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Board of Directors

Click an image below to see details and an enlarged version.
Mitch Leventhal, Chair & PresidentStephen Foster, Vice PresidentJoseph DeCrosta, SecretaryGeorge Burke, Treasurer
David AndersonNorm PetersonPia Wood

Mitch Leventhal, Chair & President

Since September 2009, Dr. Mitch Leventhal has served as Vice Chancellor for Global Affairs at the State University of New York (SUNY), the largest and most comprehensive system of higher education in the United States, with 64 campuses and more than 440,000 students. For four years prior to his appointment at SUNY, Dr. Leventhal was Vice Provost for International Affairs at the University of Cincinnati. Under his stewardship, UC became the first major research university to openly embrace commission-based recruiting methods. Prior to UC, Leventhal served as the president and director of the US/Canada subsidiary of IDP Education Australia Limited, a non-profit organization owned by the Australian universities. IDP is the world’s largest commission-based recruitment agent. Before IDP, Leventhal was the founding CEO of Technology Exchange (TechEx), a Yale University spin-off which is now the leading Internet-based exchange for buying and selling emerging biomedical, pharmaceutical and bio-technologies. He is also the co-founder of Planet Payment, a multi-currency credit card payment solutions company, as well as Microstate Corporation, which developed Internet-based business solutions for financial services companies, including the Bermuda Stock Exchange and Lloyds of London. Leventhal has consulted extensively with domestic and foreign universities on matters ranging from quality assurance and capacity building to global marketing. In 2005, he partnered with the Center for Quality Assurance in International Education (CQAIE) to undertake a comprehensive survey of the international activities of US higher education accreditors on behalf of a consortium of Australian universities. Leventhal earned his doctorate from the University of Chicago, where he focused on international trade in educational services and educational entrepreneurship. He received his master’s and bachelor’s degrees from the University of Pennsylvania, where he studied developmental politics.

Stephen Foster, Vice President

Stephen Paul Foster has been the University Librarian (Head Librarian) at Wright State University since July 2002 and was appointed as the Associate Vice President for International Affairs in August 2007.  His international experience includes service in the Peace Corps (Honduras, 1969-70) and extensive involvement with international academic librarianship as one of sixty six elected governance-council representatives of the non-for-profit Online Computing Library Consortium (OCLC) Members Council (1997-2002; 2005-2008). Seventy-one thousand libraries in 112 countries and territories around the world use OCLC services to promote the exchange of information and make it highly accessible.  Dr. Foster has made library-related travels to Canada, Scotland, England, Spain, Italy, Chile and Brazil, and has traveled in India, Vietnam and China.  In addition to academic librarianship and international affairs, his scholarly interests and activities are in political philosophy.  He has taught courses, lectured and written on a wide range of library and philosophical topics.  In June 2007 he was a visiting professor at the Universidad Rey Juan Carlos in Madrid. He earned a Ph.D. in philosophy from St. Louis University. 

Joseph DeCrosta, Secretary

Joe DeCrosta, the Director of International Programs at Duquesne University, is directly involved with international student admissions and recruitment, immigration policy and advisement, and study abroad programming.  A professional in the field of international education for more than 10 years, Joe has played a role in advocating for international student interests, supporting diversity efforts on and off campus, and developing study abroad programming for Duquesne.  Joe has served on National and Regional committees for NAFSA: Association of International Educators for the past seven years and led the Mid-Atlantic region of NAFSA in professional development and advocacy efforts. Joe is an adjunct professor in the Department of Communication and Rhetorical Students at Duquesne and is also researching a dissertation on how immigrants affect ideas of nationalism.  Originally from New York, Joe is married to Maria and is the very proud father of Ethan, 4 and Helen, 2.

George Burke, Treasurer

Mr. George Burke presently serves as Director, Center for International Services and Programs at Cleveland State University. He has held this post since 1996, and has served as principal International Officer since 2005. In the late 1970s, while serving as Associate Director of International Services at Case Western Reserve University, Mr. Burke took part in credential evaluation and developed international student recruitment materials. In 1988, he initiated international student recruitment activities at Cleveland State University. Since that time, his efforts have resulted in recruitment of students from over 30 countries on 5 continents. George Burke hods Masters Degree in Public Administration from University of Pittsburgh, and is a former Peace Corps volunteer in Liberia, West Africa. He has been a NAFSA member since 1976.

David Anderson

David Anderson (BA Iowa State University; MA Vanderbilt University) is the Director of Sponsored Students and the Director of Recruitment and Partner Support for Middle East and North Africa for ELS Language Centers. He has served various roles with ELS including running intensive English centers, overseeing 6 locations, overseeing recruitment efforts worldwide and having direct responsibility for Latin American recruiting. In his work with ELS, he has visited agencies in more than 30 countries for business meetings, training and collaboration. Mr. Anderson is a former adjunct faculty member of Vanderbilt University.

Norm Peterson

Norm Peterson is the Vice Provost for International Education at Montana State University in Bozeman, Montana.  Prior to assuming his position at Montana State, Peterson served as the founding Executive Director for the Alliance for International Educational and Cultural Exchange in Washington DC and directed its predecessor organization, the Liaison Group for International Educational Exchange.  He has also held international education positions at Georgetown University, the University of Maryland, and the University of Colorado.  Peterson is actively involved in the international education community, currently serving on the Board of the Association of International Education Administrators, the College Consortium for International Studies, and the Past Chair of NAFSA’s International Education Leadership Knowledge Community.

Pia Wood

Dr. Pia Wood is Associate Vice Provost at University of Tennessee-Knoxville and President (2009-10) of the Association of International Education Administrators (AIEA). Prior arriving at UTK, Pia served for eight years as Director for the Center for International Studies at Wake Forest University. Before that, she spent six years as director of the International Studies undergraduate program at Old Dominion University. Earlier in her career, Pia was an assistant professor and associate professor in the department of political science and geography at Old Dominion and a visiting professor in the Department of National Security Studies at the Air War College at Maxwell Air Force Base in Alabama. She has taught at Bates Colleges in Lewiston, Maine, and at the Woodrow Wilson School for Government and Foreign Affairs at the University of Virginia.

The Executive Director and Director of Certification are also ex-officio members of the Board (their bios are here)