I am an MA student in Learning Sciences. I am interested in learning more about the cognitive processes of reading. I spent the last year as an Americorps*VISTA (Volunteer in Service to America) with Minneapolis Public Schools. During this time, I worked to recruit, place and support community volunteers in the effort to strengthen community relationships and maximize support for students. As a VISTA, I also supported student learning and helped design curriculum as a co-instructor for the college preparation program Upward Bound during their summer enrichment classes at the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities.

I am originally from the Twin Cities metro area. I especially enjoy Minnesota winters because they provide for a variety of outdoor activities. In my spare time I like listening to music (of all kinds), going for hikes, and watching the MN Twins win.

Danny came to Northwestern from London, U.K., where he worked as a youth educator and program designer.  Before moving to Chicago, as part of his work at Tower Hamlets Summer University (THSU), Danny designed and facilitated Unboxed, a human rights youth exchange program for British and South African teenagers.  Participants were trained and supported to design and implement their own local interventions to tackle different types of discrimination and oppression, including xenophobia, homophobia, and domestic violence.  In 2005, Unboxed received the British Wavemakers Award.

At THSU, Danny worked as a consultant and program designer for Creative Partnerships (CP), a government agency working to promote creativity and arts programs in British schools.  Danny worked with CP on their youth council project, producing and facilitating a series of programs that sought to involve young people as partners in the strengthening of inner-city schools.  Danny also developed and coordinated the THSU Peer Motivator youth leadership program, providing participants - mainly of Bangladeshi origin - with practical community-work training and awarding them with London Open College Network (LOCN) accreditation.

Danny's roots are in the Jewish community, where he worked as Director of Education and Development for the Association of Jewish Sixthformers (AJ6), a youth-led national organization based in London.  Danny oversaw the national peer-leadership curriculum and trained youth workers to lead AJ6's year-round programs, including educational tours to Israel, Eastern-Europe, Southern-Europe, and the American East Coast.  Before working for AJ6, Danny also spent a year as Community Youth Worker for the South Manchester Jewish Youth Trust (SMJYT).

PhD Candidate, Learning Sciences


Broadly speaking, I'm concerned with how the Holocaust changes our thinking about learning and education.

I've come to realize that I wear three hats...

DESIGN.  My training in the British Jewish community led me to focus on Holocaust education and youth program design.  My experiences as a youth worker in inner-city London strengthened my interests in creating human rights education and youth leadership programs.

ACTIVISM.  My work includes training educators to effectively teach about the Holocaust with the explicit goal of applying lessons from history to contemporary cases of oppression and genocide, particularly of lesbian, gay, transgender, and bisexual people.

RESEARCH.  I study how educators learn and how their learning impacts their pedagogical decisions.  I'm concerned with how collective memories impact the way we educate about the Holocaust and human rights.  And I'm interested in the silencing - and unsilencing - of marginalized histories.

My research interests focus on teacher learning, professional development design, and social media. 

Exhibit developer and informal learning specialist.  Professional focus: creating engaging, user-centered learning environments; interpretive content development and management, usability design, information architecture. Specialized in strategic planning and holistic development solutions for exhibit and educational products—keeping the user at the center of the design process; identifying creative ways to leverage community connections; and continuing the learning process beyond the physical exhibit space.

I am joining the Masters program in Learning Sciences with the intention of focusing on education in general. In particular, I am interested in learning about the development of learning/educational systems and the use of technology in education. I am moving to Northwestern university after a year in the PhD program in Marketing at the Simon School of Business at the University of Rochester. Before that, I worked for a couple of years with an e-learning company, HeyMath!, in Chennai, India. Here I was majorly involved in curriculum planning and design and developing interactive e-lessons in Mathematics for use as a teaching and learning resource. I have a masters in Mathematics from the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras.

I come from India, a land of cultural and demographic diversity. I've grown up in a very close-knit family with an older sister. I have a passion for carnatic classical music and have been learning for the past 20 years. I love Chicago and I enjoy living here!