Athina Tesfa-Yohannes is a program officer within the Community Solutions Program (CSP) and Community Engagement Exchange (CEE) program within the Leadership Practice at IREX. She specializes in curriculum/content creation, management, and support for these international exchange programs, particularly within the Community Leadership Institute (CLI), the training component of CSP.

Athina joins IREX with over a decade of experience lecturing, leading, and researching in U.S.-accredited higher education institutions throughout the Middle East and North Africa region, particularly in Türkiye, the Palestinian Territories, and Morocco. She has also used her time outside of teaching to work with refugee populations present within these locations. She has been a formal and ad hoc  volunteer working with refugees needing assistance with intercultural issues, access to local support mechanisms, and awareness of lifelong learning resources.

With a focus on optimizing educational technology in under-resourced environments towards greater access to education, Athina has presented research on various academic panels, including conferences in Türkiye and South Africa. She has also served as an African diaspora delegate for an African Union youth conference on various Pan-African youth topics. In addition to experience as a research specialist working on the Balkan and Horn of Africa regions, she has worked for various education-supporting institutions throughout her career, both in the private sector and NGOs.

Athina is multilingual and is currently engaging in doctoral studies at the University of Toronto’s Ontario Institute for the Studies in Education (OISE).