ALAS Members

People

Throughout the academic year, ALAS is open to accept new members in the organizing committee. Our members are active participants in ALAS events during the school year and may decide whether they want to continue collaborating year after year either as members or affiliates. It is the members of this organization who really constitute the heart of its functioning through the engagement of learning, cooperation and fun that they bring to it.

2011-2012 Officers

President
Maria Pia Otero
Vice Presidents
Katy de la Garza
Ana Cecilia Galindo Diego
Treasurer
Daniel Mann
Secretary
Maria Eugenia Berumen Carvajal
Communications Chair
Maria Jose Aragon
Diana Rodriguez
Academic Committee Chair
Ana Cecilia Galindo Diego
Social Committee Chair
Molly Hamm
Cultural Committee Chair
Lina Rangel
Alumni Affiliates
Milagros Nores
Marcelo De Stefano
Rosario Torres-Guevara
Tamara Vinacur
Candido Hernandez
Veronica Cabezas
Cesar Fernandez Geara
Faculty Sponsor
Prof. Lesley Bartlett

Organizing Committee


Bios

Prof. Lesley Bartlett

Professor Lesley Bartlett

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Professor Lesley Bartlett is an assistant professor in the Department of International and Transcultural Studies at Teachers College, Columbia University. Her scholarly interests are in comparative and international education; anthropology of education; adult education; social theory; social studies of language, literacy, and cognition; multiliteracies; transnationalism; race and class formation; Latin America, the Caribbean, and the United States. Her research includes ethnographic studies of communication, multilingual literacies, popular education, race and class inequality, and schooling across the Americas. Professor Bartlett's latest publications include: "To Seem and to Feel: Situated Identities and Literacy Practices." in Teachers College Record; "Dialogue, Knowledge, and Teacher-Student Relations: Freirean Pedagogy in Theory and Practice," in Comparative Education Review 49(3); and "Identity Work and Cultural Artifacts in Literacy Learning and Use: A Sociocultural Analysis" in Language and Education 19(1): 1-9. To read more about Professor Bartlett, click here to visit her website.

Milagros Nores

Milagros Nores

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Milagros Nores is from Argentina. She holds a PhD and a PhM in Education and Economics from Teachers College, Columbia University, and an EdM in Educational Administration/Social Policy from Harvard University. She is currently a Postdoctoral Research Associate at the Taubman Center in Public Policy, Brown University, where she teaches Education Policy in a Comparative Perspective, and Economics of Public Policy. Her research interests are poverty and education, analysis of education policy, analyses across education systems, and early childhood education. Her latest publications include "The High/Scope Perry Preschool Program: Cost-Benefit Analysis Using Data from the Age 40 Follow-Up" and "Socioeconomic segregation with (without) competitive education policies. A Comparative Analysis of Argentina and Chile." She has also consulted for the World Bank in education projects in Latin America.

Marcelo De Stefano

Marcelo De Stefano

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Marcelo De Stefano is from Argentina. He is the manager of school-based health centers at the NYC Department of Education. Previously, he worked as a teacher, trainer, administrator, lead researcher, grant writer, and independent consultant in education. In Argentina, he worked for five years for the State of Santa Fe and the National Ministry of Education developing and coordinating projects in education funded by the World Bank and Inter-American Development Bank. He holds an Ed.D and Ed.M. in Educational Administration/Leadership from Teachers College, Columbia University, an Ed.M in Educational Administration/International Education from the University of Massachusetts Amherst, a Master of Architecture from Universidad Politecnica de Madrid, Spain, and an Architectural degree from Universidad Nacional del Litoral, Argentina. His areas of interest include school effectiveness, leadership, and school building design.

