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I am a bilingual (Spanish/English) education abroad professional and applied anthropologist with academic interests in the human geography and cultural anthropology of Latin America, transnational migration and tourism. As an undergraduate at Augustana College, I discovered Geography and realized a lifelong dream to study abroad by participating in the 1991 Latin American Fall Quarter, which introduced me to Mexico, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Argentina and Chile (during a week off, I also traveled to Uruguay and Brazil). The following summer, I headed back to Cuenca, Ecuador, where I lived for a year with a host family, studied Spanish and completed an internship at a regional development agency. I returned home with a new understanding of the world--and a job in education abroad. I now have more than a decade and a half of professional experience in international education, including service to schools in Illinois, Kentucky, Maryland, New York and Ecuador. A few years ago, I discovered Anthropology and headed off to graduate school at the University of Denver (DU), where I completed a Master of Arts in Anthropology (Ethnology track).
My master's thesis, El Otro Lado: Considering the Impact of Education Abroad on Host Families in Cuenca, Ecuador, may be downloaded in parts or as a single PDF.
Association of Academic Programs in Latin America & the Caribbean (AAPLAC)
AAPLAC is a small organization of study abroad advisors and directors who work with programs in Latin America. I am the organization's webmaster and have been since I created the first AAPLAC web page back in 1997.
UMD Education Abroad
I am the Coordinator of Short-Term Programs in Education Abroad at the University of Maryland.
NAFSA: Association of International Educators
NAFSA is a global organization of international educators. I served as a volunteer in the capacity of Kentucky State Representative (2007-2009) on the NAFSA Region VI team (Indiana, Kentucky and Ohio) and the Membership Coordinator (2006-2009) for NAFSA's Latin American and Caribbean SIG.