Graduation 2024

Marjorie Sheiman (left), mezzo-soprano, is performing the national anthem at the Doctoral Hooding Ceremony. Joshua Coleman (right), baritone, is performing the national anthem at the SOE Graduation Ceremony. Both are 2024 degree candidates of the Peabody Institute of Johns Hopkins University.

Representing the Johns Hopkins Alumni Association, Rhonda L. Richetta is the principal of City Springs Elementary/Middle School, a Baltimore City public charter school operated by the Baltimore Curriculum Project. Dr. Richetta has gained wide recognition for leading the implementation of restorative practices at City Springs, transforming school climate and culture, and significantly reducing school suspensions. In 2021, Dr. Richetta was named a Baltimore City Public Schools Distinguished Principal and was elected by her peers to serve as vice president of the Public-School Administrators and Supervisors Association. She earned her master’s degree in educational leadership and administration from Johns Hopkins University and the Doctor of Education in Leadership, Management, and Policy from Seton Hall University.

An accomplished educator and school leader with a diverse set of experiences in U.S. public schools, Chanda Turner proudly started her career in 1997 as an elementary paraprofessional educational technician. She earned her doctorate in the Mind, Brain, and Teaching program at the School of Education and currently serves as director of curriculum and staff development for a public school district in her home state of Maine. In addition to her professional life, Dr. Turner is a mom of two teenage daughters, wife of a high school science educator, a blueberry farmer, a Girl Scout leader, an Alagille Syndrome mom, and a liver transplant mom. She enjoys bringing the best practices of teaching and learning into all aspects of her life, believing that every experience is an opportunity to learn and grow.

Lisa is a PhD student and Social Justice Fellow at the Johns Hopkins School of Education. Using principles of social psychology and place-conscious frameworks, Lisa’s research questions the boundaries of classroom spaces and attempts to understand the relational aspects of meaningful education. Currently, she is working in partnership with Baltimore City Public Schools to explore the use of outdoor learning spaces.

As the first-generation Latina in her family to complete this milestone, Claudia’s passion for early childhood education and trying to understand how children learn led her to pursue a certificate program in Mind, Brain and Teaching. Her academic journey has been empowered by working and living in Asia for 13 years and completing her graduate program at Johns Hopkins, which has given her the tools to be more analytical of children’s environment, how they learn, and how to interpret research in education. Claudia also serves as a board member of Side x Side, a nonprofit arts integration program that serves schools in Maine.

Dr. Anna Burgner is an associate professor of medicine and program director of the Nephrology Fellowship Program at Vanderbilt University. She received her MD from Indiana University School of Medicine and completed her residency and nephrology fellowship at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. Since earning her MEHP through Johns Hopkins, she has worked tirelessly over the past 11 years as an educator. She serves on the editorial board for the American Journal of Kidney Diseases, as an associate editor for Nephrology News and Issues, and on multiple national committees that focus on nephrology education. For her leadership and innovation in medical education and actively transforming training in the discipline of nephrology, she received the 2023 Midcareer Distinguished Educator Award from the American Society of Nephrology.

Zyrashae Smith-Onyewu, PhD is a postdoctoral researcher and incoming assistant professor in the College of Education at the University of Florida. She is a recipient of a 2022 American Education Research Association (AERA) Minority Dissertation Fellowship, the 2022 Jeffrey A. Grigg Memorial Award, and a 2021 Johns Hopkins 21st Century Cities Initiative Award for Doctoral Research on Urban Issues. Zyrashae has served as a graduate research assistant for the Baltimore Education Research Consortium (BERC) and a college access advisor for the CollegeBound Foundation. She holds a bachelor of science in psychology from Morgan State University and a master of science in educational studies with a graduate certificate in urban education from the Johns Hopkins School of Education.

Carleen Ratcliffe, EdD, is a senior academic advisor at Seattle University in Seattle, Washington. Through her advising and mentorship work with undergraduate nursing students, she discovered an interest in the factors influencing the mental health of first-year college students. Her doctoral research explored how social capital and belonging affect first-year student depression, stress, and anxiety, with a particular focus on first-generation college students. These studies culminated in the creation and testing of an instrument to measure students’ social capital throughout their first year in college. Dr. Ratcliffe continues her work by growing participant numbers at the current study site with plans to expand to multiple higher education institutions across the United States in the next academic year.

