Social Transformation Certificate Faculty

Dr. Chitra Golestani is currently Associate Director of the Wilmette Institute and an Adjunct Faculty at the Institute for Humane Education/Antioch University. She also works as an educational consultant, guest lecturer, qualitative researcher, and a co-founder of the Paulo Freire Institute (PFI) at UCLA - an organization committed to social justice education locally and globally. Her areas of interest, lectures and research include Human Rights, Social Justice and Global Citizenship Education, Conflict Resolution and Restorative Justice, Youth Activism in Extended Education, Conscious Living and Social Action. She holds a PhD in Social Science and Comparative Education from UCLA and a Master’s in Education from University of California, Santa Barbara. Her areas of interest, lectures and research include Human Rights, Social Justice and Global Citizenship Education, Conflict Resolution and Restorative Justice, Youth Activism in Extended Education, Conscious Living and Social Action. In September 2019, she began a new administrative position as Associate Director of the Wilmette Institute. Her work is inspired by her lived experience with persecution in the country of her birth, Iran, where members of the Bahá’í Faith are not allowed to practice, are prohibited from accessing higher education, and denied other civil rights. While still a young child, her family escaped this marginalization and fled to the US in search of religious freedom, equality between women and men and human rights. Currently, Dr. Golestani is engaged in numerous grass-roots programs aimed at raising human capacity, locally and globally, to work towards a more just, united, and sustainable planet. Listen to Chitra's interview on "A Bahá’í Perspective."See Faculty Bio

Justin has worked extensively in education in Ecuador and Colombia, serving as a teacher and program administrator with FUNDAEC, a principal at two K–12 schools, a course developer and professional development facilitator for the Education for Sustainability in Galapagos Program, and for the Ecuadorian Ministry of Education. He earned a Master’s degree in Educación Superior from Universidad Casa Grande. In 2020, Justin returned to the United States, completed a Ph.D. in Education at the University of Idaho, and now serves as Chief Academic Officer and Accreditation Compliance Officer at the Wilmette Institute. See also Justin's Personal Educational Philosophy.See Faculty Bio

Emily Tancredi-Brice Agbenyega is a University Lecturer at the Albert Dorman Honors College at the New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT) where she develops and teaches interdisciplinary service-learning courses. As affiliated faculty with the Wilmette Institute, Agbenyega has co-designed and co-taught courses on the promotion of race unity in America, with an emphasis on preparing students to contribute to the discourse on eliminating racial prejudice in the social spaces they occupy. Agbenyega’s research concentrates on promoting broadened participation and retention among underrepresented women in science, technology, engineering, arts, and mathematics (STEAM). She has specifically investigated how BIPOC women leverage their sociocultural identity as assets throughout their careers, particularly in service to their communities. In both her research and her teaching, Agbenyega is committed to exploring various strategies to address the most vital and challenging issue of racial prejudice through a framework for action that centers principles including protagonism, faith in the capacity of every individual, and the coherence of our material and spiritual nature. See Faculty Bio

My name is Ymasumac Marañón Davis, though people call me Yma! Ymasumac is a Quechua Indian name from Bolivia. My father is a Bolivian of Quechua descent, my mother is from New England, and her ancestors, of English and Irish ancestry, came around the same time as the pilgrims. We are a very global family and because of this, I grew up in the Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico among the Mayan people. I always begin with my ancestry because their choices shaped me, challenged me, and raised me up; and in correlation with the Bahá’í Revelation, shaped my life’s work.   I have a love for learning, which is why I chose education as my professional field. I taught in K12 in bilingual education and worked in the district office in Parent Involvement and at the county office of education as an administrator coordinating educational technology. My philosophy about education is that it is a basic human right. Human beings have the right to an education that will empower them to be critical thinkers and prepare them to participate effectively as members of a dynamic changing society.  Today, the backbone of what I do is explore how transformative processes can be systematized at the individual, collective and institutional levels centering on spiritual principles, informed through the Revelation of Bahá’u’lláh. I am learning to engage in these endeavors as a writer, educational consultant, and as a keeper of intuitive healing spaces. Currently, I am exploring how these processes can be amplified through oral storytelling and counternarratives. See also:Yma's Interview on BahaiTeachings.orgCourageous voices: how we create and participate in stressing the dominant culture (August 2017 article)Yma's blog site (on Medium.com)Racial justice Series - Part 1: Curated Conversations (video, August 2020)See Faculty Bio