Doctoral Student Profiles | Teachers College, Columbia University

A Graduate School of Education, Health & Psychology

Meet Our Doctoral Students

Teachers College is proud to showcase the diverse and talented group of doctoral student scholars within our academic community.

Dillon Beede

Ed.D.C.T. Student, Music and Music Education

Dillon Beede currently serves as Director of Choirs at Wilson College and Artistic Director of the Harrisburg Gay Men's Chorus. He earned a BM from Hastings College and an MM in Voice Performance and Vocal Pedagogy at Westminster Choir College. While at Westminster, Dillon performed with the Westminster Symphonic Choir and studied voice with the late Julian Rodescu and Dr. Christopher Arneson. His graduate voice research studied the effects of musical exercises in combination with Stemple’s vocal function exercises for voice feminization.

His current research focuses on the intersections of pedagogy, policy, and identity in trans and gender-expansive choral spaces. He has presented his research at the Pennsylvania Music Education Association Conference, College Music Society Northeast Chapter Conference, the 5th Symposium for LGBTQ Studies & Music Education, and at the 9th Social Impact of Music Making Conference in Copenhagen, Denmark.

Arts & Humanities

Andrew Goldie (He/Him/His)

Ed.D. Student, Adult Ed Guided Intensive Study (AEGIS)

Andrew is interested in researching matters of motivation and resistance to learning in adults. As a career educator, his interests also include examining the intersections of power, class, and public policy. His master's thesis (2013) argued for a revitalization of vocational education in cross-examination with peer country schooling policies (particularly Germany and the UK). He is planning to write his dissertation by examining best practices in the HRD, Training and Development, Project Management, and Coaching fields and applying them to teacher professional development.

Andrew currently works as a school administrator for the Department of Defense school system (DoDEA) which serves the dependents of active-duty military members worldwide. He has taught in China, Korea, the Dominican Republic, Germany, and the United States.

Organization & Leadership

Letty Garcia (She/Her/Hers)

Ed.D. Student, Adult Ed Guided Intensive Study (AEGIS)

Letty Garcia is the Associate Director of the Leadership Initiative (LI) at the Harvard Business School. In this capacity, she oversees strategic priorities to bridge the gap between leadership scholarship, course development, and practice. Her current projects include designing the highly successful Leading and Building a Culture of Innovation Program. Letty also oversees research and convenings supported by the LI. She has contributed to various publications and research, including HBS teaching notes, a longitudinal study of the High Potentials Leadership Program, and a literature review on Ignatian Leadership. Letty’s research interests are in leadership development, learning organizations, leading innovation, and adult development. As an experienced coach, she leverages her adult learning methodologies and leadership development expertise to effectively coach high-potential managers, general managers, and senior leaders from various industries and professions.

Organization & Leadership First-Generation College Student

Regina Johnson

Ed.D. Student, Adult Ed Guided Intensive Study (AEGIS)

Regina Johnson is a strategic business leader and Ed.D. candidate in Adult Learning and Leadership at Teachers College, Columbia University (AEGIS XXIX cohort). Her career spans economic development, workforce development, and consulting. In her current role at Microsoft, she serves as Community Lead for small businesses and Director of the Black Partner Growth Initiative, driving entrepreneurial growth within the Microsoft AI Cloud Partner Program.

Regina’s research explores how adult education, organizational change, policy innovations, and narrative amplification empower entrepreneurs. She examines how intersectional identities, self-efficacy, and resilience contribute to success, and how access to resources—information, capital, and networks—and storytelling support sustainable growth. Drawing on cross-cultural insights from the U.S. and Ghana, she centers participant realities in her work, fostering transformative leadership that honors diverse lived experiences.

Organization & Leadership

Sam Piede

Ph.D. Student, Philosophy and Education

Sam is a doctoral candidate in Philosophy and Education with research interests in relational aesthetics, teacher education, philosophy for children, and epistemic injustice in youth. Her dissertation research focuses on articulating pedagogy through the lens of relational aesthetics and how doing so opens up new possibilities for understanding teachers' seemingly minor "micro-movements" as relationally significant interventions, ones that open up new ways of being together in a classroom space. Having spent a dozen joyful years as a public high school educator, she is interested on the implications of this work for teacher education circles.

Sam is currently an adjunct professor in Educational Foundations at Montclair State University. She is also a contributing member of the Participatory Creativity Lab. The team's most recent work has explored alternate conceptions of 'power' as 'flexibility' in creative eco-systems.

Arts & Humanities First-Generation College Student

Lottie Hathaway (She/Her/Hers)

Ed.D. Student, Dance Education

Dissertation Advisor: Matthew Kenney Henley

Charlotte Hathaway is a Doctoral Candidate (ABD) at Teachers College, Columbia University, pursuing an Ed.D. in Dance Education. Her research focuses on creative risk-taking, aiming to enhance educational practices through innovative movement approaches and cultivate a more equitable society grounded in social justice. As an Arnhold Doctoral Fellow, Charlotte has held high-profile administrative fellowships in Dance Education, Art Education, and the Office of the President at Teachers College. She has collaborated with prestigious organizations like CERN, the University of Helsinki, University of Cambridge, and Imperial College London on various STEAM EU funded research projects. Charlotte has held positions at the University of Winchester, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and Brown University. She has presented at international conferences including BERA and daCi and received awards from the Philanthropic Educational Organization, Phi Delta Kappa, and Cancer for College.

