Our Team

Gretchen Lopez (gelopez@syr.edu), Faculty Director of the Intergroup Dialogue Program, is Associate Professor of Cultural Foundations of Education and associated faculty in Women’s and Gender Studies. Professor Lopez applies a multidisciplinary, multi-method approach to studying inequality and the impact of social justice education. Her main research focuses on race and critical pedagogy in higher education and she has extended this work to engage high school students and consider the significance of university-community partnership. She led the university’s participation in the Multi-University Intergroup Dialogue Research Project, a nine-institution study of the educational benefits of intergroup dialogue for undergraduate students (Lopez & Zúñiga, 2010), and co-authored ”Intergroup Dialogue: Engaging Difference, Social Identities, and Social Justice” (Zúñiga, Lopez, & Ford, 2015). Professor Lopez received her Ph.D. in Social Psychology from the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor (B.A., Psychology, Cornell University), and her work has been recognized through an Excellence in Graduate Education Faculty Recognition Award, the Racial Justice Award from Interfaith Work’s Community Wide Dialogue to End Racism, and the Syracuse NAACP Youth Council Image Award for Education. Pronouns: she/they/gretchen

Steven Contreras (stcontre@syr.edu) is originally from the Bronx, NY. He graduated from Fordham University in 2011, majoring in Sociology. He moved to Syracuse to work at Syracuse University where he earned his Master’s degree in Cultural Foundations of Education and is now pursuing the Ph.D. Steven currently works at SUNY Upstate where he serves as the Director of Student Retention. His primary focus is working with students of color, rural students and low-income students. His interest for working with students started in undergrad when he was a student leader and Resident Advisor (RA) on campus. As a First-Generation college student himself trying to figure out college, Steven developed a passion for helping students navigate higher education. Steven finds dialogue a powerful tool and has participated and facilitated several dialogues including: Conversations About Race and Ethnicity (CARE) at Syracuse University, Men Against Social Stigma (MASS) at Buffalo State College, and Unsafe Spaces at SUNY Upstate. He has co-facilitated Dialogue on Race and Ethnicity and currently serves as a graduate assistant for the program. Pronouns: he/his/him

Amanda M. Kingston (she/her/hers) is a doctoral candidate in the Cultural Foundations of Education program and pursuing a certificate of advanced study (CAS) in Women’s and Gender Studies. Amanda’s research draws from eco-justice studies, ecofeminist inquiries, peace studies, memory studies, and postcolonial studies along with an interdisciplinary foundations of education approach. Her publications and presentations focus on memorials and museums as sites of peace education, ecofeminist walking inquiries, environmental in/justice and environmental racism addressed in pre-service teacher education, and settler colonial memory making as a pedagogical project. Amanda served for two years as a TA in EDU 310: The American School, and in 2024 began co-facilitating SU’s Intergroup Dialogue Program’s academic course. She also serves as a Teaching Mentor for the Graduate School. Amanda has worked in schools in Louisiana and Oklahoma (8 years) as a 6-12th grade humanities teacher and academic administrator, and a community educator with an Oklahoma City-based nonprofit that partners with the resettled refugee community in Oklahoma. Amanda holds a MA degree in Social Foundations of Education from Oklahoma State University and BA degree in English with emphasis in Creative Writing and minor in Art History from the University of Missouri.

Gabriel Matthews (they/them/theirs) is a doctoral student in the Cultural Foundations of Education program at Syracuse University and is pursuing certificates of advanced study (CAS) in Disability Studies and in Women’s and Gender Studies. Gabriel graduated from the University of Richmond in 2024 with a BA in Critical Theory. Before coming to Syracuse, Gabriel held the position of Post-Baccalaureate Fellow for Inclusive Pedagogy and the Humanities at the University of Richmond’s Teaching & Scholarship Hub, where they co-directed the Inclusive Pedagogy Partnership Program. Gabriel’s research draws primarily from university studies, decolonial theory, and madness studies.

Etije Mehdori Walker (she/her/hers) is a doctoral candidate in the Cultural Foundations of Education program. Etije’s research focuses on charter school effectiveness through student voice, employing qualitative methodologies and Youth Participatory Action Research (YPAR) to center students’ lived experiences in educational assessment. Her work explores the intersection of diversity, equity, and inclusion within educational settings, with particular emphasis on how student perspectives can transform pedagogical approaches and institutional structures. Etije served two years as the graduate assistant for EDU 470 overseeing students who participated in internships for the Selected Studies undergraduate major. Etije served as a facilitator for Syracuse University’s Intergroup Dialogue Program academic course. She has worked for over five years in middle school education. Her experience in charter school environments informs her current research on how qualitative approaches can better capture the nuanced impacts of educational interventions beyond standardized metrics. Etije holds a MA in Teaching from Relay Graduate School of Education and a BA in Anthropology from Skidmore College.

