The CLef Fellow Programme is a platform for experiments in teaching and learning design, and pedagogic and curricular innovations. Fellows at the Centre work on developing new courses and material for an experiential and problem-based learning, adapting new technologies for the classroom, or creating new frameworks for assessment of learning outcomes encouraging them to work across disciplinary boundaries and integrate multiple perspectives.

Current Fellows

Bhumi Shah

Bhumi has over five years of experience and has worked around learning design, digital technology, and cultural heritage. She holds an MCA with specialisation in Mobile Computing (2018) and Master of Management Studies in Heritage Management (2022) from Ahmedabad University. She is interested in examining knowledge, judgement, and reflective practice in art, culture, and design as instances of knowledge-making.

She was previously associated with the Centre for Learning Futures for various teaching and learning initiatives and the Centre for Inter-Asian Research as a Research Associate. She was also associated with Vizara Technologies, a Digital India Initiative start-up incubated at the NASSCOM Center of Excellence – IoT & AI. She has briefly worked on developing the Virtual Reality Museums Project for the Department of Archaeology and Museums, Government of Rajasthan.

Contact: [email protected]

Pritha Roy

Pritha is a Digital Humanities Fellow and Analyst at the Centre for Learning Futures. She is a postgraduate in International Relations and Area Studies from Jawaharlal Nehru University interested in leveraging digital tools and methods to facilitate diversity, accessibility and sustainability in digital scholarship across disciplines.

Contact: [email protected]

Past Fellows

Aditi Virmani

Aditi has six years of experience in teaching foreign languages. She has worked with Manav Rachna University in setting up its Foreign Language Centre. She also worked as the Curriculum Head at Notch Up, an organisation set up to impart 21st century skills to its learners. She worked as a Senior Teacher with the British Council, monitoring and supervising 20 teachers who delivered Spoken English courses in government schools across Delhi. Aditi has worked with CBSE and IB boards in designing and delivering foreign language curriculum. Fluent in six languages, she is now learning Spanish from Instituto Cervantes, New Delhi.  

Sheila L Tefft

Sheila is a 2019 Fulbright-Nehru Academic and Professional Excellence Scholar at Ahmedabad University and a senior lecturer at Emory University English Department and Writing Program. She was an international journalist for more than two decades and spent 12 years in Asia, including five years covering the subcontinent. She served as a correspondent and bureau chief for The Christian Science Monitor in New Delhi, Bangkok, and Beijing, reported for the Chicago Tribune and The Atlanta Constitution, and has written for many other publications.

She served as Emory Journalism director from 2000 to 2009 and has taught multimedia writing and technology to prepare students in journalism, the liberal arts and sciences, and business to explain intricate topics for the public. She has been involved in developing science-writing curriculums for more than a decade and in recent years has collaborated with science faculty to teach multimedia techniques to health students and a combined climate science and multimedia curriculum. She has co-led Emory student delegations to the annual United Nations climate talks and worked with students to produce websites, videos, podcasts, and other multimedia to share their experiences. She holds a bachelor's degree in journalism from the University of Wisconsin and a master's degree in economic history from the London School of Economics and Political Science.

Ashley Garrigan

Ashley was an English Language Fellow at Ahmedabad University for 2019-20 and an English Language Specialist for 2020-21 as part of the English Language Programme hosted jointly by Ahmedabad University and the Regional English Language Office, US Embassy. She holds an MEd in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL), as well as a Graduate Certificate in Instructional Design and Technology, and has taught English in a variety of settings in the US and internationally. Most recently she worked at Arizona State University, teaching in the university's Intensive English Program, and at the University of Arizona, working with faculty to design and develop online courses across disciplines.

Gena Rhoades

Gena has an EdD, from the University of Southern California, LA, and is a passionate teacher-trainer with more than 20 years of experience in curriculum development, teacher-training, and needs assessment, both in person and online. She has trained resource persons to use the curriculum in Djibouti, wrote the career development curriculum used to train over 2600 Access English students in the Palestinian Territories, and developed the curriculum for middle and high school teachers in China in an online course. She has also led a team of trainer-of-trainers consultants that worked with the Ministry of Education in Laos to create the competency-based curriculum and train the faculty in the Strengthening Higher Education Project (SHEP) and developed the curriculum for the communicative, cooperative, and service-learning course used to train Moroccan teacher-trainees as an English Language Fellow in Morocco. 

Gena was an English Language Specialist at Ahmedabad University for 2020 as part of the English Language Programme hosted jointly by Ahmedabad University and the Regional English Language Office, US Embassy. She coordinated a Curriculum Review and Reforms committee for communication courses at the University.