Our Staff
Leadership
Rebecca Schendel
Managing Director
Gerardo L. Blanco
Academic Director
Affiliated Faculty
Chris Glass
More about Chris Glass
Sioux McKenna
Sioux McKenna is the Director of the Graduate Studies Center and Professor of Higher Education at Rhodes University (South Africa).
Sioux began her career with an interest in the particular literacy practices expected of students for success in different disciplines and the concern that these are not made readily accessible to all. From there she has become increasingly interested in the nature of knowledge itself - what forms of knowledge are legitimated in the academy and which are not, and which kinds of knowers are valued and which are not. She argues that significant reflection is needed as to what higher education is for (and whom it serves), in order for the university to be a space of social justice.
Sioux has managed a number of large international projects funded by the Dutch Government, the South African Government, and the EU. These have allowed her to work with colleagues around the world to try to make sense of how we structure and fund our university systems and what it is that we value within such systems.
Sioux’s most recent publications include a co-authored book, written with Professor Emeritus Chrissie Boughey, entitled Understanding Higher Education: An alternative perspective. This is available open-access via the publisher, African Minds.
Ellen Hazelkorn
Ellen Hazelkorn is Joint Managing Partner, BH Associates, and Professor Emeritus, Technological University Dublin (Ireland). Ellen is also a member of the Quality Board for Icelandic Higher Education (2017-), the Commission of the College of the Future (UK, 2019-), the Advisory Board for U-Multirank (EU), and the Advisory Group on Higher Education for Smart Specialisation (EU) and is Joint Editor of Policy Reviews in Higher Education. She is also International Co-Investigator, and member of the Advisory Board and Management Committee, at the Centre for Global Higher Education (CGHE), London.
Ellen worked for almost 20 years experience as Vice President Research and Enterprise, and Founding Dean of the Graduate Research School, (2008-2014), and Vice President and Founding Dean, Faculty of Applied Arts, Dublin Institute of Technology (now TU Dublin) (1995-2008). During her time at TU Dublin, she founded the Higher Education Policy Research Unit (HEPRU) (http://www.dit.ie/hepru/). Over this period, as a member of the Senior Executive Team, she had responsibility for strategic leadership, financial and performance oversight, student affairs, internationalisation, and all aspects of the university. As Dean of the Faculty of Applied Arts, and as Dean of the Graduate Research School, she was responsible for, oversaw and led the development of education and research programmes, and internal quality assurance processes for all apprenticeship, undergraduate, masters and doctoral programmes for all students within the Faculty of Applied Arts and the Graduate Research School. In the latter role, Ellen oversaw the development of policies, practices and quality assurance concerning research degrees, evaluation, assessment, supervision, etc. She was also actively involved in developing and promoting commercialization, share and promotion of research, knowledge transfer and entrepreneurship training especially for SMEs.
Ellen also served as Policy Advisor to, and board member of, the Higher Education Authority (Ireland) – 2011-2017, and President of EAIR – the European Society for Higher Education – 2013-2016. She has worked as a higher education policy consultant and specialist with international organisations and governments for over 20 years and regularly undertakes strategic and research evaluations for European and national research/scientific councils and universities.
Ariane de Gayardon
Ariane de Gayardon is a researcher at the Center for Higher Education Policy Studies (CHEPS) at the University of Twente (Netherlands). Her research focuses on the financing of higher education internationally and its interaction with equity, including topics such as free higher education and student debt. She also works on topics related to internationalization and is the Assistant Editor for the Journal of Studies in International Education.
Prior to her appointment at CHEPS, Ariane was a Senior Research Associate at the Centre for Global Higher Education (CGHE), based at the UCL Institute of Education. She holds a Ph.D. in higher education from Boston College, where she worked at the Center for International Higher Education (CIHE).
Team
Salina Kopellas
Staff Assistant
Salina Kopellas has been with the Center since its founding. She manages the Center’s grants and database, and facilitates the editing and dissemination of International Higher Education. Prior to joining the Center, she worked as the administrative secretary to the dean of the Lynch School of Education and Human Development.
