Francine Menashy is an Associate Professor in the Department of Leadership in Education at the University of Massachusetts Boston. Her research explores global education policy and leadership, international aid to education, and private sector engagement, focusing on transnational partnerships and support to education in contexts of humanitarian crisis. In her studies, Dr. Menashy seeks to understand power hierarchies within international policy-making processes and global governance structures. For example, her work has examined decision-making within the Global Partnership for Education, the World Bank’s policies and practices relating to private education, and business engagement in the education of refugees. She draws from an interdisciplinary perspective and employs qualitative and quantitative methods—such as process tracing, case study, and network analysis—to analyze interactions and relations within and between global educational organizations and actors.

Dr. Menashy was selected as a 2013 National Academy of Education/Spencer Foundation Postdoctoral Fellow, twice received the George Bereday Award from the Comparative and International Education Society (in 2015 and in 2018), and is a co-editor of Comparative Education Review. She has served in an advisory role to a range of global civil society organizations, UN agencies, and international financial institutions. At UMass Boston, Francine teaches and advises in the Urban Education, Leadership, and Policy Studies doctoral program and is cross-affiliated with the McCormack Graduate School of Policy and Global Studies. In the past she has worked with an NGO in Laos and as a public school teacher in Toronto.