Veronica Semeraro has worked at our IES Abroad Siena Center since the founding of the program in 2006 when she was hired as the Student Affairs Coordinator. Since that time, she has been actively involved in all aspects of the program, including housing, customized programs, arrival and orientation, field trips, and academic coordination. Veronica was promoted to Center Director of IES Abroad Siena in 2012. Prior to working with IES Abroad, Veronica graduated with honors in Archaeology from the University of Siena. Her thesis addressed the GIS platform of the newly discovered and frescoed rooms beneath the Cathedral of Siena. She contributed, with vectorial maps and archaeological drawings, to the publication Sotto il Duomo di Siena (2003). Upon winning a research grant following graduation, Veronica spent six years working in the University of Siena archaeology laboratory in Computer Science. She also spent several years drawing dig maps while working on site in various important archaeological digs in Tuscany (rooms beneath the Siena Cathedral, castle of Miranduolo, Podium Bonizio village) specializing in GIS technology. Veronica is an avid traveler and a member of an all-female Brazilian drum group in Siena.

A native of Santiago, Maricarmen Cortés Arce has over 30 years of experience in local development, working with government agencies and non-profit organizations across Chile and the United States. Since 2006, she has served as the Santiago Center Director, drawing on a career that includes roles such as Facilitator and Trainer with Franklin Covey Chile, Associate Peace Corps Director for Small Business Development and Municipal Management in Santiago, and Executive Director of FINAM, a Women’s World Banking NGO. She has also worked with the Wilder Center for Communities (part of the Amherst H. Wilder Foundation), the United States Peace Corps, and the Miguel Kast Foundation. Maricarmen holds a B.A. and M.A. in Architecture from the Universidad de Chile and was a Fulbright Scholar through the Hubert H. Humphrey Fellowship program at the University of Minnesota.

Originally from the United States, Barbara Liberatore has been living and working in Salamanca for over 25 years. She is fluent in Spanish and Italian. She earned her Bachelor’s degree from the University of Rhode Island, where she studied languages, and her Master’s degree in Italian Studies from Brown University, where she also held a teaching assistantship. Barbara brings to IES Abroad more than 25 years of experience in teaching, management and supervision in international education. She has taught a wide range of courses and languages to students of all ages. Barbara taught in Brown University’s Summer Intensive English Program, was the Assistant Director for the University of Rhode Island’s Summer Study Abroad Program in Salamanca, and directed other American study abroad programs in Salamanca before beginning with IES Abroad. She has held the position of Center Director at the IES Abroad Salamanca Center since 2008. As Center Director, Barbara is in charge of Center management, supervises both staff and faculty, and focuses on academics and curriculum development at the Center.

Prior to his work as Director of the Rabat program, Dr. El Addouli was the Director and co-founder of the International Arabic Institute in Meknes. He was also the Program and Outreach Director at the Moroccan American Commission for Educational and Cultural Exchange (Fulbright Commission) in Rabat. Dr. El Addouli is a former Fulbright Visiting Scholar at the University of New England in Maine. He held teaching, coordinating and training positions at different institutions in Morocco, the US and Europe namely Al-Akhawayn University in Ifrane, the International School of Bologna in Italy, and QWL in Rabat. He first studied Social Entrepreneurship and Philanthropy at the University of Bologna in Italy and then participated in a four partner university program to obtain two masters in Global Studies and International Relations from the Universities of Leipzig in Germany, the London School of Economics in the UK, the University of Vienna in Austria, and the University of Wroclaw in Poland.

Dr. El Addouli's interests span the fields of TAFL, Educational Curriculum Development and Design, Global Studies, Educational Governance, Civil Society and Democracy, Cultural Studies, and International Law. He has translated books and written and published articles and book reviews on transformational Education, issues on North African Politics and other related subjects. Dr. El Addouli holds a strong cosmopolitan outlook as he has studied, visited, lived in, and was trained in more than twenty foreign countries.

Ximena has been with IES Abroad since 2017 when she began as Student Affairs Coordinator and was also designated Customized Programs Coordinator in 2018. In late 2023, she took on the role of Interim Director of the IES Abroad Quito & Galápagos Islands Center in addition to her earlier roles and contributions to both human resources and accounting. Ximena has over 20 years of experience working in education and student exchange programs, including working with international students for 15 years as Inbound and Outbound Student Coordinator at the Student Exchange Program Youth for Understanding (YFU). She holds an engineering degree in Business Administration and Human Resources from Universidad Tecnológica Equinoccial del Ecuador (UTE), and a Higher Diploma in Analytical Coaching from Universidad Central de Venezuela. Additionally, Ximena is currently pursuing a master’s degree in Education Administration at Universidad Tecnológica Equinoccial (UTE).

