At ITD our staff members are our most critical resource, ensuring that our programs are expertly promoted, organized, and implemented; and enhancing participants’ program experience through direct support during stateside and overseas programs. Our years of combined experience in education, training, community development and cross-cultural exchange gives us the ability to create meaningful and often transformative learning environments. Because of the rich and diverse backgrounds of our staff we are able to offer high quality programming in Spanish and French. In addition, we are able to tap into an extensive network of academics and professionals that join us for specific projects and contribute their expertise.
Staff
Katie Lazdowski
Executive Director
Katie draws on over two decades of international education, training, and consultancy experience in her position as Executive Director at ITD. She began her work at ITD as a consultant in 2017 before transitioning to a full time Program Director shortly after. She has directed dozens of programs, during which she designed and delivered curricula and training sessions, and oversaw logistical management and program evaluation. Her international experience spans various continents, in particular Africa where she has spent significant time studying and working, including Morocco, Cameroon, Kenya, South Africa, and in Mali where she and her husband served in the Peace Corps. Katie holds a PhD in Teacher Education and Curriculum Studies from the University of Massachusetts, and a master’s degree in teaching foreign languages from Simmons College. She is fluent in French and working to learn Spanish. She enjoys running, time with her family, and baking.
Edgardo Rothkegel
Financial Director
Edgardo serves as ITD’s financial director. He is responsible for organizational financial management and accounting. He handles a wide range of matters of organizational importance, including financial planning, budget management, reporting and procurement. He has been at ITD since 1988 and in his capacity has provided thousands of ITD participants a range of both administrative and programmatic support. He holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of Massachusetts. Edgardo grew up in Guatemala and the US, and is a native Spanish speaker.
Stephen Sadlier
Program Manager
Stephen Sadlier was a Fulbright teaching and research scholar at the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile, a National Endowment for the Humanities fellow in the Borderlands of Southern Colorado Program, and an English language specialist at the State Examination Center of Azerbaijan. He also taught at Tulane and the University of Washington. He has published the book Movements on the Streets and in Schools: State Repression, Neoliberal Reforms, and Oaxaca Teacher Counter-pedagogies and has guest-edited the special issue, “Pedagogies of Ruin: Social Movements and Neoliberalisation in Latin American and Caribbean Education,” for the British Journal of Sociology of Education.
Yanara Barriga
Administrative Manager
Yanara has been with the Institute for Training and Development (ITD) since 2017. As ITD’s Administrative Manager, she oversees the organization’s day-to-day operations, while supporting program logistics and participant well-being. Yanara studies Public Health at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, with an interest in the connection between health and community.
Jesse Eisenheim
Media and Information Technology Specialist
Jesse has been a valuable member of ITD since 2020, beginning as a Website Developer and later expanding his responsibilities to include the roles of Information Technology Specialist and Social Media Coordinator. He offers a wealth of technical experience in areas including network management, database administration, website development, graphic design, and IT security. Jesse holds a Bachelor of Science in Biology from Cornell University, and in addition has dedicated much of his life to the IT world, bringing a passion for technology to all of his work. A native of Philadelphia and Upstate New York, Jesse also spent a year in France, serving as an Assistant d’Anglais in the Paris Banlieue while living in the city.
Barbara Gravin Wilbur
Office Assistant
Relatively new to ITD, 2023, Barbara is not new to international education having retired from the Center for International Education, UMASS Amherst after a long career where she supported numerous projects, project staff and often assisted international graduate students from all over the world navigate the warrens of university administration, life in the US and keeping them on track to return to their families and loved ones at home. Her work took her to Cambodia, Botswana, Sudan and most recently to Afghanistan to develop with them best accounting practices to be used in the field which would enable reconciliation with University accounting standard and federal reporting. She did her undergraduate work at UMASS where she did a University Year for Action working at the Belchertown State School in the Sensorimotor Department. Three children later, knowing a graduate degree in social sciences might limit her salary, she returned to school for an MBA from Western New England. It didn’t take long to realize, being able to lead brownie troops, coach her girls in youth sports and foster a love of running was a much richer life AND she could walk to and from work! She still can as the distance from home to UMASS or to ITD is about the same. The work is somewhat the same, filling in where needed.