Abrehet Gebremedhin

Abrehet Gebremedhin

I am an Adjunct Instructor at Teachers College, Columbia University in the Politics and Education Program. I am affiliated with the Accountability Research Center at the School of International Service, as well as the Research on International Policy Implementation Lab (RIPIL). As part of my work at the Accountability Research Center, I also serve as the co-PI of the Accountability for Education project.

I received my Ph.D. in International Relations, specializing in international development and comparative politics of Africa, at the School of International Service at American University in May of 2026.

My research is on the politics of education policy in African nondemocracies. I study the historical political economy of policy-making, with a focus on education, foreign aid, and political decision-making of governing elites.

My dissertation examined historical shifts in access to secondary education in low- and middle-income nondemocracies in the 1970s and 1980s. Using cross-national and national quantitative data analysis and qualitative and historical archival research in Ethiopia and Zimbabwe, I show that elites consider the potential for indoctrination and the pressure of mass mobilization when making education policy. My work provides new insights into the causal drivers of nondemocratic decision-making on education and public policy more broadly.

My research has been published in the International Journal of Educational Development, Development in Practice, and Education as Change, as well as policy platforms such as the Global Partnership for Education’s Education for All blog.

In my broader applied policy-relevant work, I use mixed, participatory, and longitudinal research methods to evaluate and study the educational, health, socio-economic and political impact of policy and programs on children, adolescents, and teachers, as well as their communities.

My research has been funded by multiple grants and fellowships, including the Fulbright Fellowship and Housel-Stowell Fellowship, as well as external grants from the Global Partnership for Education, the World Bank, Oxfam, in addition to internal grants from American University.

Prior to my Ph.D., I spent many years in the international development field, as a monitoring, evaluation, research, and learning (MERL) expert with the GPE, FCDO, Gates Foundation, Porticus, World Bank, among others. Additional information on my consulting work can be found here. I hold an MA and BA in International Development from the Josef Korbel School of International Studies at the University of Denver.

You can access my CV here or reach out at ag6087a@american.edu.