018 and 2019. Peeriya Pongsarigun and John Joseph Viano are frequent contributors to the University of Pennsylvania’s translation magazine and presenters at international conferences regarding language and translation. Together they founded InterThaiMedia LLC to create media that brings people together across languages and cultures.

Session #2 – Environmental/Addressing Current Challenges

Annalise Klein

Empowering Tomorrow’s Scientists: Culturally Relevant Education for Global Classrooms

Annalise Klein is a science educator in culturally responsible science and project based learning. She holds a B.A. in chemistry and English from Hope College and an M.S. Ed from Johns Hopkins University. She has seven years of science education experience in Hawai’i, California, and Alaska public schools.

A Fulbright DAST award recipient in 2019, Klein worked with teachers at Serere Township Secondary School in Uganda to develop best practices in STEM inquiry and interdisciplinary projects. They developed a community-based project testing the effects of local waste materials as crop fertilizers for their families’ subsistence farms.

Currently, Klein works with a tribal school district in Alaska designing project-based and indigenous learning opportunities and culturally aligned science curriculum.

Michael Young and Sandy George

A Time to Talk: Raising Antiracist Kids

Michael Young is the illustrator of “A Time to Talk,” a High School Visual Arts teacher, and Fulbright ETA in Madrid, Spain from 2011-2012. He holds MSEd. degrees in Bilingual Education and Educational Leadership. Michael is based in New York City.

Sandy George is the author of “A Time to Talk” and an Elementary School Special Educator who has always loved literature. She holds MSEd. degrees in Special Education and Educational Leadership. Sandy is based in New York City.

Kristin Lems

Environmental Education project for English language learners

Kristin Lems has had two Fulbright Awards, to Algeria (1983-85) and Mongolia (2013), working with practicing teachers of English as a Foreign Language. She has also worked in Chile as a State Dept. Senior ESL Specialist. Her book, Building Literacy with English Language Learners: Insights from Linguistics (2e, Guilford Press) has been used with teachers in China as well as South America. Lems has presented and published about using music to teach English/language/literacy on many occasions, including annually as a pre-conference institute at TESOL. She is a Professor of ESL/Bilingual Education at National Louis University in Chicago.

Gloria Simoneaux & Lillian Obonyo

Building upon a Fulbright fellowship in Kenya

Gloria Simoneaux is founding director of Harambee Arts (www.harambeearts.org), an Expressive Arts organization and training program based in sub-Saharan Africa and Nepal. Harambee Arts is designed to serve children globally who have been traumatized by illness, poverty, violence, trafficking, autistic spectrum disorder and other crises. Gloria taught Expressive Arts to counselors in Nairobi as a Fulbright scholar, affiliated with the Kenya Association of Professional Counselors. She is the Founder of DrawBridge: An Arts Program for Homeless Children, has worked with pediatric oncology patients in San Francisco hospitals and is currently a Fulbright scholar in Dominica.

Lillian Obonyo has a background in community nursing. She is a Senior Counsellor and a child therapist, currently a certified Addiction professional ICAP II and mental health expert. Lilian is well rounded and has vast experience (18 years) in counselling psychotherapy. Her career begun as a clinical nurse where she worked in the ministry of Health in the Government of Kenya. While in the clinical practice, she developed a passion in counseling. She is the Country Director of Harambee Arts program in Kenya, overseeing and supervising three sites namely; Langata Women’s’ Prisons where she facilitates psychosocial group of women living with HIV and serving their sentence, Mathare Special school for special needs children and Kibera slums where they offer art therapy to children.

Session #3 – The Arts as a Way Forward

Heather Barfield

Devising Theater, Together and Apart: Innovating Multivocality in Performing Migrant Stories

Dr. Heather Barfield has an extensive background in theater history, criticism, theory, and practice. She is Professor of Drama at Austin Community College. Throughout her career, she has worked as performer, scholar, director, producer, writer, archivist, and arts administrator in the Austin, Texas theater and cultural communities. She received her Ph.D. in Performance as Public Practice from the University of Texas at Austin, and has served as Associate Artistic and Development Director at VORTEX Repertory Theatre. In Fall 2019, Dr. Barfield conducted theatre research in France as a U.S. Fulbright Scholar. She curated community-devised performances and workshop projects titled “Performing Migrant Stories” in collaboration with Aix-Marseille Université, IREMAM , Compagnie La Scène Manassa, Agir in Aix-en-Provence, and OICEM in Marseille.

