Dr. Jody McBrien, Professor in the School of Interdisciplinary Global Studies at the University of South Florida (USF), is a 2021-22 Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) International Affairs Fellow (IAF) for Tenured International Relations Scholars. As such, she has been working in educational policy at the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) in Paris since July 2021.
To date, her work has encompassed an October 2021 online international presentation on social and emotional learning for newcomer and refugee students and a working paper on this topic, published by the OECD in January 2022. She is currently co-authoring two working papers at the OECD: one on gender stereotypes, and the other on supporting LGBTQI+ students. She will present the latter at an OECD country forum in mid-March. She will complete her work at the OECD by co-authoring a synthesis report on the completed works of the OECD Strength through Diversity project that will be presented at the International Educational Ministerial Forum in December 2022.
While on sabbatical at the OECD, McBrien has also been leading a research team of undergraduate students from USF and Adelphi University on evaluating the online educational program of The Dream Academy, an effort by Safe Place International to provide social and emotional and career skills to LGBTQI+ refugees in Athens, Greece; Nairobi, Kenya; and South Africa. They will hold a webinar on March 10, 2022.
She was named a USF Outstanding Professor for 2021. Along with Janna Merrick (Professor, SIGS) as principal investigator (PI), McBrien is a co-PI on a research project with refugees and asylum seekers in Italy that received a USF summer grant to support the work.