April is an emergency medicine physician currently finishing her medical education fellowship at Johns Hopkins. She completed medical school at the Medical College of Wisconsin in Milwaukee before returning to her home state of New Jersey to complete emergency medicine residency training at Rutgers New Jersey Medical School. There, she served as chief resident, which cultivated her interests in medical education. April is thankful that the MEHP program provided her with the foundation upon which to build her medical education path and looks forward to further developing her interests in curriculum design and medical education research.

Aishwarya’s experience includes counseling within elementary, middle, and high schools, where she cultivated her research interests alongside promoting learning and wellbeing for diverse student populations. Current research interests involve social-emotional learning; opportunity and achievement gaps; and mental health and wellbeing in schools. During her time at Johns Hopkins, she has worked as a research assistant within various programs and presented her research at the Society for Research on Educational Effectiveness, Evidence Based School Counseling Conferences, Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, and American Society for Engineering Education. She serves as the student representative on an Applied Physics Lab collaborative team and is the School Counseling representative of the Chi Sigma Iota (CSI) Honor Society.

Keenan is a Maryland native who served as president of the Johns Hopkins Lambda Chapter of Chi Sigma Iota International Counseling Honors Society. A relentless worker, he is easily accessible among fellow students and faculty at SOE. Keenan was named as Pro Bono Counseling Project’s nominee for the 2023 Baltimore Ravens Community Quarterback Award for his service within the greater Baltimore area. As Howard Community College’s 2019 Social Sciences Division Student of the Year and University of Maryland, Baltimore County’s 2021 Outstanding Student in Sociology, Keenan is dedicated to being a lifelong learner and serving the community with enduring impact.

Sebastian Chu has experience in the Baltimore City Public School System and currently works as an academic program coordinator for the Johns Hopkins Berman Institute of Bioethics. He is interested in the role of technology in the classroom and data analysis in education.

A dedicated lifelong learner with a rich background in instructional and management roles within higher education, military, and aviation sectors, Aamer Khan is a senior instructional designer at Texas A&M University-Health Science Center. Informed by his DALET knowledge, his work aims to address the interprofessional learning needs of students from diverse medical disciplines, with the ultimate goal of improved healthcare outcomes. Prior to his role at Texas A&M, Aamer spent 12 years as an assistant professor and program manager at the Defense Language Institute. He remains committed to improving technology-enhanced learning environments through empathy, equity, research, and professional growth to make a meaningful contribution to education in the digital age.

Bridget holds a BA in international/global studies from the University of North Texas. She has over 10 years of experience teaching at Fort Worth Academy, a progressive school for gifted, twice-exceptional, and high-achieving students in Texas. Her interests include technology integration and problem-based learning.

Meredith Coffey is a senior research associate at the Thomas B. Fordham Institute. She completed her MS in education policy at Johns Hopkins University in August 2023. Originally from Miami, Florida, Meredith also holds a BA in comparative literature & literary theory from the University of Pennsylvania, a PhD in English literature from the University of Texas at Austin, and an MS in education from Hunter College. Before her current position at Fordham, Meredith taught high school English at public schools in New York City and Fairfax County, Virginia. She lives with her family in Silver Spring, Maryland.

Hongjie is a member of the Teaching English as a Foreign Language (TEFL) family. She is passionate about advocating for equity and social justice in language education. Hongjie was inspired by various resources provided by the ITGL program to discover her interest in academic research. She is currently pursuing a doctorate degree in educational policy studies at Georgia State University, focusing on educational leadership. She is interested in analyzing language education policies and examining culturally responsive practices using qualitative methods.

A Jamaican immigrant, Ro-Anne is a passionate second grade teacher. She holds a B.A. in psychology from Fairfield University. After working as a medical scribe, Ro-Anne joined the 2019 TFA corps to pursue her passion for education and service. She is currently in her fifth year of teaching in her adopted hometown of Bridgeport, Connecticut, where she inspires, teaches, learns from, and gives back to the next generation of leaders. Ro-Anne is an avid reader and basketball enthusiast.

A native Marylander, Margie has worked as an educator since 2015, when she began teaching ESL to young adults from Central America at a D.C public charter school. This led to other teaching experiences, like tutoring non-literate Spanish-speaking adults through Plaza Comunitaria, working as a community college reading clinician, and tutoring English and Spanish GED. Margie's experiences working with adults with disabilities led her to pursue a master’s degree in special education at Johns Hopkins, where the Mild-to-Moderate Disabilities concentration has helped her better understand and support students with disabilities—and herself. Currently student-teaching at Hampstead Hill Academy, Margie plans to pursue a job as a lower elementary special education teacher in Baltimore City Public Schools.