Jacob Carter

Building Bridges: Creative Expression as a Vehicle for Dialogue Across Difference

With over 14 years of experience working with for-impact organizations in the USA and in Central America, I am deeply inspired by the passion and commitment of the many groups using education as a catalyst for social change. Whether spearheading new initiatives for small nonprofits, conducting national policy research, leading organizational change processes, partnering with food service workers in public schools, developing career ladders for frontline workers, or teaching undergraduate students, I am committed to a participatory process that builds on the unique strengths of individuals and organizations. Jacob is a Ph.D. candidate in International Education, was awarded a Fulbright Clinton to Guatemala in 2015, is a co-founder of Building Bridges and currently serves as the Project Director. Building Bridges is a public art and engagement initiative at UMass Amherst that draws on the power of solidarity and creative expression to bring people together and create a bridge across difference.

Laurel Gray

“A good dancer can perform in a single space” : How Zoom Brought Uzbek Dance Traditions to Global Homes

Dance scholar, choreographer, performer, and costume designer, Laurel Victoria Gray specializes in women’s dances from Silk Road cultures and the Islamic World. Her articles have appeared in publications including the Oxford University Press International Encyclopedia of Dance, the Encyclopedia of Modern Asia, and the Encyclopedia of Women in Islamic Culture. She teaches Global Dance History at George Washington University.

Called “the pioneer of Uzbek dance in America,” Gray has studied dance in Central Asia and the Caucasus, including two years at the invitation of Uzbekistan’s State Academic Bolshoi Theater. In 1995, she founded the award- winning Silk Road Dance Company; in 2015, they performed at the very first White House Nowruz celebration. In 2009, Gray presented the Selma Jeanne Cohen International Dance Scholar lecture.

Pamela Howland

Music Unites Us

Pamela Howland is a gifted American pianist, Steinway Artist, 2017-18 U.S. Fulbright Scholar to Poland, arranger/composer, and educator. Her passion for promoting classical music has led her to develop a unique style of performance, allowing her audiences to go away inspired, educated, and entertained. She holds the Doctor of Musical Arts degree from the Eastman School of Music, and served for many years at Wake Forest University as a professor of music. Howland has appeared from coast to coast in the United States as both soloist and chamber musician, toured Poland under the auspices of the U.S. Department of State, and has recorded 18 CDs. Her version of Chopin’s “Farewell Waltz,” has over 11 MILLION listens on SPOTIFY. www.pamelahowland.com

Session #4 – Peace, Education, and Social Justice

Sarah Mclewin

Promoting Peace and Justice through English Language Instruction: From Euro-Centric to Globally Woke

Sarah McLewin is a Program Officer for Fulbright at the U.S. Department of State and brings experience in program management, training, and teaching at all levels, from primary through graduate. In 2018 she was a Fulbright English Teaching Assistant in Morocco, where she also led workshops on conflict resolution and global barriers to accessing education, impacting 100 students and civic leaders. Prior to Fulbright, Ms. McLewin was Director of Global Education at the World Affairs Council, managing seven youth and teacher-training programs for over 350 students and educators. From 2013 to 2017 Ms. McLewin worked at George Mason University in various roles, including Director of the Conflict Resolution Youth Summit and Homestay Coordinator of the Indonesia-US Youth Leadership Program. Hailing from Norfolk, Virginia, Ms. McLewin earned a B.A. in English at Berea College and a Master’s in Conflict Resolution at George Mason University.

Julia Pataky

Promoting Lasting Peace through International Education

Julia Pataky is an Austrian Fulbright Scholar and holds an MA degree in intercultural and international communication with a concentration in public diplomacy from American University‘s School of International Service. Prior to her research in the United States, she worked to strengthen public diplomacy relations between Austria and the United States at the Public Affairs Section of the US Embassy in Vienna. Her project is the result of her Fulbright grant and is inspired by her time at the Press and Public Diplomacy Section of the EU Delegation to the United States where she focused on the strategic implementation of the European Commission’s foreign policy instruments in the United States. She currently works at the federal cultural institute of Germany, the Goethe-Institut USA.

Mary Ann Stanton

Building Bridges Between People with Fulbright Travel

Mary Ann Stanton is the Chair of the Fulbright Travel Task Force and a director on both the Fulbright Association National Board and the Minnesota Chapter. Mary’s Fulbright grant was a Fulbright Teacher Exchange in New Delhi, India where she taught English at Bal Bharati Public School, Pitampura in 2010-11. She has also worked, studied, and volunteered in several countries. Mary has a BA in French and Secondary Education from the University of Colorado, Boulder; le Premier et Deuxieme Degres from the University of Bordeaux, France; a BS in English Education from the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, and a MA in French and English Literature from St. Cloud State University. With a lifetime goal to make the world a peaceful and better place, Mary believes Fulbright offers the most effective programs to create mutual understanding among cultures through person-to-person international connections. Mary invites you to experience this on one of Fulbright’s trips.