Rosario Torres-Guevara

Rosario Torres-Guevara

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Rosario Torres-Guevara is from Mexico. She earned her BA in Applied Linguistics with a concentration in Didactics from the Autonomous University of Nuevo Leon in Monterrey, Mexico. She earned her MA in TESOL (Teaching of English to Speakers of Other Languages) from Teachers College, Columbia University, where she is currently completing her EdD in International Educational Development with a concentration in Bilingual and Bicultural Education. Her research interests are language policy in education, immigration and education, and bilingual and intercultural education. Rosario has been a teacher for 16 years. She has taught a variety of courses including English as a Second Language (ESL) and as a Foreign Language (EFL); ESL/EFL Teacher Training and Lesson Planning; Language Arts; Immigration and Education; and Bilingual Education in various schools of Mexico and of New York City, which include CUNY City College; SUNY Educational Opportunity Center; Teachers College, Columbia University; Autonomous University of Nuevo Leon; and the Mexican-North American Institute of Cultural Relations. She is currently a faculty member at BMCC, CUNY.

Tamara Vinacur

Tamara Vinacur

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Tamara Vinacur is from Argentina. She came to the United States in 2006 after completing a BA in Educational Science at the Universidad de Buenos Aires and a Specialization Degree in Educational Management at the Universidad de San Andres in Argentina. She is currently pursuing an EdM on Measurement & Evaluation at Teachers College, Columbia University. Previously, she worked in the National Ministry of Education in Argentina for 4 years as a technical assistant to the Secretary and later on as a consultant to the area of Information and Quality Assessment, where her interest in Evaluation and Policy Analysis emerged. She also worked as a consultant to the IIEP/ UNESCO on the adaptation of the United Nations' Argentine Report on Human Development for high school teachers. She is the founder and director of a consulting firm called DIERESIS that offers advice to parents on their children school choices. Tamara's goal is to explore strategies to improve decision-making in relation to educational policies in developing countries. In particular, she is interested in studying mechanisms to promote a more efficient use of information in policy design in order to respond to some of the structural weaknesses of Argentina's educational system.

Candido Hernandez-Limon

Candido Hernandez-Limon

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Candido Hernandez-Limon is from Mexico. He earned his BA in Computer Science and his MA in Human Resources Development from the Autonomous University of Tamaulipas, Mexico. He is currently completing his EdD in Instructional Technology and Media. Candido's interests are technology in education policy, pedagogical film, and long distance learning. His doctoral research looks into the perceptions and attitudes of members in disadvantaged communities towards technology. Candido's motivation to pursue this research is his belief that community voices are essential to understand any given context and that this may offer ways to reduce the digital divide. He has been a teacher for 12 years and a filmmaker for 3 years. He has taught technology integration in the classroom; instructional design, and language computer programs in several schools of the U.S. and Mexico, such as Teikyo Post University, Loretto Heights University, CUNY City College, and the Autonomous University of Tamaulipas. He is currently a consultant for the Autonomous University of Tamaulipas and the DaVinci University.

Veronica Cabezas

Veronica Cabezas

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Veronica Cabezas is from Chile. She earned her BA in Industrial Engineering and a Specialization Degree in Transport at the Catholic University of Chile, and an EdM in Leadership, Policy and Politics in Education from Teachers College, Columbia University. She is currently completing her PhD in Economics and Education from Teachers College. Before coming to the US, she worked in Puente Alto Municipal Government in Santiago, Chile as a project analyst. Her work included public policy analysis and educational budget elaboration analysis. Veronica was also a consultant to NGOs and the public sector, including "Un Techo para Chile", "Fundacion Ayuda y Esperanza" and the Chilean Ministry of Economy. Veronica's motivation to pursue an educational PhD came from her research and work experience in family and child policy, where she became aware of the role of education in income distribution and the mismanagement of public policy programs. In NY, Veronica worked as a consultant to the UNDP/Evaluation Office for the re-classification of project evaluation outcomes and the elaboration of a report for future design and implementation of programs and evaluations. She is currently TA for Politics of Economic Development at SIPA and Research Assistant of Prof. Jonah Rockoff. Her current research interests are gender achievement gap, child and family policy, and the impact of school resources on student achievement.

