Director of International Affairs

TO: UAA Community

FROM: Mike Driscoll, Provost

RE: Director of International Affairs

I am pleased to announce that Dr. Ted Kassier will rejoin the staff at UAA. Beginning this spring semester he will return to his position as a tenured professor of languages and will become UAA's Director of International Affairs, an exciting new and strategic role at the University. Click here for more.

In his new role, Ted will provide leadership and a focused vision for UAA's international activities and progress. He will report to me and among his other duties will advise UAA executives, including the Chancellor, on matters relating to international relations, procedure and protocol. Working with faculty and an International Advisory Committee, Ted will build on UAA's existing international assets and further develop international partnerships, exchanges and programs. Ted will represent UAA in Alaska, Outside and abroad on internationally related matters.

UAA's faculty and staff have a long history of work in international affairs and we value the progress that has resulted from these efforts. This move to establish a permanent infrastructure for international activity and progress supports recommendations contained in UAA 2017, UAA's new strategic plan, and will build upon these prior efforts. In this new role, Ted will provide the focus and infrastructure necessary for UAA to act and react appropriately in the globalized 21st century economy. Another element of strengthening UAA's international activities involves UAA's American-Russian Center, which has been in transition recently. Effective Feb. 1, the Center will assume the added title of Office of International Support. Director Russ Howell will continue to lead this operation and, with the support of Dean Tom Case, will partner with Ted to expand its scope and refine its goals.

The Director of International Affairs will work closely with Student Affairs to develop additional student study abroad opportunities and consult on matters such as international admissions, enrollment, new student orientation, international student development and programmatic/curricular global awareness.

Dr. Kassier has spent the last two years as Senior Associate Vice President for Academic Affairs at UA Statewide, based in Anchorage. Ted initially joined the UAA leadership team in 1993 as head of the Department of Languages. He subsequently served as Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences for seven years, and was Provost in 2004 and 2005.

Ted's substantial international experience lends itself uniquely to this new post at UAA. He has served as an Escort-Interpreter Officer for the U.S. Department of State, the Resident Director of a university study abroad program in Cordoba, Spain, Director of the Division of Foreign Languages at the University of Texas at San Antonio, Director-in-Residence of the Vassar-Wesleyan Program in Madrid, Spain, and Acting Chair of the Department of Hispanic Studies at Vassar College in Poughkeepsie, NY. He has also been co-Principal Investigator, with Russ Howell, on several substantial international development grants from the U.S. Department of Education and is currently a member of the Board of Directors of the Alaska World Affairs Council.

As UAA takes steps to strengthen its international infrastructure and endeavors, we are very fortunate to have Dr. Ted Kassier and his expertise in-house. Please join me in welcoming Ted back to UAA in this important new role.

Thank you.