CHAIR EUASA

Stephen Robinson is Director and Professor with Champlain College Dublin, the Irish study abroad campus of Champlain College of Burlington, Vermont, USA. British born and Canadian raised and educated, he holds a PhD in Physical Geography from McGill University, Montreal, Canada, and previously held the Chapin Chair in Geology at St. Lawrence University in Canton, New York. His research expertise is in permafrost, climate, peatlands, and glacial geology. More recently he has undertaken several research projects relating to education abroad in Europe. He is a co-founder and member of the board of the Association of Study Abroad Providers in Ireland (ASAPI), co-founder of EUASA, and former Board Chair for the Irish Council of International Students (ICOS). Robinson is particularly interested in climate action and sustainability within education abroad.

DEPUTY CHAIR

Fabrizio Ricciardelli was appointed Director of the Kent State University Florence Center in 2012 after serving in leadership and teaching roles at Georgetown University at Villa Le Balze. Ricciardelli joined Georgetown University in 2004 and served for six years as Professor of History. Between 2010-2012 he was also selected as Academic Director and in 2010 he became the chairman of the scientific committee “Villa Le Balze Studies”. After serving as Co-Secretary Treasurer, in 2021 Ricciardelli was elected President of AACUPI, the Association of American College and University Programs in Italy. His main field of study in which he has many publications is the Italian city-states in the social, economic, political, and cultural landscape of Medieval Europe. A native of Florence, Fabrizio Ricciardelli earned his undergraduate degree in Medieval History at the University of Florence and his Ph.D. at the University of Warwick in England.

SECRETARY

Kelly Bohan is the Program Coordinator at the Brown University program in Paris after five years with the Middlebury College School in France. Kelly was born and raised in the US where she earned her B.A.s from the University of Missouri. She worked as a teaching assistant in Le Mans, France for two years before pursuing an M.A in International Education Management at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies and working as the activity coordinator and teaching assistant for the MIIS French Summer Intensive Language Program.

TREASURER

Ignacio Messana is the program director for Florida State University campus in Valencia, Spain and has held this position ever since 2000. Messana has an extensive background in Business Administration and Entrepreneurship. He first obtained his Master´s degree from the University of Valencia in Economics and Business Administration and later went on to complete a PhD in Business Administration and Management with a focus in Entrepreneurship from the Polytechnic University of Valencia. Messana is also a Consultant for Spanish and American companies advising in topics such as marketing, international commercial transactions, and public and political relations. Messana co-authored the book “A History of Valencia”, amongst other scholarly articles. He is also a professor of Business Communication and other business courses taught at Florida State University inspiring the next generation of managers, administrators and planners.

LEGAL CONSULTANT

Gian Franco Borio is an attorney at law and former CPA, Legal Counsel to the Association of American College and University Programs in Italy and to the European Association of Study Abroad (EUASA). He graduated with cum laude at the Law School of the Università degli Studi di Firenze (Florence), continued his graduate studies at SAIS of Johns Hopkins University in D.C., at the London City Poly, in Germany and in France. He served as Technical Counsel at the Italian Federation of EUCPAs (FEE) to the European Commission on Corporate Law, Tax Law, SMEs. He is a member of the Florence Bar, professional association of lawyers in Italy.

BOARD MEMBER

Ariadne Ferro is an adjunct professor at IE University. She has experience teaching at numerous universities in the United States and Spain. Her previous research examines languages in contact, in particular, Spanglish as it is spoken by Cuban U.S. Americans in South Florida, USA.

She is executive director of APUNE (Association of North American University Programs in Spain), an intercultural and inclusion facilitator, and an Intercultural Development Inventory (IDI) Qualified Administrator. Professor Ferro also participated in the design and delivery of Coursera’s MOOC, Diversity with Inclusion in Organizations.

Ariadne is a certified ADHD coach and a board-certified ADHD educator, who coaches clients through her consultancy, The Zunzún.