Joanna Henderson started her career in youth development as an after school and summer program coordinator. She has been particularly interested in art and culture and has explored creative ways of engaging youth in non formal learning. She also has a strong interest in exploring different cultures and has spent time in Lithuania teaching English.

 

Joanna really started to see the impact that school systems have on student learning when she started working with refugee families and youth at the International Rescue Committee (IRC). During that time she started to see the connections between local and global issues in education, while also exploring social pedagogy. She completed her Master's Degree in Social and Cultural Pedagogy at Arizona State University in 2017, where her research explored teacher experiences with refugee students in Arizona schools.

 

She moved to California in 2018 and worked at the San Jose Public Library where she managed a grant program that funds after school programs in school districts working hard to close the achievement gap. Joanna currently works at ASU as program manager for Pathways for the Future, a program providing learners the knowledge necessary for life and work in the 21st century.