Dr. Deepa Srikantaiah is an educator, scholar, and artist who was born and brought up in the Washington DC area and attended local public schools. Her works explore pre-colonial knowledges, postcolonial studies, and comparative histories and international education to better understand how to address contemporary challenges in mathematics education. Growing up, she enjoyed watching the shows Murder She Wrote and Columbo with her parents, fostering a love for mysteries, alongside her interests in math and doodling.

Dr. Srikantaiah began her career as a chemistry teacher and worked on after-school STEM programs in the United States. She has also worked at the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), The World Bank, Global Partnership for Education, with USAID contractors, non-profits, and was awarded a Fulbright to India (2015-2016). She has worked in South and East Asia, in Eastern and Western Africa, and the United States.

Dr. Srikantaiah is an affiliate faculty in the graduate program in International Education Policy at the University of Maryland, College Park and the doctoral program at the School for International Training. She also adjuncts in the City Teaching Alliance Program at American University in Washington, D.C. Her scholarship has been published in numerous peer reviewed journals, book chapters, and conference proceedings.

Dr. Srikantaiah received her M.A. and Ph.D. in International Education Policy from the University of Maryland, College Park.

 

 

Michelle L. Tichy, Ph.D. She earned her doctorate in Educational Psychology with an emphasis on Social and Developmental Psychology from the University of Minnesota. Michelle has been involved in both the Spirituality and Education SIG, as well as the Holistic Education SIG at AERA since she was in Graduate school back in the early 2000s. She has served in SIG leadership for the Holistic Education SIG for much of the past10 years. Michelle works with and trains teachers to better support neurodiverse students including students who are Highly Sensitive, Gifted, live with anxiety and ADHD. Her heart centered commitment is to create access to holistic and authentic educational opportunities for all students. As a Positive Psychologist focused in social and developmental psychology she is fascinated by how people grow and thrive from prenatal development through life. Her work integrates various contemplative practices and social/ecological justice, her work spans organizations from private high schools, small not for profit preschools, grassroots political organizations, parochial schools, Head Start, grassroots charter school systems, and traditional public schools. An overarching theme of her work as a scholar, teacher, and a leader, is how and why organizational systems are operating the way they are and what can be done to transform them in order to create systems that better serve the holistic needs of students, teachers, and communities using contemplative practices and heart centered social/ecological justice efforts.