Our Students | Organization and Leadership | Teachers College, Columbia University

A Graduate School of Education, Health & Psychology

Meet Our Doctoral Students

Bret Beaufeaux (He/Him/His)

Ph.D. Student, Higher and Postsecondary Education

Dissertation Advisor: Noah D Drezner

Bret is a Ph.D. candidate in Higher and Postsecondary Education. With ten years of progressively responsible experience in different positions within higher and postsecondary education, Bret's research interests are informed by his experience working with students. Bret's research focuses on exploring students' experiences with virtual spaces and persistence and retention in higher and postsecondary education. At Teachers College, Bret serves as a research assistant and editorial assistant to Professor Noah Drezner and served as a course assistant in Introduction to Research Methods. Bret currently works in Residential Life and Housing Services at New York University.

Organization & Leadership

Jessica Bickley (She/Her/Hers)

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

For a combined 22 years, I've worked as a career counselor and leadership coach across industries and environments, including higher education, private practice and consulting, the private sector, nonprofits, government, and international organizations. Most recently, for over a decade, I've provided consulting to US federal government employees in both individual career development and team leadership and development. As a career services leader and clinically-trained Certified Career Counselor and Professional Certified Coach, I am particularly interested in several adult learning research areas: how professional coaches learn to ethically and effectively deliver trauma-informed career and leadership coaching; the efficacy of narrative career counseling and coaching with diverse and marginalized populations; impostor syndrome, internal dialogue, and cognitive behavioral coaching; power dynamics and ownership of time in adult learners; and embodied learning.

Organization & Leadership Student-Parent

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

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

Haejung Chung (She/Her/Hers)

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

As Assistant Director of Learning Design at Harvard Graduate School of Education's Teaching and Learning Lab, Ms. Chung mentors early-career learning designers on creating inclusive online learning for global educators. With two decades of expertise, she integrates human-centered design, stakeholder partnerships, and community engagement in digital innovation for adult learning, leveraging AI, online/blended learning, MOOCs, and mobile devices to promote active adult engagement. Ms. Chung is interested in scalable digital education interventions for global health professionals and educators. Building on her experience leading NIH-funded digital education at Tufts Medical Center, her research aims to enhance public health researchers' critical digital literacy. She investigates how co-production and human–AI collaboration can improve the transfer of digital learning to local contexts, creating sustainable and transformative experiences for diverse adult learners.

Organization & Leadership Student-Parent

Christine Fandrich

Ed.D. Student, Adult Learning and Leadership

Dissertation Advisor: Victoria J Marsick

My dissertation research adopts a constructivist grounded theory approach to explore how CEOs learn to engage in sociopolitical issues.

Organization & Leadership First-Generation College Student

Alexandria Frank

Ph.D. Student, Social-Organizational Psychology

Alexandria Frank is a doctoral student in the Social-Organizational Psychology program at Teachers College, Columbia University. She entered this program with a desire to transform workplaces and make equitable policies that serve the health and well-being of historically underserved employees. She is particularly interested in employee resource groups (ERGs), organizational trust & safety, and hindrances to organizational flourishing. Having graduated summa cum laude from Howard University in 2021 with her B.S. in Psychology and a minor in Classical Civilization, Alexandria carries her love of language and knowledge-sharing into all her academic pursuits. In addition to teaching, following her studies, Alexandria hopes to be a researcher and consultant, using qualitative narratives and quantitative data to create policies and promote organizational climates that improve employee wellbeing and engagement.

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

Jc Glick (He/Him/His)

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

Currently the CEO of The COMMIT Foundation, I focus on identity reconstruction and purpose-driven transitions for high-performing veterans and their families. My research examines how veterans redefine identity and purpose as they transition to civilian life, emphasizing the development of frameworks that support adaptability, resilience, and meaningful impact beyond service. With over 20 years of experience, including 11 combat tours with the 75th Ranger Regiment and the Asymmetric Warfare Group, I bring firsthand understanding of high-stakes leadership and transformation. I am a published author and frequent contributor to leadership and human interaction discourse, I leverage my insights to drive sustainable, positive outcomes for transitioning veterans. Through The COMMIT Foundation, I am dedicated to advancing research-informed, high-impact programs that empower veterans to achieve fulfilling, purpose-driven civilian lives.

Organization & Leadership Veteran

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

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

Lulu Guo

Ed.D. Student, Adult Learning and Leadership

Lulu's research interests focus on transformative learning, lifelong development (especially adult development), and identity integration, as well as different research methodologies relevant to her topics of interest.
Her current dissertation study investigates Asian immigrants' cultural identity integration from a critical developmental perspective using transformative learning theory.
Lulu also incorporates creative expressions (such as songwriting and drawing) as methods in her research.

Organization & Leadership

Michelle Guo

Ed.D. Student, Adult Learning and Leadership

Organization & Leadership First-Generation College Student Student-Parent

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

Amy Hawley Alvarez (She/Her/Hers)

Ph.D. Student, Higher and Postsecondary Education

Amy’s career in education spans nearly 30 years. From being an ESL/EFL teacher to an editor for English language teaching materials at two university presses to leading the programming for TC’s university-assisted community school (Teachers College Community School)—Amy works collaboratively on teams focused on improving education for all. Currently the Director of Strategic Partnerships, Office of the President at TC, Amy works on special projects, including the Medal for Distinguished Service, Columbia Community Service, TCCS, and the Zankel and Milman Fellowships. Amy is also a part-time instructor in the Higher & Postsecondary Education Program at TC. Amy’s primary research interest is the civic mission of higher education institutions and how it impacts the communities where higher education institutions are located. She hopes to utilize the civic mission of higher education to research the factors that help or hinder academic persistence for housing-insecure college students.

Organization & Leadership First-Generation College Student

We are delighted to announce the launch of our new online profiles for Doctoral Students at Teachers College.

If you are a currently enrolled doctoral student at Teachers College, please visit the profile submission page for more information on how you can create your own profile.