Dr. Deepa Srikantaiah is an educator, artist, and researcher. Her works explore culturally sustaining pedagogies, postcolonial studies, and comparative histories and international education to better understand how education can address contemporary issues of minoritization and racism in secondary mathematics and science education. She also studies US foreign policy on global education funding and programs through the lenses of precolonial knowledge systems and diasporas from South Asia and Africa.  

Dr. Srikantaiah began her career as a chemistry teacher and worked on after-school STEM programs for minoritized and racialized communities in the US.  She has since worked at the World Bank, the Global Partnership for Education, with USAID contractors, non-profits, and Universities, and was awarded a Fulbright to India (2015-2016). She has worked in South and East Asia, Eastern, Western, and Southern Africa, and the United States.

In addition to her work in education, Dr. Srikantaiah is also an artist who believes that creativity and innovation are interdisciplinary skills that can motivate students to empower their thoughts, voices, and actions. As an artist, Dr. Srikantaiah continues her training in South Indian Classical Music, Visual Arts, and Iyengar Yoga.

Currently, Dr. Srikantaiah is a Senior Education Advisor with the Africa Bureau at USAID. She is also affiliate faculty in the graduate program in International Education Policy at the University of Maryland, College Park and the doctoral program at the School for International Training. She also adjuncts in the City Teaching Alliance Program at American University in Washington, D.C.  Her scholarship has been published in numerous peer reviewed journals, book chapters, and conference proceedings.  

Dr. Srikantaiah received her M.A. and Ph.D. in International Education Policy from the University of Maryland, College Park.