Born in Japan and raised across Latin America—spending time in Nicaragua, Ecuador, and primarily Brazil—Karen was shaped by a multilingual and multicultural environment. Her past academic interests focus on international student mobility, ethnicity, and race in education and international schools. Her recent interests revolve around investigating AI policies in higher education institutions across the U.S. and Brazil, examining how these policies reflect broader socio-political and geographical contexts. By comparing AI policy approaches in American and Brazilian higher education, this research aims to identify disparities in AI integration between the Global North and South. Key questions include: What trends emerge in AI policies across higher education institutions in the U.S. and Brazil? What are the implications for institutions lacking clear AI guidelines?
Karen graduated from Stanford’s master’s in Latin American Studies program in the fall of 2024 and holds a B.A. in International Studies and Spanish from Saint Louis University. She is now pursuing a second Master’s in International Comparative Education as a proud Lemann Fellow, with support from the Lemann Center.
