Global Education Learning Series: Disability Inclusive Education Successes and Lessons Learned

Laura Parrott serves as an Education Specialist at USAID/Nepal where she focuses on disability inclusive education and girls empowerment. She manages the Reading for All program which aims to improve reading outcomes for children with disabilities in the early grades. Prior to joining USAID/Nepal, Laura was a program design consultant with USAID/Bangladesh and spent almost four years in the USAID/Asia Bureau with the Education team, where she coordinated a disability inclusive education training for the Asia region. Earlier in her career, she served in AmeriCorps at the American Red Cross managing an education program for children on how to prevent and stay safe in disasters. Laura received her BA in interdisciplinary studies with a minor in anthropology and her MS in international development and management from Lund University in Sweden.  

Odala Banda joined USAID/Malawi in January 2018 and currently manages Reading for All Malawi (REFAM), which is implementing inclusive education reading intervention, and Assess the Learners (YESA), which implements national reading assessments, continuous assessment and remediation, and community and parental engagement. Odala has worked in the education sector for the past 24 years. Prior to joining USAID, Odala held technical and leadership positions related to early grade reading and literacy in various organizations including RTI International, American Institutes for Research, Malawi Institute of Education, Domasi College of Education, Blantyre Teachers' Training College, Magoti Community Day Secondary School, and Soche Hill Secondary School. Odala has a bachelor’s degree in education obtained from the University of Malawi, Chancellor College and a master of arts degree in education (literacy and languages curriculum and instruction) from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, USA.