Dr. Scott Lyngaas has been the IES Abroad Paris French Studies Center Director since 2014. Scott came to IES Abroad from Beloit College, where he was Associate Dean and Associate Professor of French. He received his doctorate from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where he wrote his dissertation on Francophone historical fiction. In addition to Paris, Dr. Lyngaas has also lived and worked in Aix-en-Provence and Brussels.

As an Associate Vice President for Academic Programs, Scott Sheridan supervises IES Abroad Centers in Australia, China, France, Italy, Japan, New Zealand, and South Korea. Since joining IES Abroad in 2021, Scott has been involved in the creation of the organization’s Center of Excellence in Teaching and Learning Abroad (CETLA), for which he serves as the inaugural Director. CETLA’s initiatives include international faculty support and pedagogical innovation, curricular development, and implementation of cluster-wide assessment models, as well as revisiting student engagement, research, and reflection. Scott serves as a member of the Academic Leadership Team.

Scott received his B.A. and M.A. from the University of Nebraska–Lincoln, and his Ph.D. in French Literature from the University of Iowa. His extensive experiences abroad include time spent as an auditeur libre at the Université Paris—Sorbonne (Paris IV), as well as an English language teaching assistant in a French high school as part of the governmental Teaching Assistant Program in France (TAPIF). Prior to joining IES Abroad, he served as Director of the International Studies Program and Director of the Interdisciplinary Humanities Program at Illinois Wesleyan University. He was also a tenured full Professor of French and Italian and spent 23 years on the faculty, where he gained knowledge of academic program development, curricular assessment, and virtual instruction, in addition to extensive experience in organizing and leading short-term and semester-long study abroad programs. His published research includes examinations of global children’s literature and media, as well as pop culture stereotypes and representations of the Other.

Lauren Ostrowski serves as the Associate Vice President for Global Academic Administration in the Office of the Provost. She oversees the strategic planning process and development and implementation of the supporting structure for the various Academic Affairs units. She is also the departmental lead for staffing and resources. Additionally, she manages strategic departmental initiatives and communications to support continuous improvement across Academic Affairs. She currently oversees the Northwest Europe portfolio (Amsterdam, Dublin, and London).  She has previously served as Dean for IES Abroad Centers in Africa, China, Germany, and Spain.

Lauren was a Fulbright fellow to Madrid, Spain. While in Spain, her graduate studies research explored U.S. students’ evolving cultural and social identity during and after their study abroad experience. Upon her return to the U.S., she served in various leadership roles in the non-profit education field, most recently working for Teach For America-San Diego as Managing Director, Chief of Staff where she led regional strategy, talent, and operations. Lauren has also taught Spanish and has experience designing and leading international experiences for faculty and students. She rejoined IES Abroad as Program Dean in August 2018.

Lauren earned her B.A. in English-Creative Writing and Spanish from Illinois Wesleyan University and her M.A. in Teaching Spanish as a Foreign Language from Universidad Alcalá de Henares in Madrid. Her professional, personal, academic, and linguistic pursuits have sent her to Mexico, Chile, Ecuador, India, and throughout Europe.

As Senior Associate Vice President for Academic Programs and Interim Global South Cluster Dean, Lee L’Hote supervises the IES Abroad Centers in Argentina, Austria, Chile, Ecuador, Germany, Morocco, South Africa, Spain and oversees the Central Europe, Global South, and Spain Academic Clusters. Since joining IES Abroad in 2010, he has led numerous projects and initiatives for the organization, including implementing the IES Abroad MAP for Language and Intercultural Communication across IES Abroad Centers and the ongoing assessment project for IES Abroad’s Language Centers. Lee teamed with the IES Abroad Registrar to implement human subjects’ research guidelines and serves as the IES Abroad Representative on the organization’s IRB. He currently leads faculty engagement initiatives across all Centers and serves as a member of the Academic Leadership Team.

Lee holds an M.A. and Ph.D. in Hispanic Studies from the University of Kentucky and completed his undergraduate studies at Washington University in St. Louis, including a year abroad at the University of Salamanca in Spain. Before joining IES Abroad, he serviced on the faculties at Longwood University and Iowa State University. He primarily taught courses on the Spanish language, Hispanic Cinema, and Spanish Cultural Studies. At ISU, Lee served as Spanish Section Head in the Department of World Languages and Cultures as Director of the Language and Cultures for Professions Program. He also worked extensively in the study abroad field, having served as Co-Director then Director of the ISU on the Mediterranean Program in Valencia, Spain, for seven years. He has published research and presented at numerous conferences on contemporary Spanish narrative, Cinema, and culture and on a variety of study abroad-related topics, including internationalizing the curriculum, service-learning abroad, and summer programming for the professions.