Alumni - Masters Program

Cathy Bi was born in Beijing, China. She attended high school in New Jersey, and recently graduated from Boston College with a degree in Philosophy. She is interested ethics, education, and the arts. Previously, Cathy interned and volunteered at various nonprofit organizations including the United Nations and the Interfaith Food Pantry Network. In her spare time, Cathy enjoys spending time in the gym, cooking with friends, and hanging out at the dog park.

I am a first-year MA student in the philosophy and education program. I graduated this year from St. Lawrence University in upstate New York, with degrees in philosophy and psychology. I found there are many common grounds shared by psychology and philosophy, where philosophy could give broader theoretical guidance in the practical psychological framework. I am especially interested in early childhood education and its following personality development, which I believe could give me a further understanding of epistemological and ontological questions.

Kayla Tanenbaum graduated Columbia University in 2014 with a B.A. in English and Sarah Lawrence College in 2019 with an M.F.A. in Creative Nonfiction. For the past three years, she been teaching literature and composition to undergraduates in New York City. Her work as an educator inspired her to approach pedagogy philosophically at Teachers College. Kayla is most interested in the relationship between education and dignity and plans to explore how educating for beauty can serve as both a tool for liberation and as a bulwark against the alienation imposed on students by contemporary capitalist values.

Heidi Vernejoul graduated from Binghamton University and Sorbonne Université with a degree in Political Science and French. For over two decades she has been a college and high-school educator as well as a curriculum writer creating projects in health education and storytelling which are used worldwide. Most recently she has been consulting and designing curriculum for the Sex Education Initiative of Teachers College, Columbia University. She is delighted to return to TC to complete her degree after a long hiatus. Her current academic interest is in developing multidisciplinary, high- school curricula which foster the development of purpose and identity through philosophical inquiry.

I am a first-year Master of Art student in the program. I was born and raised in Hohhot, Inner Mongolia, China. I graduated from Furman University in Greenville, South Carolina in May 2021 with a BA in Philosophy and a minor in Interdisciplinary Humanities. I enjoy doing comparative philosophy between the East and West. I am also interested in higher education, especially the very idea of liberal arts education. My broad coursework and research in philosophy, education, and humanities gradually shaped my belief that there are common features underlying liberal arts education and the deep-rooted Confucian humanistic learning. Thus, I want to explore differences and similarities among philosophical foundations of education interculturally. Their shared aspiration to cultivate and to realize human flourishing in different ways is fascinating. Besides doing philosophy, I am also learning to be a gourmet, chef, and photographer.

Current Position

Doctoral Student in the Department of Theology and Religious Studies at Georgetown University

M.A. Thesis Title

Derrida’s Influence on Debates about the Teaching of Philosophy

Alexa graduated with a BA in Music History from the University of Oxford and an MPhil in Historical Musicology from the University of Cambridge. She completed her PGCE in secondary education at Roehampton University. A native Londoner, Alexa spent twelve years working as a teacher and school leader before joining the Philosophy and Education program at Teachers College. Alexa’s research interests include educational ethics, pupil and teacher agency, confidence and pupil empowerment, and the relationship between education systems and society.

M.A. Thesis Title

The Contemporary Relevance of Dewey’s Creative Democracy

Clayton Rains earned a B.A. in Philosophy from the School of General Studies, Columbia University’s undergraduate school for non-traditional students. Clayton describes his early encounter with education as vexatious, and it consequently led to education itself becoming a focus of his studies: its sociological, philosophical, and practical aspects. He is presently pursuing an M.A. in Philosophy and Education with an aim to make education more welcoming to students with non-traditional backgrounds.

M.A. Thesis Title

The Meaning of Intelligence

Xinyu is a first year M.Ed candidate who holds a B.A. in War Studies and Philosophy from King’s College London. Xinyu’s undergraduate study in violence and politics ultimately led to her interest in education as a way of reducing war and violence in our societies. Currently, she is interested in how education can fundamentally transform human ethics.

