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Karen L. Biraimah, Ph.D. Professor and Director International and Special Programs Office: ED 209-H Phone: 407-823-2428 Email:

Karen Biraimah is a tenured Professor of Education and Director of International and Special Programs. Her academic and research interests focus on issues of educational equity based on factors of race, ethnicity, class, and gender within the context of comparative and international education. Dr. Biraimah teaches graduate courses focused on critical pedagogy, social and multicultural foundations, and comparative education. She coordinates the Global, Comparative, & International Education Graduate Certificate, serves as the Campus Representative for Fulbright Programs, and is Campus Coordinator for UCF’s Peace Corps Coverdell Fellows Program. Dr. Biraimah holds a doctorate in Comparative and International Education, two master’s degrees in Educational Foundations and African Area Studies, and a bachelor's degree in International Studies. She began her career in education as a Peace Corps Volunteer Teacher in Ghana, West Africa, followed by twelve years as a teacher of mathematics and social studies in the public high schools of Niagara Falls, New York and Detroit, Michigan. Dr. Biraimah has been on the faculty of the University of Central Florida for 28 years. She has also been a faculty member at the University of Ife, Nigeria, and a Senior Fulbright Scholar at the University of Malaya, Malaysia and Kenyatta University in Nairobi, Kenya. Dr. Biraimah currently directs a 3-year US Department of State grant to develop study abroad programs in Botswana. Previously she was Project Director and Principal Investigator for two Fulbright-Hays Group Study Abroad Projects (Malaysia/Singapore and Peru), and was Project Director and Principal Investigator for a three-year USAID Tertiary Education Linkage Grant with Vista University in Pretoria, South Africa. She has been a consultant for the U.S. High Commission for Refugees, and for a USAID project in South Africa focused on women's education. Dr. Biraimah is Past-President of the Comparative and International Education Society and a member of the Board of Directors of the World Congress of Comparative Education. She has served on the Editorial Board of the Comparative Education Review and currently reviews manuscripts for the Journal of Negro Education and the International Journal of Educational Development. Dr. Biraimah has presented more than 100 papers at professional conferences in addition to publishing ten books, 25 book chapters, and 35 journal articles.