Mary Shepard Wong

Teaching for Peace and Social Justice in Myanmar

Dr. Mary Shepard Wong is a two-time Fulbright Scholar (Hong Kong 2012-13 and Burma/Myanmar 2015-16) and PI of several grants, including two commissioned by the Hong Kong Education Bureau. Her doctorate is in International Education (USC), and masters are in East Asian Languages and Cultures (UCLA) and TESOL (APU). She is Professor and Director of TESOL Field-based programs at Azusa Pacific University (APU) where she is also Interim Associate Dean of Graduate Programs and Research. She has taught for 40 years in the US, Hong Kong, Thailand, and Myanmar and has conducted over 145 presentations, and edited/authored four books and 30 referred articles and book chapters. She is currently an English Language Specialist for Vietnam and the Fulbright Program Advisor at APU.

Session #5 – COVID-19/Health

Violet Barton

Confronting COVID-19: Nahuat-Pipil Feminisms, Cosmovision and Life in Kushkatan

An indigenous descendant and artist, Violet E. Barton is a Ph.D. Candidate in the Interdisciplinary Humanities at the University of California, Merced. Her research interests are indigenous statelessness and survivance as embodied geographies at the intersections of colonialism, empire, and war in the global South. She has over 20 years of professional experience in health and Public Health and is currently learning Modern Standard Arabic, Nahuatl, and Nahuat-Pipil as part of her research. She is the recipient of several prestigious fellowships and awards, including the Fulbright U.S. Student Program Research Grant (2018/2019) to El Salvador.

Henrike Beverungen

COVID-19, ClinicBuddy and the #wirvsvirus hackathon in Germany – a thought-provoking talk about the power of innovation from within the population to solve current social challenges

I have volunteered in many different social projects and been the team leader of some of them. During my medical studies, I received a Fulbright scholarship in 2013/14 to study Neuroscience at Drexel, Philadelphia. Today, I am becoming a urologist and haven’t stopped participating in community projects. Beside being a doctor and leading my start-up ClinicBuddy, I love doing triathlon.

Pritesh Chakraborty

Go Graphic: Creating Awareness of Healthy Habits through Comic Books

My name is Pritesh Chakraborty and I am from India. I am a former Fulbright Foreign Language Teaching Assistant (Hindi) in New York University. I am an Assistant Professor of English at a college named Acharya Sukumar Sen Mahavidyalaya, West Bengal, India. I have obtained by PhD degree from West Bengal State University. I have obtained my M.Phil. Degree from Calcutta University. I am researching on superhero comic books of Batman and Indian superheros. I am interested in creative writing. I have published academic articles in scholarly journals and have attended quite a number of seminars and conferences, both international and national.

Julianne Rolf

Reimagining Water Treatment for Rural and Water-Scarce Communities: Potential of Solar Energy-Powered Membrane Distillation Technology

Julianne Rolf is a fourth-year student in Prof. Menachem Elimelech’s research group in the Department of Chemical and Environmental Engineering at Yale University. Originally from California, she holds a true commitment to water quality and resources. Julianne completed her B.S. at the University of California, Riverside, where she gained hands-on experience as an undergraduate researcher focusing on electrically-conductive carbon-nanotube membranes for organic and highly saline water. Following her B.S., she spent a year as a Fulbright Scholar in the northeast region of Germany. She analyzed lake trophic status, cyanobacteria concentrations, and their impact on the temporal sequence of calcite precipitation using data collected at twelve sample sites for over 40 years. Julianne’s research interests at Yale have expanded to include pre-treatment chemicals and polymer synthesis. Moreover, she focuses on modifying membrane surface morphology to increase water recovery during industrial treatment processes. During her Ph.D. work, she is centering her work on antiscalant mechanisms and effectiveness with membrane processes.

Session #6 – Education

Carolina Cuesta

Are we really teaching novice Instructional Designers to be Creative? A Qualitative Case Study

Carolina Cuesta is a Fulbright Scholar and a Ph.D. student in Learning Design and Technology at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana. She holds a Master’s degree in Science, Technology, and Innovation Management (2016) from the University of Antioquia in Colombia and a Bachelor in Microbiology (2008) from the same University. Carolina has been teaching Entrepreneurship and Innovation for 3 years, and has experience in managing innovation projects, product development, and applied research in the industry in Colombia. Her research interests center around how to foster creativity and innovation in learning environments.

