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.

Caroline Pearsall (She/Her/Hers)

Ed.D. Student, Music and Music Education

Caroline studied tango music with JJ Mosalini and G Beytelmann, then worked as a tango violinist for 20 years while based in Paris, France and London, UK, performing in festivals, on TV, radio, in more than 15 countries, and toured twice in Argentina. She founded the non-profit Creative Caminito in London in 2022 promoting tango music education in the UK. In 2023 she won a Fulbright scholarship to do her EdD at Teachers College, exploring how to use transmedia storytelling to teach tango music techniques, style and history from decolonial and new materialism perspectives, revealing the aesthetics, creativity and epistemologies inherent within the genre. She has worked as a research assistant for her advisor Dr Patrick Schmidt and won a place on the 2024 SEM Public Ethnomusicology Mentoring Program with Nancy Groce (Library of Congress). She is particularly interested in how storytelling, media, music and (online) education can interact in innovative ways.

Arts & Humanities

David Beauzil

Ph.D. Student, English Education

David O. Beauzil is currently an ELA teacher with the NYCDOE and an Adjunct Professor at CUNY Queens College, Teachers College, Columbia University, and New York University. He earned his Bachelor of Arts in English from St. John’s University in 2014 and his Master of Arts in Teaching from CUNY Queens College in 2019.
In 2023, David received the NYC Men Teach Role Model Award, recognizing his commitment to education and mentorship. As a Ph.D. candidate at Teachers College, Columbia University, he aims to leverage his diverse experiences to create equitable opportunities for students in urban schools. His passion for education stems from witnessing students grow intellectually and emotionally, and he is dedicated to empowering them through essential skills in reading, writing, listening, and speaking. In his free time, David enjoys personal training, playing the piano, and traveling the world.

Arts & Humanities

Srimayee Dam (She/Her/Hers)

Ed.D. Student, Health Education

Srimayee serves as a Peer Health Educator at Columbia Health, acquiring a New York State-Department of Health certification. She has also been accepted as a Peer Reviewer for the Cambridge Educational Research e-Journal (a graduate-led initiative based out of the Faculty of Education, University of Cambridge). Her past affiliations include the SMILE Lab at Teachers College; UB Alberti Center for Bullying Abuse Prevention; and Youth, Media & Wellbeing Research Lab, Wellesley College. Srimayee's primary focus entails understanding of youth bullying behaviors and bystander intervention programs in NYC public schools. She recently co-authored a book chapter on "Bystander Intervention in Cyberbullying" with Nova Science Publishers (Nova Medicine and Health), and her second publication with MDPI (Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute) is currently under review.

Health Studies & Applied Educational Psychology Student-Parent

Sotos Djiovanis

Ed.D. Student, Nursing Education (Distance Learning)

Sotos G. Djiovanis is a doctoral candidate in Nursing Education at TC. He has been a trauma, orthopedics, and community health nurse in Central Florida since 2015. He is full-time faculty at the University of Central Florida, where he helped to inaugurate Dedicated Education Unit clinicals. Sotos is faculty sponsor of the university's Hispanic Nursing Student Organization, Unidos. He also co-leads an annual intercultural study abroad to Chiapas, Mexico, where he and his students provide public service clinics for women, children, and Indigenous people. Research areas include nursing education, communication, and simulation.

Prior to becoming a nurse educator, Sotos spent 19 years in the Naples Philharmonic Orchestra as a professional oboe and English horn player. He also has performed in state and national orchestras in Mexico and the Dominican Republic. Now, Sotos continues to play professionally on a part-time basis as English hornist in the Orlando Philharmonic Orchestra.

Health Studies & Applied Educational Psychology

Hanna Chipman (She/Her/Hers)

Ph.D. Student, Higher and Postsecondary Education

Hanna is a current part-time, second-year doctoral student in the Higher Education program. Her research interests are centered around a sense of belonging for students, particularly underrepresented, first-generation, and students of color in predominantly white institutions. Hanna works full-time in academic affairs at Columbia Climate School.

Organization & Leadership

Carmen Llerena

Ed.D. Student, Early Childhood Education

Carmen Lugo Llerena is a doctoral candidate and instructor in the Early Childhood Program in the Department of Curriculum and Teaching. Her research examines how young children make sense of the world around them, construct their identities, and develop a shared culture through their affinities derived from popular media texts. At TC, Carmen has taught courses related to home, school, and community partnerships; literacy; and public pedagogies.
Carmen is a former early childhood educator with over 20 years of experience teaching in the NYC DOE, serving students in dual language, ASD Nest, and progressive education programs. As an active member of the National Council of Teachers of English, Carmen serves on the Elementary Section Steering Committee and the board of the Early Childhood Education Assembly. Previously, she sat on the Board of Trustees of the Research Foundation. Carmen is also a member of the American Educational Research Association.

Curriculum & Teaching Student-Parent

Neha Pant

Ed.D. Student, Curriculum and Teaching

Dissertation Advisor: Patricia Martinez Alvarez

I am a 4th-year Ed.D student in curriculum and teaching from India. I am a research assistant for the Bilingual and Bicultural Education program and a writing fellow with the Graduate Writing Center. My research interests are bilingual special education and inclusive practices in secondary classrooms. I was a Zankel fellow for two years, providing math intervention at TCCS. I have taught over 12 inclusive and special education courses at UW Madison. During my three-year tenure on the Student Senate, I served as the DEI committee chair and student senate president. My leadership was instrumental in driving significant institutional policy changes, including the increase in the minimum wage for student workers. As the senate president, I led advocacy efforts for introducing doctoral student profiles, providing free menstrual products, and other ongoing projects. In my free time, I enjoy reading and exploring the city.

