Kathy Evenson-McDermott

I was raised on a family farm in Northeast Iowa and come to this program having spent the focus of my career thus far in education, teaching and advising students with an international focus with a B.A. in German and M.A. in Educational Psychology. I am excited to bring this background together with my interest in food systems in the MDP program and develop my skills in new international contexts. I am drawn to the breadth of the coursework that the MDP program provides preparing me to work across systems, as this breadth has been how I have built my career. Majoring in German, I approached language learning with an international relations mindset. Politics, history, and culture were part of my curriculum and this has continued into my advising role where I coordinate the study abroad advising for our team of 16 advisers, lead academic inbound and outbound orientations for 30+ partner exchange programs, and advise my caseload of 250 students on their business curriculum and international experience requirement. I serve as the liaison to the faculty for the international business co-major and have seen this major through 4 iterations with coursework from multiple colleges across the university. I have led students abroad for language learning in German-speaking Europe and served as site coordinator for faculty-led study abroad programs on two continents. I value the opportunity to prepare myself for this career pivot as I have been preparing my students.