Ahmad Ezzeddine
Vice Provost for Global Affairs
Dr. Ezzeddine leads and manages the Office of Global Affairs and serves as a strategic thought leader for the University’s global engagement efforts. This work includes enhancing and expanding the University’s global partnerships and coordinating and collaborating with University partners to build a cohesive and campus-wide vision for global engagement.
Dr. Ezzeddine was previously at Wayne State University in Detroit, his alma mater, where he was the senior vice provost for partnerships, workforce and international initiatives. He led oversight of all international university affiliations and partnerships. Dr. Ezzeddine also had strategic and operational responsibility for the university’s international initiatives and activities, including international recruiting, study abroad and global education and research. Most recently, he led Wayne State’s College to Career initiative to better prepare and support students, graduates, and alumni for careers and align university efforts with workforce trends and needs.
Since 2019, Dr. Ezzeddine has been a member of the board of directors for the NAFSA: Association of International Educators, a non-profit dedicated to international education and exchange. In January 2025, he became the president of NAFSA after serving as its vice president for scholarship and institutional strategy. Dr. Ezzeddine was selected Senior International Officer of the Year for 2022 by the Institute of International Education, a global not-for-profit that facilitates international education and research exchanges.
In addition to serving on the executive committee of the Association of Public and Land Grant Universities’ Commission on Economic and Community Engagement, he is the chair of the board of directors of ACCESS, the largest Arab American community nonprofit in the United States.
He holds a doctorate in Business and Industrial Engineering, as well as master’s and bachelor’s degrees, all from Wayne State University.
Gayle Christensen
Associate Vice Provost for Global Affairs
Dr. Christensen has leadership and administrative responsibility for the University’s diverse global programming including support for international research, study abroad, student and faculty exchanges, and overseas centers.
As an expert in comparative education, Dr. Christensen has served as a consultant and researcher in the U.S. and abroad for organizations including the World Bank, Urban Institute and the Bertelsmann Foundation. Her recent research has focused on the global reach of Massive Open Online Courses and has appeared in such publications as Nature and The Atlantic and online at Slate. Her research has been featured across major media outlets including Harvard Business Review, The Chronicle of Higher Education, The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal.
Prior to coming to the UW, Dr. Christensen spent a decade working in international education. At the University of Pennsylvania, she served as the inaugural Executive Director for Penn Global. There, she developed a range of initiatives aimed at strengthening Penn’s global engagement. As an adjunct faculty member, she taught a seminar on comparative higher education policy. She holds a master’s degree from The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy and a master’s and doctoral degree from Stanford University.
Wolfram Latsch
Director, UW Study Abroad
Dr. Latsch oversees the UW’s study abroad programs and student exchanges. He works with faculty, staff, departments and partners to envision, create and promote a wide variety of global opportunities for students.
An economist by training, Dr. Latsch has taught economics and international studies at the University of Oxford, Northwestern University and at the UW, receiving several teaching awards. His academic expertise is in development economics and economic history, especially of sub-Saharan Africa and Britain. He directed the BA and MA programs in International Studies at the UW’s Henry M. Jackson School of International Studies where he had appointments as lecturer, professor, and Director of Academic Services until 2018.
A native of Germany, Dr. Latsch holds master’s and doctoral degrees in economics from the University of Oxford.
Ladi Carr
Senior Director, Global Engagement
Dr. Carr is the Senior Director for Global Engagement at the University of Washington, where she supports the efforts of the Vice Provost for Global Affairs to further the strategic priorities of the University.
Before joining the UW in 2024, Dr. Carr spent over a decade in higher education focused exclusively on global initiatives and engagement. Most recently at the University of Virginia, she was chiefly responsible for developing international programs, cultivating global partnerships, managing global operations, and serving as an international ambassador for the institution at-large.
As a director for the Center for Global Initiatives at UVA’s Darden School of Business, she developed and led global executive programs in more than 35 countries worldwide.
Originally from the Czech Republic, Dr. Carr holds a Ph.D. and master’s degrees from Charles University in Prague.
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ladicarr