Who?

Staff

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  JOSÉ L. FALCONI

  President, Cultural Agents NGO

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  JOSÉ L. FALCONI

  President, Cultural Agents NGO

  José Falconi is the president the Cultural Agents NGO. He also teaches Latin-American Art at Brandeis University and is co-founder of the Symbolic Reparations Research Group. Until 2017, he was a Post Doctoral Fellow in the Department of History of Art and Architecture at Harvard University, where he received his Ph.D. in 2010. Furthermore, he is the creative director at Art Life Lab, a publishing platform for artistic projects.
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  DORIS SOMMER

  Director

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  DORIS SOMMER

  Director
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  VICTORIA MENA RODRÍGUEZ

  Administrator

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  VICTORIA MENA RODRÍGUEZ

  Administrator

  Victoria Mena es arquitecta, Magíster en Gestión Urbana en convenio con La Ecole Nationale De Ponts Et Chaussées De París y Especialista en Innovación y Pedagogía Universitaria de la Universidad Piloto De Colombia. Su trabajo de investigación está orientado a inventar procesos que permitan el fortalecimiento de la ciudadanía.Su interés como docente se centra en el desarrollo de estrategias que permitan el mejoramiento permanente de los procesos de enseñanza aprendizaje a partir de “capacidades”. Ha tenido a su cargo Talleres de diseño urbano y arquitectónico en diferentes semestres de formación dentro de la carrera incluidos los niveles de especialización y maestría. Su trabajo de proyección social y divulgación de investigación se realiza por medio en talleres de formación de formadores con el proyecto “Pre-Texts”, de Cultural Agents Initiative, dirigido por la profesora Doris Sommer en Harvard University. Su Último libro, Diseño Básico reflexiones sobre creatividad. Último artículo: “Espacios para las tecnologías del yo y espacios practicables para la vida. Distinciones: Representante de los profesores al Consejo Académico por el Programa de Arquitectura. Premio: “La Tadeo 2013” Profesor Distinguido en Pedagogía.
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  LAURA OLIVEROS SÁNCHEZ

  Communications

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  LAURA OLIVEROS SÁNCHEZ

  Communications

  Communication Designer. Her interests focus on exploring the tensions between writing, images, art, culture, and politics. Currently, she is a candidate for a Master’s degree in Creative Writing from the Instituto Caro y Cuervo (Bogotá).
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  TOM OSBORN

  Africa Regional Director

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  TOM OSBORN

  Africa Regional Director

  Tom Osborn graduated from Harvard College in 2020 with a BA degree in Psychology. His work focuses on interventions that provide young people in Sub Saharan Africa with an opportunity to secure important life outcomes. He has worked on mental health, academic and social support interventions through the Shamiri Institute. Tom plans to roll out Pre-Texts within the education system in Kenya in the next couple of years. Read more about Tom here.
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  PIER LUIGI SACCO

  Europe Regional Director

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  PIER LUIGI SACCO

  Europe Regional Director

  Pier Luigi, OECD, Professor of Cultural Economics, IULM University Milan; Co-Director of the Computational Human Behavior (CHuB) Lab of Bruno Kessler Foundation, Trento, and Senior Researcher, metaLAB (at) Harvard and Head of the Venice Office of the OECD. He is member of the European Research Advisory Board, of the Advisory Council for Research & Innovation of the Czech Republic, and of the Advisory Council of Creative Georgia. He works and consults internationally in the fields of culture-led local development, policy design and evaluation, and is often invited as keynote speaker in major cultural policy conferences worldwide.
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  STELLA LIRUSSO

  Mexico Regional Coordinator

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  STELLA LIRUSSO

  Mexico Regional Coordinator

  Lawyer with a master in neuropsychology. Lecture and investigator in the field of neuroeducation. Specially in protection and prevention of chid abuse. Has represented Mexico before the OEA and United Nations, regarding issues of child care and family . Has directed multiple educational institute and non-profit organizations. Board member of various civil associations, member of CNDH. Main host of “Las netas de Pibe “a radio show by leading newspaper The Reforma .
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  TÁLATA RODRÍGUEZ

