Academic Advisory Board

The mission and responsibility of the Academic Advisory Board (AAB) and any Ad Hoc committees it might appoint is to contribute to the academic quality and viability of FIE academic programs by providing insight, information and support to FIE in the areas including:

  • program development, quality and management
  • program outcomes and evaluation
  • outreach and enrollment development

The FIE Board of Directors has acted to create an Academic Advisory Board which will reflect the diversity of FIE partners and other academic organizations with which FIE might work, seeking to create a board which is reflective of the many diverse academic constituencies which support U.S. education abroad and which includes members who can make unique contributions enabling FIE to better fulfill its mission. 

We welcome your expression of interest to become engaged with the work of this new advisory Board.

The members of the Inaugural Board are:

  • Arlene Jackson, Director of International Education, American Association of State Colleges and Universities (AASCU)
  • Daniela Ascarelli, M.A., Assistant Vice Provost for International Programs and Director of Study Abroad
  • Susan M. Popko, M.A., Associate Provost for International Programs, Santa Clara University
  • Eugene J. Alpert, PhD, Senior Vice President, The Washington Center for Internships and Academic Seminars
  • James M. Pasquill, Director, Office of Study Abroad and Exchanges, University of Albany – SUNY
  • Michael A. Genovese, Ph.D., Loyola Chair of Leadership, Professor, Political Science, and Director, Institute for Leadership Studies, Loyola Marymount University
  • Uliana Gabara, PhD, Dean and Carole M. Weinstein Chair of International Education, University of Richmond

ARLENE JACKSON is Director of International Education for the American Association of State Colleges and Universities (AASCU).  Appointed in December 2001, her role at AASCU is to develop and implement national programs and activities that expand and enrich the internationalization of AASCU member institutions. With over 25 years experience, she came to AASCU after seven years as Director of International Programs at Virginia Commonwealth University.  Arlene also worked for the Institute of International Education, Fairleigh Dickinson University; the Alvin Ailey Dance Center; and she served with the U.S. Department of State as an English Language Officer.  She has consulted for Academic Year in New York, and Operation Crossroads Africa.  Arlene has a BA and MA degree in International Studies from Fairleigh Dickinson University. She did additional graduate work in International Development at Columbia University’s Teacher College and has a certificate from the Harvard School of Education Management Seminar for University Administrators (MDP). In summer 2001, she was a Fulbright Scholar to Japan. Arlene has been a member of a number of international educational organizations, including: City Commissioner and Chair of the Sister Cities Commission in Richmond, Virginia; Chair of the governmental relations and advocacy committee and member of the Board of Directors for the National Council of International Visitors (NCIV);  Past President and current Board member of the Virginia Council of International Education (VaCIE); and with the Academy for Educational Development (AED) PLUS program (Partnership for Learning Undergraduate Studies) Advisory Committee. She currently serves on the Advisory Council for the Institute for Experiential Learning, the NAFSA Region VIII Embassy Dialogue Executive Committee, and the American Council on Education (ACE) Global Learning Advisory Group.

DANIELA ASCARELLI, M.A., has been Director of Study Abroad at Drexel University for the past 10 years. In that time she has developed over two dozen new programs that take advantage of a wide range of delivery methods including exchange programs, programs delivered by 3rd party providers, faculty led programs, and programs that are part of consortia.  The programs vary in length from one week to 9 months and range in location from London to Equatorial Guinea. She is on the Executive Board of the Global Engineering Education Exchange—a national consortium that focuses on sending engineering students overseas to Europe, Asia and Mexico and on the advisory board of Terra Dotta, the parent company of Studio Abroad.

SUSAN POPKO is Associate Provost for International Programs at Santa Clara University.  As part of her portfolio, she plans, develops, and coordinates international programs and initiatives, supervises the Study Abroad Office, and represents the University in interactions with global and community partners.  Susan has served on advisory boards for several organizations and has written and presented on a wide range of topics related to international education.  She currently serves on the Board of Directors of The Forum on Education Abroad.  Susan earned her master’s degree in music from the University of York and her bachelor’s degree in music and piano performance from St. Olaf College. 

EUGENE J. ALPERT has been with The Washington Center for Internships and Academic Seminars since 1993. As senior vice president, Gene Alpert oversees the academic seminars and the more than forty associate faculty who teach courses required of students in the internship program. He also works closely with Washington Center liaisons, including those on the National Liaison Advisory Board.  Every four years, Gene continues the tradition he started in 1984, when The Washington Center offered its first national political convention program, now in its seventh cycle.  Before joining TWC, Gene was an associate professor of political science at Texas Christian University in Fort Worth, where he was chairman of the political science department, director of the master of liberal arts program, director of the TCU Washington Internship Program, and director of the university’s self-study for re-accreditation. He is the author of numerous articles pertaining to experiential education and the political process including “Conventional Wisdom: A Television Viewer’s Guide to the Democratic and Republican National Conventions,” published by C-SPAN. Gene Alpert holds a Ph.D. and M.A. degree in political science from Michigan State University and a B.A. from the University of Rochester. In 1982, Alpert served as an American Political Science Association Congressional Fellow, working in the area of media communications for the House and Senate leadership. He is a member of numerous professional associations and advisory committees, including the National Society for Experiential Education (past president); National Capital Area Political Science Association (former council member); American Political Science Association; the National Collegiate Honors Council and the Council for the Advancement of Standards in Higher Education (alternate director). He has received awards of recognition for his contributions in experiential education from the National Society for Experiential Education, including the Michael Steuerman Distinguished Service Award, Furman University, the National Collegiate Honors Council and, prior to joining the organization, The Washington Center.