Program Affiliates

Meredith Madden has served as facilitation coach with the Intergroup Dialogue Program. She has published research on educational equity, social and racial justice, and curriculum and pedagogy including in peer-reviewed journals such as Equity and Excellence in Education and with the University of Illinois Press. Her recent book publications include Dear Students: 10 Letters to Transform and Empower Your Higher Education Journey, and Rise for Racial Justice: How to Talk about Race with Schools and Communities (co-authored with Colette Cann and Kimberly Williams Brown). Her teaching experience includes teaching as a middle-school special education teacher in the Bronx and Finger Lakes regions of NY State and she has over 15 years teaching experience in higher education including Hamilton College, Utica University, and Mohawk Valley Community College as well as Syracuse University. Dr. Madden received her Ph.D. in Cultural Foundations of Education from Syracuse University, a master’s degree in urban education from Mercy College, a master’s degree in public policy (social policy concentration) from George Washington University, and BA in sociology from William Smith College. Her work with SU Intergroup Dialogue students was recognized for innovation in academic achievement through the Chancellor’s Award for Public Engagement and Scholarship.

Courtney Mauldin-Jones is an Assistant Professor in Teaching and Leadership in the Syracuse University School of Education. Her interdisciplinary research and scholarship illuminates how youth and girls of color use arts-based and literacy practices as methods for leadership, identity construction, and reimagining schools and communities. Dr. Mauldin-Jones’s recent projects focus on Envisioning Black Girl Futures (CNY Humanities Corridor Award) alongside educators and community leaders as well as using critical arts-based approaches with youth to co-construct educator resources, influence school policy change, and integrate youth voice into the school setting in meaningful and innovative ways. Her most recent publications are featured in Frontiers in Education, Journal of Educational Administration and History with chapter contributions to the Routledge Handbook of Critical Education Research as well as the Routledge text, Standing with Youth, Family, and Community Educational Leaders in School Leadership: Case Studies for Educational Equity and Justice. Dr. Mauldin-Jones facilitates the Central New York Educators of Color Dialogue and runs the teen book club, The Breedlove Readers which she co-founded in Syracuse, NY in Spring 2020.

Suzette Meléndez is Teaching Professor and Director of the Syracuse Medical-Legal Partnership based in the Syracuse University College of Law. She has directed the Children’s Rights and Family Law Clinic and teaches Family Law. In addition to litigation experience, Professor Meléndez has engaged in policy work on issues affecting litigants and practitioners including state and county domestic violence working groups, local and state bar associations, and judicial committees. She continues to work extensively on issues pursuing access to justice and the equitable treatment of all within the legal system as well as in our academic environments. While serving as Associate Dean for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion in the law college, Professor Meléndez developed and facilitated the Transformative Dialogue for Law Student Leaders, together with Intergroup Dialogue Program collaborators. In 2023, she was appointed Faculty Fellow for the Office of Strategic Initiatives in Academic Affairs and the Office of Diversity and Inclusion at Syracuse University. Professor Meléndez earned a juris doctor from the University of Connecticut School of Law and a bachelor’s degree from the State University of New York at Binghamton. In 2025, she received the Onondaga County NAACP Freedom Fund Award.

Easton Davis (edavis13@syr.edu) completed the Ph.D. in Cultural Foundations of Education and a certificate of advanced study (CAS) in Women’s and Gender Studies in 2026. Easton served as Graduate Assistant for the Intergroup Dialogue program and co-facilitated the IGD course on Race and Ethnicity. He additionally co-facilitated Conversations About Race and Ethnicity (CARE), a co-curricular Student Experience initiative, and the Transformative Dialogue for student leaders in the College of Law. He served as TA for Selected Studies in Education and instructor for Summer Start through University College. Easton’s dissertation seeks to understand creative and cultural resistance in education that creates more opportunities for educators and students to unlearn racism and situate the body as a site of reclamation. Easton additionally holds a MS in Cultural Foundations of Education and a bachelor’s degree in Sociology with a minor in Black studies from Randolph-Macon College. Pronouns: he/him/his

D. Romo (diromo@syr.edu) is a first-generation Xicanx and completed the Ph.D. in Cultural Foundations of Education in 2026. Earlier, Romo served as a Publicly Active Graduate Education (PAGE) Co-Director at Imagining America. As an undergraduate at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) they worked on publicly engaged scholarship initiatives in their neighborhood through the Pico Neighborhood Association (PNA) and Pico Youth and Family Center (PYFC) to address issues of access to affordable housing and overdevelopment, unequal educational resources, and culturally relevant/sustaining pedagogies that recognize the experience, knowledge, and values of young people of color. While working on their M.S., Romo worked at SU’s Intergroup Dialogue Program (IGD) as Graduate Research Assistant and co-facilitator for the Dialogue on Socioeconomic Inequality & Education. As a doctoral student, Romo worked with the IGD high school/university partnership as a co-facilitator at a local alternative high school in the Syracuse City School District (Cultural Voices, Lit Arts). Cultural Voices is an English course providing youth space to analyze their individual experience as related to structural systems of power and privilege; and Lit Arts is an after-school program bridging art-based social justice education and intergroup dialogue to promote youth activism and civic engagement. Pronouns: they/them/theirs

