Who We Are

Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer

Dr. Jurana Aziz

Sk Md Miraj Ul Islam is Co-Founder and CEO of the Multilingual Immigrant Research Institute (MIRI), bringing nearly two decades of leadership across healthcare administration, medical education, arts and cultural programming, and community engagement in Bangladesh and the United States.

Dr. Mirajul Islam earned his medical degree (MBBS) from the University of Science and Technology, Chittagong, and a Diploma in Hospital Administration from Medvarsity in Delhi. He is completing a Master of Education in Curriculum and Instruction, specializing in arts-based education, at the University of Minnesota–Twin Cities. Before moving to the U.S., he led operations as Chief Operating Officer of A. H. Memorial Hospital and Deputy Director of BGC Trust Medical College in Bangladesh's healthcare and medical-education sectors.

Alongside his administrative career, Dr. Mirajul Islam has built a parallel body of work in arts and culture: he is the author of seven books, a documentary filmmaker whose work has explored climate change's impact on Bangladeshi artists, and a curator and columnist with hundreds of published pieces on culture, history, and public life.

As CEO, Dr. Mirajul Islam leads MIRI's strategic planning, partnerships, and organizational growth, drawing on his interdisciplinary background to advance education, research, and storytelling that amplify immigrant experiences.

Sk Md Miraj Ul Islam

Founder and Director

Dr. Mazhar Islam

Dr. Mazhar Islam is an Associate Professor of Management at Loyola University New Orleans, where he holds the Stanford H. Rosenthal Professorship in Risk, Insurance & Entrepreneurship and the Chase Distinguished Professorship in International Business. He also serves as Faculty Director of the Center for Entrepreneurship and Community Development.

An internationally experienced educator, Dr. Islam has taught MBA, EMBA, doctoral, executive education, and entrepreneurship programs across Chile, China, Colombia, Guatemala, India, Panama, Peru, and the United States, including executive programs affiliated with Oxford University. He also regularly advises startups and small nonprofits in the U.S. and abroad.

His research focuses on entrepreneurship, strategic management, innovation, and the global business environment, and has appeared in leading journals including the Journal of Business Venturing, Research Policy, and MIT Sloan Management Review. He is co-author, with Alfred Marcus, of Demography and the Global Business Environment, and holds a Ph.D. in Strategic Management from the University of Minnesota's Carlson School of Management.

Originally from Bangladesh, Dr. Islam is multilingual and has traveled to nearly 60 countries, bringing a distinctly global and cross-cultural perspective to his work in management education and research.

Dr. Jurana Aziz, a multilingual education and TESOL scholar whose work bridges research, education, and community engagement across the United States, Bangladesh, and international contexts. She has more than fifteen years of experience in higher education, research, teaching, and multilingual education.

Dr. Aziz holds a Ph.D. in Curriculum and Instruction from the University of Minnesota–Twin Cities, with advanced study in multilingual and second language education. Her research examines the intersections of language, migration, immigrant assimilation, identity, culture, belonging, and education, with particular attention to multilingual, immigrant, and minoritized communities. Her methodological expertise includes narrative inquiry, critical narrative analysis, and post-intentional phenomenology. Her scholarship addresses immigrant assimilation and cultural fluidity, family language practices and policies, bilingual and multilingual development,

language and identity in diaspora, Indigenous and minoritized language rights, and culturally and linguistically responsive education.

Dr. Aziz currently serves as an Independent Researcher with Project MOMENTUM. Her

research experience also includes work on Seals of Biliteracy and state-funded research projects involving multilingual learners and cultural and linguistically diverse communities. She has published research in international scholarly journals and presented her work at national and international academic conferences, contributing to scholarly conversations on multilingual education, migration, language, identity, culture, and educational equity. Before coming to the United States, Dr. Aziz spent eleven years as an Associate Professor of English Education at the University of Dhaka, where she mentored graduate students and trained thousands of teachers through partnerships with Bangladesh’s Ministry of Education. In the United States, she has worked in university research and teaching and in P–12 multilingual

education.

Her scholarly achievements include receiving Bangladesh’s Prime Minister’s Education Award twice, a CARLA Summer Research Scholarship from the University of Minnesota, and a 2024 nomination for Virginia Tech’s Future of the Academy Award in Washington, D.C. Through MIRI, Dr. Aziz brings together rigorous research, community knowledge, and educational practice to advance community-engaged research, program evaluation, needs assessment, professional learning, and research consultation. Her vision is to strengthen connections among research, practice, communities, and policy while helping organizations better understand and serve multilingual and immigrant populations.

Advisory Team

Dr. Keitha-Gail Martin-Kerr is a Teaching Professor in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction at the University of Minnesota. An educator for more than 25 years, she has taught and worked across diverse educational contexts in Jamaica, the Turks and Caicos Islands, New York, Minnesota, and Shanghai, bringing a distinctly international and cross-cultural perspective to her teaching, scholarship, and educational leadership.

Dr. Martin-Kerr earned her Ph.D. in Curriculum and Instruction from the University of Minnesota. Her scholarship is situated at the intersection of teacher education, equity, and inclusion. She approaches education as both an intellectual and relational endeavor, with a commitment to preparing educators and leaders to create learning environments that are inclusive, humanizing, and responsive to diverse communities.

Her work extends beyond the university through sustained engagement with schools, educators, and communities. Dr. Martin-Kerr has partnered with schools and districts across Minnesota, mentoring teachers and school leaders in curriculum design, educational equity, and the science of active implementation. She also co-leads the Jamaica Exchange in Teaching (JET) Program, a reciprocal international initiative that connects educators in Jamaica and Minnesota through professional learning, classroom engagement, and cultural exchange.

Across her scholarship, teaching, and community engagement, Dr. Martin-Kerr is committed to strengthening connections among research, educational practice, and communities. She brings to MIRI extensive experience in teacher education, educational leadership, cross-cultural collaboration, and partnership building, with a particular interest in using education and research to strengthen educator capacity and foster more equitable and responsive educational communities locally and globally.

Dr. Keitha-Gail Martin-Kerr

A former Associate Professor of Language and Literacy at Clemson University, Dr. Phillip Wilder is the founder of OneConversation, where he partners with leaders, teams, and global communities to restore relationships and remember how to be human together. Over the past three decades, Phillip has served as an educator, professor-researcher, international consultant, and facilitator, leading work in the United States and globally, including East Africa, Europe, and Asia to strengthen the belonging, agency, and peace efforts of ethnolinguistically diverse youth and educators.

Since 2016, Dr. Wilder has been the Senior Advisor to Mwangaza Education for Partnership in Tanzania whose current Safe School Initiative works alongside educators, parents and community members to support the emotional and physical safety of over 12,000 Tanzanian youth. Dr. Wilder also serves as an advisor to Hispanic Alliance and a moderator for their award-winning Student DREAMers Alliance, a youth leadership accelerator modeled after the Aspen Institute approach to values-based leadership development. His work is grounded in the belief that lasting change begins not with better strategies, but with the courage to listen deeply, speak honestly, and remain present to one another in moments of tension and possibility.

Dr. Phillip Wilder