Student Affairs

Dominique Pope, Ed.M.'25

Hometown: Sacramento, California 

Previous job: judicial law clerk, graduate legal assistant

After graduating from UC Davis Law School in 2022 and working in the legal world, Dominique Pope thought about switching careers. But after starting at the Ed School, she came to a realization: “I don’t have to be in just law or just edu­cation,” she says. “I can do both.” 

Specifically, she wants to work in law school administration as a resource for students. “My goal is to always encourage law stu­dents to pursue their own path,” she says. It’s something she had to learn how to do, as well. 

“I navigated law school all on my own as a Black, first-generation student,” she says. “I decided that when I was in a position to do so, I would support law students who would be in similar circumstanc­es. My hope is to work in student affairs where I can get to know stu­dents and help with their personal and academic needs one on one.” 

One of the lessons she learned from the Ed School that she’ll take with her, she says, is that conflict isn’t always an obstacle. 

“There have been classes where we discussed extremely sensitive topics, and my classmates had op­posing views. Despite the tension, we were able to have helpful con­versations without attacking each other,” she says. “I plan to contin­ue practicing an empathetic, but also equally effective, approach to communication with my future students and colleagues. HGSE has sincerely shown me how effective leadership is not about status or title, but about how you treat oth­ers around you.”

Queens Malcolm Smith Jr., Ed.M.'25

Hometown: Queens, New York 

Previous job: activist and youth educator

Our goals are often rooted in a need — a need to fill a gap or right a wrong. Queens Malcolm Smith’s goals come from something person­al — his own experience. 

“I came out of 22 years of fos­ter care,” he says. “I went through psychological, physical, and sexual traumas.” As he told an audience at a first-gen celebration at Harvard in October, he is a survivor of a large demographic of young people in foster care who have been labeled as just a number, a statistic. Espe­cially once he turned 18. 

“I went from aging out homeless to navigating shelters across New York City and even spending sleep­less nights on the Brooklyn Bridge and in Washington Square Park,” he said at the event. “Along the lines of these systemic blockages, I’ve dealt with housing insecurity and with no safety net or plan on how to navi­gate life as a young being.” 

Now Smith wants to be that safety net for others. After gradu­ation, in addition to continuing to advocate that foster kids need to matter to educators, his goal is to start an entrepreneurial education organization, possibly a school, that directly supports foster kids who age out of the system, young people who are homeless, and LGBTQ+ youth. He wants to teach them basic life skills, like how to do errands and be on their own — skills he had to learn the hard way. And more than anything, Smith wants to help these young people realize that their dreams can become real. 

“I’m an outlier in all of this,” he says one afternoon, pointing around the room on Appian Way, “because this kid — me — is an orphan but is also at HGSE.” 

He wants to tell others with tough childhoods that he “stood in the storm and persevered,” and they can, too. “You can go through all of that, but you can also end up at a place like Harvard.”

Dawn Joves, Ed.M.'26 

Hometown: Born in the Philippines, raised in San Diego, California 

Current job: student equity and belonging coordinator, Office of Diversity & Community Partner­ships, UC San Diego School of Medicine

Education, Dawn Joves learned at a young age, is communal. For her, it started with her family, which moved to the United States from the Philippines when she was 2. 

“As the eldest daughter of four kids, I was responsible for learning how to be a student in the United States,” she says. “I needed to as­similate to the culture by attend­ing ESL, educate my parents about the expectations schools had for me, translate my homework to my parents so they could help me, and ultimately teach my siblings.” 

Her family struggled to inte­grate into American society and access even basic needs. In high school, she had to apply to col­lege alone, with no support. 

“I even got my name wrong on my FAFSA documents because we didn’t understand the concept of a western middle name,” she says. “I didn’t know that I officially had two first names — Dawn Therese — so my name didn’t match my social security number, which lead to my FAFSA being delayed and my par­ents needing to take out predatory payday loans for my first semes­ter of college until the Pell Grants were dispersed.” 

These personal experiences, she says, have had a big impact on her work at the UC San Diego School of Medicine, where she helps medical students root their academic experiences in the pursuit of health equity. She also oversees a program that lets high school students whose STEM pro­grams have limited resources learn on the UC campus. 

“It is a testament to how educa­tion can facilitate so much change within a community or a family,” she says. “I believe that education is a communal asset if we want to live in a better world.”

Anne-Michelle Engelstad, Ed.M.'16, current Ph.D.

Hometown: Washington, D.C. area 

Previous job: senior research coor­dinator, Kennedy Krieger Institute, Center for Autism Services, Sci­ence and Innovation 

Anne-Michelle Engelstad has al­ways loved working with children, but it was after volunteering in high school with children with autism that she found that she es­pecially loved being in early child­hood special ed classrooms. 