Jean Baptiste Diatta
Research Assistant
Jean Baptiste Diatta is a final-year doctoral candidate in the Boston College Higher Education program. His research interests include higher education leadership and administration in connection with assessment, as well as institutional learning outcomes design. Jean Baptiste worked as a Registrar for the Jesuit University Institute named CERAP (Centre de Recherche et d’Action pour la Paix) in Côte d’Ivoire. He also served as the chairperson of the institute Assessment Committee.
He earned a master’s degree in Higher Education from Boston College. Before entering the field of Higher Education, he earned a master's degree in philosophy from Faculté de Philosophie Saint Pierre Canisius de Kimwenza.
Tessa DeLaquil
Research Assistant
Tessa is a fourth-year doctoral candidate and research assistant at the Center for International Higher Education (CIHE), Boston College.
Her research interests include philosophy and theory of higher education, currently investigating the intersection between the idea of the university, internationalisation of higher education, and international development, working towards principles for justice in the practice of international higher education and the internationalization of academic research and research collaboration.
Tessa received a master's degree in Higher Education with a concentration in Spirituality, Faith, and Formation, and a certificate in International Higher Education from Boston College.
Twitter: @tdelaquil
Email: tessa.delaquil@bc.edu
Lizhou Wang
Research Assistant
Lizhou Wang is a fourth-year doctoral candidate in Boston College's Higher Education program. Her research interests include international student mobility and experiences, cross-cultural teaching and learning, and the internationalization of higher education.
Lizhou grew up in Hunan, China. She received her B.A. in economics and government from Smith College, MSc from the University of Oxford, and Ed.M. in International Education Policy from the Harvard Graduate School of Education.
Twitter: @Lizhou_Wang
Email: wangliz@bc.edu
Maia Gelashvili
Research Assistant
Maia Gelashvili is a third-year doctoral student and research assistant in the Boston College Higher Education program. Her research interests include international higher education focusing on college teaching, assessing student learning, and improving the quality of teaching and learning at universities.
Maia received a master's degree in Higher Education from Columbia University, Teachers College, and her B.A. and M.A. in American Studies at Ivane Javakhishvili Tbilisi State University.
Ekaterina Minaeva
Research Assistant
Ekaterina Minaeva is a first-year doctoral student in the Boston College Higher Education program. Her research interests include international higher education with a focus on international student experiences, student mobility, and virtual internationalization. Prior to her studies at Boston College, Ekaterina worked as an analyst at the Laboratory for University Development, Higher School of Economics, Russia.
Ekaterina received her B.Sc. in Environmental Engineering from Far Eastern Federal University (Russia), Graduate Diploma in International Development from University College Dublin (Ireland), and graduated from Erasmus MARIHE program (Master in Research and Innovation in Higher Education).
Bingran Zeng
Research Assistant
Bingran Zeng is a first-year doctoral student in the Higher Education program at Boston College. Her research interests are international and comparative higher education, higher education in the global south, and international higher education partnership.
Bingran grew up in Shenzhen, China. She received a B.S. in Human and Organizational Development and a B.S. in Second Language Studies from Vanderbilt University. She also completed an Ed.M. in International Education Policy at the Harvard Graduate School of Education.
Victoria DiSalvo
Graduate Assistant
Victoria DiSalvo is a first-year M.A student in the International Higher Education program at the Lynch School of Education and Human Development. She started her career at UMass Amherst where she received her Bachelor’s Degree in Psychology. Victoria began working with the Oxford Summer Seminar, a study abroad program, during her third year at UMass Amherst. After graduating, she continued working with the Oxford Summer Seminar while completing a graduate certificate in Higher Education Leadership and Administration.
Victoria is interested in utilizing her master's degree to work in the study abroad industry and is hoping to pursue a Ph.D. in the future!