Reza Fakhari – President / CEO
Prior to assuming this position, Reza served as the Secretary of the Board of Directors of the Global Citizenship Alliance for 8 years. He was elected to the Amnesty International USA Board of Directors in 2014 and served as Vice Chair and then Chair of the Board. He served as Chair of the Board of Student World Assembly which aimed to engage students from all over the world in critical reflection and new thinking about pressing global issues. He served as Vice President for Internationalization and a professor of international politics at St. Francis College in New York City where he led the comprehensive internationalization of the College and continues as a member of the teaching faculty. Prior to St. Francis, he served for 30 years in progressively responsible roles at LaGuardia Community College and Kingsborough Community College of the City University of New York (CUNY) as professor, director, dean, associate provost, and vice president. He has also taught at Fordham University, Vassar College, and International Pacific College in New Zealand. He has served on the Editorial Advisory Board of the Liberal Education Journal of the American Association of Colleges & Universities (AAC&U), on the Advisory Council of the Aspen Institute Wye Seminars, and on the International Advisory Board of GlobalMindEd. He holds a Ph.D., with Honors, in International Relations from the New School for Social Research in New York City. He frequently speaks and writes about the imperative of global, intercultural, and interreligious understanding and engagement in our rapidly globalizing and highly interdependent world.
Jochen Fried – Senior Advisor
Jochen was the founding President/CEO of the Global Citizenship Alliance. Prior to assuming this position, he was Director of Education at Salzburg Global Seminar, where he was responsible for developing and maintaining programs that highlight the pivotal role of education in building resilient and equitable societies, including the Global Citizenship Program and the Salzburg Academy on Media and Global Change. He also held the positions of Head of Programs at the Institute for Human Sciences in Vienna, and of senior officer at the secretariat of the German Higher Education and Science Council (Wissenschaftsrat). After earning a doctorate in German literature at Düsseldorf University, Germany, he was a lecturer at Cambridge University and Ljubljana University, and a visiting scholar at various universities and colleges in the United States including Smith College in Northampton, MA, San José State University, CA, Bronx Community College, NY, and Morehouse College in Atlanta, GA. He has worked in more than twenty countries on behalf of national and international organizations and has published widely on various topics related to higher education policy and global civil society.
Astrid Schroeder – Chief Financial Officer
Prior to joining the GCA, Astrid was a Program Director for the Global Citizenship Program (GCP) at Salzburg Global Seminar, where she had focused on the Global Citizenship Program’s student sessions, program development and relationship building. Before joining Salzburg Global in 1997, Astrid was administrator for the department of MultiMediaArt at the Salzburg University of Applied Sciences and Technologies. During her studies in Berlin, she received a scholarship to the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis where she mainly took classes in United States history, and American and African-American literature and theater. Originally from Germany, she holds an M.A. in North American studies, modern history, and theater arts from the Free University of Berlin’s John F. Kennedy Institute.
Jana Schroeder – Program Manager
Jana was born and raised in Salzburg and works as Program Manager for the Global Citizenship Alliance. She obtained an honors degree in liberal arts and sciences at University College Maastricht, the Netherlands. Her focus lies on migration studies, politics, international relations, and peace and conflict resolution. Currently she is pursuing an M.Phil in Race, Ethnicity & Conflict at Trinity College Dublin, Ireland, where she was recently chosen for the European Excellence Award. Prior to her current position, she was an intern and then a research assistant for the GCA. In addition, she worked as an applied research intern for the United Nations University MERIT in the migration office during her studies in the Netherlands, and currently holds a position as a researcher for the Salzburg Global Seminar. Other interests of hers include animal welfare, higher education, and race and gender issues.
