Meet the 2026 GRDL Innovation Fellows — introducing this year’s cohort of forward-thinking leaders.
Seven global leaders. Seven distinct perspectives. One shared commitment to advancing respectful disruption, innovation, and global leadership.
The 2026 GRDL Innovation Fellows represent a diverse community of global educators, researchers, practitioners, creatives, entrepreneurs, and changemakers committed to advancing global learning through collaboration, scholarship, and innovation. Throughout the Fellowship, they contribute original ideas, engage in interdisciplinary dialogue, and help strengthen the growing Global Respectful Disruption Leadership community.
Dr. Roopa Rawjee
Dr. Roopa Rawjee, Executive Director of the Office of International Engagement at Illinois State University (ISU), is the senior international officer and responsible for all internationalization efforts at ISU. Roopa has taught high school English and Social Studies at an all-girls school in Mumbai, India, and English as a second language to international students in the United States. She has more than two decades of experience with international higher education in the U.S. Her areas of expertise include immigration compliance, global mobility, risk management, and everyday mediation, combined with a strong commitment to innovation in global learning, experiential education, and transnational collaboration. Roopa has served in leadership roles with NAFSA: Association of International Educators and AIEA. Her awards include the NAFSA Region V Patti Jones Award for Outstanding Leadership, the Fulbright International Education Administrators Award: France, and the AIEA Presidential Fellowship.
Illinois State University
Angela J. Luedke
Angela J. Luedke, she/her, is passionate about justice and liberation through global education. She studied International Studies and French at the University of South Dakota, then went on to teach English in France with TAPIF, spend two years as an AmeriCorps Member in Omaha, NE, and teach English in Morocco as a Fulbright English Teaching Assistant. These experiences lead her to get an M.A. in International Education Management from the Middlebury Institute of International Studies. As a GRDL Innovation Fellow, Angela aims to continue becoming the leader she wants to see in the world.
Davidson College 
Centre CollegeDr. Marc Démont
Marc Démont is Associate Professor of French at Centre College, where he teaches French language, culture, linguistics, and interdisciplinary courses on travel, embodiment, and global learning. His scholarship examines how study abroad can move beyond assumptions of immersion by integrating contemplative pedagogy, phenomenology, and decolonial approaches to intercultural education. His current research explores how attention, embodied experience, and ethical engagement with place shape transformative learning in international education. He directs and develops faculty-led programs that combine critical reflection with place-based learning, including Sardinia: Beyond the Colonial Postcard, recipient of the 2026 GoAbroad Innovation Award for Innovation in Global Citizenship. As a COMPEAR Fellow, he aims to refine these ideas through interdisciplinary collaboration and contribute to more reflective, equitable, and innovative approaches to international education.
University of Illinois Urbana-ChampaignGabrielle Haggins
Gabrielle Haggins is a first-generation Ph.D. student in Education Policy & Organization, Leadership Department, with a focus in Higher Education at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. She holds a Bachelor of Arts in Spanish with a World and Culture Emphasis from Valdosta State University and a Master of Education in Higher Education Administration from Georgia Southern University. Currently serving as a Research and Teaching Assistant at UIUC. Gabrielle’s overarching research primarily centers on understanding equity and power in higher education by critically examining the systemic and structural barriers that prevent students from fully participating in educational spaces. Specifically, she explores how globalization, culture, race, and gender operate as interconnected forces that shape whose knowledge is valued and legitimized both domestically and abroad. She also examines how individuals, regardless of their background or identity, access the agency, resources, and social capital needed to thrive and contribute to their fullest potential in their higher education experience.
