Leadership Bios

Kurt Schick, ACM's Vice President of U.S. Operations, began his career at ACM-IAU in 2001. He previously served as Director of Undergraduate Admissions at Concordia University (River Forest, IL) and initially honed his recruitment skills as an admissions counselor at his alma mater, Augustana College, in Rock Island, IL. He received his B.A. in English/French from Augustana in 1990 and obtained his M.S. in Organization Leadership from Regis University in 2016. Since he began at ACM, Kurt has overseen ACM's Admissions operations, focusing on developing new institutional partnerships and enhancing existing ones. Under Kurt's leadership, the admissions office has grown from a two-person office to a staff of 25. With ACM's expansion into Spain, the inclusion of multi-country January term programs, the addition of faculty-led programming, and the options of degree programs, enrollment at ACM has gone from 300 per year to more than 1,000 students. In 2016, Kurt took on the role of Dean of Alumni Affairs, leveraging the robust network of over 20,000 alumni with the goal of increasing ACM's endowment and scholarship opportunities for future students. Hosting regional alumni receptions and follow-up from ACM's incredibly successful 60th-anniversary celebration and alumni reunion - held in May 2017 at ACM's Aix-en-Provence, France campus - have proven to be successful strategies.

Emile Lamah - Chief Financial Officer
Emile has over 35 years of experience in business, finance, and accounting. He joined ACM in September 2023 as the Chief Financial Officer. Before joining ACM, Emile worked as a financial consultant for eight years namely outsourced and fractional CFO services where he served many small and medium-sized enterprises in several sectors including higher ed, manufacturing, logistics, video production, engineering, and retail. Emile also served as the Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of the Lebanese American University (LAU) where he oversaw the wellbeing of LAU’s finances, supervised the financial functions at the university including financial planning and budgeting, treasury and endowment management, accounting, grants administration, and financial reporting and controls. He also provided leadership in developing policies and procedures to ensure that all the functions were properly managed to serve LAU’s strategic goals. 

Kristen Mylander-Ouerfelli, '86-'87 - Chief Operations Officer
Kristin Mylander-Ouerfelli is the Chief Operations Officer and Director of Finance and Administration, overseeing finances and personnel. She began her career at ACM-IAU in 1990. She was previously Registrar, and Chief Financial Officer. She is an alumna of ACM's study abroad institute, IAU, having studied at the Centre d’Aix for the acadmic year 1986-87. She received a B.A. in Math and French from Wake Forest University. She is fluent in English and French.

Dr. Ignasi Pérez - Vice President, Spain and Italy Programs
Dr. Ignasi Pérez has been the ACM-IAU Barcelona Center Director since 2016 and ACM Spain Director since 2021. He holds a degree in Sociology from University of Barcelona and a PhD in Political Science from UB with European honors from University of Florence (Italy). He is also a member of GRAPA (Group of Research and Analysis of Public and Comparative Public Administration) since 2012. His areas of research are Comparative Politics, Political Sociology, Political Economy and Cultural Anthropology. He has taught in Italy (Universitàdegli study di Firenze and University of Sassari) and in Spain for University of Barcelona, Universitat Abad Oliva, and European University. In the last 12 years he has taught for different Study Abroad programs such as IES Abroad, CEA Study Abroad and Barcelona International College. He is fluent in Spanish, Catalan, English and Italian.

Dr. Muriel Cros - Dean, Center for French Studies
Dr. Muriel Cros is a linguist, a teacher, and a poet. She joined ACM in 1996 as a professor of French Language and Literature. In 2012, she became Chair of the French Department and Director of the French Honors Program and Summer French Teachers Workshop and in 2014 she became an Assistant Dean of the School of Humanities and Social Sciences. During her many years of teaching experience within ACM and in prestigious French and American institutions of higher education, including Harvard and Vanderbilt University, Dr. Cros created many multidisciplinary courses and programs such as “Crossing Spaces in the Intercultural Contexts”, “Dialogue between French and Francophone Literature” and “France as seen through its Movies”. She earned a Masters in Literature, Aix-Marseille I University (1981), a Ph.D. in Linguistics in Aix-Marseille I University (1986) dealing with the relations between Poetic Patterns and the Acquisition of Language by Children, and a second one at the University of Montpellier III (1994). She was only the second linguist in France hired by the French Government for a national public health research program evaluating Discourses of Prevention towards young people. Dr. Cros’ research and publications have focused on Discourse Analysis (conceptualization of the language used in Public Health) and now on Plurilinguism and Multiliteracies (Creative Approaches and Language Learning). Dr. Cros is also an accomplished poet and visual artist. Her sculptural work explores themes relating to words and space and has been published and exhibitedinternationally. She is fluent in French and English, and speaks some German.

