Educating the World: Obligation, Opportunity, or Overreach? – Panelist Biographies

The 25th anniversary IPPF Finals Weekend kicks off on Friday, April 17 with our inaugural symposium, Educating the World: Obligation, Opportunity, or Overreach? hosted in collaboration by New York University Global TIES for Children. The panel will be moderated by Global TIES Director Florencia Lopez-Boo and panelists will include academics from NYU, Columbia University, Howard University, and United World Colleges. The biographies for the panelists and moderator can be found below.

Faith Abiodun

Executive Director, United World Colleges

Faith Abiodun serves as Executive Director of the United World Colleges (UWC) International, a global movement spanning 18 international schools, national committees, and programs across 157 countries united by a mission to make education a force for peace and sustainability.

With a successful career spanning education, social enterprise, non-profit management and journalism, he has held leadership positions at African Leadership Academy - a pan-African educational leadership organization, Catalyst 2030 - a coalition of the world’s leading social enterprises working to accelerate progress towards the UN Sustainable Development Goals and Future Africa, a public sector leadership organization with a network of emerging leaders across more than 30 African countries. He began his professional career as a journalist with The Guardian in Nigeria. Faith serves on the boards and advisory councils of several leadership organizations and was recognized with an honorary doctorate degree from Macalester College, USA in May 2023.

Alex Eble

Associate Professor of Economics & Education, Teachers College, Columbia University

Alex Eble is an Associate Professor of Economics and Education at Teachers College, Columbia University. He is also a Research Associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research, Faculty Affiliate and Scientific Advisor at the Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab, and Research Fellow at the IZA Institute of Labor Economics. His research focuses primarily on two key themes: the economics of education in low-income contexts, and the economics of beliefs and information applied to education and inequality. His fieldwork and research takes place mainly in The Gambia, Guinea Bissau, India, and the People's Republic of China. He has published his work in journals such as the Quarterly Journal of Economics, the Review of Economics and Statistics, and Nature Human Behavior. His work has been funded by the National Science Foundation, the Institute of Education Sciences, and the Spencer, Jacobs, and Gates Foundations. 

Angela D. Minor

Associate Professor, Cathy Hughes School of Communications, Howard University

Director, Howard University MLK Jr. Forensics

Professor Angela D. Minor has earned a Bachelor of Arts Degree in English Arts, and a Master’s in Library Science with a concentration in Law Librarianship, and her Juris Doctor from David A. Clarke School of Law, all from Historically Black Colleges and Universities. Her most recent accomplishment came from Howard University’s School of

Divinity where she obtained a Master of Divinity. Currently, she is an Associate Professor at the Cathy Hughes School of Communications and Director of the Martin Luther King, Jr. Forensics Program that consists of two award-winning teams: the Howard University Mock Trial Team and the

Speech and Debate Team housed out of the Department of Communication Studies, formerly known as, Strategic, Legal and Management Communication. She is a licensed attorney in the state of Maryland, and the District of Columbia and the co-founder, of the Law Offices of Minor & Willcox, LLC, along with her beloved and late Mother, Willie Ann Willcox, Esq., with locations in Maryland and the District of Columbia. She has over 19 years of experience practicing law and 25 years of teaching experience. She has worked with the Rev. Dr. Barbara A. Reynolds and the Dr.

Martin Luther King, Jr. Foundation to secure the autobiography of Dr. Coretta Scott King. She continuously represents countless citizens in the Washington Metropolitan area on civil, family law, and estate planning matters. She lives by the quote: “When you educate a man; you educate a man. You educate a woman; you educate a generation."

Larry Aber

Paulette Goddard Professor of Psychology and Public Policy, NYU

Lawrence Aber is the Paulette Goddard Professor of Psychology and Public Policy at NYU. An internationally recognized expert in child development, Dr. Aber’s research examines the influence of poverty and violence, at the family and community levels, on the social, emotional, behavioral, cognitive and academic development of children and youth. Dr. Aber also designs and conducts rigorous evaluations of innovative programs and policies for children, youth and families, such as violence prevention, literacy development, welfare reform and comprehensive services initiatives. Dr. Aber advises and consults with media, public officials, private foundations and leading non-profit organizations who seek his opinion or advice about pressing matters concerning child and family well-being. Dr. Aber earned his PhD from Yale University and an AB from Harvard University. He previously taught at Barnard College, Columbia University, and at the Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia University, where he also directed the National Center for Children in Poverty.

Lindsay Brown

Senior Research Scientist, NYU Global TIES

Lindsay Brown focuses on flexible and scalable teaching and coaching strategies for crisis and conflict contexts, including the development and implementation of the Building Expert Teachers Through Evidence-based Research (BETTER) teacher and coach professional development approach. She currently serves as Co-PI for the LEARN capacity exchange program and is developing a measurement tool for instructional teams using data-based decision making in partnership with SRI, Harvard, and IES. Prior to NYU, Lindsay worked to refine the measurement of and provide learning support for high-leverage English-Language Arts teacher practices through the Protocol for Language Arts Teacher Observation (PLATO) team. Lindsay has worked with research and professional development teams in Lebanon, Jordan, Sierra Leone, Ghana, Niger, Norway, Colombia, and Uruguay. She holds a Ph.D. in Curriculum and Teacher Education and a Master’s degree in Epidemiology and Clinical Research, both from Stanford University.

Florencia Lopez-Boo - Moderator

Director, NYU Global TIES

Dr. Florencia Lopez Boo is a distinguished economist specializing in the intersection of human development, behavioral science, and public policy. She holds a PhD in Economics from the University of Oxford, where she was a Clarendon Scholar, along with degrees from the University of Namur and the University of Buenos Aires.

Her research utilizes randomized controlled trials and interdisciplinary methods—spanning neuroscience and developmental psychology—to identify scalable solutions for improving the lives of children and families. With a primary focus on low- and middle-income countries, she has advised nearly 20 governments across Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC). Notably, she co-founded the region's first two Nudge Units and led the IDB’s Early Childhood Development team, managing operations totaling $900 million.

Dr. Lopez Boo has published over 60 articles in elite journals such as The Lancet, The Journal of Public Economics, and JAMA. Her work has influenced paradigm-shifting policy reforms and has been featured in The Economist and The Washington Post. An active advocate for diversity, she is a founding member of global networks for women economists. Prior to joining NYU, she served as a Lead Economist at the Inter-American Development Bank.