International Training and Education | Faculty

Charles Tesconi, Jr., Director of ITEP (EdD, University of Cincinnati)

Tesconi,  Professor Emeritus of Education, is the Interim Director of ITEP and Faculty Emeritus in Residence. He served as Dean of AU’s School of Education from 1989-1993 and 1996-2000. He was Dean of the College of Education and Social Services and Professor of Education at the University of Vermont (1978-1989), served on the faculties of Ithaca College, University of Illinois (Chicago), and has been a Visiting Professor at the Ohio State University. Tesconi is the author and coeditor of six books and numerous articles addressed to the relation between socioeconomic background and educational opportunity. His most recent book, Good Schools (Hampton Press), examines the local policy environments of public schools unusually successful with economically poor students. Tesconi has served on the editorial boards of major social and educational journals, and has held appointive and elective office in professional and scholarly associations, including service as the President of the American Educational Studies Association. He consults with state and federal agencies, schools, universities, and foundations.

Elizabeth Anderson Worden (PhD International Education, New York University)

Dr. Worden joined American University as an assistant professor in the fall of 2007 after earning her PhD in International Education from New York University the previous year. Dr. Worden's primary research examines the role of teaching history in the development of a post-Soviet national identity and democratic citizenry in the republic of Moldova, and the implications for other transitional states. She has published widely on the subject, including articles in both Comparative Education Review and Compare: Journal of Comparative and International Education,  and has just finished a book manuscript, Finding the Nation: Memory, Identity, and Teaching History in Moldova. She is beginning a new research project on social memory and teaching in post-conflict states. Some of the courses Dr. Worden teaches at AU include Comparative and International Education, International Education Exchange: Policies and Practices, ProSeminar, and Education for International Development. Her research interests include civic and history education, democracy and education, social memory, nationalism and national identity, and international exchange. Professor Worden is a former Peace Corps volunteer (Moldova, 1997-1999) and is always excited to meet so many RPCVs in her classes.

Illana Lancaster (PhD, University of Maryland, College Park)

Dr. Lancaster started her career in education as a Peace Corps volunteer teaching English in a semi-rural community junior secondary school in Botswana. Since then, Illana has taught high school English and ESL in Washington, DC, community college in suburban Maryland, and university in Istanbul, Turkey. She managed a resident teacher Masters Certification program in Prince George's County, Maryland for several years before coming to SETH. Illana earned her doctorate in 2008; her doctoral research explored raced, classed, and gendered experiences of high school students with school-related violence in Johannesburg, South Africa. She continues to explore issues of equity and access and is currently working on projects focusing on mobilities, critical geography, and teacher nostalgia. Most recently, Illana traveled to Cuba in October to learn more about the values and dispositions Cuban teacher educators cultivate in their pre-service teachers. 

Carol da Silva (EdD, Educational Policy, Leadership and Instructional Practice/International Education, Harvard University)

Dr. Carol DeShano da Silva researches key issues in the field of comparative and international education related to education policy and instructional practice. These include: language and literacy policy and instruction, teacher education and quality, and poverty and inequality. She focuses on education in Latin America and Lusophone countries, with a special interest in Brazil. Dr. da Silva has contributed to educational projects in Latin America, Sub-Saharan Africa, and with immigrant and refugee populations in the United States. She has consulted or worked on education projects for USAID, The World Bank, and Save the Children, and has conducted fieldwork in Brazil, Costa Rica, Mexico and Mozambique.

Michael Gibbons (PhD in Human and Organizational Development, Fieldings Institute)

Mr. Gibbons has worked in basic education, community development and social justice since the mid 1970s in Asia, Africa, Latin America and low-income areas of the USA. He specializes in basic and nonformal education, child rights and child development, adult learning processes, training of educators and organizational learning. He holds a PhD from the Fielding Institute in human and organizational development, with a focus on organizational learning processes within educational programs. He is particularly interested in the role learning plays in personal development and social transformation. Currently, Mr. Gibbons serves as Director of Children's Rights and Education Programs at Wellspring Advisors LLC, a donor advising company based in Washington DC. Mr. Gibbons teaches courses in international training, education and development at The American University, George Washington University and the Monterey Institute for International Studies. He has served as associate director at Banyan Tree Foundation, country director and education advisor for Save the Children.  