Curriculum & Teaching First-Generation College Student

Cordelia Zhong (She/Her/Hers)

Ph.D. Student, Counseling Psychology

Cordelia Zhong is a second-year doctoral student in Counseling Psychology at Teachers College, Columbia University. Prior to attending TC, she worked as a clinical research coordinator at Massachusetts General Hospital, Wellesley Centers for Women, and the Hassenfeld Child Health Innovation Institute. Her research interests focus on exploring how digital technologies could be leveraged in adapting mental health interventions for ethnic minority populations and for low-resource environments where people primarily seek mental health care (i.e., school, college, and primary care environments). She is bilingual in Mandarin and English, and in her free time, she enjoys going to museums, watching Broadway shows, and finding new dessert spots.

Counseling & Clinical Psychology

Vernon Keeve

Ph.D. Student, English Education

Vernon Keeve III credits his former students at a school for expelled and school-avoidant youth not only with showing him how to teach, but also with showing him how to show up as a better human being. He went to great lengths to engage his former students because he knew that if he provided them with the necessary academic skills and confidence, they could free themselves from the school-to-prison nexus.

His research aims to answer the question of what should be done when the education system has harmed students. What do affective reparations in the education system look like? How do we address stolen possibilities?

Vernon’s research has taken him on a journey through post-colonial and post-humanist theory, critical race theory, hauntology, PIC (prison-industrial complex) abolition, and affect theory, with the hope of reimagining a world where everyone feels more comfortable being their true and vulnerable selves.

Arts & Humanities

Daniel Davis

Ph.D. Student, Philosophy and Education

Daniel Romeyn Davis is a Ph.D. student in Philosophy and Education at Teachers College, Columbia University. Raised amidst the hills, lakes, and forests of the Monadnock Region of New Hampshire, Daniel strives to represent the live free or die ethos of his pastoral home. His decade of classroom experience as a humanities teacher includes each grade level from 5th to 12th at Catholic schools within the Archdiocese of Boston (Massachusetts). At Teachers College, Daniel conducts research on ethical, moral, and religious education, as well as on the concept of rootedness with its applications to curricular and pedagogical reform for the promotion of human flourishing.

Arts & Humanities

Devin Gray

Ph.D. Student, Higher and Postsecondary Education

Dissertation Advisor: Anna Neumann

Devin is a PhD candidate in Higher & Postsecondary Education. With over a decade of experience in higher education overseeing administrative operations and large-scale initiatives, Devin's research focuses on the heart of the higher education enterprise: the professional lives of faculty as they navigate their roles as educators and scholars.

Devin examines the potential for pedagogical adaptation to faculty teaching in unconventional settings. Her dissertation examines faculty teaching in prisons, particularly how faculty navigate tensions between their disciplinary expertise and the constraints of the prison environment. Devin is also a research assistant to Anna Neumann, Edward S. Evenden Professor of Education, contributing to projects on law school teaching and learning, and has served as a course assistant for several courses in Higher & Postsecondary Education.

Devin currently works as Assistant Dean in Operations & Administration at Columbia Business School.

Organization & Leadership Student-Parent

Ruth Aguirre

Ed.D. Student, Music and Music Education

Dissertation Advisor: Lori Custodero

Latinx Faculty in Higher Education
Latinx Students in Higher Education
Diversity, Anti-Racism, Social Justice
Student Advocacy
University Music Teacher Education
Elementary Music Education
Instrumental Music Education

Arts & Humanities First-Generation College Student

Tsewang Chuskit (She/Her/Hers)

Ph.D. Student, Comparative and International Education

Tsewang is a Ph.D. candidate and Doctoral Fellow in International and Comparative Education. Her research focuses on multilingual education, language policy, indigenous languages, and critical literacy, with a particular emphasis on the South Asian context. She is interested in critically examining the ideological frameworks that drive the formulation and implementation of contemporary language policies and practices. Tsewang is passionate about designing contextually relevant curricula that account for students' cultural and linguistic backgrounds, ensuring that education is both inclusive and reflective of diverse identities.

International & Transcultural Studies First-Generation College Student

Juliya Pattammady

Ph.D. Student, Special Education: Intellectual Disability/Autism

My research interests focus on special education, early childhood development, and family/caregiver experiences particularly for families with a young child with autism. My dissertation project is a multi-methods study focused on examining the effects of a randomized control trial of a group-based psychoeducation intervention for parents of preschool-aged children with autism and developmental delays (Incredible Years for Children with Autism and Language Delays); specifically to understand how parents learn and use taught strategies throughout the intervention. Before pursuing my doctorate, I worked as a first-grade special education teacher and kindergarten teacher, experiences that have significantly shaped my research approach.

Health Studies & Applied Educational Psychology First-Generation College Student

Chengyuan Yao (He/Him/His)

Ph.D. Student, Measurement and Evaluation

I am currently a second-year Ph.D. student in Measurement, Evaluation, and Statistics at Teachers College, Columbia University in New York City, where I am fortunate to be advised by Dr. Renzhe Yu and am a member of the AEQUITAS Lab. Previously, I earned a B.A. in Applied Mathematics with Minors in Data Science and Education from UC Berkeley. My research centers on Responsible AI, with a specific focus on Educational Data Science and Algorithmic Fairness. Please find more information on my personal website. https://ycy2619.github.io/ycy-columbia.github.io/

Human Development