Adriana Smith
Adriana Smith is a Global Educator, Astrologer, author, and speaker who has devoted her career to disrupting inequitable systems and championing diversity, equity, and inclusion. She is the author of “Studying Abroad for Black Women”, a pivotal guide empowering Black women to access and succeed in international experiences. For more than 10 years, Adriana has co-led workshops and presentations on conscious language, combating global anti-Blackness, and rethinking diversity frameworks to center historically underrecognized communities. Currently, she serves as the Institutional Relations and Inclusion Manager at the School for Field Studies. Beyond these institutional settings, Adriana is the founder of Your Cosmic Spark™, where she explores the intersections of healing, justice, and education. Through her writing, speaking, and research, she has expanded her thought leadership as a speaker at the Global Respectful Disruption Summit teaching attendees to craft equity vows, Gross Global Happiness Summit at the University for Peace in Costa Rica inviting others to live an anti-suppression lifestyle, as a TEDx Speaker exploring collective healing through astrology, and now as a Global Respectful Disruption Leadership (GRDL) Fellow. Adriana looks forward to continuing her work to guiding individuals and communities toward deeper alignment, liberation, and belonging.
School of Field Studies
World at Hand Shawn Wall
Shawn Wall is the Founder and Executive Director of World at Hand, a Colorado-based nonprofit expanding access to and development through global and cross-cultural learning opportunities. A Denver native who never imagined international experiences were possible for someone like him, Shawn's life was transformed by studying abroad in New Zealand during college. That experience sparked a nearly decade-long journey that led him to backpack across Southeast Asia, live and teach English in Hungary, and work and explore across Australia, where he founded World at Hand in 2020 while on a Working Holiday Visa. Since launching programs in 2022, World at Hand has reached more than 700 students through its award-winning Global Scholars Pathway, introducing students to international education, increasing access to passports and global experiences, and supporting continued leadership and career development after they return home. Shawn is passionate about ensuring that a student's income, background, or ZIP code does not determine whether they have access to life-changing global opportunities. Shawn's work has been recognized with the 2024 IIE Empower Award, as a three-time GoAbroad Innovation Awards finalist, and as a 2026 InnovateEA Pitch Competition finalist. He has presented at NAFSA, The Forum on Education Abroad, AFS's International Education Week, and the Global Respectful Disruption Summit. Through the GRDL Fellowship, he is focused on building strategic partnerships and scalable models that expand access to global education across Colorado and beyond.
MadFreedom Advocates hannah sorila
hannah sorila, she/they, has worked in global education, youth development, nonprofit organizations focused on mad liberation and survivor support, and as a freelance writer, with a focus on advocating for paradigm shifts arced towards collective liberation, community care, and decolonial futures. She applies her neurodivergent mind to nonprofit operations work through systems thinking, non-hierarchical group facilitation and collaborative norm setting, and accessible organization. hannah is committed to learning and living through the praxis of abolition, decolonization, queer expansiveness, disability justice, and mad liberation. They are involved in community organizing and mutual aid efforts in their beloved community, and can be found perusing their local bookstore and distributing KN95 masks at local events in so-called Brattleboro, Vermont. hannah believes in autonomy, dignity, accessibility, harm reduction, peer support, and self-determination.
MEET THE GRDL CO-DIRECTORS
Two global leaders. One shared commitment to respectful disruption leadership and practice.
Dr. Neal McKinney
Dr. Neal J. McKinney, he/him, is a multifaceted educator, scholar, and practitioner with over 10 years of higher education expertise across education abroad, career development, and college-level equity, diversity, and inclusion. Dr. McKinney has become a thought leader in the study abroad field using critical theories (e.g., critical race theory, intersectionality, critical whiteness studies) to disrupt systems of inequity in international education that disproportionately impact the success of U.S. domestic and international students of historically marginalized backgrounds.
Co- Director 
Dr Christina ‘ Chris ‘ Thompson
Dr. Christina “Chris” Thompson is an international educator, researcher, and leadership strategist with nearly two decades of experience in global education and organizational change. She is the researcher and founder behind Respectful Disruptive Leadership, a human-centered leadership framework examining how intentional disruption can challenge exclusionary systems while honoring shared humanity. Through her research, consulting, and global education practice, Dr. Thompson explores leadership, equity, systems change, and the ways institutions can move from performative commitments toward meaningful, sustainable action.
Co-Director