Nader Ayish (PhD, Multilingual/Multicultural Education, George Mason University; MA Educational Leadership, University of Houston; BA English, The Ohio State University)

Nader Ayish has been teaching a variety of graduate-level courses in SETH since 2006. He earned a BA in English from The Ohio State University, an MA in Educational Leadership from the University of Houston and a PhD in Multilingual/Multicultural Education from George Mason University. An educator with over 22 years of experience, Nader has taught at George Washington University as well as an inner-city middle school in Houston. Along with his work at American University, he continues to teach middle school in Fairfax County as well as graduate school at GMU. Nader has extensive international experience and has conducted cross-cultural training sessions for K-12 and university educators and international exchange students from the Middle East and central and Southeast Asia and Russia. His research interests include the areas of multicultural and international education, second language acquisition, educational psychology, conflict resolution, critical and media literacy and understanding the daily challenges confronting teachers in an ever increasingly diverse classroom environment. His publications and conference presentations have explored aspects of all of these areas.

Frederic Jacobs (PhD, University of Pennsylvania)

Dr. Jacobs has held positions as the Dean of Faculties, Dean of the School of Education, and Director of the Doctoral, Educational Leadership, and Specialized Studies programs at American University; provost and academic vice president at John Jay College, City College of New York; and Assistant Dean at the Graduate School of Education at Harvard University. He is a contributing author to The Scribner Encyclopedia of American Lives; Report and Analysis of Barriers to Adult Participation: Findings from the National Household Education Survey of 1991 and 1995; Accentuating the Positive: Effective Teaching and Evaluation Strategies for Traditional and Non-Traditional Learners; and Selected Papers on CreativeTeaching with S. Hundley. His research and teaching interests include the role, function, and impact of higher education; theory and practice in adult learning; public policy and education; and quantitative research.

Tom Lent (M.A., International Relations, American University)

Mr. Lent has 40 years of experience in six regions of the world in different roles, including leadership and management, facilitation, strategic planning, organizational development, organizational learning, knowledge development, and training/capacity building.  He has worked in different themes, including integrated development, human rights, child rights, advocacy, gender, disaster relief, systemic change, and education sector reform; and with diverse entities, including NGOs, CSOs, the UN, local and national governments, foundations, social movements, the World Bank, and the private sector.  As a Senior Program Director with AED and now FHI360, Mr. Lent has served as the Project Director for an educational reform project embedded within the Ministry of Education in Zambia. He also designed/facilitated UNICEF’s  “Global Consultation for Gender Equality” (for all eight regions and the headquarters) and capacity building workshops on gender equality for UNICEF staff in Latin America/the Caribbean. In collaboration with the World Bank Institute, he designed and facilitated three Distance Learning Courses on education quality and decentralization, including a series of videoconferences that actively and meaningfully engaged education stakeholder exchanges of experiences across nine African countries. In 2004-05, he served as an advisor to the MoE in Guatemala in the Vision Education process that brought together stakeholders across the country.  He co-designed and co-delivered sessions for Education Sector Capacity Building for USAID staff from different regions in several of their international conferences.  In the last 5 years, Lent has also done consultancies outside AED/FHI360, and facilitated strategic planning, international strategy meetings, program development, and advocacy strategies. 

The intention behind Lent’s work is to build – in collaboration with others - processes, institutions, organizations and systems that work more intelligently, effectively, responsibly and have a greater, collective impact in their contexts and in the world.  Mr. Lent has also worked for Business Community Synergies, Inc., UNICEF, the Bernard Van Leer Foundation, Save the Children (Norway, US and the Alliance), Plan International, the Palestinian Welfare Organization, Peace Corps, Global Rights, the European Foundation Center, Watchlist for Children and Armed Conflict, and Global Action for Children.  Mr. Lent attended the Ph.D. program in international studies at the University of Notre Dame (ABD). He holds a master’s degree in international relations and a bachelor’s degree from the School of International Service at the American University. He speaks English, Spanish, and limited Dari.

Heather Ritchie (MA, International Training and Education, American University)