Advisory Board

The Advisory Board is formed of a group of international advisors who guide and support the planning work with their distinguished leadership experiences for the success of CIES 2023. Thank each of you so much – your strong and enduring support and help are greatly appreciated!

Meet the Board:

N’Dri Assié-Lumumba is a Professor in Africana Studies and Director of the Institute for African Development at Cornell University. She is currently President of the World Council of Comparative Education Societies (WCCES), Chair of the Scientific Advisory Committee (SAC) of UNESCOS’s Inter-governmental programme for the Management of Social Transformations (MOST), and past President of CIES. A Fellow of the World Academy of Art and Science, she has held distinguished positions in Africa and globally and received numerous distinctions including the CIES Joyce Cain Award. She has published extensively on higher education, gender/equity, ICT, and knowledge production. Her latest publications include her co-edited books Re-visioning Education in Africa: Ubuntu-Inspired Education for Humanity (2018, with Emefa Amoako), and uBuntu and Comparative Education and International Education for Peace (2022, with Michael Cross, Kanishka Bedi & Yatigammana Ekanayake).

Karen Biraimah is a tenured Professor of Comparative Education at the University of Central Florida where she serves as a UCF Global Fellow and Fulbright liaison. Previously she taught at the University of Ife, Nigeria and served as a Fulbright Scholar at the University of Malaya, Kenyatta University and the University of Namibia. She was a Peace Corps Volunteer teacher in Ghana, and later taught social studies and math in Michigan and NY. Her research focuses on educational equity issues based on factors of race, ethnicity, class and gender. She holds a doctorate in Comparative and International Education, two masters’ degrees in Educational Foundations and African Area Studies, and a bachelor’s degree in International Studies. She is a CIES Past-President.

Sheng-Ju Chan, Distinguished Professor of Graduate Institute of Education and Vice President for Student Affairs at National Chung Cheng University, Taiwan and served as Director for Quality Assurance Office of Higher Education Evaluation & Accreditation Council of Taiwan (HEEACT). He is the President of Chinese Taipei Comparative Education Society. His areas of special interest are higher education policy, comparative education and higher education management. He has published widely in higher education and international development education. Specializing in education in East Asia, Professor Chan is the associate editor of the International Journal of Educational Development published by Elsevier and he is also the co-editor of a book series, Higher Education in Asia, supported by Springer.

Ratna Ghosh is Distinguished James McGill Professor and Sir William C. Macdonald Professor of Education at McGill University where she was Dean of Education. Her area of teaching and research is Comparative and International Education. Her most cited publications are in Multicultural Education, Social Justice Education, women and development, and education and security. A Fellow of Canada’s National Academy, the Royal Society of Canada, she was also elected Fellow of TWAS, The World Academy of Sciences – for the advancement of science in developing countries. She has been decorated as a Member of the Order of Canada, Officer or the Order of Quebec, and Officer of the Order of Montreal. She has held several leadership positions as President of the Shastri Indo-Canadian Institute, and President of CIES where she is an Honorary Fellow. She was featured in Time Magazine (Canadian Edition, 13.10.2003), in an article on “Canada’s Best in Education”.

Mark Ginsburg currently serves as a Visiting Professor in the Department of Counseling, Higher Education and Special Education, College of Education, University of Maryland, College Park. He retired in 2016 from FHI360, and was a faculty member at other universities: Aston (England), Houston, Pittsburgh, and Columbia (USA) as well as a visiting professor at George Washington University (USA) and Kobe University (Japan). He was President of the Comparative and International Education Society (1991) and Co-editor of Comparative Education Review (2003-2013) as well as President of the United Faculty of the University of Pittsburgh (affiliated to the AAUP and AFT, 1992-2004). Mark does research in Comparative Education, Qualitative Social Research and Social Policy. He is currently serving as a Visiting Professor at the Universidad de Ciencias Pedagogicas Enrique José Varona in Havana, Cuba.