Dr. Yumna Masarwa - Dean, School of Art
Dr. Yumna Masarwa is an art historian and an archaeologist. She has been the Director of the ACM Art School since 2021. She joined ACM-IAU in September 2013, where she teaches Muslim Presence in Europe, The Children of Abraham: Judaism, Christianity and Islam, Islamic Art in Europe, Medieval Art and Architecture, and Crossroads in European Art. She has taught at several academic institutions such as Princeton University, INALCO Paris (Institut national des langues et civilisations orientales), The New School: Parsons Paris, CIEE Paris (Council on International Educational Exchange), and the Paris College of Art. Dr. Masarwa has a B.A. in Archaeology and History from Ben-Gurion University (Israel), and M.A and Ph.D. degrees in Art and Archaeology from Princeton University. Her research focuses on combining medieval primary sources with material culture. She speaks Arabic, Hebrew, English, and French.

Aboubakr Jamai - Dean, Donna Dillon Manning School of Global Affairs
Professor Jamaï’s professional career spans the business sectors of finance, economics, and journalism. As a professor, He teaches Media & Conflict, Contemporary Politics of The Middle East and International Business. He was the Dean of the School of Business and International Relations from 2014 to 2023 and now serves as the Dean of the Donna Dillon Manning School of Global Affairs since 2024. Professor Jamaï began his career in finance, co-founding Morocco's first independent investment bank in 1993. From 1997 to 2007, Jamaï was the publisher and editor the leading Moroccan newsweekly, Le Journal Hebdomadaire. In 2008, he was a visiting Scholar at the University of San Diego where he taught courses on International Journalism, Political Islam and Politics in The Middle East.  He was the MENA regional editor for the Open Society Foundation’s project: Mapping Digital Media. He also worked in Iraq as a consultant with International Media Support (IMS) advising independent Iraqi media on their business strategies. From 2010 to 2013, he was the co-editor of the Moroccan news website lakome.com. He publishes regularly in The New York Times, Time Magazine, El Pais, Le Monde, and Le Monde Diplomatique. Among the many prizes and distinctions he has received, Professor Jamaï won the Committee to Protect Journalists’ International Press Freedom Award in 2003. He was named Harvard University’s Nieman Fellow in 2007 and Mason Fellow in 2008. In 2008, he also received the Tully Center Free Speech Prize, Newhouse School of Communication, Syracuse University. In December 2010, he won the Gebran Tueni Award, the annual prize of the World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers (WAN-IFRA). In 2014, he won the Project on Middle East Democracy (POMED) Leaders For Democracy Award. He was a Richard von Weizsäcker Fellow at the Bosch foundation in 2013. Professor Jamaï holds a Bachelor of Business Administration from the Higher Institute of Commerce and Management in Casablanca, Morocco, a Master of Business Administration from Oxford University’s Saïd Business School and a Master of Public Administration from Harvard Kennedy School. He speaks Arabic, French, English and Spanish.

Dr. Guillaume Durand - Assistant Dean, School of Humanities and Social Sciences
Dr. Guillaume Durand has been a professor of archaeology and art history since 2002, an Assistant Dean of the School of Humanities and Social Sciences since 2014 and leads a January term Traveling Seminar on Mediterranean Civilizations. Prof. Durand completed a Master's of Art History and Archaeology on Byzantine Studies and a Ph.D. in Romanian History at the Université de Provence. He completed in 2014 a three-year post-doctorate program funded by the European Union and under the aegis of the Romanian Academy (Bucharest) and the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales (Paris). He has published two books and several articles in French academic reviews (Cahier des Etudes Romanes, Turcica) and in Romania (Historical Yearbook, Annals of the Spiru Haret University). Professor Durand participates regularly in international conferences in France and throughout Europe and maintains active involvement and oversight of local, regional, and national archaeological excavations. He speaks French, English, Romanian, and Greek.