Elio Leturia

Film: The Bewitching Hours (shows systemic racism and social inequality)

Elio Leturia is an associate professor in the journalism program at Columbia College Chicago. A specialist in visual journalism, he holds a B.S. and a Licenciatura professional title in Communications, both from Universidad de Lima, Peru, and a M.S. in Journalism from University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Since 1981 he has worked as a designer and art director at several national newspapers and magazines in the United States and abroad. His articles have appeared in the Detroit Free Press, San Jose Mercury News, The Miami Herald, The Desert Sun, El Comercio, RedEye, HOY, Revista Somos, Visualmente.com, The Huffington Post, as well as in encyclopedias and specialized journals. His design work has been recognized by the Society for News Design, the National Association of Hispanic Journalists, the American Institute of Graphic Arts, and the Associated Church Press. He has given presentations in the United States, Latin America, Europe and Asia. He is the Communications Director of the Chicago Chapter of the Fulbright Association. His documentary “Tita Turns 100” premiered at the Chicago Feminist Film Festival in 2016, winning the Lisagor Award in the Best Short Film Documentary category in 2017. His bilingual historical book “Aguijón 30 Years” was published in August 2019. Leturia is also an ensemble member of Aguijón Theater Company of Chicago.

Kate Spanos

Decolonial and anti-racist practices in ethnographic Fulbright research

Co-presenters: Padmini Boruah, Loneka Wilkinson Battiste, Nancy Carvajal Medina

Kate Spanos, Ph.D. is a dancer, educator, and scholar who completed her postdoctoral U.S. Scholar Fulbright in Recife, Brazil in 2018. Her research focuses on “dances of resistance” in Brazil and the Caribbean to examine how embodied strategies enact social change for marginalized communities. The idea for this panel grew out of a series of workshops that she organized in partnership with Fulbridge in 2020, during which she gathered Fulbrighters from various countries and disciplines to engage in a dialogue about ethnographic research. She is also co-founder and president of EducArte, a non-profit organization dedicated to building cross-cultural communities of artists and audiences. Ph.D. dance and performance studies, University of Maryland; M.A. traditional Irish dance performance, University of Limerick; B.A. cognitive science, University of Virginia.

Padmini Bhuyan Boruah is Professor and Head of the Department of English Language Teaching, Gauhati University, India, and has just completed her Fulbright Teaching & Research Fellowship (2019-20) at SOLES, University of San Diego, CA. She is interested in promoting teacher agency in multilingual contexts, visibility for cultural responsiveness in English language textbooks, and action research for socially just teacher professional development. Her current project relates to developing critical consciousness in teacher candidates supporting refugee background students in mainstream US schools. She is also collaborating with three US based academics on a book on English language education and social inequalities in South Asia, with specific reference to India.

Nancy E. Carvajal Medina, self-identifies as a human being under-construction. Her critical-decolonial work WITH/FOR/WITHIN communities is grounded on critical theories, Chicana/Latina Feminism and indigenous knowledges. She is an EFL teacher educator in Colombia. She holds a PhD in Cultural Studies and Social Thought in Education, Washington State University. She is a Colombian Fulbright Alumnus. She was awarded the 2018 Illinois Distinguished Qualitative Dissertation Award for her study “TESTIMONIOS OF THE U.S. RURAL “HOMELESS”: A CRITICAL AND DECOLONIZING-DECOLONIZED ETHNOGRAPHY”. Currently, she is an advisor for the Academic vice-chancellor at Universidad Pedagógica y Tecnológica de Colombia.

Loneka Wilkinson Battiste is Assistant Professor of Music Education at the University of Tennessee where her duties include teaching undergraduate and graduate courses in music education. She has 12 years of experience teaching children and youth in a variety of contexts, including a K-12 elementary general music and choral program, church choral groups, and an innovative summer performing arts program she co-developed and directed. She currently serves as Immediate Past Co-Chair of both the Education Section and the Gertrude Robinson Network for the Society of Ethnomusicology (SEM), Co-Chair of the Crossroads Section for Diversity and Representation for SEM, and Music Education Representative for the Southern Chapter of the College Music Society. Her scholarly work centers on culturally responsive teaching in music education.