Jersey Cosantino (they/them), a former K-12 educator, is a doctoral candidate in Cultural Foundations of Education, holding certificates of advanced study in women’s and gender studies and disability studies. Jersey’s scholarship resides at the intersections of Mad studies and trans studies. Utilizing disability and transformative justice frameworks, their research centers the experiences and subjectivities of Mad, neurodivergent, trans, non-binary, and gender non-conforming individuals. Through oral history and autoethnography, Jersey seeks to construct Mad trans archives that create pathways and portals to Mad trans futures. Jersey identifies as Mad, neurodivergent, queer, trans, and non-binary and is white with education and citizenship privilege. They co-facilitated for SU’s Intergroup Dialogue Program’s academic course, and serve as co-editor of the International Mad Studies Journal and consulting editor for the Journal of Queer and Trans Studies in Education. Jersey holds a MA degree in high school English education and a graduate certificate in mindfulness studies from Lesley University, and a bachelor’s degree in English and studio art from Wellesley College.

Atiya McGhee (atmcghee@syr.edu) is a doctoral candidate in the Cultural Foundations of Education program and pursuing a certificate of advanced study (CAS) in Women’s and Gender Studies. Atiya’s research broadly spans various disciplines such as queer studies, disability studies, fat studies, and Black studies. Atiya identifies as a fat Black woman/non-binary queer person from the Bronx, NY. Using (auto)ethnography and intergroup dialogue, their research examines negative “body talk” associated with fatness and what a possible fat pedagogy outside the classroom can look like that critically interrupts harmful systems (Taylor, 2022). Atiya co-facilitated Politics of the Body: Fatphobia and Body Talk, a six-week co-curricular dialogue series that invited students to reflect on their relationship to their body and how it intersects with other systems of power (Taylor, 2022). Before attending Syracuse, Atiya worked for Residential Life at various institutions. Atiya holds a Master of Education in Higher Education and Student Affairs Administration from the University of Vermont, and a BA degree in Creative Writing and Literature from Wheaton College (MA). Pronouns: They/Them/Theirs

Dellareese Cofield-Martinez (she/her/hers) is a doctoral candidate in the Cultural Foundations of Education Program in the School of Education. With experience as a facilitator and trainer for Intergroup Dialogue (IGD) spaces, she uses a multimethod research approach to examine the labor of IGD facilitation. Her current research centers pedagogy that supports inclusive, democratic, educational classroom practices, particularly within higher education. She explores various aspects of facilitation, the labor involved, and how social identities, particularly race, might shape that work. During her time at SU, she served as the Coordinator for the Democratizing Knowledge Project and in various student affairs offices. Dellareese is the Associate Dean of Student Engagement for a small private Christian university in southern California. She has worked over a decade and a half as a Student Development practitioner and enjoys working at the intersections of faith, human rights and collective responsibility.

Earlier co-facilitators, research collaborators, and program staff have continued their work on intergroup dialogue through other positions on our campus, on other college and university campuses, or in community/work settings including: Linzy Andre, George Athanas, Jacob Bartholomew, Afua Boahene, Courtney Brewster, Andra Brown, Mary Cannito-Coville, Chase Catalano, Tiffany Curtis, Sigrid Davison, Lynn Dew, Janet Dodd, James Duah-Agyeman, Abby Fite, Lamees Galal, Martín Alberto Gonzalez, Cris Gray, Tiffany Gray, Danielle Guerrier, Jared Halter, LB Hannahs, Judy Hamilton, Hiba Haroon, Robin Higgins, Tauri Howard, Adrea Jaehnig, Dellareese Jackson, Rebecca Johnson, Jennifer Koslovsky, Bina Lee, Meredith Madden, Mariel Manzanarez, Aneisha McDole, Bushra Naqi, Wendy Nastasi, Sacchi Patel, Sara Potocsny, Lisa Pye, Roslyn Rasberry, Kyrani Renau, Michael Riley, Tremayne Robertson, Carolyn Salter, Ionah Scully, Blair Smith, Jermaine Soto, Tiffany Steinwert, Diane Swords, Amit Taneja, Angel Villasenor, Kim Williams Brown, Thomas Wolfe.