Dr. Aurore Guitry - Assistant Dean, Center for French Studies
Dr. Aurore Guitry is the Coordinator of the Center for French Studies at ACM since 2022. She is a writer, translator, and Professor of literature, French and translation at ACM since 2016. She holds a Master in Literature (Women and imagination in Shakespeare’s plays: King Lear, Richard III and Macbeth), and a PhD in creative writing from Aix-Marseille University. She has written six novels, some of which are translated into Italian, German and Russian. Her work and research explores the problem of identity and the relation between text and image. As a ghostwriter, she wrote several biographies for politicians or business figures. She has also translated a dozen American novels, biographies, art books, etc. She is fluent in French and English and speaks Thai.

Anthony Triolo - Director, Center for Wine and Gastronomy
Anthony Triolo has been a professor since 2005 and the ACM Wine Studies Coordinator since 2022. He is now the Director of the Center for Wine and Gastronomy, and teaches International Relations, Environmental Politics and Eco-gastronomy. His scholarly interests center on the relationship between international security and the global environmental crisis with a particular focus on sustainable agriculture. He is a veteran of the United States Marine Corps and has several years’ experience managing sustainable/organic vineyards and making wine in the Santa Cruz Mountains AVA of California. He received a Bachelor’s degree (Summa Cum Laude) in International Affairs from the American University of Paris, a Master’s degree in Strategic Studies from the Université Paul Valery III, Montpellier in conjunction with the Institut d’Etudes Politiques in Aix-en-Provence, France. He holds a WSET 3 Wines Certification and is currently working on a Ph.D. in Sustainable Development and Diplomacy at Euclid University. He speaks English and French.

Dr. Mary Boyington - Dean of Students
Dr. Mary Boyington serves as the Dean of Students at the Aix-en-Provence campus. Dr. Boyington first joined ACM in 2012 and then returned in 2023 as the Dean of Students. She teaches in the Center for French Studies and the School of Humanities & Social Sciences. Her research interests include nineteenth century literature, translations studies, and international education. She completed a M.A. in French and Francophone Literature at the University of Louisiana-Lafayette and a PhD in American and Comparative Literature from Aix-Marseille Université in 2017. Her experience in U.S Higher Education includes directing a residential faculty-led program in Paris, managing programming at the Oldenborg Center for Modern Languages and International Relations at Pomona College, leading internationalization efforts for the five campuses of the Colleges of the Fenway in Boston, as well as working in the academic relations team for a major study abroad provider. Since moving to France, Dr. Boyington has taught literature and translation at Aix-Marseille Université and worked for at several study abroad programs, including Syracuse University Strasbourg from 2014-2023. In 2023, she was delighted to return to Aix-en-Provence and ACM-IAU to take on the inaugural role of Dean of Students in Student Affairs. Her experience directing study abroad programs in France has given her a unique perspective in academics and student affairs, as well as specializations in emergency management, student services and implementing collaborative cross-campus projects. In addition to her duties at ACM-IAU, she is a member of the governing board of the APUAF (Association for American University Programs in France) and the planning committee for the Forum on Education Abroad EAME 2024 Conference. Dr. Boyington speaks French, English, Spanish, and beginning German. 

Dr. Jessica Calhoun - Dean of Admissions
Jessica Calhoun joined ACM in 2019 as the inaugural Assistant Dean of Admissions and Alumni Affairs. She was promoted to Dean of Admissions in 2023. In 2004 she received her BA in Spanish and Latin American Studies at the University of San Diego (USD). Shortly thereafter in 2006 her Master's of Arts in Teaching followed from Chapman University, and in 2014 she received her Doctor of Philosophy in Leadership Studies from USD. Jessica's specialization is in higher education administration and organizational leadership, which perfectly poises her to lead ACM's growing U.S. Office in San Diego, CA. As a seasoned international educator, she's conducted research and shared her findings and expertise at numerous conferences including The Forum on Education Abroad, NAFSA, AIEA, and CIEE to name a few. She served as the Associate Director of International Studies Abroad at USD from 2007-2019, and prior to that served as a Program Manager and Assistant to the Associate Provost for Internationalization. Jessica speaks Spanish fluently and has a working knowledge of Italian.