Session #7 – International Exchange

Bruce Fowler

America Benefits When There is Equality of Opportunity

B.S. degree in Fisheries University of Washington (1968), Ph.D. University o)f Oregon Medical School (1972). Research Biologist, at NIEHS/NIH, Director of the University of Maryland Toxicology Program. Associate Director for Science Division of Toxicology, CDC / ATSDR. Adjunct Professor, Emory SPH and Presidents Professor UAF-Fairbanks. Dr. Fowler is an international expert on metal toxicology and a current member of the FAO/WHO JECFA committee and Fulbright Association BOD. Fellow of the Japanese SPS, Fulbright Scholar and Visiting Professor Karolinska Institute. Fellow Academy of Toxicological Sciences (ATS) and member Council of SOT and BOD ATS. Dr. Fowler is the author of over 260 research papers / book chapters and authored or edited / co-edited and 10 books on metal induced cell injury/cell death.

Sudha Bhagwat Haley, Ph.D.
The first thing you’ll notice upon meeting Sudha is her passion and commitment to pursuing justice and empowering members of her diverse community. She has served at the highest levels in the United  States government, focusing on international labor issues.  Since her recent retirement, Sudha tirelessly volunteers and advocates for several significant causes.  She serves on AARP Maryland’s Executive Council, chairs the Census 2020 Complete Count Committee, serves as Vice President of the Maryland Federal employee and retirees’ association, is on the Worldwide Responsible Accredited Production Board of Directors and works with Blue Star Mothers and Veterans, among others. Born in Poona, India, Sudha came to the US for college, earning her Ph.D. She continues her Indian ties through her Kathak performance of Indian classical dance. For her Fulbright, she pursued study and research in Israel. Based in Jerusalem, she traveled from the Golan Heights to Eilat, also performing Kathak at the Rubin Academy in Jerusalem.  She chose Israel for its religious significance in her life, and for her Fulbright objective to study their public administration, political system, and national elections, occurring during her Fulbright.

John Vogel
Senior Counsel at Crowell & Moring LLP in Washington, DC, Mr. Vogel is a principal in the firm’s business group and specializes in international corporate finance. Mr. Vogel has spoken and written on a variety of international financial issues and trends, including the increasing utilization throughout the world of Islamic financing for infrastructure projects.

Mr. Vogel received his Bachelor’s degree in history from Princeton University and earned his law degree from the University of Michigan Law School. Mr. Vogel was a Fulbright Scholar in Brussels, Belgium in 1968, where he was a stagiaire at the European Union and served as an assistant to the EU’s chief legal counsel. While serving at the European Union, Mr. Vogel worked closely with economists and lawyers in the area of harmonization of corporate and tax laws within the European Community. Mr. Vogel served as a member of the Board of Directors of the Fulbright Association’s National Capital Area Chapter. He has served on the Board of Directors of the Fulbright Association since 2009, and was previously Treasurer of the Association and a member of the Executive Committee of the Board of Directors.

Peter VanDerwater

How alumni can help support student and scholar recruitment

Peter VanDerwater is Head of Outreach and Recruitment for the Fulbright Student and Scholar Programs at the Institute of International Education (IIE). In this role, Peter is responsible for leading efforts to promote the Fulbright Program to U.S. students, researchers, faculty, administrators, professionals, and artists to grow and diversify the applicant pool, expand higher education networks, and communicate program value and impact. Peter Joined IIE in June of 2011 from The Fletcher School at Tufts University, where he served as Associate Director of Admissions and Financial Aid. His previous experience includes managing State Department-sponsored youth exchange programs for the Council on International Educational Exchange (CIEE) and teaching EFL in France, Japan, and Poland. He earned his BA in Communication from SUNY Geneseo and Master of Public Policy degree from Tufts University.

Poster Fair

Poster Fair #1 – Impact of the Pandemic

Michael Benevenia

Krisis: Unani medicine, Jugaad, and an unexpected drawing project

After Mike completed his BFA in visual art and art history at Rutgers University’s Mason Gross School of the Arts in New Jersey, he went to Hohokus School of Technical Trades where he learned structural plate steel welding. Mike then worked at the Sculpture Foundation’s Johnson Atelier first as a sculpture technician and then as departmental supervisor of the fabrication department. Moving to Baltimore, Benevenia attended the Rinehart School of Sculpture at Maryland Institute College of Art, completing his MFA thesis informed by research on American Civil War medicine and prosthetics. Mike then moved to Lancaster PA to manage Millersville University’s art studios and teach. Upon receiving a Fulbright-Nehru research fellowship in 2019, Mike left Millersville University to study sculpture and Unani medicine in India. Mike lived and worked in New Delhi for seven months, learning about traditional Unani medicine at Jamia Hamdard University in Delhi, and the Ibn Sina Academy of Medieval Medicine and Science in Aligarh. Due to the Covid19 pandemic, Mike was obliged to leave India and to return to the States in early 2020 where he is currently working on an extensive drawing project informed by his time in India.

