I connect with prospective students from multiple universities across the country and manage our application and enrollment process. Beyond the logistics of recruitment and communications, I seek to support students in finding their way in DC. I enjoy connecting students to community events, social movements, and hidden treasures in the city.

Email: dima.kassem@emu.edu

I enjoy teaching at the EMU Washington Semester because of the opportunities for getting to know students outside the traditional classroom and for helping students navigate their internships and questions about their goals and careers. I see my role as teacher, mentor, and—sometimes—the guy who fixes the leaky faucet.

Born and raised in Washington, DC, I consider myself an interdisciplinary urban scholar. I have studied planning and public policy, geography, theology, and… physics. I like to think this breadth helps me think outside the box. (Though sometimes it means I lose track of the box entirely.)

Through my teaching, I try to help students learn to ask questions about what’s going on in the city around them. How are race, class, and development shaping this city, and how do those dynamics connect to the places students call home? In my classes, we explore DC neighborhoods and try to understand how and why they differ so greatly. We meet with community organizations that are fighting for affordable housing, economic justice, and the rights of lower-income communities of color in DC. We try to make sense of the dramatic changes upending DC’s landscape and what they mean for us, for the city, and for the country.

As a scholar, I try to understand how people from very different backgrounds and with access to staggeringly unequal resources negotiate life together. I am interested in the ways communities work together to improve their neighborhoods and to influence the city around them. In my research, I explore and seek to illuminate how people, marginalized from political and economic power, exert claims on the neighborhoods where they live.

Email: ryan.good@emu.edu

Ann is happy to return to Washington, DC, where she began her career in experiential education. She holds a master's degree in Latin American Studies from Tulane University and a BA in Spanish from Berea College, where she later returned to serve first on the student life team and then as Education Abroad Advisor. She has also worked for Augsburg College for their Center for Global Education and Experience (CGEE)--both in Minneapolis and in San Salvador. Being a part of building intentional community and mentoring students are two of her many passions.

Email: ann.butwell@emu.edu