Thaddeus Herman is a PhD candidate of Education Policy, Organization and Leadership with a dual concentration of Philosophy of Education and Global Studies in Education at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He has lived extensively abroad in India helping to implement new curriculum in various institutions of higher education throughout the western Indian state of Maharashtra. He is fluent in Persian and his research broadly focuses on historical and modern educational connections between Iran and India. His dissertation focuses on how a Bahá’í inspired school in Maharashtra began by Iranian Bahá’í refugees reacted to the limitations placed upon its functioning due to the global COVID-19 pandemic. Thaddeus is a two-time FLAS recipient in Persian and utilizes the language in his research.