JAMES PASQUILL became Director of Study Abroad and Exchanges in 2004 after serving with various titles in the Office of International Education and former Office of International Programs since 1987.  Pasquill received his B.A. in Russian Studies from Bates College and M.A. in Russian Language and Literature from UAlbany and also spent an academic year at Moscow State University and one summer each in Middlebury College’s and Norwich University’s Russian Language Schools.  After a brief stint as a middle school and high school teacher he returned to UAlbany to take a position managing the SUNY Soviet/Russian exchange programs and has never looked back.  At UAlbany Pasquill has served in numerous university service organizations including the UAS Board of Directors of which he was Board President for several years,  several years on the University Senate including three on the executive committee, one year as Chair of the former University Community Council,  and two as Chair of the University Life Council,  a final term served as the UAlbany Senate Secretary, and has served enough terms on Senate Councils and Committees and other university committees that he can hardly remember them all. Pasquill represents the University at Albany on the SUNY-wide Council on International Education (CIE) and is currently in his second term on the CIE Steering Committee. He is a member of NAFSA:AIE and serves as Chair of NAFSA Region X, NY and NJ, for the 2008 calendar year. 

MICHAEL A GENOVESE received a Ph.D. from the University of Southern California in 1979. He currently holds the Loyola Chair of Leadership Studies, is Professor of Political Science, and Director of the Institute for Leadership Studies at Loyola Marymount University. In 2006, he was made a Fellow at the Queens College, Oxford University.  Professor Genovese has written twenty-seven books, including The Paradoxes of the American Presidency, (co-authored by Thomas E. Cronin), Oxford University Press, 3rd ed 2009; The Presidency and the Challenges of Democracy (co-edited with Lori Cox Han),  Palgrave, 2006, The Presidency and Domestic Policy, (with William W. Lammers), CQ Press, 2000, The Power of the American Presidency 1789-2000, Oxford University Press, 2001, The Presidential Dilemma,  Longman, 2nd ed 2003, The Encyclopedia of the American Presidency, Facts-on File, 2nd ed, 2010 (winner of the New York Public Library, “Best of Reference” work of 2004), and Memo to a New President: The Art and Science of Presidential Leadership, Oxford University Press, 2008.  He has won over a dozen university and national teaching awards, including the Fritz B. Burns Distinguished Teaching Award (1995). Professor Genovese frequently appears as a commentator on local and national television. He is also Associate Editor of the journal, White House Studies, is on the Editorial Board of the journals, Rhetoric & Public Affairs, and the International Leadership Journal, has lectured for the United States Embassy abroad, and is editor of Palgrave Macmillan Publishing’s, “The Evolving American Presidency” book series. Professor Genovese has been The Washington Center’s “scholar-in-residence” at three national political conventions and the 2008 presidential inauguration.  In 2004-05, Professor Genovese served as President of the Presidency Research Group of the American Political Science Association. He is currently on the Advisory Boards of The Washington Center, and, now, the Foundation for International Education.

ULIANA GABARA has been the head of the Office of International Education at the University of Richmond since its creation in 1987.  Uliana has led the charge in developing institutional strategies for internationalization both at the university level and through her involvement and leadership in consortia and networks of higher education institutions.  She has participated in the Fulbright Seminar in Brazil; the Baden-Württemberg Seminar; the DAAD Seminar Bonn, Berlin; Brussels; and as a DuPont Fellow at the summer faculty seminar, National Humanities Center, among many other academic activities.  Uliana’s professional activities have included serving as vice president/president elect, Executive Board and Membership Committee member, Association of International Education Administrators;  Board Member and Chair of Program Committee, World Affairs Council of Greater Richmond; Chair of the International Education Section of the International Studies Association; Member of the National Advisory Council, Institute for Study Abroad, Butler University;  Chair, Secretary/Treasurer, of the National Committee of International Studies and Program Administrators (NCISPA);  NAFSA: Association of International Educators, state representative and regional board member; Virginia Council on International Education, President and Executive Board member;  and European Association for International Education activities.  Uliana has published in the area of both international education and Russian literature.  She is nationally recognized for her work in developing international faculty seminars as a vehicle for faculty internationalization.  And she regularly conducts consultancies and external evaluations of higher education International Education programs and Title VI projects.  Uliana earned her PhD at the University of Virginia, in Slavic Languages and Literature,  her M.A. at the University of Warsaw, and her B.A. at Bennington College in the United States.