Cesar Fernandez Geara

Cesar Fernandez Geara

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Cesar Fernandez Geara is from the Dominican Republic. He earned his BA in Psychology from the Technological Institute of Santo Domingo, in the Dom. Rep. There he worked as a TA for courses on Social Psychology and Methodology of Research. He is currently completing his MA in Psychology in Education at Teachers College, Columbia University. Before moving to New York to pursue his Masters degree he worked in a public hospital in Santo Domingo, Dom. Rep., giving therapy and counseling to at-risk youth from disadvantaged communities. He also worked in the Educational Management Department at the National Judiciary School of the Dominican Republic, where part of his duties included the reformulation of the educational model implemented at the school and the evaluation of students and teachers. His current research interests are race and ethnicity in multicultural contexts and Latino studies. In a more clinical arena he is also interested in antisocial behavior in at-risk youths and anxiety disorders.

Maria Pia Otero

Maria Pia Otero

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Maria Pia Otero is pursuing a Master's Program in Sociology and Education at Teachers College, Columbia University. Her current research interests are in early childhood care and education quality; social class and racial/ethnic differences in young children and families access to early care and education; and accountability policy. She grew up and studied in Argentina, where she obtained a Bachelor degree in Sociology at the University of Buenos Aires and a Master's degree in Educational Management and Policy at the University of San Andres. She taught social research methods in the Department of Sociology of the University of Buenos Aires. As research assistant, she was part of the Social Stratification team at the Research Institute "Gino Germani", University of Buenos Aires. Furthermore, she conducted evaluation research of educational programs for the National Ministry of Education of Argentina and for the Ministry of Education of the City Government of Buenos Aires.

Katy de la Garza

Katy de la Garza

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Katy was born and raised in Costa Rica but spent her summers Monterrey, Mexico visiting the numerous family members from her father's side. Her family has a "Garcia Marquez- Macondo" side, which led her to study Foreign Affairs at Georgetown University and pursue Comparative Studies on Latin America and Europe. She took Italian for 2 years and spent her junior year studying at the School of Political Science in Bologna, Italy. Right after college, she joined a volunteer program to teach English to high school students in Shanghai, China. She returned to Costa Rica and worked for the government in sexual tourism prevention initiatives and taught Political Science at the University of Costa Rica. After 2 years, she started her Masters degree at SIPA (CU) in Economic and Political Development, focusing on micro finance. After graduating, she went to live in Tula, Hidalgo (Mexico) to begin operations of Pro Mujer, a micro finance organization that gives credit and training to women. Since then, she has worked in development related initiatives in the public, NGO and private sector as an advisor to the Ministers of Foreign Affairs, Tourism and Environment; as Manager of the US Peace Corps Rural Community Development Program in Costa Rica and as the Country Director for The Nature Conservancy Costa Rica. She is now pursuing her Doctorate in Education in International Educational Development, focusing on women, non-formal education and NGO's.

Ana Cecilia Galinda Diego

Ana Cecilia Galinda Diego

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Ana Cecilia was born in Mexico City. She earned her BA in Education at Universidad Panamericana in her native country. During her baccalaureate she taught ESL at a private school and assisted the director of publications at her alma mater. She first came to New York in 2009 to pursue an MA in Philosophy and Education at Teachers College Columbia University. After successfully graduating in Spring 2010, Ana Cecilia went back home to teach as an adjunct professor of Philosophy at Universidad Panamericana and Universidad Iberoamericana. Currently, she is back at Teachers College enrolled in the Ph.D. program of Philosophy and Education. Her interests vary within the Philosophical spectrum and include Existentialist Pedagogy and Moral Philosophy. She is especially fascinated by the student-teacher relationship. In addition, she has proposed a study of Octavio Paz concept of critical thinking as a criterion for cosmopolitan education.

