UMBC, US. Katherine Heird was recently appointed the inaugural director of education abroad and global learning at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County in the US. In this role, she is overseeing the transformation of UMBC’s Education Abroad Office to establish a holistic model of programming and funding opportunities for UMBC’s diverse student population. Heird has served as International Programs Coordinator at the Centers for Interamerican Studies (CEDEI) in Cuenca, Ecuador, as the assistant director for international education at UMBC, and then as Associate Director for Study Abroad & Away at Towson University in Maryland, USA. Her current contributions to the profession include serving on the NAFSA Trainer Corps and as a board member for the Association of Academic Programs in Latin America and the Caribbean (AAPLAC). “I am so grateful to rejoin the UMBC community as we fundamentally reimagine education abroad. There is so much opportunity and our future is bright!”