Ruth Hayhoe is a professor at the University of Toronto. Her Asian engagements have included First Secretary for Education, Science and Culture in the Canadian Embassy in Beijing (1989-1991), Visiting Professor at Nagoya University (1996) and Director of the Hong Kong Institute of Education, now the Education University of Hong Kong (1997-2002). Recent books include China Through the Lens of Comparative Education (2015), Canadian Universities in China’s Transformation: An Untold Story (2016) and Religion and Education (2018). She received the Silver Bauhinia Star from the Hong Kong SAR Government and the title of Commandeur dans l’ordre des Palmes Académiques from the Government of France in 2002. She also holds honorary doctorates from the Hong Kong Institute of Education (2002), the Open University of Hong Kong (2015) and Victoria University in Toronto (2019).

Stephen P. Heyneman received his PhD in Comparative Education from the University of Chicago in 1976. He served the World Bank for 22 years. Between 1976 and 1984 he helped research education quality and design policies to support educational effectiveness. Between 1984 and 1989 he was in charge of external training for senior officials in education policy. Between 1989 and 1998, he was responsible for education policy and lending strategy, first for the Middle East and North Africa and later for the 27 countries of Europe and Central Asia. In July, 2000 he was appointed professor of International Education Policy at Vanderbilt University. In 2015 he become Professor Emeritus. Current interests include the effect of education on social cohesion, education and religion, and the economic and social cost of education corruption. He serves as the Editor-in-Chief of the International Journal of Educational Development.

Steven J. Klees is Professor of International Education Policy and Distinguished Scholar-Teacher at the University of Maryland. He completed his PhD at Stanford University and has been a faculty member at Cornell University, Stanford University, Florida State University, and the Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte in Brazil. He was a Fulbright Scholar on two occasions at the Federal University of Bahia in Brazil. He has worked on evaluations of education programs and policies in dozens of countries for a wide array of international agencies, ministries, and NGOs. Professor Klees’ work examines the political economy of education and development. Recent books include: The World Bank and Education: Critiques and Alternatives; Women Teachers in Africa: Challenges and Possibilities; and The Conscience of a Progressive. He is a former president and Honorary Fellow of the Comparative and International Education Society.

Kazuo Kuroda is Dean and Professor at Graduate School of Asia-Pacific Studies, Waseda University in Japan. He is a comparative education researcher specializing in international education development and cooperation. He started to participate in CIES Regional Conference in 1992 when he was at Stanford for his M.A. His first attended CIES Annual Conference was in Boston in 1995 when he was at Cornell for his Ph.D. Since then, he has been a regular and faithful attendant of the CIES annual conferences for last 30 years. Currently, Kazuo also serves as Executive Director of Japan Comparative Education Society (JCES), and Chair of Research Standing Committee of WCCES. He is also an editorial board member of International Journal of Educational Development and Global Comparative Education. His most recent edited volume is Japan’s International Cooperation in Education: History and Prospect (2022) by Springer.

Wing On Lee is Executive Director of the Institute for Adult Learning and Professor at the Singapore University of Social Sciences. He has previously assumed senior positions at Zhengzhou University, Open University of Hong Kong, Singapore National Institute of Education, Hong Kong Institute of Education (EDUHK), University of Sydney and University of Hong Kong. He has received several awards, such as Medal of Honour by the HKSAR Government, the Soka Gakkai International Award from its HK Association, and Education Innovation Award from the Chinese Association of Educational Art, Beijing in 2003. He was elected President of the World Council of Comparative Education Societies (WCCES) in 2010. He has published over 36 books and 200 book chapters and journal articles. In 2021, Lee was awarded the International Adult and Continuing Education Hall of Fame in USA; appointed to the Governing Board of the UNESCO APCIEU in South Korea; and received Overseas Outstanding Contribution Award for Chinese Educational Research from Beijing Normal University.

Henry M. Levin is the William H. Kilpatrick Professor of Economics and Education, Emeritus, at Teachers College, Columbia University where he served from 1999-2020 and is the founder and former director of the Center for Benefit Cost Studies in Education (www.cbcse.edu). He is also the David Jacks Professor of Economics and Education, Emeritus, at Stanford University from 1968-1999. He was a Visiting Faculty member at Peking University in the Fall of 2012 and specializes in the Economics of Education.

Beverly Lindsay, PhD, EdD is Co-Director and Principal Investigator of a Ford Foundation International Institute multi-year grant on women and university leadership with University of California sties. She is: member of the Council on Foreign Relations; Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and Comparative and International Education Society; and former CIES President. She was: the Inaugural University Fellow and Professor at Dillard University; International Dean at Hampton University and Pennsylvania State University (Professora Emerita); Visiting Professor at University College London and Guest Professor at Oxford University; and the first Black woman full professor at the University of Georgia. She published over 150 articles/essays and nine books, with the latest: Higher Education Policy in Developing and Western Nations (Routledge, 2022).