Daniel Mann

Daniel Mann

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Daniel Mann is originally from Woodlawn, Arkansas and earned his BA in Spanish and History at the University of Central Arkansas. From there he worked in Little Rock, Arkansas; Leon, Spain; and Galway, Ireland. He taught English in Puente Alto, Chile which spurred his decision to pursue a Master's degree in Applied Linguistics at Teachers College: Columbia University. His interests include language development, acquisition, and syntax, especially with respect to English, Spanish, and sign languages. He is brief when writing about himself.

Maria Eugenia Berumen Carvajal

Maria Eugenia Berumen Carvajal

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Maru was born and raised in Queretaro, Mexico. She earned a Bachelor of Arts in Humanities (Cultural Management) from the University of Navarra, in Pamplona, Spain. During her undergraduate studies, she worked as an intern for two years at the Center of European Studies in charge of the courses, conferences, and projects held by the Center. She was awarded the National Award Excellence in Academic Achievement in Humanitiesby the Spanish Ministry of Education. After finishing her studies, she went back to Mexico and contributed in various private educational projects within her home city. Her scholarly interests are high school education and teacher training in Latin America, and interdisciplinary curriculum development for health promotion and for multicultural populations.At this moment, she is pursuing a M.A. in International Educational Development, with a concentration in Curriculum and Teaching at Teachers College, Columbia University.

Maria Jose Aragon

Maria Jose Aragon

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Maria Jose Aragon is currently pursuing her Master's degree in International Educational Development, with a concentration in Education Policy. After graduating from Cornell University with a Bachelor in Human Development, Maria Jose spent six years living in Argentina, where she received a Master's in Education from Universidad de San Andres and worked for the non-profit organization Idealist.org/Action Without Borders, as well as for the Fulbright Commission. Her academic interests include multicultural education, intercultural bilingual education, and education in emergencies.

Diana Rodriguez

Diana Rodriguez

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Diana Rodriguez is from Bogota, Colombia. She earned her BA in History from the Pontificia Universidad Javeriana in Bogota. She worked for four years as a primary and high school social studies teacher in the same city. She holds a Master of Arts in International Education and Development from University of Sussex in Brighton, UK, where she worked as a Spanish teacher in two public schools. Before moving to New York she worked at the Early Childhood Department at the National Ministry of Education in Colombia; where she worked developing and monitoring good quality protection, nutrition and education programs for children under the age of five. Diana has done research on violence and racism in classroom settings. In 2010, she achieved the Caldas Scholarships: Fulbright Colombia-Colciencias in order to pursue her doctoral studies. She is currently an Ed.D.in International Educational Development with a concentration in Peace Education. Her research interests are structural violence in Latin America, particularly Colombia; the complex relationships between immigration and education; early childhood; education for peace and south- south collaboration.

Molly Hamm

Molly Hamm

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Molly Hamm is pursuing an M.A. in International Educational Development with a specialization in Latino and Latin American Education. She holds a B.S. in Secondary Education and a B.A. in English from Kansas State University, where she also studied International Studies and Non-profit Leadership. Molly is primarily interested in Central America, the Caribbean, and the Andean region with a particular focus on indigenous populations and Afro-Latino groups. Some of her research interests include intercultural bilingual education, language policy, literacy, poverty reduction, gender equality, the intersection of race and class in schooling, marginalization, and immigration. She has authored academic papers focusing on these issues in Cuba, Nicaragua, Guatemala, Mexico, Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, Peru, and Paraguay. Her professional work includes an emphasis on monitoring and evaluation in international development through a mixed-methods approach. She has worked with a variety of multilateral organizations including UNESCO, UNICEF, the UN Foundation, and the IRC. She most recently returned from a summer in the Dominican Republic working for an educational NGO with which she will be designing a long-term monitoring and evaluation plan for her integrative project.

