Dr. Darla K. Deardorff is the chairholder of the UNESCO Chair of Intercultural Competences at Stellenbosch University in South Africa, and a research fellow at Duke University. She previously served 19 years as Executive Director/CEO of the Association of International Education Administrators, a leadership organization. She is also the Founding President of the world Council on Intercultural and Global Competence, a nonprofit partner to the UNESCO Chair. She has worked in the international education field for over thirty years & previously held positions at North Carolina State University & the University of North Carolina–Chapel Hill where she has had experience in study abroad, international student services, cultural programming, & ESL teaching/teacher training. She has lived, taught & worked in Germany, Japan, South Africa, & Switzerland. In addition, she has had 2 Fulbrights- one to South Africa and one to Japan. Dr. Deardorff 's faculty experience includes Harvard University's Future of Learning Institute, Harvard's Global Education Think Tank, the Summer Institute of Intercultural Communication, Shanghai International Studies University (China), Nelson Mandela University (S. Africa) & Meiji University (Japan) as well as Middlebury Institute of International Studies. Regularly invited to speak around the world, Dr. Deardorff consults for universities, businesses, & non-profit organizations. Recent projects include advising the OECD's PISA Global Competence Project & a UNESCO Intercultural Competence Project. She has published widely, including 80+ articles and book chapters, as well as 14 books.
Fran is the co-founder and executive director of Value Learning. Fran is an educator who has developed intercultural programs for audiences across Australia and internationally. Fran holds a B. Adult and Vocational Education and has trained trainers and assessors for accredited learning in Australia. She has developed government projects for international education related to Indonesia, China and India, and designed the International Student Forum. Fran was previously the CEO of AFS Australia.
Dr. Curtis Chu is an associate professor in the Faculty of International Studies at Setsunan University, Japan. As an interculturalist who lived in several countries, he is fascinated with differences across cultures and is fluent in Cantonese, Chinese Mandarin, English, and Japanese. He accumulated extensive experience in designing, implementing, and coordinating virtual exchange projects focused on cultivating intercultural and global competencies. Curtis is also a virtual exchange design and assessment specialist on the Beliefs, Events, and Values Inventory (BEVI) team, and he is editor for the Intercultural Connector, a publication of the World Council on Intercultural and Global Competence.
Didem has worked in K-12 and higher education in the US and overseas for almost 20 years. She earned a doctoral degree on International and Multicultural Education from University of San Francisco, and her dissertation research was on intercultural competence development through online language teaching. She currently serves in the leadership team of a non-profit organization- Pax Populi- that aims to build peace through virtual exchange, language teaching and intercultural communication. Besides teaching at University of San Francisco and Golden Gate University, she is also a faculty member and department co-chair in the ESOL Department in College of Alameda. Her research interests are online language teaching, intercultural competence, peacebuilding, equity and digital divide, and teacher training.
Monika Jaiswal-Oliver holds a Master's in Organizational Leadership in Higher Education and an M.B.A. from Lewis University. She currently serves as the Academic Manager and Adjunct faculty in the School of Business and Entrepreneurship at Columbia College Chicago. She works with faculty in curriculum development, strategic offering of course schedules, and evaluations, and outreach of the degree programs and student retention. Her research interests include Global Mobility, female impact in the local community, and intercultural communication.
Marcela, based in Buenos Aires, Argentina, is a distinguished global educator and international speaker. With a TESOL certification and a Bachelor’s degree in Language Teaching, she has a rich professional background that spans over more than three decades. Marcela has held various roles, including teacher, examiner, coordinator, head of studies, and teacher trainer. Specializing in Environmental Education and Global Citizenship Education, Marcela has been committed to these fields for over 20 years. She recognizes the United Nations 2030 Agenda and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as the perfect framework for integrating global issues into educational settings and transforming education. Marcela is a TeachSDGs Ambassador with Take Action Global (TAG) , a Global Schools Advocate and Mentor with the United Nations Sustainable Development Solutions Network (UNSDSN), and serves as a Global Teachers’ Club Board Member. She is also a Local Coach in Argentina and Latin America for the Institute for Humane Education (IHE). Furthermore, she collaborates with numerous international organizations dedicated to advancing education, including T4Education and the Varkey Foundation.
María Cuevas is based in Tabasco, Mexico. She is a Tenure Professor at Universidad Juárez Autónoma de Tabasco. Her Bachelor is Languages, her Master’s is Teaching, and her Doctorate degree is on Educational Management. She holds the following certificates: CAE and TKT from Cambridge University, an Intermediate French certificate from Alliance Française, an ECT certificate in Flipped Classroom from Edmodo, and a Digital Competence certificate from ICDL.
She works with undergraduate students in the Economic Administrative area teaching subjects such as: Business English, Critical Thinking, Tools oriented to research, Administration or Marketing Fundamentals, Managerial Skills, Leadership, Administration of Marketing Channels, Strategic Marketing, Green Marketing, or any theoretical subject in English. She also works with graduate students at a Master or Doctorate level, mostly with subjects oriented to research and quality education.
She offers her students an additional program to the content in order to develop Intercultural and Global Competences based on the labor market needs. She internationalizes her curriculum to include reading from authors of different nationalities, so students can understand how to solve a problem from a different perspective or point of view.
She also collaborates as a co-coordinator of the ICC Assessment Working Group with Betty Hansel, and she works with one of our strategic allies STAR Scholars Network as the Country Director for Chapter Mexico.
Zhiwei Gao is currently a first-year Master’s student in International Language and Culture Studies at Setsunan University, Japan.
Originally from China, she has spent more than five years living and studying in Japan, where she also earned a Bachelor of Literature degree. Through her academic studies and participation in various online and face-to-face intercultural exchange programmes, she has developed a strong interest in intercultural communication and cross-cultural understanding among people from diverse backgrounds.
As an intern with World Council, she is grateful for the opportunity to support its work and contribute to fostering global connections and cultural exchange.
Marina Boiger is a Bachelor's student in New Media and Intercultural Communication at the University of Applied Sciences Landshut, Germany, where she is developing a strong academic foundation in intercultural competence, media and communication. Alongside her studies, she works in the aviation industry and gains experience in corporate communications through an ongoing internship. She is passionate about advancing intercultural understanding across cultures and languages. Marina joins the World Council as a Communications Volunteer Intern.