  Argentina Regional Coordinator

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  TÁLATA RODRÍGUEZ

  Argentina Regional Coordinator

  Coordinadora y facilitadora del programa en Argentina. Poeta oral. Escritora. Sus performances y piezas dramáticas incluyen la conferencia “PadrePostal”; la obra de teatro LimboScroll; y el disco de vinilo “Carretera” junto a la banda chilena González y los Asistentes. Ha publicado libros y plaquetas en Argentina y España. Trabajó para los programas Barrios Creativos, Arte en Barrios y formó parte de los colectivos Belleza y Felicidad Fiorito, Hecho en Bs As y Yo no Fui.
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  CLEMENT CHUNG

  Asia Regional Coordinator

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  CLEMENT CHUNG

  Asia Regional Coordinator

  Clement started his career in CPA and Fintech, and held senior management positions at PCC Skyhorse and Vision Century before founding Wiseman Education. During his time at Wiseman, he served as Director for Crimson Summer Exchange, leading a team of Harvard, Yale, Cambridge and Oxford graduates to conduct programs at the University of Hong Kong and Peking University. He was an invited speaker for the IB World Student Conference, and has led many teacher professional development workshops in greater China region. He is also the co-founder of ThinkSeries Foundation, Small World Project and Hokmah International in Shenzhen. He also serves as supervisor for Hokmah International School in Shanghai. Clement is Regional Director (Asia) for Cultural Agents, and he enjoys greatly working with Doris, fellow educators and artists to connect texts with play and activities.
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  SUNITA SWARAJ

  India Regional Coordinator

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  SUNITA SWARAJ

  India Regional Coordinator

Trainers

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  DEBYANI SINGH

  India

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  DEBYANI SINGH

  India
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  HORTENCIA CHÁVEZ REYNA

  Mexico

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  HORTENCIA CHÁVEZ REYNA

  Mexico

  Hortencia Chávez Reyna has a degree in Pedagogy and a Master’s Degree in Educational Development from the University of Puebla in Mexico. She worked in the Secretary of Public Education for 10 years as Coordinator of Educational Services and was a member of the evaluation team for the National Union of Education Workers. She has led teacher professional development workshops with the Ministry of Public Education and has worked on the curricular and pedagogical design for the Federal District Pedagogical Baccalaureate. Hortencia assisted in the creation of 52 community centers in marginalized areas in Mexico City. She was partitipcated in the pedagogical design of digital classrooms with the Secretary of Education of the Federal District. Hortencia has worked with Prof. Doris Sommer leading Pre-Texts workshops for sex workers in La Merced and for people who are incarcerated in prisons in Mexico City. Currently she works as a teacher with the Ministry of Public Education and is a facilitator of refresher courses, admissions and promotion of teachers in Section 9 of the National Union of Education Workers.
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  VIALLA HARTFIELD-MÉNDEZ

  Emory University

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  VIALLA HARTFIELD-MÉNDEZ

  Emory University

  Vialla Hartfield-Méndez holds a Ph.D. in Spanish literature from the University of Virginia. Dr. Hartfield-Méndez is Director of Engaged Learning in the Center for Community Partnerships (CFCP) and professor of pedagogy in the Department of Spanish and Portuguese at Emory University. She joined Emory’s faculty in 1992 after holding teaching positions at Vassar College and Drew University. Professor Hartfield-Méndez is the author of Woman and the Infinite. Epiphanic Moments in Pedro Salinas’s Art (Bucknell UP, 1996) and has published articles and book reviews on twentieth-century Spanish poetry and narrative in such journals as Hispanic Review, Studies in Twentieth-Century Literature, Bulletin of Hispanic Studies, and Anales de la Literatura Española Contemporánea; additionally, her work on community engagement has appeared in Engaging Students in the Community and the World, a publication of the Faculty Resource Network. She has also served on the Editorial Board of the Revista de Estudios Hispánicos and as coeditor of the Review Section of the same journal. Recipient of the Emory Language Center’s Excellence in Teaching Award, and the Winship Award for Senior Lecturers, Professor Hartfield-Méndez created several service-learning courses in Spanish and led the Department’s effort to strengthen connections with Atlanta’s Hispanic community. Her numerous conference presentations address topics of Spanish literature and culture as well as community-engaged learning pedagogy. Professor Hartfield-Méndez directed the Theory Practice Learning Program in Emory College for a number of years and was faculty liaison for Project SHINE (Students Helping in Naturalization and English). She also served as Director of the Emory Scholars Program in Emory College before being named Director of Engaged Learning for the OUCP in the Provost’s Office in 2009.
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  ADRIANA GUTIÉRREZ