Venezia graduated from Gonzaga University in Spokane, WA with a B.A. in psychology. While at Gonzaga she focused her studies in mindfulness practices with female immigrant & refugee adolescents. Her passion for education and making it accessible to all types of learners led her to NYC where she now works as a middle school Humanities teacher at the Cornelia Connelly Center, an all girls education non-profit that focuses on giving financial, academic and social-emotional support from 4th grade through college graduation. At TC,  Venezia hopes to deepen her own philosophical understanding to better analyze the many theories that have come together to form the United States education system. 

Krystal is a native New Yorker who grew up in the boogie down Bronx. She graduated from Manhattan College in 2016 with a BA in Philosophy with minors in Psychology and Spanish. She is interested in the development of self identity and the practical and creative solutions philosophy brings to life’s problems. Krystal wants to use philosophy to help inform and guide students going through mental health struggles.

Pedro E. Moreno-Vásquez is an M.A candidate in Philosophy and Education, at Teachers College. Born and raised in Peru, he earned a B.A in English and Comparative Literature at Columbia University. He was a recipient of the award for Academic Leadership and service. His research interests include aesthetic education, critical theory, and Heidegger’s phenomenology.

Pedro was inspired by his mother, a teacher who worked in Lima’s shantytowns for thirty years. While living in Peru, he led multiple writing and editing workshops for youth leaders. Currently, he spends all of his time serving vulnerable and underserved communities. He works for the New York Public Library, as an assistant for Early literacy workshops, as well as for computer literacy programs for seniors. He also tutors Math and reading skills to special needs children in an UES community center.

He enjoys hiking, fishing, and mountain climbing.

M.A. 2021

Jingyi is pursuing further graduate studies in Great Britain. 

Ed.M. 2021

Staysi earned her Bachelor of Arts from Georgetown University, with a major in Philosophy and minors in Theology and Women’s and Gender Studies. She is now in the Master of Education in Philosophy and Education program and is interested in addressing the role of trauma, gender-based and racial violence, and cultural conflicts through the lens of social and restorative justice theories within the scope of education.  

M.A. 2021

Justin serves as a college counselor in the Harlem community in the hopes of helping students realize their post-secondary potential.

M.A. 2021

John is a student in the Master of Education degree in Learning Design, Innovation, and Technology program at Harvard University.  

Claire Becerra is a Ph.D. student in the Philosophy Department at North Western University.

D.D. graduated with a B.A. in Sociology from Seattle University in 2018 and spent a year conducting research and working with underserved student populations at St. Mary's University, Twickenham, London, before arriving at Teachers College. D.D. is deeply interested in humans' socio cognitive development over the lifespan, especially as it pertains to young adults in the early stages of selfhood. Currently, D.D. is the Student Success Coordinator at Achievement First Amistad High School in New Haven, Connecticut. In her role at Amistad, D.D. works with Black and Latinx students to actualize liberation pathways to college and beyond, and is the Amistad Philosophy Club's founding faculty advisor.

John Sailer is a master's student at St.John's College, Annapolis, Maryland.

Saiki earned her BSc in Geography with Economics (2003) from the London School of Economics, Master of Social Science with a Major in International & Comparative Education (2006) from Stockholm University and Ph.D in Political Theory (2011) from LUISS Guido Carlo University. A background in political economy of education, sustainable citizenship, track & field and volleyball training and fitness & nutrition coaching led to Saiki's interest in exploring what constitute leisure and wellness in the post-industrial age and how coaching plays a role in leisure and wellness education. Currently, Saiki is a Tier X Coach at Equinox and Guest Coach at Wellness In The Schools (WITS) Family Fitness Fun Nights Program.

Abram graduated from Victoria University, Australia, with a B.A. in Performance Studies. With no prior formal training in dance or theater, the driving interests were pedagogical: how do the performing arts affect us, teach us (as practitioners, as audiences)? The forms of interest were fringe and radical, could such theater bring about social change? Did it? Currently, Abram’s academic interests are in education models that rethink the traditional school with a view to restructuring society. The general framework is part socio-cultural ethnography, part philosophy.

Hannah's predominant area of philosophical interest is applied ethics, specifically as its leading questions intersect with and inform her work in urban education leadership. In her future studies, she hopes to tackle the question of how, if at all, the conditions that typically accompany inter-generational poverty have an impact on affected individuals' capacity to flourish. She is currently working on a number of pieces dealing with the question of how, if at all, neuroscience can / should inform philosophical theory.

