It is our pleasure to announce that Dr. Vicki Birchfield’s appointment as executive director of the First-Year Semester Abroad (FYSA) program has been extended for a five-year term, through 2030. The FYSA program, which she helped design and launch in 2021, is a joint initiative between the Office of Undergraduate Education and Student Success (OUESS) and the Office of International Education (OIE).  

Dr. Birchfield is a professor in the Sam Nunn School of International Affairs at Georgia Tech, co-director of the Center for European and Transatlantic Studies and director of the study abroad program on the European Union and Transatlantic Relations. She received a DES from the Graduate Institute of International Studies from the University of Geneva, Switzerland (1993) and a Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of Georgia (2000). Her research and teaching specializations are European politics, the European Union, comparative politics, and international political economy.

In her role as executive director of FYSA, Dr. Birchfield will continue to provide overall leadership and supervision of the FYSA program including both the Oxford and Georgia Tech-Europe (GTE) tracks as well as the Global@ Home component. She will collaborate with campus stakeholders and supervise the FYSA Program and Operations Manager to ensure that the strategic direction and vision of the program align with Georgia Tech’s vision for global student engagement.  

Please join us in congratulating Dr. Birchfield on her well-deserved continued appointment.