The OCWC Board of Directors is delighted to announce that Mary Lou Forward, of Brattleboro, Vermont, has accepted its offer of the OCWC Executive Director position.  Mary Lou comes to us from SIT Study Abroad, where she has served as Academic Dean of African Studies since 2000.  In that role, she provided academic and strategic leadership for 29 accredited undergraduate study abroad programs in Africa, leading SIT’s incorporation of technology and distance learning in international programming and developing innovative opportunities to collaborate across countries and between diverse student groups.

Prior to that, she served for six years as Academic Director for SIT’s Madagascar program, developing, revising and evaluating curricula for interdisciplinary undergraduate programs in Environmental Studies and Cultural Geography.  Mary Lou has her BA in Psychology from Rutgers University (1988) her MA in International Administration from the School for International Training (1994) and is ABD in Environmental Studies.  Although not formally joining the OCWC staff until July 15, Mary Lou will be consulting informally with the board and staff over the coming weeks.

As you may be aware, the position of Interim Executive Director has been filled for the past nine months by Terri Bays of Notre Dame.  Terri will be stepping down on July 15th, but remaining with the Consortium on a part-time basis as Special Projects Manager to support Mary Lou as she settles in. The Consortium could not have succeeded as it has in the past year without Terri’s tireless efforts to move the organization forward.

Please join the members of the Board in welcoming Mary Lou and thanking Terri for her effort.