Renae Lesser graduated with a B.A. in Human Ecology from College of the Atlantic and worked as an editor and writer for several publications and publishers before arriving at Teachers College. Renae’s philosophical interests are centered around ‘human freedom’ in all of its various conceptions. She is interested in investigating what meaningful education might look like in the context of rapid political, technological, and environmental change.

M.A. Thesis Title

The Civic Education of Advantaged Students

M.A. Thesis Title

Code Switching for Comfort: A Qualified Endorsement of Code Switching in Reality Pedagogy

M.A. Thesis Title

Examining the Authenticity of the Argumentative Understanding of the Toulmin Model: A Proposal to Subject Warrants, Backings, and Their Truth Values to Questioning

M.A. Thesis Title

An Ethical Education: How a Teacher Flourishes Through Teaching

M.A. Thesis Title

Interpretation and Guidance: A hermeneutical approach to Dewey's views on curriculum

M.A. Thesis Title

An Artistic Discussion With Dewey and Plato

M.A. Thesis Title

The Attributes and Dynamics of Mentoring

M.A. Thesis Title

Transforming Social Marginalization and Hierarchies through Art

M.A. Thesis Title

Unasked Questions: Using W.E.B. Du Bois to Consider Race, Self and the Soul in Education

M.A. Thesis Title

A Common Core Without Substance: K-12 Schooling in the United States and the Problematic Aim of “College and Career Readiness”

Current Occupation

J.D./Ph.D. Student at The Pennsylvania State University Penn State Dickinson School of Law, Penn State Law Department of Education Policy Studies, Higher Education Program

M.A. Thesis Title

Education Not for Sale: A Stoic and Socratic Defense of Flourishing and Self-Care

Current Occupation

Implementation Consultant for Odysseyware

M.A. Thesis Title

Education and “The Real World”: Challenges for the Student as an Individual.

Current Occupation

Primary Unit Support Teacher at The Logan School for Creative Learning

M.A. Thesis Title

Phonic Philosophy: A Podcast of Philosophy of Education

Current Occupation

Vice Principal for the Upper School of Cahaya Bangsa Classical School

M.A. Thesis Title

From Competition to Communion: An Interpretation of Martin Buber’s Dialogical Philosophy and Its Implications in the Field of Philosophy of Education

Current Occupation

Jianghua is responsible for academic readiness at a start-up company that deals with a broad topics about Chinese students studying overseas.

M.A. Thesis Title

A Brief Analysis of the Concept of 'Good Teaching

Current Occupation

2nd Grade Teacher in Portland, Oregon

M.A. Thesis Title

Education as Protest: Locating Resistance in a Marxist Theory of Education

M.A. Thesis Title

Rousseau on Happiness: A Reading of Emile

Current Occupation

Interim Executive Director of Raise Your Hand Texas

M.A. Thesis Title

Can Elite Private Schools Serve a Public Purpose?: Understanding capacity through discourse analysis of public purpose programming

Current Occupation

STEM teacher at the Waterfront Montessori in Jersey City grades 1st - 8th

Ed.M. Thesis Title

Community and Autonomy in a Montessori Setting

Current Occupation

Mark Martorana is a counselor for the Door's high school equivalency program.

M.A. Thesis Title

Emerson's Conception of Self-Cultivation

Current Occupation

Philosophy instructor, Fayetteville Technical Community College

In charge of the classes of Philosophical issues, Introduction to Ethics, and Critical thinking. Working in the promotion of alternative perspectives towards this disciplines and innovation in the teaching of Philosophy and Humanities.

