The people who lead and coordinate IDP’s many offerings.
Staff
Adi Grabiner-Keinan, Ph.D.
Executive Director for Undergraduate Diversity Education
Director, Intergroup Dialogue Project
Adi joined IDP in 2015 as the Program Director. She became the Executive Director for Undergraduate Diversity Education in June 2019. Working closely with a variety of academic units on campus, Adi develops and leads multi-phase and multi-party educational opportunities that are rooted in core intergroup dialogue processes and tailored to the needs of different constituencies. By creating optimal conditions for intergroup interactions and meaningful peer-to-peer academic learning, Adi leads the expansion of IDP in a direction that supports the evolving needs of the University and provides strategic guidance to the Vice Provost of Undergraduate Education on the development and implementation of diversity education processes.
Adi’s doctoral research examined the Israeli Left and political activism in Israel/Palestine. As a graduate student at Cornell University, she taught classes on the politics of protest and issues related to social justice. Before coming to Cornell she served as the Academic Administrator for Experiential Learning at Brandeis University, where she worked with faculty to incorporate experiential learning and reflective practice into their courses, and created opportunities for students to construct knowledge from direct experience. In Israel she worked with students and educators from different communities and backgrounds on issues related to identity, leadership, and community building. Adi received her Ph.D. in Anthropology from Cornell University, her M.A. in Cultural Production from Brandeis University and her B.A. in History from Tel Aviv University.
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Jazlin Gomez Garner, M.P.A.
Pedagogy Specialist
Jazlin was first introduced to IDP as an undergraduate at Cornell, and since then has been a facilitator, coach, curriculum developer, and student engagement coordinator. Jazlin studied inequality through majors in Sociology, English, and Performing and Media Arts as an undergraduate, and went on to complete her MPA in Human Rights and Social Justice at the Cornell Institute for Public Affairs. As IDP’s pedagogy specialist, Jazlin is responsible for providing leadership and implementation of Intergroup Dialogue programs for a wide range of campus constituents. She is also the co-instructor for EDUC 2610 (Intergroup Dialogue) and for our course for graduate students. She supports our training and curriculum development for student facilitators.
Kellie Ochs, B.S.
Program Assistant
Kellie graduated from Cornell with a B.S. in Industrial and Labor Relations. Her first exposure to IDP was as a junior, when she enrolled in EDUC 2610 and fell in love with the program’s mission. She went on to join IDP as a facilitator, where she facilitated a gender and a race section, as well as workshops with different campus communities. She is so excited to be working with IDP as full time staff member, and to continue to be a part of the program’s growth and impact. In her current role, Kellie serves as a coach on the EDUC 2610 teaching team and provides administrative and logistical support to keep IDP’s offerings running smoothly.
Natasha Steinhall, B.S.
Program Coordinator
Natasha completed her B.S. in Animal Science at Cornell, where she first discovered the Intergroup Dialogue Project in her senior year. She went on to facilitate the course and continued to be involved with the program after she graduated, first as a facilitator, and later as the program assistant. As the program coordinator, Natasha is responsible for the day-to-day management of operational areas of the program, as well as developing and implementing operating procedures and practices. Natasha previously volunteered as a tutor with Tompkins Learning Partners, helping ESL students prepare for their U.S. citizenship tests. Having undergone the transformative experience that is intergroup dialogue first-hand, there is nowhere else Natasha would rather be working.
Rachel Sumner, Ph.D.
Associate Director
Rachel arrived at Cornell as a Ph.D. student in the Department of Human Development, where her dissertation focused on the development of purpose in life and identity among college students and adults. Through subsequent roles in a nonprofit organization and then at Cornell’s Bronfenbrenner Center for Translational Research she collaborated with youth work practitioners to use data as a tool for understanding and informing programmatic decisions. In January 2017 Rachel participated in the second IDP session for graduate/professional students and postdocs; she’s been grateful to continue her involvement with IDP since then, first as a co-facilitator/coach and now as associate director.
Rachel is responsible for assessing IDP’s transformative impact on individual participants and the campus community. She also collaborates on the development and delivery of meaningful learning opportunities, focusing primarily on offerings for faculty and staff, in addition to serving as co-instructor of IDP’s credit-bearing course for MBA students.
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Stephen Kim, Ph.D.
Curriculum Specialist
Stephen participated in the first iteration of IDP’s course for graduate students and since then has served as a facilitator, workshop lead, coach, and teaching assistant. After completing his dissertation on premodern critical race studies, he now designs academic offerings for IDP beyond EDUC 2610 and spearheads IDP’s offerings for residential staff. He is committed to the creation of a robust academic program that brings more awareness to social identity, power, and communication across difference. He continues to serve on the teaching team for EDUC 2610 and assist with IDP’s research and assessment initiatives. As a researcher, he is trained in the disciplines of literary studies, feminist studies, queer studies, and ethnic studies. Before coming to Cornell, he has worked as a paralegal, a marketing assistant, and a high school English teacher. In August 2020, he completed his Ph.D. in English at Cornell University with minors in Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies and American Studies. He received a B.A. from Yale University in English and Philosophy.