“I became interested in the mechanisms underlying the chil­dren’s learning and behavior,” she says. “That pushed me toward studying psychology and eventu­ally to the Mind, Brain, and Educa­tion Program at HGSE.” 

Her goal, she says, is to improve access to high-quality services for children with developmental differences, including improving early screening and identification for all kids, even those living far from academic and medical cen­ters, because “the most effective intervention is early intervention,” she says. 

While at the Ed School, she has worked on clinical trials of early intervention models for children with autism, Down syndrome, and tuberous sclerosis complex. Currently in Canada on a Fulbright scholarship, Engelstad is learning about an Inuit approach to sup­porting children with neurodevel­opmental differences that infuses traditional and cultural Inuit knowledge into early intervention. 

She says the best part of her work is seeing breakthrough mo­ments, like when a child hits a developmental milestone after a delay. “Those moments make the challenges all worth, it,” she says. “I’m also inspired by the parents that stop at nothing to get their child the support they need.”

Siza Mtimbiri, Ed.M.'26

Hometown: Zimbabwe, currently living in New Hampshire 

Previous: elementary school principal, Milford, New Hampshire
 

Born in a small town in Zimbabwe when the country was known as Rhodesia, and as one of nine chil­dren, Siza Mtimbiri says he faced “slim odds” of even finishing ele­mentary school. Fortunately, with community support, he went on to earn a degree from the Univer­sity of Cambridge before coming to Harvard. This support is why he decided to become an educator, especially for young students from similar backgrounds. 

“I am passionate about elemen­tary education, particularly in un­derserved rural areas in Zimbabwe and other parts of Africa,” he says. Ten years ago, he started a school in Zimbabwe. This August, he will head back to the school to over­see much-needed updates. 

“While Zimbabwe is home to some outstanding schools, there are many rural schools in dire need of support in terms of infrastruc­ture, curriculum, and expertise,” he says. At his school, this includes installing solar panels to provide electricity, adding another water tank, and training staff on how to engage children in hands-on work. “And, for the first time, we will pro­vide small laptops so our students can practice and develop basic technology literacy skills.” 

This isn’t the only school he helped get off the ground. 

“I had the privilege of work­ing on the founding and imple­mentation of an all-girls’ school in Malawi,” he says. “The staggering inequities, especially for girls in rural areas, were the driving force behind this school.”

Claire Patterson, Ed.M.'25 

Hometown: Redwood City, California

Previous job: casting at Warner Bros. Television

For Claire Patterson, starting her master’s degree at the Ed School was a major career shift, a shift that took her from a classroom on the lot of a television studio to an actual classroom at Harvard.

“I’ve never worked directly in education before,” she says. “Still, academia has always been part of my life — my parents are all pro­fessors, and one is even a retired college president. My own career has been in television, where I’ve spent the past eight years working in Los Angeles, most recently in casting at Warner Bros. Television on shows like Abbott Elementary and Ted Lasso.”

It was while working in casting that she started to see a possible career shift.

“In that role, I had the opportu­nity to collaborate on DEI pipeline initiatives aimed at increasing ac­cess and support for actors from underserved and underrepresent­ed communities,” she says. “Those efforts showed me the power of getting creative about inclusion, an approach I’m eager to integrate into my future work.” 

Post-graduation, Patterson hopes to work in advancement and engagement at independent schools or in higher education. 

“Attending an all-girls high school in the Bay Area introduced me to a strong, supportive com­munity that shaped my path,” she says, “and I believe that private schools and colleges can foster these meaningful experiences, but only if they have the mission-driv­en resources to be truly inclusive and accessible.”

Alister D'Monte, Ed.M.'25

Hometown: Bengaluru, India
Current job: founder and CEO, Unherd.in
 

Growing up in India, Alister D’Monte saw how limited career awareness and gendered socie­tal expectations often restrict­ed teens from going after what they really wanted to do. Hearing phrases like “Boys don’t pursue the arts!” or noticing how girls were discouraged from going into sci­ence fields, inspired him to start Unherd.in, meaning “doing differ­ent from the herd.” The organiza­tion helps teens explore careers with mentors from different fields. Since 2017, D’Monte says they have connected more than 2,500 teens with 550 mentors. Moving forward, he wants to work with younger kids and add STEM programs for girls and psychology and arts pro­grams for boys. He also wants to increase scholarship funding. 

“My vision is to integrate indus­try mentorships into school sys­tems, enabling students to explore career interests in school without judgment,” he says, “and ensure every young person, regardless of their socio-economic background, has an opportunity to pursue a career that aligns with their poten­tial, interests, and skills.” 

It’s these students who keep him motivated, he says. “It’s the teens who feel lost and have no one to guide them who inspire me to stay in education, despite the challenges. These are the young people who often fall through the cracks, unsure of their poten­tial and direction. Knowing that I can be a source of support and guidance for them, helping them discover their potential and make confident choices about their fu­ture, drives me forward.”