CSJ Team

If you are unsure exactly who to contact with your inquiry or request, please reach out to CSJ’s Executive Director, Andria. Wisler@georgetown.edu. Learn more about our current student and professional team position openings.

Dr. Fatemeh Hosseini
Director of Engaged Scholarship and Pedagogy, Assistant Research Professor
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Dr. Fatemeh Hosseini is the Director of Engaged Scholarship and Pedagogy at the CSJ and Assistant Research Professor at Georgetown University. As a historian of gender and sexuality, her primary focus is on working-class women who worked inside and outside of red-light districts in urban vice centers. She explores how cultural and social attitudes shape policy and the lived experiences of sex workers. As an educator, she has taught broadly on the intersection of desire, sex, and commerce globally and worked with and advised students at New York University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and the University of Maryland, College Park. Her advocacy and policy experience has been shaped by work with individuals involved in the sex trade and with immigrant survivors of gender-based and intimate-partner violence. She is occupied with how knowledge can be created and enhanced by engagement with local communities. She brings her experience in teaching, academic administration, and community engagement to CSJ. Ultimately, she is invested in and energized by how highly-selective institutions of higher education can leverage their resources and knowledge to support, sustain, and heal marginalized and local communities.

Akanksha Sinha

Research Associate, CSJ & Earth Commons
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Akanksha, or AK, serves as a Research Associate with the CSJ and the Earth Commons, working directly with the Alternative Breaks Programs. They are a graduate of Georgetown University with a major in Culture and Politics, and minors in Philosophy and Spanish. Within their major, their concentration was Post-Colonial Politics and Literature, which included racial, class-based, and gender-based analyses of global power dynamics, and the many ramifications of colonialism, such as today’s environmental crisis. Akanksha has grown up in India, and approaches their work with immigration, diaspora, caste oppression and internationalism as critical lenses for equitable action. In this position, AK supports the inculcation of anti-colonial and anti-racist sustainability pedagogies into CSJ programming and in Earth Commons initiatives. AK’s previous work experience has centered on culturally-sustainable education and education equity, and they continue this work as a volunteer and communications coordinator at College Access for Non-Citizens.

Hailey Rastrelli

Operations Assistant

Formerly serving Georgetown University’s Center for Social Justice as a Graduate Intern (JGI) with the Operations Team, Hailey joined the CSJ team full-time as Operations Assistant. She is a graduate of the Master’s in Liberal Studies program. Hailey is a dedicated HOYA who strives to make the Georgetown community more inclusive and equitable. As a current student, she is pursuing her MA in Liberal Studies with a certification in Gender, Peace, and Security Studies (GIWPS), a year following her graduation from George Mason University (BA, Global Affairs –– Inequalities and Responses). Hailey believes that social justice must be ingrained in every step of the execution of the mission, starting with the Center’s operations. Hailey has spearheaded impact projects empowering marginalized communities while fostering sustainable development.

Cheyenne Baltimore

Jumpstart Program Site Manager
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Cheyenne Baltimore serves as the Jumpstart site manager overseeing Georgetown students as they serve in early learning schools in wards 7 and 8. She graduated from The George Washington University with a Bachelor of Arts in Human Services and Social Justice. Cheyenne is passionate about education equity and has worked as an early learning educator in many different capacities. Although not originally from the DMV area, Cheyenne has made great effort to be a part of the community since 2014. When she’s not working in the CSJ, you can find her trying the best food spots around the DMV.  

Hope Young

Assistant Director, Student Organizations and Leadership; Program Director, ABSO and SIPS
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Hope Young serves as the Assistant Director for Student Organizations and Leadership at the Center for Social Justice Research, Teaching & Service. She graduated from the University of South Carolina with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Experimental Psychology and from Florida State University with a Master of Science degree in Higher Education. Hope spent four year working at Washington University in St. Louis, focusing her work to support cultural student organizations in relation to event planning, policy interpretation, and collectivist leadership development as well as social justice education. She comes to us from Vanderbilt University, where she spent two years engaging in large-scale programming, training & development, and advocacy for students, faculty, staff, and alumni from diverse backgrounds. New to the DC area, Hope is looking forward to exploring the area, visiting as many museums as possible, and finding the best breakfast spot in town.

