2023 - 2024 Visiting Scholars

Belaynesh Yitzhak Mekonen is a visiting scholar and postdoctoral student under the Supervisor of Prof. Kendall King. I completed my doctoral studies at Tel Aviv University in the School of Education in the Department of Multilingualism. My research focused Between language and emotions Linguistic patterns and well-being in immigrants of Ethiopian origin to Israel across generations. During my stay, I expect to publish several articles based on findings from the doctoral thesis.

Cristina Cardona Moltó is a visiting scholar and a Professor of Research Methods and Diagnosis in Education at the Faculty of Education of the University of Alicante (UA), Alicante, Spain. She teaches in the master's degrees in 'Educational Research' and in 'Secondary Education Teacher Training'. She has coordinated the PhD program 'Attention to Diversity in Educational Environments' at the UA from 2003 to 2011 in the framework of which she has directed a large number of PhD dissertations, half of them with international mention and extraordinary doctorate award. She has been president of the Interuniversity Association for Pedagogical Research (AIDIPE, 2011-2013) and of the scientific and organizing committee of various international conferences (IASE, 2009 and AIDIPE, 2013). She has made various stays abroad as a visiting professor (e.g. UCLA, Los Angeles, CA; Texas A&M, College Station, TX; University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, Institute on Community Integration, MN; Universidad Católica del Maule, Talca, Chile; and University of Cambridge, UK). Before joining the university, she worked as a teacher and educational psychology counselor in various public primary and secondary schools in the Valencian Community, Spain.

Dinara Yertargynkyzy is a visiting research scholar in the Institute on Community of Integration, CEHD, University of Minnesota. My supervisors are Dr. Brain Abery and Renata Ticha. I am a lecturer at the Department of Pedagogy and Education Management Al-Farabi Kazakh National University, Almaty, Kazakhstan. I am a PhD in Social Education. My research interests: Providing emotional support programs to parents of children with autism. My internship was funded by the Bolashaq International Scholarship supported by the Republic of Kazakhstan.

Hazrat Umar is a visiting scholar in the Program in Second Language Education at the Department of Curriculum and Instruction, CEHD, University of Minnesota. He is an Associate Professor at the Department of English, Faculty of Arts and Humanities, at the National University of Modern Languages (NUML), Islamabad, Pakistan with research interests in applied linguistics. He obtained his Ph.D. in English with a concentration in applied linguistics (English language teaching) from NUML. Umar has served as an English language teacher and has taught courses at the graduate and postgraduate levels at the Department of English at NUML. He has several research publications both in linguistics and literature. He supervises MPhil and Ph.D. linguistics research scholars in writing their dissertations at NUML. He has attended and conducted different workshops on faculty development and has presented papers at conferences.

Hiroshi Kohno is a visiting scholar working with Dr. Zan Gao in the School of Kinesiology. He is a professor in the Faculty of Human Life Design, Toyo University, Tokyo, Japan. He has a Ph.D in Medical Sciences from Juntendo University in Japan. He studied exercise physiology with humans and also studied it with animals. Since then, his research interest has shifted to keeping the elderly healthy with physical activity because Japan is a society of longevity. His specialty is physical activity epidemiology and health promotion through physical activity. His research is focused on fall prevention and maintaining cognitive function for the elderly through physical activity and exercise.

Jan Šiška is a visiting scholar and a Fulbright-Masaryk Scholar at the University of Minnesota’s Institute on Community Integration. He is an Associate Professor at the Faculty of Education, Charles University, and the University of West Bohemia, Pilsen. His teaching and research focuses around disability policy, special and inclusive education, globalization and development, independent living, and active citizenship. Jan has led on a number of national, European and international research projects related to disability across the lifespan. He is the Czech member of the Academic Network of Experts on Disability. In addition to his work in Europe, Jan has a rich professional experience of promoting access to quality education for children with disabilities in the Global South (Ethiopia, south-east Asia), with a particular focus on ensuring inclusion in adulthood.

Jung-Eon Kwon is a visiting scholar who works with Professor Sehoon Kim in the Department of Organizational Leadership, Policy, and Development. She is an associate professor in the department of liberal arts at undergraduate school and the department of career and vocational consulting at cyber graduate school at JoongBu University in South Korea. Before working as a professor, she had worked as an instructional designer and HRD expert both inside and outside the company for 15 years. Her research field of interest includes HRD and OD, especially creativity, career development, and employability among others. The focus of her research is youth employability, whose purpose is to prepare an effective development plan to improve employability, which is a key outcome variable in the career development of university students