Mike has shown his work across the East coast in solo and group exhibitions, was awarded a 2017 residency at Sculpture Space in Utica NY, presented at the 2017 National Museum of Civil War Medicine’s annual conference, and has been a Janet & Walter Sondheim ARTSCAPE Prize Semi-Finalist in both 2016 and 2018. In 2018 Benevenia began a long-term collaboration as the first artist-in-residence at the National Museum of Civil War Medicine in Frederick, Maryland. The first of three solo exhibitions with the Museum, “Redressing the Wound” ran from 2018- 2019. The second exhibition is upcoming at the Clara Barton Missing Soldiers Office Museum, Washington D.C., followed by the Pry House Field Hospital on Antietam National Battlefield, Keedysville, Maryland.

William Hills

The Pandemic and the Rise of Virtual Communication Technologies in Tele-healthcare Service Provision: Behavioral Health Solutions and the Way Forward

William Hills is Professor and past-Chair of Psychology at Coastal Carolina University in Conway, South Carolina. He holds degrees in biological psychology (PhD, MS) from the University of Georgia and Social Work (MSW) from the University of South Carolina. His research interests are in gerontology, he is a Fellow in the Academy for Gerontology in Higher Education, and he has published and presented nationally and internationally on his work. He taught gerontology on a Fulbright Scholarship to the Russian Federation (spring, 2013), and he was previously involved in Fulbright-Hayes Group Projects Abroad to Poland (summer 1992, 2003). He has conducted US-Russia Peer-to-Peer Dialogue grant-funded research in Moscow, and, most recently, served as a Fulbright Scholar to Poland (spring, 2019), working in the Department of Family Medicine at the Medical University of Lublin. He is currently listed on the Fulbright Specialist roster with an emphasis in gerontology.

Neil Huben

Black Maternal Mortality During the COVID-19 Era: Highlighting Stories and Themes from the Media

Neil Huben completed a Fulbright Scholarship to Greece in 2011-2012. He attended the University of Nebraska-Omaha for his bachelor’s degree, and completed medical school at the Alabama College of Osteopathic Medicine. Dr. Huben is currently a resident in Obstetrics and Gynecology at the University of Mississippi Medical Center.

Laura Irimies

Media Representation of Marginalized Communities in Romania – fake news, stereotypes, ethnic discourse, and the challenge of the 2020 pandemic

Laura Irimies is assistant professor in Journalism and Communication, director for communication and spokesperson of Babes-Bolyai University (Romania) and also a Fulbright Senior Scholar at Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication, Arizona State University (USA).

She graduated from the Faculty of Journalism and Communication, has two Master diplomas in Public Administration and Public Services and a PhD diploma in Conflict Management and Alternative Dispute Resolution.

She  has a rich experience as a journalist for regional and national media (1996-2005), held top management positions in central government institutions (2005-2010), and her career as practitioner and university teacher led to a wide range of university courses (in public speaking, lobbying, media relations, crisis communication, online PR, sports PR and communication), CSR and awareness campaigns, volunteering activities, student guidance for internships employment and research activities.

Olga Litvinova

Exploring Post-Fulbright Identities by Means of Storytelling

I am Olga Litvinova. I have a degree in Foreign Language Teaching. I have been a translator for a scientific research magazine for 10 years. From 2012 to 2017 I was an English instructor at the Department of Foreign Languages at Voronezh State Pedagogical University (Russia). I have been involved in research dealing with authorship profiling, gender identification, etc. and participated in a number of international conferences. In 2017 I won the Fulbright grant to collect data for my PhD research at Linguistics Department of Montclair State University (New Jersey). My research is related to features of non-native English and ESL learner identities. Since my return from the U.S. I have been continuing working on my project and teaching English as a freelance instructor.

Jenna Reynolds and Ann Varnedoe

Virtual Storytelling: The Cross-Cultural Impact of Shared Microhistories in Digital Classrooms

Jenna Reynolds and Ann Varnedoe are educators, community activists, and researchers. As former Fulbright ETAs to Spain (2015-2016 and 2017-2018), they are passionate about the classroom being a space to share stories, culture, and histories between learners and educators. They view the classroom as a safe space to broaden students’ understanding of the world and their own perspectives. Jenna Reynolds has an MA in Spanish from the University of Alabama where she taught Spanish language, culture, and civilization. Currently, she is an elementary school Spanish teacher in Birmingham, Alabama. In addition, she continues to teach English as a Second Language to adult immigrants and middle school students in her community. Ann Varnedoe holds her Masters of Education from Vanderbilt University where she focused on Secondary Education. She is a current History and English Language educator in Nashville, Tennessee while also managing a research project at Vanderbilt University centered on issues of race and gender in STEM fields. Jenna and Ann continue to explore new avenues for decolonizing their classrooms and becoming better, more responsible educators.

