Maria Alzuru

Biography

Maria Teresa Alzuru is Associate Director of Online and International Initiatives at the Columbia University School of Social Work. In this capacity, Maria manages the School of Social Work's new online Master of Science in Social Work program, providing support to faculty, administrators and students involved with the online program as well as managing all program development and execution. With a keen focus on project management, Maria's prior experiences include special events management and fundraising at American Ballet Theatre as well as program coordination and forum planning for The Carter Center's Americas Program. Additionally, Maria's interest in research led her to pursue a Master of Arts in International Affairs with a focus on Media and Culture from The New School that led to an International News internship at NBC News. She presented her Master's thesis on political discourse at the IAMCR (International Association of Media & Communication Research) 2013 conference in Dublin, Ireland. A native of Venezuela, Maria spent most of her childhood in the southern United States and has lived in New York City for seven years. She holds a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from Columbia University. Her international experience includes a year of study abroad in Paris, France as well as a two-month Ford Foundation fellowship that grouped graduate students from The New School with graduate students from India and China to complete research projects in Kunming, China and Kolkata, India. Maria's interest in mixed-methods research fuels initiatives to collect data about student and faculty experiences in the realm of online learning by conducting focus groups, individual interviews and surveys at different touch points throughout the academic year in hopes of developing best practices for both orienting and retaining students and instructors alike.

EDUCAUSE Publications

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