Since joining IES Abroad in 1996, Dr. Dwyer has led the organization in development and implementation of two major initiatives:
1. IES Abroad MAP(c) (Model Assessment Practice) for Study Abroad, the first widely accepted tool to set academic standards for designing and evaluating study abroad programs, developed in 1997 by an IES-convened national task force.
2. IES Intercultural Competency (ICC) Initiative, an effort to increase planned program experiences designed to foster interpersonal skills growth and equip students to communicate and function effectively across multiple cultures.
A third initiative of Dr. Dwyer's, now underway, will set the standard as a comprehensive assessment tool for measuring the impact of study abroad on U.S. students' global learning and intercultural competence. The project, Maximizing Opportunity and Measuring Growth in Student Learning and Development in Study Abroad, will provide international educators and students with greater detail about the value of student experiences abroad.
Dr. Dwyer is active in multiple national efforts to advance international education policy and practice. She was appointed July 1, 2006, to a three-year term as chair of the Forum on Education Abroad, the only membership organization founded to set standards for the field. She also is one of two study abroad professionals appointed by U.S. Congress to serve on the 17-member Abraham Lincoln Commission on Study Abroad, a bi-partisan, Presidential and Congressional Commission formed in 2003 to explore ways to increase the number of American students abroad.
Prior to IES Abroad, Dr. Dwyer was a faculty member in the College of Medicine at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) for 18 years and the campus Executive Associate Vice Chancellor for Research. In these capacities she taught health policy, organizational change and leadership at the graduate level and oversaw multiple research development offices and research centers. She was awarded more than $4.5 million in support for her own research while at UIC.
Dr. Dwyer has consulted extensively over the past 25 years and been called upon by an array of U.S. and international organizations across 20 developed and emerging countries, including the World Health Organization (WHO), global ministries of health and education, Kellogg Foundation and national health and professional associations. For six years she chaired the Co-Op Grant Review Committee of NAFSA: Association of International Educators. Dr. Dwyer holds a Bachelor of Arts in English and social sciences from Mundelein College, a master's degree in educational leadership from the University of Illinois and a doctorate in public policy analysis from the University of Illinois. She resides in Lake Forest, Ill., with her husband.