Poster Fair #2 – Teaching and Education

Celia Blandon

Text-Talk Time Strategy: Engaging students in discussion, active listening and engagement dialogue through Children’s Literature in a Dual Language Program.

Ms. Celia Maria Blandón teaches at Gove Elementary as a Dual Language Teacher in Belle Glade, Fl. She has taught Spanish, French as World Languages from Elementary to College levels. Ms. Blandon was awarded a Fulbright-Hays Seminar scholar to Peru in 2016. A scholarship recipient from The Council for the Development of French in Louisiana, the Ministry of Education from Spain, and The French Ministry of National Education and FFLA Teacher Hall of Fame. She earned her undergraduate degree from the Northwestern State University of Louisiana, French studies at Université de la Sorbonne, Paris, France, and a Master’s Degree from Nova Southeastern University. She is the Spanish National Friendship Society sponsor, the Multicultural Club, and the Chess Club. She is currently a student at Florida International University.

Meilin Chong

Bridging Language and Culture Through Zoom

Meilin Chong is a former English Teaching Assistant in the Universidad Técnica de Cotopaxi, La Maná, Ecuador (2017-2018). Chong is a bilingual Peruvian-Chinese immigrant from Peru currently residing in New Hampshire. She received her B.S. in Counseling Psychology and Early Childhood Education from Wheelock College in 2017, and continued her education post Fulbright grant receiving her M.S.Ed in International Education Development from the University of Pennsylvania. Chong currently is a Boston Public Schools K2 bilingual teacher and continues to find opportunities to work in international education development. In her free time she tutors, writes poetry, plays piano, travels to learn, and creates planners for people.

Wesley Curtis & Jody Pritt

Keeping the Dream Alive Through International Student Advocacy

Dr. Wesley Curtis is an experienced administrator and language educator with an extensive background in the areas of international education and distributed learning. In his current role, he works to support students whose personal, academic, and professional goals require increased English language proficiency. More broadly, as Director of English Programs for Internationals, he serves as a facilitator of the internationalization efforts of the University of South Carolina. Dr. Curtis currently serves in the member-elected position of Vice President of the Consortium of University and College Intensive English Programs (UCIEP).

Jody Pritt, a 2012 recipient of the Fulbright International Education Administrators Seminar grant in South Korea is the Director of International Student & Scholar Services at the Georgia State University. Currently, she is a also a doctoral student at the University of Missouri-Columbia where she is studying Educational Administration and Policy Analysis.

Darlene DeMarie

A Fulbright Scholar Award to South Africa Resulted in Bi-Directional Learning

Darlene DeMarie is the Fulbright Faculty Advisor for the University of South Florida and is a on the faculty of Educational Psychology in the College of Education. She has had two very different Fulbright Scholar Awards: South Africa (2007-2009) and Budapest, Hungary (2019-2020). This presentation focuses on the first award and how it has resulted in bi-directional learning. She is still processing the impact of the second award, which ended just before COVID-19 took over the world. She has been a member of the board of the Mid-Florida Chapter of the Fulbright Association since 2010 and served as the President (2012-2014 & 2017-2018) Past-President (2015-2017 & 2019-2021) and Secretary (2010-2012) of that organization. She lives and breathes Fulbright!

Andrea Honigsfeld & Maria Dove

Dual Capacity Model for Teacher Collaboration: Towards a Theory of Teacher Learning for English Learners

Andrea Honigsfeld, Ed.D. is Associate Dean and Professor in the School of Education and Human Services at Molloy College, Rockville Centre, New York. She directs a doctoral program in Educational leadership for Diverse Learning Communities. Before entering the field of teacher education, she was an English-as-a-foreign-language teacher in Hungary (Grades 5–8 and adult) and an English-as-a-second-language teacher in New York City (Grades K–3 and adult).

Maria G. Dove, Ed.D. is Professor in the School of Education and Human Services at Molloy College, Rockville Centre, New York. She primarily teaches TESOL courses to preservice and inservice teachers. Before entering higher education, she provided instruction for over thirty years to English learners in public school settings (Grades K-12) and in adult English language programs in the greater New York City area.

Together, Drs. Honigsfeld and Dove have co-authored and co-edited numerous articles, book chapters, and books on the teaching and learning of English learners. Their latest best-selling books, Breaking Down the Wall: Essential Shifts for English Learners’ Success (2020), Collaborating for English Learners: A Foundational Guide to Integrated Practices (2019), and Co-Teaching for English Learners: A Guide to Collaborative Planning, Instruction, Assessment, and Reflection (2018) are published by Corwin Press. They frequently co-present throughout the United States and beyond.

