Our Team

Dr. Kris Acheson-Clair

Training and Analysis Consultant

Kris is Director of Purdue University’s Center for Intercultural Learning, Mentorship, Assessment and Research (CILMAR). Raised in a military family with early exposure to world languages and cultures, Kris is a former faculty member in Applied Linguistics (Georgia State University, 2010-2016). She earned an Interdisciplinary Ph.D. in Intercultural Communication at Arizona State University in 2008, after which her professional passion became mentoring students and colleagues towards greater intercultural competence (and training others to mentor). In 2015 she served as a US Fulbright Scholar to Zamorano University in Honduras, and she is an award-winning instructor, international education curriculum designer, and researcher. To the BEVI Team, she brings over a decade of experience in needs analysis, developmental interventions, and learning outcomes assessment at every level from individual to institutional, as well as 20 years as a classroom teacher, researcher, and professional development trainer.

Dr. Devi Bhuyan

Psychologist and IBAVI Advisory Board Member

Devi Bhuyan is the Director of Psychology at Sheppard Pratt. She previously served as Senior Psychologist at The Menninger Clinic and Assistant Professor at the Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX where she worked in an in-patient unit for personality, complex trauma, mood, anxiety, and co-morbid addictive disorders. Beginning her career in the non-profit sector, her professional experiences include addressing domestic violence and sexual abuse in India, as well as capacity building of human resources and developing fundraising strategies.

Dr. Bhuyan received her doctoral degree in Clinical and School Psychology at James Madison University, Virginia. She completed two postdoctoral fellowships; the first, at the International Beliefs and Values Institute (IBAVI), whose mission is to explore how beliefs and values influence actions, policies, and practices. Her second fellowship was at the Baylor College of Medicine and The Menninger Clinic’s Compass Young Adult Program. She has also worked and trained in a variety of mental health institutions in India and the United States serving a range of diverse populations across the clinical and developmental spectrum. She continues to work on IBAVI initiatives and is currently collaborating with an interdisciplinary team on the BEVI, which is complementary to the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI) and related measures in a mental health and well-being context. 

Dr. Curtis Chu

Virtual Exchange Design and Assessment Specialist

Curtis has an M.Ed in counseling psychology and a Ph.D in curriculum studies, which guided him in his career in higher education as both an educator and an advocate of campus internationalization. As an interculturalist who lived in four countries, he is fascinated with differences across cultures and is fluent in Cantonese, Chinese Mandarin, English, and Japanese. He accumulated extensive experience in designing, implementing, and coordinating virtual exchange projects focused on cultivating intercultural and global competencies. He received grants from the CULCON COIL VE+M program and the AAC&U Institute on Virtual Exchange/COIL Norwegian Panorama Initiative. Having written dissertations in professional competencies and translanguaging in language assessments, he developed an interest in assessing competencies. Hence, he joined the BEVI team in 2024 and piloted Being BEVI on various projects to explore how AI could assist in interpreting assessment results.

Dr. John M. Dirkx

Research Co-Chair and Workshop Coordinator

John is Professor Emeritus and Mildred B. Erickson Distinguished Chair in Higher and Adult Education at Michigan State University. He received his doctorate from UW-Madison in 1987 with a focus on transformative learning. He is a former editor of the Journal of Transformative Education, author of A Guide to Planning and Implementing Instruction for Adults, editor of Adult Learning and the Emotional and Self, and numerous book chapters and journal articles on transformative and adult learning. His primary interest is in the use of the imaginal method and the BEVI to foster deep change in one’s self and relationships with others.  He also serves as the Research Committee Co-Chair of the Global Alliance for Values-based Education (GAVE).

Dr. Shagufa Kapadia

Research Co-Chair and Contact Person for India

Shagufa Kapadia is an Emeritus Professor in Human Development and Family Studies at the M.S. University of Baroda, India. Her core interest area is in unraveling cultural and gender beliefs and values shaping human development and behavior. She has substantive cross-cultural research and teaching experience. She has been actively involved in research and application involving adolescents and youth, with a focus on nurturing positive development of self and other(s). To the BEVI, she brings long years of experience as an educator along with cultural insights into self and relationships.  She also serves as Research Committee Co-Chair of the Global Alliance for Values-based Education (GAVE). 

Dr. Hajime Nishitani

Director of Asian Operations

Hajime is a Professor of Law, and in his previous role at Hiroshima University, he served as Vice Rector/ Vice Executive in charge of the Ministry of Education’s Top Global University Project.  He presently works with the BEVI and the International Beliefs and Values Institute (IBAVI) at both Soka University and Hiroshima University.  In these roles, he collaborates with Craig Shealy and other internationally renowned experts on the assessment of international education in Japan across a range of institutions and systems. Among other areas of research interest, he is currently exploring mediators and moderators of English language acquisition, the relative impact of short and long-term study abroad programs, and high school/university applications. Hajime is the primary contact for Asian institutions, organizations, educators, and researchers, including in Japan, who are interested in using and/or becoming trained on the BEVI.

