Sherman Teichman | Director | sherman.teichman@tufts.edu
Sherman Teichman is the inaugural Executive Director of the Institute for Global Leadership at Tufts University. The programs under his direction include Education for Public Inquiry and International Citizenship (EPIIC), a rigorous interdisciplinary program for analysis of global issues and active citizenship; the Tufts Initiative for Leadership and International Perspective centered in Hong Kong and Beijing; [EXPOSURE], a photojournalism, documentary studies and human rights initiative and a range of global immersive education student initiated research projects. A lecturer in the arts and social sciences at Tufts since 1984, Mr. Teichman was a former fellow and lecturer at the Institute of Politics, the Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University and a faculty member at Boston University and Emerson College. As a journalist, he was a Peabody Award-winning foreign policy analyst for National Public Radio, WBUR, in Boston and a social science editor of the Boston Review. An adviser on counterterrorism and long-range strategic planning for the Israeli government, Mr. Teichman was also active with Amnesty International in the former Soviet Union and Central America. He was educated at the United States Naval Academy, The Johns Hopkins University, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem and the University of Chicago's Committees on International Relations and Social Thought. An Olympic saber fencer, Mr. Teichman was for many years the Tufts University saber fencing coach. He previously coached fencing at Boston University, the University of Chicago and Harvard University.
Heather Barry | Associate Director | heather.barry@tufts.edu
Astier M. Almedom, Inaugural Fellow, IGL | astier-m.almedom@tufts.edu
Astier Almedom is inaugural fellow of the Institute in conjunction with her faculty post of Professor of Practice at the Fletcher School. Prior to Tufts, Dr. Almedom taught in the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine (University of London, Graduate and Professional School of Public Health) and served in senior management, National Health Service (NHS) in London. Her applied research interests in East Africa, Asia, the UK and more recently in the USA focus on the dimensions of resilience that reflect inter-connectedness of public health, human security, and sustainability of social-ecological systems. Dr. Almedom enjoys working with both graduate and undergraduate students at Tufts and beyond - with field-based teams of researchers, practitioners, and policy makers.
Karen Boss | Program Administrator | karen.boss@tufts.edu
Karen Boss joined the IGL as the Institute Administrator in 2009. Before coming to Tufts, Karen spent three years in the nonprofit sector at Boston Cares and spent six years working in college student activities in Los Angeles, Gettysburg, PA and Boston and three years traveling and living in Asia teaching scuba diving and then skiing when she returned to the US. Karen graduated Simmons College with degrees in communications and sociology and received her Master’s of Arts in Education with a focus on College Student Development and Higher Ed Administration from the University of Maryland at College Park. She is an amateur photographer and blogger, she lives for the outdoors, travels as often as possible, sits as Chair of the Board of a small soup kitchen in the Back Bay, is a pop culture junkie and exercise fanatic. She grew up north of Boston and has lived in the Fenway, Mission Hill, Dorchester, and currently lives in Jamaica Plain.
Hannah Flamm | Executive Assistant
Hannah Flamm has been working for the Institute for Global Leadership since January 2009. She graduated from Tufts University with a degree in Political Science in February 2009. She has traveled to El Salvador extensively, leading volunteer service trips and researching youth civic participation, gang violence, and gold mining. She has traveled to Guatemala to study issues of poverty and inequality with support from the IGL EPIIC Colloquium and the Project on Justice in Times of Transition. She has volunteered for Greater Boston Legal Services and the Central American Resource Center and is a member of the Board of International Partners.
Serghino Rene | Program Assistant | serghino.rene@tufts.edu
Serghino L. René joined the Institute for Global Leadership as a Program Assistant in August of 2009. Prior to Tufts, he was a Program Manager for Exploritas (formerly Elderhostel), a lifelong learning travel organization. There, he developed and managed one-day-educational travel programs at various cultural institutions all over the country. Out of college, Rene ventured into journalism, serving as a general assignment reporter for a small Boston publication. René also interned at WCVB-TV Channel 5 his senior year of college, independently producing his own thirty-minute segment for the newsmagazine CityLine.
René, the oldest of two, is a first generation American, born of Haitian immigrants in Boston, Mass. At a young age, his family moved to the south coast city of New Bedford, Mass. where he grew up. He graduated from New Bedford High School and attended Boston’s Emmanuel College, becoming a member of their first co-ed class and first male track & field recruit. He graduated from Emmanuel College in 2005 with a BA in English Communications.
René loves history of all sorts, especially the history of Boston and the Caribbean. On his spare time, he enjoys running, working out, visiting museums, taking long road trips all over New England, listening to talk radio and spending time with his family. René lives in West Roxbury, Mass.