Personal & Mission Statement
As 1st Vice President, my biggest goal will be the re-imagining of our internal processes, programming, and fundraising through a strategic planning process under the Board’s direction. Building on my successful leadership of our Membership and Scholarship Committees in the past two years and the combined efforts of our Board, I will engage us all to ensure a more solid financial base, increased programming diversity, and a significant increase in active younger members.
I am a native Southern Californian and ironically only began learning German in high school because the French class I wanted to take was full. However, after my family hosted three exchange students with the German-American Partnership Program and I spent parts of his sophomore and junior years in Goslar, Germany I knew that German language and culture would be my vocation. Thus, began a lifelong love affair with all things German-American, first as exchange student, then researcher, Honors and German faculty at two universities, and most recently as Senior Director of the Congress-Bundestag Youth Exchange for Young Professionals (CBYX).
I am the author and translator of books and scholarly articles on German and Austrian culture, a member of numerous professional and charitable organizations, and the recipient of a German-American Friendship Award from the German Foreign Ministry. I have served on the Board of the Foundation since 2020 as 1st Vice President and chaired the Membership and Scholarship Committees, as well as having a role in reimagining the organization’s governance structure.