  Harvard University

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  ADRIANA GUTIÉRREZ

  Harvard University

  Adriana Gutiérrez is Senior Preceptor in Romance Languages and Literature in the Department of Romance Languages and Literatures. Her research interests include Development of Multi-Media Cultural Materials for the Teaching of Spanish; Twentieth Century Spanish and Latin American Literature; Curriculum Development for Spanish Language and Literature; Teaching Methodology in Second Language Acquisition; Oral History; Cultural and Gender Studies Related to U.S. Latina Women.
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  CARLA CAMPBELL

  Bahamas

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  CARLA CAMPBELL

  Bahamas

  Born in The Bahamas, Carla Campbell is a painter, sculptor, performance artist and teacher whose work illustrates the challenges and triumphs of marginalized communities. Campbell’s work embodies the nature of contemporary painting; she brings together figurative images from multiple sources and styles to create timeless, placeless compositions through effortless brush work. After graduating from Bahamas Baptist College in 1995, Campbell went on to earn an Associate’s in Art in 1999 at the College of The Bahamas before graduating cum laude with a BFA in Painting from the University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth, in 2003. Soon thereafter, Campbell embarked on her teaching career as a trained teacher in the Ministry of Education in The Bahamas, which continues to this day. After teaching at Tambearly School while finishing her teaching certificate, she went on to teach art instruction at Queen’s College , Yellow Elder Primary, and C.R. Walker—where she added computer graphics to the art program. She currently heads the art and design department at C.H. Reeves high school in Nassau. Always aiming to show her students that art is a life choice and not simply a skill or hobby, Campbell has inspired many of her students, who go on to study art at the College of The Bahamas after their high school years. In 2011, Campbell started the company ‘Art on the Go’ to entertain and educate through events like ‘Art on the Beach’. She also teaches student art classes for young children and helps BGCSE and BJC certificate candidates achieve success in their art examinations. Her artwork has been exhibited at home in such group exhibitions as Bahama Mama (2011, Public Treasury Art Program) and Fibre (2012 Transforming Spaces Art Tour) as well as internationally in What She Longed to Tell (2011, Tamboril Restaurant with Savae Inc., Brooklyn, NY) and WOMA 2012: Home & Away (2012, The Gallery, St. George’s, Grenada). Her work has also been featured in journals such as IslandScene Magazine (2011), The Caribbean Writer (2012), and WomanSpeak: A Journal of Literature and Art by Caribbean Women (2012 & 2013).
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  YILMAZ HOLTZ-ERSAHIN

  Germany

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  YILMAZ HOLTZ-ERSAHIN

  Germany

  Yilmaz is director of the Mannheim library. He coordinated Pre-Texts workshops at the library and developed a program for schools in the city that is ongoing since September 2021.
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  NASEEMAH MOHAMED

  International

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  NASEEMAH MOHAMED

  International

  Naseemah Mohamed is a Rhodes scholar (Zimbabwe ’12) and a Ph.D. candidate in Comparative and International Education Policy at Oxford’s Department of Education. Her area of research is conflict and education and her interests include education, conflict and migration, and international development. She previously taught at William and Mary’s Graduate School of Education and served as Africa Programs Director at the Cultural Agents Initiative, and was a pre-doctoral fellow at Harvard University.
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  JENNY HAUGHTON

  Ireland

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  JENNY HAUGHTON

  Ireland

  Jenny Haughton is Public Art Coordinator with the Grangegorman Development Agency, responsible for ‘the lives we live’ Public Art Programme. She holds a degree in Business and Arts Management from the Institute of Art, Design & Technology and graduated with a Masters in International Security & Conflict Resolution from Dublin City University. Jenny was Coordinator for Ireland’s representation at the Artist and Architectural Biennales in Italy and Brazil from 1997-1983. She was Founder and Artistic Director of Temple Bar Gallery & Studios from 1983-1987. Since founding the Artworking public art agency in 1991, she has written about art in the public domain and pioneered a variety of commissioning methods to engage artists, communities and publics.
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  JOSÉ L. FALCONI

  International

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  JOSÉ L. FALCONI

  International
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  DORIS SOMMER

  International

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  DORIS SOMMER

  International
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  PAULINA NÚÑEZ

