Dhyana Kuhl
M.A. in International Education Development, Columbia University
Dhyana became interested in Education prior to entering the field of International Development. Her career as a teacher followed a zigzagging path through northern California, central Mexico, Ciudad Juarez on the U.S.-Mexico border, New York City’s public schools, Nicaragua, and the Ancash region of Peru. Dhyana was a classroom teacher before she went on to work in the area of teacher training, and then deciding that ultimately, schools that stay in their classrooms are not for her. She became the founding director of a cultural exchange program, joining a network of social change innovators with the CRESP Center for Transformative Action based at Cornell University. For 7 years Dhyana coordinated development projects in Nicaragua that brought together youth from different parts of the world to broaden their understanding of what connects them. Since 2008, Dhyana has been supported and inspired by the work of The Poverty Initiative in NYC which brings together low-income community organizers committed to building a movement to end poverty, led by the poor.
After being employed in New York at one of the United Nation’s religious NGO’s after graduate school, Dhyana eventually returned to Nicaragua to take a job as the Development Coordinator of “Cooperativa INNOVA” where she currently works with engineers who confront climate change and unemployment in their country by training a young workforce to use sustainable technologies. Promoting this work and traveling with Dragons doesn’t leave her a lot of down time, but when she is at home what’s important to her includes her puppy, being part of a dance group, riding a motorcycle to get around, and taking classes that teach her how to build things.