Arts & Humanities First-Generation College Student

Chengyuan Yao (He/Him/His)

Ph.D. Student, Measurement and Evaluation

Human Development

Kellyn Mylechreest

Ed.D. Student, Dance Education

Kellyn Mylechreest is a third-year Doctoral Student in the Dance Education Program at Teachers College, Columbia University, where she is studying the emotional side effects of conservatory dance training, and how holistic dance education can create healthier environments for young artists' mental and physical well-being. She is the Program Coordinator for the Morningside Dance Works Community Program within the Arnhold Institute for Dance Education at Teachers College and works as a Research Assistant Fellow with the same department. Additionally, she is an Assistant Adjunct Professor of Dance at Queens College and Queensborough Community College. Previously, Mylechreest has worked as a teaching artist with New York City Ballet and Alvin Ailey's Arts in Education programming and worked as a dancer and choreographer with companies such as Twyla Tharp, Houseworld Immersive, Linked Dance Theatre, CityLyric Opera, Blue Morph Collective, and more.

Arts & Humanities

G Capone (They/Them/Theirs)

Ph.D. Student, Higher and Postsecondary Education

G's research interests are focused on exploring the lived experiences of trans faculty in higher education.

Organization & Leadership First-Generation College Student

Zhe Zhang

Ph.D. Student, Special Education: Deaf and Hard of Hearing

Zhe Zhang is a Ph.D. candidate in the Special Education: Deaf and Hard of Hearing program at Teachers College, Columbia University. His research focuses on the emotional health, self-advocacy, and cultural influences of special needs populations, particularly children and older adults. As a certified hearing specialist, he has several years of experience supporting Deaf and Hard of Hearing students in the NYC public school system. His research aims to develop effective interventions and support strategies through quantitative analysis and case study approaches. Zhe is committed to contributing to the field of special education and improving the lives of individuals with special needs. Through his research and practice, he seeks to promote inclusive education and support the well-being of diverse populations.

Health Studies & Applied Educational Psychology First-Generation College Student

Victoria Dumas (She/Her/Hers)

Ph.D. Student, English Education

Victoria Dumas is a PhD student in the English Education program with a passion for empowering students and teachers to capitalize on the liberating powers of literacy. She specializes in creating culturally sustaining curricula grounded in anti-racist pedagogy. Throughout her career, she has fervently advocated for English curricula that reflect and uplift the lived experiences of BIPOC students. Her research interests center on integrating curriculum design and storytelling to position students as protagonists in their educational journeys. Victoria's calling is to support the movement of Black and Brown stories and storytelling from the margins of academic discourse to the forefront of literary study.

Arts & Humanities First-Generation College Student Student-Parent

Nady Persons (She/They)

Ed.D. Student, Adult Ed Guided Intensive Study (AEGIS)

Nady Persons (they/she) is an executive coach, designer, and facilitator of adult learning experiences. They focus on empowering individuals and organizations to embrace inclusivity and liberatory practices through engaging learning experiences and leadership development. Their research focus is centered on the nexus between critical theory and transformative learning and how to create lasting, inclusive change in our complex workplace environments.

Organization & Leadership First-Generation College Student

Toni-Ann Ricketts (She/Her/Hers)

Ph.D. Student, English Education

Toni-Ann Ricketts is a middle school English-Language Arts Teacher who is passionate about developing and implementing curriculum that is culturally relevant and sustaining. Deeply influenced by her own journey as an immigrant scholar, Toni-Ann's research interests lies at the intersection of identity formation, cultural or ethnic identity, assimilation, acculturation, and the translation of blackness. She hopes to further the discourse surrounding black literacies and how they materialize in the English-Language Arts Classroom; as well as their impact on the development of knowledge for immigrant students of African and Caribbean diaspora.

Arts & Humanities

Myra Gupta (She/Her/Hers)

Ed.D. Student, Adult Ed Guided Intensive Study (AEGIS)

I am a leadership designer, coach, and facilitator with over a decade of experience in non-profits. In my work, I design transformative programs that center historically marginalized voices and challenge conventional power structures. As a doctoral student in the AEGIS Program at Teachers College, Columbia University, I research nontraditional leadership paradigms and their intersection with movements for social change.

My research examines how leaders from diverse backgrounds navigate and transform institutional spaces while maintaining an authentic leadership style. As both practitioner and researcher, I combine academic inquiry with real-world application, grounded in the belief that effective leadership development must actively challenge systemic inequities and existing power structures to create lasting social impact.

Organization & Leadership

Anna Burns (She/Her/Hers)

Ph.D. Student, Anthropology and Education

Anna is a second year doctoral student in Anthropology and Education. She is an enrolled member of the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma, and she works within her community to understand the effects that settler colonialism have had on sovereignty and self-identity for Choctaw tribal members. Previously, at the University of Oxford, Anna studied Bilingual and Intercultural Education (EIB) in Ecuador. Her undergraduate work at Dartmouth College similarly focused on Peruvian EIB and its implementation in Urban and Peri-Urban schools in Cusco. Largely, Anna is interested in understanding the ways in which how we learn, what we learn, and the context of that learning have direct implications on Indigenous identity, tribal sovereignty, and Indigenous self-determination.

International & Transcultural Studies