Lina Rangel

Lina Rangel

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Lina is from Bogota, Colombia. She earned her BA in Anthropology and completed a Specialization Degree in Government and Public Policies, at La Universidad de los Andes. Currently, she is completing her Master of Arts in Comparative and International Education at Teachers College. After college, Lina started working with different Colombian organizations in the field of education. There she had the opportunity to learn about the education system, what has been done, and what was still needed. After that, Lina worked for three years in La Universidad de los Andes at Colombia in El Cider, an interdisciplinary center for development studies, where she was able to reflect more on the relationship between education and development. During this time, Lina also participated in the creation of SomosCaPAZes, a Colombian organization where young volunteers lead students and teachers on activities to learn skills and concepts with respect to conflict resolution. Lina has mainly been interested in education policies, education and development, and education and peace, from an anthropological perspective

Carmina Makar

Carmina Makar

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Carmina Makar is from Mexico. She earned her BA in Communication Studies with concentration in Education in Mexico. She is currently pursuing an EdM in International Education Development at Teachers College, Columbia University. Before coming to New York, Carmina worked as an educational museum researcher and professor at ITESO University and Universidad de Guadalajara. She has worked as a consultant for UNESCO and UNDP as well as for community-based organizations in Mexico and New York. Carmina is currently engaged in a distance learning project for Universidad de Guadalajara, for which she designs and teaches online courses for the Education department. Her scholarly interests include popular communication, media reception, multiliteracies, technology and bilingual-bicultural issues in the context of community development. In addition, Carmina is interested in exploring how non formal education settings can influence policy design for school reform and curriculum development.

Cristina Salazar Gallardo

Cristina Salazar Gallardo

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Cristina Salazar Gallardo is from Mexico. She earned her B.A. in Communication from the Iberoamerican University and a Specialty Degree in Visual Art and Intermedia from the Polytechnic University of Valencia, She is currently pursuing a M.A. in Communication and Education in Teachers College, Columbia University. She has worked with non-profit organizations in the south border of Mexico, as well as a university professor in Guanajuato, Mexico. Her scholarly interests are Digital literacies, Virtual Education, Technological innovations in Formal Learning and Multimodal Education.

Dina Lopez

Dina Lopez

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Dina Lopez was born in Guatemala and raised in Providence, Rhode Island. After receiving her BA in Community Health from Brown University, she spent three years working with community-based organizations in Providence around issues of health education, neighborhood improvement, adult literacy and immigrant rights. Dina moved to the New York area to pursue an MS in Adult Education at Fordham University. Pedagogically, Dina has been highly influenced by many people including Paulo Freire, Myles Horton, bell hooks, and the countless popular educators she has met through practice. Politically, she is inspired by grassroots movements for social justice, the women's movement, Zapatismo, the movement for immigrant rights, environmentalism and the movement for open source technology. Dina Lopez is currently a doctoral student in International Educational Development-with a concentration in Peace Education-at Teachers College, Columbia University. Her research interests include popular education in Latin America and the U.S., critical pedagogy, participatory adult literacy, and the relationship between popular education and social change.

Ivania De La Cruz

Ivania de La Cruz

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Ivania de la Cruz Orozco is from Mexico. She earned a B.A. on Political Science at CIDE and a Masters of Public Administration at the School of International and Public Affairs, Columbia University. She is currently enrolled in the Ed.D. on International Educational Development, with concentration in Latin American and Latino Education. Her research and scholarly interests are the Educational Reforms in Latin America; Decentralization of Education; and Educational Development of the Indigenous youth in Mexico. Ivania has worked as an external consultant for the Inter-American Development Bank and as a university professor in Oaxaca, Mexico.