  Chile

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  PAULINA NÚÑEZ

  Chile

  Academic, specialized in Applied Linguistics. Teacher and researcher in national and foreign universities on writing and specialized reading. Leader of educational projects to improve academic performance; author of numerous research articles and school texts.
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  OLATZ ETXEBARRIA

  Basque Country

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  OLATZ ETXEBARRIA

  Basque Country

  Olatz Etxebarria is a Psychopedagogist with 16 years of teaching experience in Europe, United States and Asia. She is about to finish her doctoral thesis in the Doctoral Program of Psychodidactics: Educational Psychology and Specific Didactics at the University of the Basque Country with an international stay at Harvard University. She is a strong advocate for diversity and real inclusion, emphasizing identity.
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  VICTORIA MENA RODRÍGUEZ

  Colombia

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  VICTORIA MENA RODRÍGUEZ

  Colombia

  Victoria Mena es arquitecta, Magíster en Gestión Urbana en convenio con La Ecole Nationale De Ponts Et Chaussées De París y Especialista en Innovación y Pedagogía Universitaria de la Universidad Piloto De Colombia. Su trabajo de investigación está orientado a inventar procesos que permitan el fortalecimiento de la ciudadanía.Su interés como docente se centra en el desarrollo de estrategias que permitan el mejoramiento permanente de los procesos de enseñanza aprendizaje a partir de “capacidades”. Ha tenido a su cargo Talleres de diseño urbano y arquitectónico en diferentes semestres de formación dentro de la carrera incluidos los niveles de especialización y maestría. Su trabajo de proyección social y divulgación de investigación se realiza por medio en talleres de formación de formadores con el proyecto “Pre-Texts”, de Cultural Agents Initiative, dirigido por la profesora Doris Sommer en Harvard University. Su Último libro, Diseño Básico reflexiones sobre creatividad. Último artículo: “Espacios para las tecnologías del yo y espacios practicables para la vida. Distinciones: Representante de los profesores al Consejo Académico por el Programa de Arquitectura. Premio: “La Tadeo 2013” Profesor Distinguido en Pedagogía.
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  TOM OSBORN

  Africa

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  TOM OSBORN

  Africa

  Tom Osborn graduated from Harvard College in 2020 with a BA degree in Psychology. His work focuses on interventions that provide young people in Sub Saharan Africa with an opportunity to secure important life outcomes. He has worked on mental health, academic and social support interventions through the Shamiri Institute. Tom plans to roll out Pre-Texts within the education system in Kenya in the next couple of years. Read more about Tom here.
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  CLEMENT CHUNG

  China

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  CLEMENT CHUNG

  China

  Clement started his career in CPA and Fintech, and held senior management positions at PCC Skyhorse and Vision Century before founding Wiseman Education. During his time at Wiseman, he served as Director for Crimson Summer Exchange, leading a team of Harvard, Yale, Cambridge and Oxford graduates to conduct programs at the University of Hong Kong and Peking University. He was an invited speaker for the IB World Student Conference, and has led many teacher professional development workshops in greater China region. He is also the co-founder of ThinkSeries Foundation, Small World Project and Hokmah International in Shenzhen. He also serves as supervisor for Hokmah International School in Shanghai. Clement is Regional Director (Asia) for Cultural Agents, and he enjoys greatly working with Doris, fellow educators and artists to connect texts with play and activities.
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  STELLA LIRUSSO

  Mexico

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  STELLA LIRUSSO

  Mexico

  Lawyer with a master in neuropsychology. Lecture and investigator in the field of neuroeducation. Specially in protection and prevention of chid abuse. Has represented Mexico before the OEA and United Nations, regarding issues of child care and family . Has directed multiple educational institute and non-profit organizations. Board member of various civil associations, member of CNDH. Main host of “Las netas de Pibe “a radio show by leading newspaper The Reforma .
• MARILUCIA LAGO

  Brasil

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  MARILUCIA LAGO

  Brasil
• LUIS REYES

  Costa Rica

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  LUIS REYES

  Costa Rica
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  LAILY BROWN

  Costa Rica

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  LAILY BROWN

  Costa Rica
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  CRISTINA VALDÉS

  Spain

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  CRISTINA VALDÉS

  Spain
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  BRUNO MARTÍNEZ

  Paraguay

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  BRUNO MARTÍNEZ

  Paraguay
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  KATIA DE LA CRUZ

  South Africa

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  KATIA DE LA CRUZ

  South Africa

Facilitators