TRUE NORTH INTERCULTURAL - Key Persons

I am an educator and life-long learner at heart. I am passionate about helping people learn and grow through intercultural experiences, locally and globally. I began working in the international education field in 2000-teaching English in Spain, advising international students in the United States (at Texas A&M University and the University of Wisconsin-Madison), and working in study abroad. In 2006, I began Ph.D. studies, focusing specifically on how intercultural competence is developed and how educators can facilitate that process. My dissertation-a mixed-methods case study of an intercultural seminar taught during a semester-long study abroad experience-looked not only at the outcomes of such an intervention, but was the first of its kind to examine the complex process of facilitating intercultural development. At the University of Minnesota, I taught two innovative intercultural courses. The first-which began as Maximizing Study Abroad and later became Global Identity-was an online course for students studying abroad. The second, entitled Communication and the Intercultural Re-Entry, was for students with a significant intercultural experience (such as study abroad, refugee and immigrant experiences, the military, and more). As Academic Director of Intercultural Learning at CIEE (the Council on International Educational Exchange)-a world leader in international education and exchange-I was responsible for developing the intercultural curricula for their diverse study abroad programs. I created CIEE's signature course, Intercultural Communication and Leadership, now offered at more than 20 study centers around the world. Under my leadership, CIEE also integrated intercultural learning frameworks into more than half of the semester-long programs, summer programs, and many short-term customized programs. In addition to designing curriculum, I provided training, coaching, and support for the resident staff around the world teaching these initiatives. I am an experienced Qualified Administrator of the Intercultural Development Inventory (IDI)-one of the most well-known and widely-used tools for assessing and building intercultural competence-as well as an IDI Qualifying Seminar Instructor. In addition, I am a Senior Facilitator of the Personal Leadership methodology, a holistic approach to maximizing the learning potential inherent in intercultural experiences, improving one's ability to work across cultural difference, and taking leadership of oneself. Previously, I served as Adjunct Faculty in Intercultural Competence at the Middlebury Institute for International Studies at Monterey and Associate Faculty at the Summer Institute for Intercultural Communication (SIIC). On a more personal note, I am married to a Spaniard, whom I met while studying abroad my junior year in Seville, Spain (study abroad truly does change lives!). Together we are doing our best to raise our two kids to be bilingual, interculturally sensitive young people. We live in the Minneapolis/St. Paul area of Minnesota, in the United States.