Baocun Liu is a professor of comparative education and the director of the Institute of International and Comparative Education (IICE) at Beijing Normal University. He serves as president of China Comparative Education (CCES). With his specialization and research interests in comparative education, higher education, education policy and management, he has been involved in a wide range of national and international research and consultancy projects, and published more than 300 journal papers and 20 books. He has received many honors and awards for his research and teaching in the field of education, including the Ministry of Education Distinguished Professor of Changjiang Scholars Program.

Régis Malet is a Professor of Comparative Education at the University of Bordeaux, a Senior member of the Institut Universitaire de France. Over the last two decades, his activity has been focused on the analysis of the teacher education processes in various social and national contexts and from a comparative education perspective. As the leader of relevant international projects, Régis Malet has constantly been engaged with the teacher education field from a comparative and international perspective. Régis has directed the Laboratoire Cultures, Education, Societies (LACES) and he was the director of the Faculty of Education in the University Charles de Gaulle of Lille. He has also served as the President of the French-speaking Society of Comparative Education (AFEC) and the Editor of the international research journal Éducation Comparée for 15 years. He has authored 120 publications in French, English, Portuguese and Chinese, including articles, books, monographs and reports.

Carlos Ornelas is a professor of Education and Communications at the Universidad Autónoma Metropolitana, with a Ph. D. in education (1980) and a MA in international education (1978) from Stanford University. Currently he is President of the Mexican Comparative Education Society (MCES), and he served as visiting faculty at Nagoya University (2019), Hiroshima University (2014), Teacher College Columbia University (2008-09), Monterrey Tec (1998), Centro de Investigación y Docencia Económicas (1994-1995), and Visiting Lecturer and Fulbright Scholar at Harvard University Graduate School of Education (1986-1987). His most recent book in English is Politics of Education in Latin America: Reforms, resistance and persistence (Brill, 2019). He received the W. G. Walker Best Paper Award for his article Politics of educational decentralization in Mexico, published in the Journal of Educational Administration. He is a senior member of the Comparative and International Education Society since 1982.

Jae Park is an Assistant Professor at the Education University of Hong Kong. His research interests are in sociology and philosophy of education. He serves as the President of the Comparative Education Society of Hong Kong (CESHK) and as the Head of the International Education Research Group in the Centre for Lifelong Learning Research and Development of the Education University of Hong Kong. He is the Editor-in-Chief of the International Journal of Comparative Education and Development and Editorial Board member of the book series Educational Leadership Theory for Springer. He published in Comparative Education Review, Educational Philosophy and Theory, International Studies in Sociology of Education, Comparative Education, and Ethics & Behavior.

Tejendra Pherali is Associate Professor in Education and International Development at UCL Institute of Education where he leads the research theme on Education, Conflict and Peacebuilding. He is the Chair of British Association for International and Comparative Education (BAICE) and also chairs the Editorial Board of Journal Compare. Tejendra’s research primarily focuses on educational challenges in conflict-affected and humanitarian situations. He leads the AHRC-funded Peace with Justice Network and is also a Co-I on an ESRC funded RELIEF Centre that aims to promote innovative educational practices in conflict-affected contexts. Tejendra is the author of Conflict, Education and Peace in Nepal: Rebuilding Education for Peace and Development (Bloomsbury: 2022) and the editor of Education and Conflict Review.

Simona Popa is a researcher, editor, and international civil servant. She is the head of Knowledge Creation and Management program at UNESCO International Bureau of Education (IBE), in Geneva, Switzerland. Among others, she leads the IBE knowledge brokerage work, with a specific focus on the science of learning and its impact on education practices, to facilitate learning. Simona also coordinates the development, production, and dissemination of the IBE’s flagship publications, including Prospects, one of the oldest, continuously published peer-reviewed journals in the field. She holds a PhD in comparative education, from the University of Pittsburgh, and has more than 20 years of experience working in international development.

