MAIN OFFICE INFORMATION
Phone: 617-627-4781

Fax: 617-627-3401

CIRCLE
Jonathan M. Tisch College of Citizenship and Public Service
Lincoln Filene Hall
Tufts University
Medford, MA 02155

STAFF
(click for staff biography and contact information)

Kei Kawashima-Ginsberg, Lead Researcher
Abby Kiesa, Youth Coordinator & Researcher
Emily Hoban Kirby, Senior Researcher
Peter Levine, Director
Surbhi Godsay, Researcher

Undergraduate Assistants
Laura Nelson, Undergraduate Intern
Jingcong Zhao, Undergraduate Intern

STAFF BIOGRAPHIES

Dr. Kei Kawashima-Ginsberg
Lead Researcher
Email: Kei.Kawashima_Ginsberg@Tufts.edu
Phone: (617) 627-2529

Kei Kawashima-Ginsberg joined CIRCLE as Lead Researcher in August 2008. As Lead Researcher, Kei conducts quantitative analyses and co-produces reports for various audiences. As a member of the CIRCLE staff, Kei is particularly interested in providing various organizations and communities with research that would help increase civic and political engagement among ethnic minority and immigrant populations. Kei earned her doctorate degree in 2008 from Loyola University Chicago in Clinical Psychology and has extensive experience in working with youth of diverse backgrounds both as a researcher and a practitioner. Throughout her graduate career, she focused her research on positive youth development, including civic engagement. Prior to joining CIRCLE, Kei taught as Visiting Instructor of Psychology at Knox College, where she became involved as an active collaborator for the Center in Galesburg, a community-based citizen organization. In Collaboration with the Center in Galesburg, Kei designed a course in Community Psychology in which she taught college students about various types of engagement and actively involved them in the local community.

Abby Kiesa
Youth Coordinator & Researcher
Email: Abby.Kiesa@Tufts.edu
Phone: (301) 405-8261

As Youth Coordinator & Researcher, Abby Kiesa serves as CIRCLE’s liaison to practitioner organizations across the country. She communicates research findings and tracks recommendations from young people, youth and youth-serving organizations, educators and youth workers for future research. Abby Kiesa came to CIRCLE from Campus Compact (Providence, RI) where she directed a national campaign to increase college students involvement in public life and facilitate students’ critical role in the call for higher education institutions to fulfill their role as public and community resources. Prior to Campus Compact Abby worked at Madison House at the University of Virginia advising student-led community partnerships. While completing a bachelor’s degree in Sociology from Villanova University she served on Villanova’s Taskforce on Service-Learning and co-created a service-learning course within the Center for Peace and Justice Education.

Emily Hoban Kirby

Senior Researcher
Email: Emily.Kirby@Tufts.edu
Phone: (301) 405-8259

Ms. Kirby is the Senior Research Associate at CIRCLE where she helps to produce research products for practitioners, serves as editor for the quarterly newsletter and answers research queries. She is a former National Urban Fellow and received a Masters in Public Administration from Baruch College, City University of New York in 2001. She has worked for the nonprofit sector at the local and national level and comes to CIRCLE from the Points of Light Foundation where she was Director of Program Evaluation. Ms. Kirby served as an AmeriCorps*NCCC member for 2 years and worked for a neighborhood tutoring program in Washington DC. Before joining NCCC, she received a bachelor’s degree in Sociology from Wake Forest University.

Peter Levine
Director, CIRCLE
Phone: (617) 627-2302
Professional Website (with publications): www.peterlevine.ws
Email: Peter.Levine@Tufts.edu
Weblog: www.peterlevine.ws/mt

Peter Levine became Director of CIRCLE in January 2006, succeeding Bill Galston. He is also Research Director of the Jonathan M. Tisch College of Citizenship and Public Service at Tufts University. Outside of Tufts, he is involved with:

• The Campaign for the Civic Mission of Schools (steering committee member, former chair)
• The Charles Kettering Foundation (director)
• Deliberative Democracy Consortium (steering committee member)
• Everyday Democracy (as board member of the J. Paul Aicher Foundation, which oversees it)
• Streetlaw, Inc. (member of the Board of Directors and Program Committee chair)
• AmericaSpeaks (board member)
• Newspaper Association of American Foundation (trustee)
• Advisory boards: National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) Civics Committee and Background Variables Committee; America’s Promise Research Council; Mobilize.org Advisory Board; American Bar Association Standing Committee on Public Education Advisory Commission; The Democracy Imperative

Levine’s books are:

• Reforming the Humanities: Literature and Ethics from Dante through Modern Times (Palgrave Macmillan, 2009)
• Engaging Young People in Civic Life, co-edited volume with James Youniss
• The Future of Democracy: Developing the Next Generation of American Citizens (All proceeds benefit CIRCLE)
• The Deliberative Democracy Handbook: Strategies for Effective Civic Engagement
  in the Twenty-First Century(co-edited volume, with John Gastil)
• The New Progressive Era: Toward a Fair and Deliberative Democracy
• Living Without Philosophy
• Something to Hide (a novel)
• Nietzsche and the Modern Crisis of the Humanities

Levine updates his blog every weekday.

Surbhi Godsay
Researcher
Email: Surbhi.Godsay@tufts.edu
Phone:617-627-4802

Surbhi Godsay joined CIRCLE as a Researcher in June 2009. As Researcher, Surbhi conducts quantitative analyses and co-produces reports for various audiences. As the new member of CIRCLE, she is interested in providing research to increase civic and political engagement among disengaged youths, ethnic minority and immigrant populations. Ms. Godsay holds a Bachelors degree in Political Science and Mathematics from the University of Vermont. From 2007-2009 she worked for the Peace & Justice Center in Burlington, VT - a local nonprofit organization focusing on the issues of the racial, social & economic justice. From 2008-2009, she worked as a policy intern at the Vermont Commission on Women in Montpelier, VT, where she researched and performed quantitative analysis for a non-partisan policy report, The Status of Women and Girls in Vermont. She was also a member and teaching assistant of a service learning course called Vermont Legislative Research Shop - a course which produced objective policy reports for the Vermont State Legislature.

Laura Nelson
Undergraduate Intern
Email: lkn4m@virginia.edu

Laura is a rising senior at the University of Virginia interning with CIRCLE for the 2010 summer. As an interdisciplinary Political and Social Thought major, Laura is particularly interested in studying the intersection of education and civic engagement. At the University of Virginia, she has served as a Public Service Fellow, formed a student government committee on Civic Engagement and began a program called “Talk is Cheap”, aiming to bring people together to discuss relevant political and social topics. She has completed undergraduate research on civic engagement locally, at the University of Virginia, as well as internationally, including qualitative studies on student civic engagement at Oxford University in the UK and Peking University in China. At CIRCLE, Laura is excited to help contribute to handful of projects, especially the Non-College youth study.

Jingcong Zhao
Undergraduate Intern
Email: Jingcongzhao01@gmail.com

Jingcong Zhao is a rising junior at Tufts University interning for CIRCLE. At CIRCLE, she helps the research team conduct quantitative analyses and qualitative research for various reports. As an Economics major interested in social issues, she is excited to apply her quantitative skills to analyzing social issues. This summer, Jingcong is particularly interested in researching how public policies and laws affect civic engagement among youth. Since 2009, she has been working at Tufts Literacy Corp, an organization that help children in Somerville and Medford improve in reading. She is a board member of Tufts’ Pre-Law Society, and helps plan events that allow students to learn about the legal profession and prepare for law school. This summer, Jingcong looks forward to contributing to CIRCLE’s projects, especially the States’ Civic Health Index.