M.A. Thesis Title

Epistemological - Political implications of Community-Based Education

Current Occupation

Philosophy instructor at Mercer County Community College

M.A. Thesis Title

A Case for Identity Ideals in Education: Refining Teaching Practice Towards Truthfulness and Goodness

Current Occupation

Web Developer & Education Technologist

M.A. Thesis Title

The Language of Love in Education: What It Is, Why It Scares Us, and How It Can Redeem Us

M.A. Thesis Title

The Ethical Engine of Education: The Productive Dialectic of Nobility and Humility

Current Occupation

Nicole Imhof received her MA in Philosophy and Education in 2012. Since graduating from the program, she has worked in the non-profit field engaging special needs children and adolescents in community-based youth programming. She also taught in the Ethics and Philosophy Department at Molloy College. Nicole completed a second graduate degree in Social Work in 2015.

M.A. Thesis Title

(Re)imagining Source(s) of Knowledge: Towards a Feminist Pedagogy in Education

Current Occupation

Degna P. Levister is a Clinical Law Professor and presently the Assistant Dean of Admissions and Enrollment Management at the City University of New York School of Law. As Clinical Law Professor she has co-taught in the Economic Justice Project, the Elder Law Clinic and in the Lawyering program.

M.A. Thesis Title

Legal Pedagogy and Social Justice Lawyering: Lessons from Pragmatism

Current Occupation

Chris Ng teaches philosophy courses online for Ashford University and Southern New Hampshire University. She continues to pursue her passion for philosophy for children by serving on the education committee for PLATO (Philosophy Learning And Teaching Organization) and on the case-writing committee for the National High School Ethics Bowl. Along with former TC alumni, she is designing a board game that engages players in philosophical debate.

M.A. Thesis Title

The ‘Problem’ of Quiet Students: Helping Students to Speak (and Listen) in a Community of Inquiry

SusanMary Morris is currently teaching in the Bridgewater-Raritan Regional School District in SomersetCounty, New Jersey asan Intervention Specialist in Literacy for Grade 6. She has been teaching in the Bridgewater School System for over 24 years. Her teaching career spans over four decades, during which time she has taught all self-contained grades from Pre-School through Grade Five. She has been a teacher of the gifted and has also conducted tutorials in literacy in both middle and high schools. She is an avid supporter of arts in education and counts her ten years of graduate studies at Lincoln Center Institute and TC as the years of personal and professional growth which led her back to pursuing her Master of Arts at TC, Columbia. She is very proud of being a Lincoln Center Educator which has enabled her to infuse focused studies with the arts into core curriculum. Mrs.Morris has enjoyed teaching in both public and private schools, and she believes in teaching in an intimate manner in an aesthetically welcoming environment.

Current Occupation

Stay at Home Mom

Jamie Knowles currently teaches middle school English Language Arts in Oakland, California.  At Teachers College, his research culminated in the thesis project "Amartya Sen's Capability Approach and Inner City Education."

Current Occupation

Advanced Doctoral Candidate and Graduate Teaching Associate at the University of South Florida; and an Adjunct Instructor at the University of Tampa

M.A. Thesis

The Dialogical Philosophy of Charles Taylor

Current Occupation

Natasha Dagoi is a high school teacher of English literature, writing, and film studies in the Chicago Public School system

M.A. Thesis Title

The Role of Self-Love in Teaching

Maximillian Beach has worked in private, charter, and public high schools in the US as a Teacher, Academic Dean, Curriculum Designer, and Teacher Coach.

Current Occupation

John teaches 8th grade social studies at Memorial Middle School for the South Portland School District in South Portland, Maine. He is on the school leadership team and he coaches an improv troupe and the ultimate frisbee team.

M.A. Thesis Title

A Philosophical Analysis of The Lives of Others

Eun Yong Kim graduated with a Ed.M. in Philosophy and Education in 2007. Her thesis, entitled "The Cosmopolitan Experience of Bilingual Speaker of Korean and English," reflects Eun Yong's interest in the relationship between philosophy and bilingual / bicultural education. Eun Yong is currently preparing to enter a doctoral program where she will continue to explore the issue of language identity and its educational implications.

Frank D. Manfre graduated with a M.A. in Philosophy and Education in 2006. His M.A. thesis, entitled "Vigilant Humanism and the Practice of Literary Criticism," reflects his interest in the relationship between ethics and literature. Frank is currently a graduate student in the M.A. in Teaching program at The College of New Jersey. The program will lead to certification in Secondary English and will prepare him for teaching in New Jersey's public high schools.