Mag. Christina Raab

Bologna Coordinator and National Expert for the European Higher Education Area

Christina is a psychologist and has been serving as Bologna Coordinator at Universität Innsbruck, Austria since 2008. Christina has contributed to university-wide efforts to flexibilize, individualize, and internationalize curricula at her university and nationally. This includes the creation and implementation of new structures to place learners and their needs and interests at the center of university teaching and learning. In 2014 she was first nominated “National Expert for the European Higher Education Area,“ a position she has continuously held since then. Additionally, she has been involved in Aurora, European Universities Alliance as deputy head of the Aurora Office of Universität Innsbruck since 2020. Here, too, her focus is on innovation and further development of structures, inclusively supporting teaching and learning. Christina is a BEVI contact person for German-speaking and/or Aurora universities.

Dr. Craig Shealy

BEVI Developer and IBAVI Executive Director

Craig is Executive Director of the International Beliefs and Values Institute (IBAVI) and Professor of Psychology at Western Washington University, USA.  A licensed clinical psychologist, Craig is a Fulbright Specialist in Japan, Fellow of the American Psychological Association, and Past President of APA’s Division of International Psychology. As Executive Director of the nonprofit IBAVI, he coordinates a range of scholarly, educational, and service projects with individuals around the world, including Cultivating the Globally Sustainable Self, a multi-year, multi-institution initiative that will be featured in a forthcoming book he is editing for Oxford University Press.  He has worked to develop and continually enhance the BEVI for over 30 years.

Adriana Sofía Silva Silva

Psychologist, Family Therapist, and Clinical Supervisor

Adriana is an expert in the training of therapists, family therapists, and clinical supervisors, who also works in family intervention methodologies.  She is currently CEO of the Clinical and Psychosocial Training Center – FILIGRANA CARIBE S.A.S – as an Expert in GRADE Methodology and Instructional Design.  Adriana is interested in training cross-cultural psychosocial helping skills, and is a mentor at the Global Psychology Alliance – Global Psychology Learning Leadership Institute (GPA-LLI-APA).  She also works as a consultant for international cooperation in mental health training and intervention models in Help and Humanitarian Attention.

As a therapist, clinical supervisor, and independent researcher, Adriana has developed an Intensive Clinical Training model (ECI), which addresses a range of processes including the Self of the therapist, construction of therapeutic style, a therapeutic skills checklist for Clinical Supervision, a personalized mentoring protocol for therapists, and the TeleClinic in Mental Health & Family Mental Health Project.  Adriana brings to the BEVI Team experience in building ecosystems to develop research and interventions for democratizing care and training in mental and psychosocial health in Colombia and Latin America. She actively seeks experiences that enrich global cultural sensitivity with the firm idea that mental health is a human right.

Dr. Lee Sternberger

Operations and Strategic Planning

Lee is Emeritus Executive Director of the Institute for Global Engagement at Western Washington University, USA. Lee has led campus-wide efforts to internationalize university curricula, services and programs, and coordinates global and international activities. She has managed study and service abroad, international student and scholar support, and immigration services. Lee’s organizational leadership experience is illustrated by her recent service as president of the International Network of Universities for two three-year terms, and examples of her expertise in institutional assessment include her development of an accreditation Quality Enhancement Plan focusing on the quality of student learning and her advocacy for the assessment of international education.

Dr. John Style

Director of European Operations

John is a Senior Lecturer in English Literature at the Universitat Rovira I Virgili, a public university in Tarragona, Spain, and has been living in Spain for over 40 years. Between 2018-2022, he was the URV’s Vicerector for Internationalization and so oversaw the URV joining Aurora, a European Universities Alliance, and contributed to its successful European Universities application in an alliance with 8 other European universities. In Aurora’s second official phase (lasting till 2030) of the European Universities project, John is responsible across the Aurora network for the training and application of the BEVI.  John also is the primary contact for any European and Spanish-speaking institutions, organizations and researchers interested in using and/or becoming trained on the BEVI.

Dr. Jennifer Wiley

Training and Analysis Consultant

Jennifer is the CEO of CoreCollaborative International, a consulting firm that partners with organizations to provide expertise in research and evaluation, intercultural training, strategic planning, and curriculum development. She has led interdisciplinary teams of researchers in an array of cultural contexts to answer questions about how learning occurs and for whom. Jennifer has collaborated in the US and abroad to provide organizations the insight they need to overcome challenges, identify what they value and why, and how to approach goals sustainably. She brings her experiences in organizational needs assessment, program design, and strategic planning to the BEVI Team.