Debi Goldman

B.A. Anthropology, University of California, Berkeley; M.A. International & Intercultural Service, School for International Training; M.A. Medical Anthropology, Brandeis University.

Since 1994, Debi has been working and traveling abroad throughout Australia, Thailand, India and Nepal.  Following her undergraduate studies, Debi spent a year on a study abroad program in Chiang Mai, Thailand, and then stayed on to work with a local NGO teaching leadership and journalism to Burmese refugee youth leaders.  She then transitioned to southern India, where she worked for two years writing a masters thesis on anti-caste education and facilitating a summer study abroad program through Keene State University designed to give college students the opportunity to live and study at a school for untouchable caste children.

Continuing on her long track of education, Debi then joined a doctoral program, where she began studying the refugee education system in a monastic setting amongst Tibetan refugee nuns living in Dharamsala, India.  Her time in India eventually influenced her departure from academia into the non-profit world.  She has since spent six years working in India and the U.S. as Development Director for the Tibetan Nuns Project, supporting over 600 refugee Buddhist nuns living in exile.

Debi led her first Dragons program in summer 2008. The next fall she relocated to Varanasi, India where she led the Visions of India program for several years and served as the On-Site Director for our Princeton Bridge Year Program as well as spending a year working with Long Island University in Thailand, Taiwan, Turkey and India. Debi now lives  in Seattle and runs her own fair trade wholesaling company supporting artisans in South and Southeast Asia and continues to work with Dragons partnership programs the Archer School for Girls and more to come.