Arjun Shankar

Faculty & Research Director
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Dr. Shankar is an anthropologist, critical pedagogue, and mediamaker whose work falls into three broad areas. First, he is concerned with the politics of help and its role in upholding systems of racial capitalism. In his book, Brown Saviors and their Others  (Duke, 2023), he takes India’s burgeoning help economy, specifically the education NGO sector, as a site from which to interrogate these ideas. He shows how colonial, racial, and caste formations undergird how transnational and digitized NGO work is done in India today. Second, he is a visual anthropologist and ethnographic filmmaker who has been interested in developing decolonial, participatory visual methodologies. He has focused on the neocolonial politics of representation, global circulation, and reception of the “impoverished” and “suffering” child figure and offers new multimodal methods as alternatives to these paradigms. He is also interested in multimodal evaluation and publishing, asking questions regarding the possibilities that might accompany non-textual knowledge production. Towards this end, he is a current editor with the multimodal section of American Anthropologist. Third, he is an advocate for Curiosity Studies , an emerging interdisciplinary field which challenges us to think anew about scholarly production, pedagogic praxis, and the political role of the academician. Arjun asks: what might a radical curiosity make possible and what political, economic, and social constraints prevent the flourishing of curiosity? Most recently, he is excited about his work as a founding member of Bol , a DC-based worker-owned bookstore (Insta: bol_coop). Through this project he brings together his commitments to global economic and racial justice, and community building in DC. 

Blaythe Ayala (G’23)

Associate Director, Community Based Learning and Immersion; Program Director, Alternative Breaks Program
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Blaythe serves as the Associate Director, Community Based Learning and Immersion. Blaythe plays a pivotal role in fulfilling the CSJ’s social justice mission through immersion learning experiences for students, faculty, and staff, community-engaged learning pedagogies, mission-curricular integration, and community-university partnerships. Originally from Los Angeles, CA, Blaythe earned BAs in Political Science, Social Welfare, and in Spanish from the University of California, Berkeley. After graduation, she worked as a program analyst for the US Department of Housing and Urban Development in the Office of Policy Development and Research, where she researched wrap-around services for youth in public housing during the COVID-19 pandemic. While working, Blaythe earned her M.Ed. in Education Leadership and Policy from American University with a focus on serving the whole person through cross-sector collaboration. She further earned a Master’s in International Business and Policy from Georgetown University.

Lucia Cappelloni

Operations Manager 
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Lucia transitioned to the role of Operations Manager in February 2020. She originally joined the CSJ team as a Payroll and Van Administrator in October 2013. In that role, she ensured the efficient and timely payment of the approximately 300 student employees engaged in CSJ’s community-based service activities. She also oversaw student van coordinators, managed monthly billing processes, and verified that vehicles are in compliance with state, leasing agent, and Georgetown policies and requirements. Now Lucia has broad administrative oversight of CSJ’s hiring, equipment rentals, and space usage. She also supervises the Center Operations Interns (COIs). Lucia is originally from the Republic of Moldova and graduated with a degree in Romanian and English Literature from the University of Bucharest. Lucia began her career working for the US Peace Corps in Moldova, providing administrative and interpreting support to volunteers and Peace Corps staff. After immigrating to the United States, Lucia provided comprehensive administrative support in the private sector for nine years.

Lionell Daggs III

Associate Director, Racial Justice Initiatives

Lionell Daggs III serves as the inaugural Associate Director of Racial Justice Initiatives for the Center for Social Justice. Prior to joining the CSJ team, Lionell served as one the Assistant Directors of the Cultural Centers at the University of San Francisco (USF) where his work centered on supporting systematically marginalized student populations, with a primary focus on students of color, women, and LGBTQ students. Lionell previously worked at an education non-profit organization California School-Age Consortium, which builds professional networks that provide training, leadership development and advocacy for out-of-school time professionals. Lionell earned his bachelor’s degree in Psychology with a minor in Child and Youth Studies and a Master of Arts in Organization and Leadership at USF. His interests include black feminism, feminist leadership, and social movements. His student affairs philosophy is oriented toward creating systemic change by utilizing his positionality and knowledge to uplift and support those around him and within his community. As a first-generation college student, he believes that all students with the right support and guidance can successfully navigate the higher education landscape.

LaMaria Glass (G’22)

Assistant Director, Youth Justice Programs; Program Director, After School Kids (ASK)
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LaMaria Glass earned her Master’s in Educational Transformation at Georgetown University, concentrating in Advocacy and Policy. She graduated from the University of Virginia with a Bachelor of Science in Education, double majoring in Sociology and Youth & Social Innovation. LaMaria is passionate about youth and advocacy, and her ultimate goal is to advocate for students through education or for youth involved in the juvenile justice system. LaMaria has been involved with a number of organizations whose missions ranged from philanthropy to advocacy to centering first-generation college-bound students. LaMaria stays involved in her community, by working with youth or through her service with the Danville Alumnae Chapter of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc. Her leisure time is spent singing, reading, exercising, playing basketball, and enjoying family and friends.