Rita del Carmen Sanchez Gonzalez

Rita Sanchez

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Rita del Carmen Sanchez Gonzalez was born in Monterrey, Mexico. She earned her BA in Industrial Engineering from the Technical Institute of Monterrey and an MS in Mathematics Education from the Autonomous University of Nuevo Leon. For the past 7 and half years, she has been working as a math and physics high school teacher in the Universidad de Monterrey. She was also Head of the High School Math and Physics department for 3 years. She is currently in an absence leave from the Universidad de Monterrey to pursue her PhD in Mathematics Education at Teachers College. One of her area of interests is didactics of mathematics. Her other area of interests deals with alternate assessments in mathematics for students that have learning disabilities. Her goal is to open a Center for Research in Mathematics Education at the Universidad de Monterrey when she gets back home.

Consuelo del Canto Ramírez

Consuelo del Canto

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Consuelo del Canto was born and raised in Chile, where she got her B.A. in Sociology at Universidad Católica de Chile. Her work experience has been mainly in conducting education research projects and designing and evaluating education policy. She has worked in non-profit organizations, as a private consultant, and directing projects at two research centers in education: the Center for Public Policy at Universidad Católica de Chile, and the Center for Comparative Policies in Education (CPCE) at University Diego Portales. Also, during the years 2007 and 2008 Consuelo developed and conducted the "Around the World in 80 Schools" project, visiting approximately 50 countries and interviewing public school teachers. Currently, she is a Fulbright scholar and second year student in the Ed.M. Program of Sociology and Education at Teachers College. Her fields of interest include the design and evaluation of education policies, specifically on higher education.

Isabel Tibi

Isabel Tibi

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Isabelle Tibi is a M.A. candidate in the International Educational Development Program. She came to the field of International Education through her combined passion and interest for languages, intercultural learning, and teaching. Isabelle's prior experience in the field of International Education includes teaching French at the National Autonomous University of Mexico's Extension School in Canada, coordinating the University of Ottawa's International Exchange Program for foreign students, and supporting French-Canadian universities' internationalization efforts through programming, promotion, and recruitment. Her research interests include Latin American education, immigrant and transnational youth, and peace education. Before coming to New York, Isabelle completed an internship in Peru where she worked with local populations in an Educational Program for users of water and sanitation services, focusing on health and sustainability issues. She was recently awarded a grant from the Institute of Latin American Studies at Columbia University to implement teacher-training workshops in peace-building and conflict resolution in Bogotá, Colombia. The project was developed with four colleagues from Teachers College in collaboration with Asociación Somos CaPAZes in Bogotá.

Octavio Lizama

Octavio Lizama

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Octavio Lizama. B.A. Psychology and Specialization in Educational Psychology, Universidad Católica de Chile. He has worked in various programs and research initiatives related to education, poverty and inequity issues. His fields of interest are teacher quality, development and career path, early childhood policy and comprehensive poverty interventions. Before leaving Chile, he was Director of Placement and School Relations in Enseña Chile (Teach for Chile) and assistant professor of Leadership at Universidad Adolfo Ibáñez. Octavio also traveled through more than 50 countries leading the Around the World in 80 Schools project. He is currently studying an Ed.M. in Leadership, Policy and Politics at Teachers College, Columbia University, and is a Becas Chile and Fulbright scholar

Angélica Quintero

Angélica Quintero

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Angelica Quintero was born in Cuernavaca, Morelos, Mexico and raised in California since the age of seven; received her B.A in British and American literature from California State University Fullerton; pursued a teaching career that began with a Teach English as Foreign Language certification from Trinity College in London. She taught English courses at kindergarten, elementary, high school and adult levels in Mexico and immigrant parents in California. After this unique experience, she became a high school language arts teacher for 9th and 10th grade at her Alma mater, Anaheim High School in Anaheim, California. Her love for literature also encouraged her to pursue a Masters of Arts in Spanish literature through the University of Northern Iowa summer program in Spain and Mexico. Angelica is currently pursuing a Masters of Arts in International Educational Development with a concentration in Latin America and Latino education in hopes to broaden educational opportunities for minorities in the U.S and Latin America. Her area of interest involves curriculum and instructional design and implementation.