People
Executive board
We are the elected officers of the association in charge of CASE-ACSE's operations and activities. This includes the Annual General Meeting (AGM) and the Annual Conference as part of CAFE-CSSE.
President
Dr. Beyhan Farhadi
Dr. Beyhan Farhadi is an Assistant Professor in Educational Policy and Equity at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education of the University of Toronto researching online education and resistance to neoliberal restructuring. Dr. Farhadi draws from extensive experience teaching in secondary schools and public education advocacy to bridge research and practice. Her multidisciplinary research engages critical policy sociology, social and cultural geography, as well as surveillance studies, to understand the contexts within which inequity and injustice persist in schools. Dr. Farhadi is also a research associate with the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, Ontario, and formerly the research cluster lead for Community Engagement and Public Scholarship at the Institute for Research on Digital Literacies at York University in Toronto. .
Vice-President
Dr. Gus Riveros
Dr. Gus Riveros is associate professor in the Faculty of Education at Western University. He currently teaches in the Graduate Education program. His areas of interest include education policy analysis, educational administration, and spatial analysis in education. His current research examines the spatial configurations of urban schooling, the relations between urban change, and the availability of educational opportunity. Dr. Riveros' research has been supported by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC). A list of his publications and current projects can be seen in his faculty website
Past-President
Dr. Alana Butler
Dr. Alana Butler is an Associate Professor in the Faculty of Education at Queen’s University. In 2015, she graduated with a Ph.D. in Education from Cornell University in Ithaca, New York. She joined Queen’s University in 2017 and currently teaches in the Bachelor of Education program as well as the Graduate Studies program. Her research interests include the academic achievement of low-socio economic students, race and schooling, equity and inclusion, and multicultural education. Prior to joining Queen’s University, she taught at Toronto Metropolitan University and the University of Toronto as a part-time lecturer. She is currently Principal Investigator on an Insight Development Grant from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council for a study on post-secondary access for low-income youth
Secretary-Treasurer
Dr. Anna Katyn Chmielewski
Dr. Anna Katyn Chmielewski is an Associate Professor of Educational Leadership and Policy at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education of the University of Toronto. Her research uses quantitative methods to examine educational policy and social inequality, both in North America and internationally. She has studied socio-economic disparities in academic achievement, school segregation, neighbourhood inequality, and policies around school and program choice, streaming and tracking. She is also interested in the methods and policy uses of international large-scale assessments, such as the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) and the Programme for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC). A list of her publications and current projects can be found at her faculty website.
Members-at-large
Dr. Christine Corso
Dr. Christine Corso is a post-doctoral fellow at Wilfrid Laurier University and co-Director of the new Annual Canadian School Survey with Dr. Kelly Gallagher-Mackay. Her research interests include social reproduction, the politics of education policy, and the equitable distribution of learning opportunities. Christine's doctoral research explored the experiences of Toronto high school students during the COVID-19 pandemic and how those experiences can be understood through a sociological lens. Christine currently teaches in the Youth and Children's Studies program at Laurier University.
Dr. Ardavan Eizadirad
Dr. Ardavan Eizadirad is an Associate Professor in the Faculty of Education at Wilfrid Laurier University and the Senior Manager of Research, Evaluation, and Knowledge Mobilization at the non-profit organization Youth Association for Academics, Athletics, and Character Education (YAAACE) in the Jane and Finch community in Toronto. He is the author of Decolonizing Educational Assessment: Ontario Elementary Students and the EQAO (2019) and co-editor of Counternarratives of Pain and Suffering as Critical Pedagogy: Disrupting Oppression in Educational Contexts (2022), The Power of Oral Culture in Education: Theorizing Proverbs, Idioms, and Folklore Tales (2023), Activist Leadership for Inclusive Schools: Canadian Insights (2025) and The International Handbook of Anti-Discriminatory Education (2025). Dr. Eizadirad is also the founder and Director of EDIcation Consulting (www.EDIcation.org) offering equity, diversity, and inclusion training, audits, and capacity-building sessions to organizations, corporations, and schools to thrive and achieve to their full potential..
Communication Officers
Dr. Max Antony-Newman
Dr. Max Antony-Newman is a Lecturer (Assistant Professor) in Education at the University of Glasgow. Working from a critical sociological perspective, his main focus is on school-family partnerships, education policy, and teacher education with the overarching goal of moving from parent engagement as a source of social inequality to an opportunity for social justice. Max’s work also centers immigrant and refugee students and linguistic minorities in diverse classrooms. His current research focuses on immigrants and refugees with post-Soviet backgrounds in the North American context, and the role of teacher educators in preparing teachers for parent engagement in Canada, the United Kingdom, and Australia.
Dr. Jeannie Kerr
Dr. Jeannie Kerr is an educational philosopher, theorist and qualitative researcher of Irish maternal and Settler identity. She is an Associate Professor in the Faculty of Education at Simon Fraser University. Jeannie’s scholarship examines the reproduction of societal inequalities in preK-12, teacher education, and higher education settings, and is directed towards collaboratively repairing and renewing relations in educational settings, urban landscapes, and Canadian society. Drawing on her significant experience in culturally enriched urban K-12 classrooms, her theorizing and research projects centre the complications and complicities in educational activities, and works to disrupt the centring of Euro-Western approaches and knowledges in the broader interest of systemic change.
Graduate Student Representatives
Andrea Hill
Andrea Hill is a PhD Candidate in the Faculty of Education at Queen’s University. Andrea’s SSHRC-supported doctoral research explores incarcerated women’s relationships with formal education. Her broader research interests sit at the intersection of the criminal justice and education systems, including trauma-informed and culturally relevant and responsive pedagogies, sociological theory, school discipline and surveillance, and correctional and educational programs and policy. She is currently collaborating on a community initiative aimed at eradicating gender-based violence, and a research project that examines access to post-secondary education for local youth from low-income backgrounds.
Hodan Ismail
Hodan Ismail is a PhD student in Educational Leadership and Policy at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE), University of Toronto. Her research explores the impact of academic streaming and de-streaming reforms on student trajectories, with a focus on equity in access to STEM pathways for marginalized learners. Using quantitative methods and a critical policy lens, Hodan examines how structural decisions such as Grade 9 course placements shape long-term educational opportunities. She is also interested in comparative perspectives on academic streaming across provincial, national, and international contexts.