The Sutardja Center welcomes Susan Giesecke as its new Director of Global Engagement

Susan Giesecke recently joined the team at SCET as the Director of Global Engagement.  Susan is responsible for building partnerships with international universities and organizations interested in engaging with the Center.  Susan came to SCET from Berkeley’s campus wide Global Engagement Office (GEO) where she was the Director of international Protocol.  At GEO, she was responsible for arranging the campus visits of hundreds of high level international governmental and academic delegations including such guests as the President of Ireland, the King of Jordan, the Crown Prince of Norway, a Nigerian King, and the Governor General of Canada.  In 2014, Susan was responsible for hosting nearly 750 delegates from nearly 170 different organizations/universities  At Cal, Susan also serves as the first lady of the international house where she is involved in many of the events and activities.

Prior to her engagement at UC Berkeley, Susan was a business faculty member and associate to the President of Anatolia College and the American College of Thessaloniki in Thessaloniki, Greece.  She taught in the undergraduate business program and worked with both incoming American study abroad students and Greek students interested in pursuing college studies in the USA.

Susan’s prior experience includes work with Global Orientations in Indianapolis and as a founding staff member of Jacobs University in Bremen, Germany, where she was responsible for student services at a culturally diverse campus with students from some 40 countries.  She worked at the Corporate Learning Institute at Vanderbilt and as the Executive Director of the Frist Center at Belmont University, both in Nashville, TN.  Her prior UC experience was coordinating an international summer internship program at UC Irvine.  Her first job out of college was in the marketing department of Disneyland.

Susan has a bachelor’s degree in international marketing and communication and a masters degree in Organizational and Intercultural Communication.

Susan has a passion for engaging with people from throughout the world and bringing them together for mutually beneficial purposes.  She enjoys international travel and the intercultural interactions/friendships that form through travel.  In her free time, Susan enjoys running, cycling, hiking, cross country skiing and improvisational acting.