Keshia Abraham – Director of Partnership Advancement
Keshia is an International Education practitioner and African diaspora scholar advancing global learning through justice and equity with dignity and intention. Prior to starting Abraham Consulting Agency, she was the Senior Director for Diversity and Inclusion at CIEE (Council for Independent Education Exchange) where she was responsible for developing, directing and co-facilitating the Frederick Douglass Global Scholars program, managing Project Passport which supported the internationalization of select MSI institutions, and providing leadership and direction for creating an inclusive global learning environment. She has been involved in numerous programs to advance internationalization and global citizenship including as a participant and presenter in multiple sessions of the Mellon Global Citizenship Program (under the auspices of the Salzburg Global Seminar) and the Global Citizenship Alliance. A recipient of multiple academic awards including two Fulbright fellowships, Keshia has studied, taught, facilitated workshops and conducted research in over 40 countries cultivating access, belonging and understanding in global learning. A lifelong advocate for HBCUs specifically and for MSIs generally, Keshia has helped grow international programs within a wide variety of institution types. As an academic leader, Keshia has most recently served as associate professor, department chair, academic Dean and Director of International Education at Florida Memorial University.
Michael Daxner – Director of Research
Michael is professor of sociology and president emeritus of the University of Oldenburg. He is the former president of the Magna Charta Observatory of Fundamental University Values and Rights. In 1986, he began his service as president of the Carl-von-Ossietzky University in Oldenburg, where he served two terms. In 2002 he became special counselor to the United Nations Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK) office in Belgrade. From 2003 to 2004, he was engaged in Afghan higher education reform as commissioned by the German Rectors and German Academic Exchange on behalf of the German Foreign Office and served as an expert on Southeast European education as a counselor with the Austrian Ministry of Science and Education. He holds a Ph.D. in education from the University of Vienna. Michael has attended several Salzburg Global Seminar programs and serves as teaching faculty of the Global Citizenship Alliance, for both Student and Faculty and Administrator programs.
Anna Glass – Independent Consultant
Anna is an independent consultant for higher education institutions and other organizations. She has served as higher education expert for the OECD; UNESCO; European Commission; the Austrian Federal Ministry of Education, Science and Culture; and the Salzburg Global Seminar, among others. Anna offers valuable insights based on comprehensive understanding of international norms, practices, and legal parameters; an instrumental global network of practitioners, educators, intellectuals, and policy-influencers; and a wealth of practical know-how when it comes to internationalization, program management, and inter-cultural communication. Currently, Anna is working out of Boston, MA, where she is focusing on internationalization of American higher education institutions and mentoring young immigrants on college access in the US.
Alice Seeger – Independent Contractor / General Counsel / Assistant Secretary
Alice is an attorney who focuses her practice on representing small businesses and nonprofit organizations on a wide variety of issues, and businesses and individuals on succession and estate planning issues. She earned her B.B.A. (with honors) from the University of Wisconsin – Madison in 1984. After graduation, she worked for IBM for a few years before heading to the University of Texas, School of Law in Austin. Alice was awarded her Juris Doctorate (with honors) in 1989, and inducted into the Order of the Coif. She has been a member of the Board of Directors of the Community Transitional School (CTS) since 2010. CTS is a nonprofit private school in Portland for children pre-kindergarten through 8th grade whose families are either homeless or in transitional housing. Since 2012, Alice has held the office of Secretary of the CTS Board of Directors and has been an active member of its Executive Committee.
Adam Beeson – Community and Outreach Coordinator
Based in Costa Rica, Adam is responsible for connecting GCA alumni across the global network while supporting program activities and development. He is an alumnus of the Global Citizenship Alliance and previously served in a number of roles for the Salzburg Global Seminar. Adam has more than a decade of international school teaching and leadership experience in Europe and the Americas. He is currently DEIB Coordinator and a language and literature teacher at Pan-American School, Costa Rica’s first International Baccalaureate (IB) continuum school. Adam is actively involved in the wider field of international school education, adding his insight as a presenter at the IB Global Conference of the Americas, serving as a member of the International School Anti-Discrimination Taskforce and contributing to various publications, including the International Schools Network, School Management Plus and the Wellbeing in International Schools Magazine. He received his M.A. in International Education from the University of Bath (United Kingdom), a B.A. in English from Brevard College (USA) and an International Teacher Certificate from the European Council of International Schools.
