The campus will remain closed until 12 noon Thursday, 02/13/25. Students should log into Canvas for specific class information from their instructors. Please contact event organizers for information on specific activities. Normal operations will resume at 12pm on Thursday.
Dr. Jessi Hanson-DeFusco (she/they) is Assistant Professor of Public Policy at Lawrence Technological University. Jessi holds a Ph.D. in international development and public policy from the Graduate School of Public & International Affairs, from the University of Pittsburgh. She earned an Ed.M. in international education policy from the Harvard Graduate School of Education, and a BA in English education/ESL-Spanish from Colorado State University. Jessi served in the Peace Corps-Dominican Republic (2003-05). She later worked in international development as a technical consultant in low-income regions in Latin America, West Africa, and North America. She worked in the nonprofit sector including for ChildFund International, Save the Children, FAWE/Children in Crisis, Playing to Live, and Teach for All-Liberia. Her work is based on close partnerships with host-nation government agencies, national NGOs, and civil society organizations, including ministries of health, child protection, and education, in Guatemala, Bolivia, Honduras, Zambia, Brazil, Liberia, Benin, India, and Sierra Leone. In 2014-2016, she served as an Ebola responder in Liberia on programs for Ebola survivors and their families, funded by UNICEF, DFiD, and USAID. Inspired by her career as a practitioner, her academic research focuses on improved policymaking to support people affected/marginalized by extreme poverty, inequity, crisis, conflict, and limited access to public services including quality healthcare and education. Key veins of research include global health policy, including on the psychosocial effects of Ebola, COVID-19, acid-attacks, and war; neocolonialism in contemporary development; and Lasswellian policy theory. She served as Assistant Professor of Global Health Policy at the University of Texas-Dallas, as well as lectured at the University of Pittsburgh and AME Zion University-Liberia. She advocates for meaningful diversity, equity, and inclusion in policymaking, as well as in research, always in close collaboration with those most affected, highlighting their voices, experiences, and solutions for authentic sustainable change.
Use Your Cell Phone as a Document Camera in Zoom
From Computer
Log in and start your Zoom session with participants
From Phone
To use your cell phone as a makeshift document camera