Poster Fair #3 – Activism and Change

Carla Cabrera Cuadrado

Embracing changes in a changing world. How the pandemic affected my Fulbright experience.

Aarati Cohly

Eco-Villages – A Sustainable Lifestyle for the Future?

Aarati Cohly is the Deputy Director of Strategic Planning and Executive Affairs at NYC Census 2020, an initiative launched by the City to ensure every New Yorker, especially those in historically underrepresented communities are fully counted and represented in the 2020 Census. At NYC Census, Aarati serves as a key staffer to the Census Director, Julie Menin managing her speaking engagements, updating City Hall weekly on the office’s activities, and managing the strategy and implementation of special projects. Aarati is a 2017-18 Fulbright Scholar. As part of her grant in India, she conducted over 150 one-on-one interviews, which evaluated the benefits and challenges of eco-village living from the perspective of community members. Aarati is a life-long New Yorker and has devoted her career to working with local organizations that focus on environmental, housing, and immigration equity. Aarati also currently serves as the Program Committee Co-Chair on the Associate Board of Generation Citizen, a non-profit organization dedicated to civics education.

Trangdai Glassey-Tranguyen

Un/Earthing Borderland-Motherland: Stateless Bodies In Transnational Limbo

Trangdai Glassey-Tranguyen (trangdai.net) is completing her dissertation at the Department of Anthropology at UC Riverside, studying the recent immigration and deportation policies in the US. An award-winning bilingual author, Glassey-Tranguyen is the sole scholar having conducted hundreds of oral history interviews and multi-sited ethnographies on the Vietnamese diasporas in the U.S., Europe, Australia, and Asia for over 26 years. She holds an M.A. in History from CSU Fullerton, an M.A. in Anthropology from Stanford University, & an M.A. in Southeast Asian Studies from UC Riverside. Glassey-Tranguyen has published over 3,000 poetic, creative, translation, and critical works in academic journals, (as) K-12 texts, anthologies, edited volumes, and the media worldwide in English, Vietnamese, and other languages. She has authored five books of bilingual poetry, and her poems have been translated into thirteen languages. Her research has been supported by 2001 NAFEO Fellowship, 2003 CSU-system Graduate Equity Fellowship, 2004-05 exceptional-ranking Fulbright Fellowship, 2005-06 Stanford University Graduate Fellowship, 2007 Luce Foundation Grant for Civil Liberties and Faith, 2011-2012 California Endowment for the Health Journalism Fellowship, 2014-16 UCR Dean’s Distinguished Fellowship, a 2016 Melon Grant, among others.

Chelsea Raubenheimer

Data for Social Change: Mapping the Results of 2020’s Racial Justice Activism

Chelsea Raubenheimer is a Monitoring, Evaluation, Research, and Learning Specialist for an international consulting firm, specializing in using data and evidence to improve global sustainability practice. She was a 2016 Fulbright English Teaching Fellow and a 2017 Fulbright Mentor and Regional Coordinator, based in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil for both years. While in Brazil, Ms. Raubenheimer taught English and social justice courses at the University of Rio de Janeiro, co-developed a civic education program for elementary-aged students, and led a film club to highlight themes of racial justice for children. She holds a Masters in International Education Policy from Harvard University and a Bachelors in Spanish Literature from the University of Colorado at Boulder. Ms. Raubenheimer’s Data for Social Change project is meant to highlight the tangible effects of sustained activism, and to serve as a contribution to the continuing critical work of building an anti-racist culture and promoting racial justice around the world, because Black Lives Matter.

Anne Schiller

Informal Social Organizations and Multicultural Community in Lecce, Puglia

Anne Schiller is Professor of Anthropology at George Mason University. Her scholarly interests include identity, cultural heritage, and tourism. She earned her B.A. in Anthropology at the University of Virginia, and M.A. and Ph.D. in Anthropology at Cornell University. Her fieldwork has been supported by fellowships and grants from the Fulbright Foundation, the Wenner-Gren Foundation, the National Geographic Society, and others. Her most recent book, “Commercianti a Firenze. Identità e Cambiamento nel Quartiere di San Lorenzo,” draws upon the results of field research conducted in Florence’s historic center (Carocci Editore 2016). In 2016 Schiller was Fulbright-Fondazione CON IL SUD Visiting Professor at the Università del Salento. Her current ethnographic project, based in Lecce, Puglia concerns the role of informal social organizations in expatriate migration experiences.