Designation: Analyst

André recently completed a Master’s in Public Policy at the University of Oxford. Prior to his studies, André worked for the State Government of Minas Gerais, in Brazil, as a Specialist in Public Policy and Government Management. He worked at the Department of Education for 4 years with data management, analysis, and visualization. André has also conducted research on another area of interest: agriculture and food security. He wrote his undergraduate monograph on agricultural development and agroecology and, in 2022, he worked with the Office of the Prime Minister’s Chief Science Advisor, in New Zealand, doing research on agriculture and climate change. His background is in public administration, public policy, and data science.

SELECTED PUBLICATIONS

Full list of publications available here.

Grace is a skilled educational professional with over 10 years’ experience working with educators to develop innovative and inclusive ways to transform teaching and learning. With her background in marketing and product development, she has developed a firm understanding of how to cultivate and foster strategic partnerships while strengthening knowledge sharing value chains.

Grace is the co-founder of a non-profit, Teach for Africa, an organization whose core mandate is to develop capacity in early childhood educators to enhance their inclusive teaching practices. She spearheaded the design, development and rolling out of a toolkit for best practices in inclusive early childhood education for literacy and numeracy. This experience afforded her a deep understanding of the education eco-system in South Africa and Botswana. She is a lifelong advocate of thoughtful dialogues that embrace diversity and promote inclusion.

Grace holds a Master’s degree in early childhood education from the University of Pretoria.

SELECTED PUBLICATIONS

Anne-Fleur is an analyst at Open Development & Education. She has worked as a secondary school teacher in the Netherlands, where she taught English and Global Citizenship. She has also worked with refugee students and teachers on participatory approaches in designing education materials and platforms for refugee and migrant contexts. She has worked as a researcher on issues related to sustainable partnerships and relationships between small-scale NGOs, their partners, and their beneficiaries in Asia and East Africa. She has an MA from the University of Groningen in English Language and Culture, and an MSc. in Cultural Anthropology and Development Studies from the University of Leuven. Currently, she focuses on mixed methods and participatory research for education policy in education in emergencies.

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Iman is an analyst at Open Development and Education. In 2019 she completed her MSc in Statistics at the University of Southampton where her final project looked at analysing enrolment rates of females in secondary schools in Sierra Leone. She also holds a BSc in Mathematics from the same university. Following her Master’s, she relocated from the United Kingdom to Freetown, Sierra Leone where she began personal maths tutoring for secondary school students. Prior to joining the team, she worked at the Ministry of Basic and Senior Secondary Education as a Data Analyst in the Minister’s Delivery Team

SELECTED PUBLICATIONS

Full list of publications available here.

Gemma Bennett is a psychologist with a specific interest in education, particularly for children with social, emotional and mental health issues. She is also interested in gender and ethnicity. At Open Development & Education, Gemma is responsible for research and quality assurance. Gemma is currently seconded from OpenDevEd to undertake a doctorate in educational psychology.

Ghislaine is an international development professional, passionate and curious about the usage of technology and AI to improve education and learning outcomes at all levels of education. She holds a Masters in Development Economics and International Project Management. She is currently supporting work with the Commonwealth of Learning at ODE. Prior to her career shift to Edtech, she previously worked on several programmes in emergency education, TVET, gender, and participatory development  with UNESCO in the Democratic Republic of Congo, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, and the Ministry of Environment of Cameroon. She is currently doing a Masters in Smart Edtech, Co-creativity and Digital tools for Educational Innovation. Her goal is to help individuals to learn better and help policy makers and governments create more tech friendly policies for education and digitalization

SELECTED PUBLICATIONS

Full list of publications available here.

Yomna is an Analyst at Open Development and Education. In 2020, she completed her MPhil in Education, Globalisation, and International Development at the University of Cambridge, where her research focused on the educational experiences of visually-impaired refugees in Lebanon. Her other research has included a review of the literature on community-based education in marginalised communities and an analysis of the beneficiaries of EdTech initiatives in Africa. Prior to joining the team, she worked on the business and curriculum development, and standards verification, of a higher-education institution for students in low- and middle-income countries.

SELECTED PUBLICATION

Full list of publications available here.

Xuzel is a Communications analyst at Open Development and Education. In 2020 she completed her MSc in ICTs for Development at the University of Manchester.
Her experience includes designing social media strategies to create awareness about the importance of learning IT and digital skills. Prior to studying for her master’s degree, she worked as a consultant in the telecommunications and digital inclusion fields and as a Telecommunications engineer designing wireless networks to bring the internet to rural settings in Peru. Her main interest is promoting better use of technology in the education field, especially for children in developing countries who have limited access to it.

SELECTED PUBLICATIONS

Thaer is an analyst at Open Development & Education and the EdTech Hub. He is currently also a PhD candidate at the Department of Middle Eastern, South Asian, and African Studies (MESAAS) at Columbia University. Thaer completed an MPhil in 2019 and an MA in 2017 at the same department, and he also holds a BS in Applied Physics from Columbia University.

Thaer is also completing his PhD at the Department of Middle Eastern, South Asian, and African Studies (MESAAS) at Columbia University (estimated date of completion: May, 2023). Thaer’s PhD dissertation asks how class and capital may be retheorized as performative effects in the context of the colonization of southeastern Syria in the late Ottoman era and the subsequent British colonization, and establishment, of (Trans)Jordan. Related areas of interest include premodern moral cosmologies, the relationship between technologies of colonization and technologies of capitalization, economic theology, and the multiple modalities of ideology’s material existence.

At OpenDevEd, Thaer has worked on a range of topic areas, including distance learning strategies, engagement strategies, girls’ education, community mobilisation, feasibility assessments, and resource mapping.

SELECTED PUBLICATIONS

Full list of publications here