Jessica Lee (G’22)

Associate Director, Immigrant Justice Initiatives; Program Director, DC Schools Project
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Jessica Lee joined CSJ’s team as the DC Schools Project Program Director in July 2013 and transitioned to her current role in February 2020. Jessica is responsible for the oversight of the DC Schools Project which delivers English literacy skills support to children, youth, and adults of low-income, immigrant backgrounds in the DC area, focusing on providing direct support and advocacy for newcomer youth and their families through emergency family planning for deportation and broader policy advocacy work in coalition with local immigrant justice organizations. Jessica serves on the Undocumented Students Advisory Task Force to support undocumented students on campus. Jessica is from Portland, OR, where she attended Lewis and Clark College and earned a BA in International Affairs and Foreign Languages. She attended the Monterey Institute of International Studies in Monterey, California for her Master’s in Public Administration, with a concentration on nonprofit management. She returned to Portland to work with the Asian Pacific American Network of Oregon on immigration, education, and health equity issues in Oregon’s communities of color. Previous to joining CSJ, Jessica worked as the Community Health and Service-Learning Coordinator at Georgetown Medical School. She earned a Master’s in Educational Transformation at Georgetown.

Nicole Reeder

Assistant Director, Educational Equity; Program Director, DC Reads and DC STEM
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Nicole Reeder serves as Associate Director for Educational Equity. Nicole’s portfolio includes serving as the DC Reads and DC STEM program director, supervising the Jumpstart Site Manager position and program, and broad support of education programming and advocacy at CSJ. Nicole comes to this role after previously serving as CSJ’s Jumpstart Site Manager. Prior to Georgetown, Nicole spent four years in New Orleans building capacity in Greater New Orleans non-profit organizations by supporting Tulane University AmeriCorps VISTA members through their year of service. Nicole is from Newport News, VA, and is a proud first generation graduate from Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) with a Bachelor of Science in Psychology degree. She is pursuing her Master of Social Work with a specialization in Children, Youth, and Families from George Mason University.

Ray Shiu

Deputy Director; Program Director, FOCI and HOME
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Ray Shiu serves as the Deputy Director of the Center for Social Justice. He has been in this role since January 2020. In this role, he is responsible for the overall management of CSJ’s staff-run and student-run social justice, community-based engagement, including student development, community and university outreach, and fiscal and administrative management. Ray joined CSJ as Special Programs Coordinator in 2004 and later served as Program Director for Student Leadership and Special Programs from 2006 to 2012 and CSJ’s Associate Director from 2012 to 2020. Originally from Modesto, CA, Ray received his BS in Genetics from the University of California, Davis, as a first-generation student. After graduation, he moved to New York City and worked as a program and financial officer at a research center at the Columbia University Business School. While in New York City, Ray earned his MA in Higher Education, with a concentration in academic and student development from Columbia University’s Teachers College.

Ray serves as a board member on two local nonprofits providing services to the unhoused community, Friendship Place and Georgetown Ministry Center. He also serves as a member of the advisory board for the GU School of Continuing Studies’ Higher Education Administration Master’s Program. Ray teaches a section of the Mastering the Hidden Curriculum course for first-generation, low-income students at Georgetown.

Andria Wisler, Ph.D.

Executive Director; Teaching Professor, Justice and Peace Studies; Special Advisor for Mission Integration

Dr. Andria Wisler became the Executive Director of the Center for Social Justice in January 2013. She first joined Georgetown University in Fall 2008 as a Visiting Assistant Professor for the Program on Justice and Peace (JUPS) and served as Director of that program from January 2011-December 2012. She now is a full Teaching Professor of Justice and Peace Studies. Andria received her Ph.D. in Comparative and International Education and Philosophy from Columbia University and master’s in International Educational Development and Peace Education from Teachers College. Her research and teaching are in the fields of peace education, conflict studies, and international educational development, and her principal interest lies in the transformative potential of educational initiatives in post/conflict societies and for girls/women. After graduating from the University of Notre Dame, Andria began her vocation within education as a school teacher at an independent school, the Cornelia Connelly Center (CCC), which serves girls of working class families of the Lower East Side, New York City. She served as an invited member of the Board of Trustees of the CCC for six years (2008-2014) and re-joined the Board in Fall 2022. She also serves on the boards of Girls Global Academy Public Charter School and YouthBuild Public Charter School, both in Washington, DC.

At Georgetown, Andria has been involved in several campus initiatives and programs. She participated in the inaugural group of Doyle Fellows, a campus initiative on inclusion and diversity, the Engelhard Initiative, and in the Fall 2010 semester, Andria was a faculty-in-residence in Georgetown’s Alanya, Turkey study abroad/community living-and-learning program. She serves with St. Louis University’s Vice President Rochelle Smith as co-chair of the Association of Jesuit Colleges and Universities (AJCU) commission on Justice and Reconciliation: Addressing the Legacy of Slavery and Oppression by Jesuit Institutions, and is on the inaugural steering committee of the Community Engaged Scholars and Practitioners Network (CESPN) of the Association of Catholic Colleges and Universities (ACCU).