Matusala M Jagisso is a visiting scholar from Ethiopia. He advocates to promote participation of persons with disabilities in every policymaking decision in the country. Matusala works as the administration and human resources manager for the Federation of Ethiopian Associations of Persons with Disabilities (FEAPD), overseeing all human resources (HR) functions, including the planning, coordination, capacity building for the Federation’s 21 members, all organizations of persons with disabilities (OPDs). In this role, Matusala works to remove attitudinal barriers for women and children with disabilities to access inclusive education and training by engaging families, caregivers, and communities. Prior to FEAPD, Matusala worked for the World Bank as a capacity-building consultant and for the Office of Auditor General as a performance manager. He has a bachelor’s degree in business management and an MBA in HR management. Matusala has proposed a follow-on project that aims to increase the capacity of OPDs, all FEAPD network members, through education and training in predominantly rural areas of Ethiopia. His project will focus on increasing participation of children and young people with disabilities in schools by developing the capacity of OPDs to create partnerships with the education sector and sensitize community stakeholders.

Michele Viana Debus de França is a visiting scholar and shel works with Professor Catherine Solheim and Professor Joyce Serido in the Department of Family Social Science from february to august 2023. I come from the University of Sao Paulo, Brazil, where I am a PhD student. My research is about Financial Education for Highschool students. My visiting scholarship will be sponsored by the Brazilian Federal Foundation for Support and Evaluation of Graduate Education (CAPES).

Mohamed Hassan is a post-doc research fellow working with Dr. Zan Gao in the Physical Activity Epidemiology Lab (PAEL), School of Kinesiology. He earned his PhD degree from the school of kinesiology, University of Minnesota, with a research focus on physical activity and motor learning. Currently, his areas of interest, physical activity and health promotion through developing technologies (e.g. Health Wearables, Smart Applications) and physical activity in School-based interventions.

Pauline Frick is a visiting scholar working with Panayiota Kendeou in the Department of Educational Psychology. She is a PhD student at the Leibniz-Institut für Wissensmedien in Tübingen, Germany. Pauline is interested in the cognitive processes involved in reading and learning with multimedia materials. On focus of her research is on knowledge revision during reading and how pictures potentially change revision processes.

Sae Young Han is a visiting scholar who works with Professor Kristen McMaste in the Department of Educational Psychology for the Spring semester in 2022 and the Fall semester in 2022. She came from Ewha Womans University in South Korea, where her research orientation is Child and adolescent social and emotional development. At the College of Education and Human Development, she will be focusing on exploring the Special Education issues for autism spectrum disorder which should be understood in the educational settings of normally developing children and adolescents.

Tetiana Holovatenko is working with Dr. Martha Bigelow at the Department of Curriculum and Instruction. Dr. Holovatenko researched Comparative International Education and Teacher Training in the multilingual Benelux countries. She earned her PhD degree in Borys Grinchenko Kyiv University, Ukraine. She is studying elementary school teacher practices in multilingual classrooms and usage of learning technologies in enhancing foreign language learning.

Chih Hui Chang is a visiting scholar working with Dr. Thomas Stoffregen in the School of Kinesiology. She is a professor in the Department of Physical Education, National Kaohsiung Normal University, Taiwan. Her research is focused on using ecological approach to study perception and action in human behavior.

Naoko Kosaka is a visiting scholar at the Department of Curriculum and Instruction and my host researcher is Professor Gillian Roehrig. In Japan, I am a JSPS Research Fellow RPD and my host institution is the National Institute for Educational Policy Research (NIER) of the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT). My research focuses on the differences between science education in Japan and the U.S., particularly in high school, and my purpose in Minnesota is to learn about inquiry activities in high schools and teacher training courses there as a post-doctoral researcher. I got my Ph.D while investigating the differences between Japan and the U.S. from the perspective of comparing standards and textbooks, but I am excited to have the opportunity to learn about education in the real U.S.

Akkarawat Srisawat is a visiting scholar working with Professor Dr. Gillian Roehrig at the STEM Education Center, CEHD, University of Minnesota. He is a PhD student in the Science Education Program within the Faculty of Education at Khon Kaen University, Thailand. His research focuses on promoting learning in STEM education in secondary schools.

Ömer Faruk Vural is a visiting scholar and postdoctoral student under the Supervisor of Prof. Gillian Roehrig. I completed my doctoral studies at Texas A&M University in the Educational Psychology Department. I was an academician and taught introduction to education, philosophy of education, and instructional principles and methods in undergraduate level and qualitative and quantitative research methods at graduate level at Sakarya University in Turkiye. My research focused on Educational Technology, STEM education, Engineering Integrated STEM Education Model. During my stay, I expect to publish several articles based on findings from the project I join for the research.

Bekir Yildirim is working with Prof. Dr. Gillian Roehrig at the STEM Education Center. Yıldırım researched STEM education. He earned her PhD degree in Gazi University, Turkey. Bekir Yıldırım works in the field of science education at the faculty of education, Muş Alparslan University. He is working on STEM Education, Teacher Education and Online Professional Development.