David Post teaches about social mobility and child labor issues at Penn State. Previously he taught comparative education in the US at the University of Pittsburgh, University of California, and he has also had visiting appointments in Hong Kong, Peru, Chile, and Mexico. He was elected to the CIES Board in the early 1990s, serving as the first head of the finance committee. Then from 2003-2013 he edited the Comparative Education Review. Subsequently he headed the publications committee, which developed a monograph book series through a partnership with SUNY Press. Most recently, he organized the 2019 conference in San Francisco, authored the prognosis for the field, “After Progress,” and while he was CIES president he led the search for the Executive Director.

Natasha Ridge is the founding Executive Director of the Sheikh Saud bin Saqr Al Qasimi Foundation for Policy Research. Prior to this appointment, she was the Acting Director of Research at the Dubai School of Government. Natasha has over 20 years of experience working in the international education sector including in Singapore and Australia. She holds a Doctorate of Education in International Education Policy from Columbia University, a Master’s in International and Community Development from Deakin University. Natasha has more than 30 publications, including a book entitled Education and the Reverse Gender Divide in the Gulf States: Embracing the Global, Ignoring the Local and another entitled Philanthropy in Education: Diverse Perspectives and Global Trends. In addition to being a founding Executive Board member and former President of the Gulf Comparative Education Society, Natasha also serves on several boards including the NORRAG Advisory Board, EduAlliance and the RAKEZ Academic Zone Board.

Noah W. Sobe is Professor at Loyola University Chicago. He is Past-President of CIES (2017) and just completed a three-year term (2019-2022) as Senior Project Officer on the Future of Learning and Innovation team at UNESCO where he helped to lead UNESCO’s flagship futures of education initiative. He currently serves as CIES Parliamentarian and as the co-editor of the journal European Education.

Miki Sugimura is a professor of Comparative and International Education, Faculty of Human Sciences at Sophia University in Japan. M.Ed. and PhD (University of Tokyo). She is a member of Japanese National Commission for UNESCO, President of Japan Comparative Education Society (JCES), and a board member of World Council of Comparative Education Societies (WCCES). She is also a visiting professor at the United Nations University Institute for the Advanced Study of Sustainability (UNU-IAS), a research fellow of Japan International Cooperation Agency Ogata Institute. Her research topics are international/transnational higher education and multicultural education. She also works for the International Expert Group on the revision of the 1974 Recommendation.

Edward Vickers is UNESCO Chair in Education for Peace, Social Justice and Global Citizenship at Kyushu University, and President of the Comparative Education Society of Asia. He researches the history and politics of education in contemporary Asia, especially in Chinese societies (the PRC, Hong Kong and Taiwan). He also researches the politics of conflict-related heritage in East Asia. His books include Education and Society in Post-Mao China (2017; with Zeng Xiaodong), Constructing Modern Asian Citizenship (2015; with Krishna Kumar), and Remembering Asia’s World War Two (2019; with Mark Frost and Daniel Schumacher). He co-chaired a working group on ‘Context’ for the UNESCO report Reimagining Education (2022), coordinated by the UNESCO Mahatma Gandhi Institute in New Delhi.

James H. Williams is a professor at George Washington University, and Chairholder of the UNESCO Chair in International Education for Development. He teaches graduate classes on education and development; education policy in low and middle-income countries; education in marginalized communities and in emergencies. He has authored more than 75 articles, books, and monographs including three edited volumes on school textbooks in the reimaginaries of the nation. Recent research interests center around citizenship and social and emotional learning and teaching of transversal skills. He is interested in broadening our collective imagination as to possibilities of human development through non-Western examples, with a particular interest in Japan as the first non-Western nation to develop economically on a par with the West.

Shoko Yamada is a Professor of comparative education and African studies, Nagoya University, Japan. She has conducted various researches on educational policy-making and implementation in Africa, both in the historical and present-day contexts. She is also interested in the formation and the social reception of youths’ skills and knowledge and has assessed the skills of industrial workers using unique evaluation tools. She serves as a member of WCCES publication committee, the editorial board of the International Journal of Educational Development. Her recent publications include “Dignity of Labour for African Leaders: The Formation of Education Policy in the British Colonial Office and Achimota School on the Gold Coast” (Langaa 2018) and “Post-Education-For-All and Sustainable Development Paradigm: Structural change and diversifying actors and norms” (Emerald 2016).