Dr. Dennis Hart is the director of the Visiting International Professionals Program at Michigan State University. He received a PhD in political science from University of Washington. Dr. Hart's research and teaching interests include nationalism, culture and identity, and politics in the Koreas.
He is currently working on a pair of book projects: Politics and Culture in North and South Korea will be published by Routledge Press. Letters from the Empire is a collection of political essays and will be written in Korean. He has lived, studied, and worked in South Korea for over nine years.
Dr. Hart has received numerous teaching awards, including the Distinguished Teaching Award from Kent State University and Who's Who Among American Teachers.
Sung Soo Chung is serving as MSU Senior Program Coordinator. Chung has worked for VIPP for more than 12 years and is responsible for strategic planning, new program development, and implement with Korea and other countries, especially in Asia, the Middle East and North Africa. Chung is responsible for identifying potential program areas and collaborative opportunities within MSU and companies, government agencies, and educational institutions abroad. He also works as a program planner and implementer with a variety of program sponsors in Korea, Japan, Brazil, Turkey, Kazakhstan, Costa Rica, Vietnam, Thailand, Libya, Saudi Arabia, and Uzbekistan, including the Ministry of Education, Samsung, SK Telecom, Energy Market Regulatory Authority, Istedod Foundation, University of Costa Rica, Denki Rengo, University the Ryukyu, Foreign Trade University, Bangkok Glass, Saudi Arabia Cultural Mission, among others.
Dr. Enkhee Diffendal is Assistant Director of Visiting International Professional Program (VIPP) at Michigan Sate University. Prior joining VIPP, she served as Managing Director of the Institute for International Studies in Education (IISE), University of Pittsburgh, where she also received her Ph.D in 2010. Enkhee had undertaken both teaching-research and higher education administration tasks at the National University of Mongolia. She had also worked as consultant for different international and local projects in Mongolia. Her research interests and experience are in the areas of higher education management, research methods, policy analysis, program evaluation, international development, social theory and multicultural education.
Ms. Kammel is the Middle East program coordinator for VIPP. She is an international attorney who focuses on rule of law and human rights. Ms. Kammel worked from 2010-2011 in Iraq managing rule of law projects in legal education reform; women and gender issues; civil society and NGOs; and reconciliation and conflict resolution. She ran the first national moot court competition in Iraq in 2010 involving 16 universities. Ms. Kammel also worked in Egypt in the educational system. She specializes in trainings, experiential education, and comparative legal systems. Additionally, Ms. Kammel worked in immigration law.
She received her J.D. in International and Comparative law from DePaul University; an MA in International Human Rights Law from the American University in Cairo; and a BA in Near Eastern Languages & Civilizations from The University of Chicago.
Dr. Kang earned his Ph.D. from the Economics Department at Michigan State University in 2002. His fields of interest are public finance, global economic analysis, open economy macroeconomics, computational general equilibrium (CGE) analysis. Among the main publications are "International Ramifications of U.S. Tax-Policy Changes" in the Journal of Policy Modeling (2003), "U.S. Tax Reform and Its Implications for Korea" in the International Journal of Korean Studies (2006), and "Asymmetries and Tariff-Tax Reforms in the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation" in the Journal of Economic Asymmetries (2007).
As a visiting associate professor, he has been teaching applied macroeconomics, entitled "Current Macroeconomic Issues in the Global Markets," for visiting scholars in VIPP and ISP. Dr. Kang has also been teaching basic courses of microeconomics and macroeconomics for regular undergraduate students in the Department of Economics at MSU. Dr. Kang, as an academic advisor/coordinator, has been mainly in charge of establishing academic oversight and minimum academic standards, monitoring progress toward graduation requirements, and advising program participants. He has also been designing, developing, and implementing training and workshop programs for professionals in finance/economic policy/management sectors in Korea. Dr. Kang is recently developing training and workshop programs for professionals and early-professionals in Korea, Mexico, Brazil, India, and Saudi Arabia.
Dr. Young Tae Kim serves as Visiting Associate Professor with the Visiting International Professional Program (VIPP). His major responsibilities at VIPP include coordinating and running various professional education programs in the fields of public policy, urban policy and planning, and sustainable development. He also develops and coordinates customized short-term workshop programs for governmental agencies and other professional organizations in various fields. He teaches several professional courses on urban planning, public policy, and smart growth & sustainable development and oversees independent policy research of the program participants.
Prior to joining VIPP, Dr. Kim worked as a program assistant for the Center for Advanced Study of International Development (CASID) while conducting his graduate study at MSU. He worked for many international outreach programs at CASID such as Korea local government leadership training programs and other professional certificate education programs. Before coming to the U.S. for his advanced study, he worked as a congressional staff person in Korea providing policy and legislative assistance to a member of the Korea National Assembly. He also had worked for several non-governmental civil organizations in Korea.
He earned a Ph.D. in Resource Development-Urban Studies and a Master of Urban & Regional Planning from Michigan State University. He also holds a Bachelor's degree from Korea University. His research interests include sustainable development, smart growth, climate change & urban policy, green building policy, sustainable land use and brownfield redevelopment, and environmental valuation.
Michael F. Miller is Senior Advisor for Participant Relations of the Visiting International Professional Program at Michigan State University with responsibility for program participant relations throughout their time in program at MSU as well as beyond.
He earned an M.A. in Government and Politics from the University of Maryland-College Park with a focus on international relations, international security, comparative politics, ethnicity, and regional development, with a focus on East Asia and South Asia.
He has worked with VIPP since 1992, most recently as director through September 2010, and with MSU since 1989. Prior to VIPP, he was the coordinator of the Japan Center for Michigan Universities (JCMU) at MSU, which is a study abroad program based in Japan under a consortium of all the state universities in Michigan with MSU as the lead administrative institution.
While studying at Maryland, he worked in UMCP's Office of International Affairs with various administrative responsibilities, as well as an R&D contract specialist at the National Cancer Institute (NIH). where he was responsible for supporting the development, solicitation, award, monitoring, and closure of various R&D contracts in the life sciences.
As Assistant Program Coordinator for the Visiting International Professional Program, Chen Wang helps coordinate programs and short-term workshops related to China. She received her MA TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages) degree from Michigan State University. Her research area of interest is second language teaching and language assessment. Before joining VIPP, she taught English and Chinese to adults and children living in the East Lansing community.
Qing Xia is a program coordinator of the Visiting International Professional Program in the International Studies and Programs of MSU. She is a specialist of China. Educated in China and the U.S. she has advanced degrees in English and American Studies. She has worked as a university professor at Sichuan University of China before coming to the U.S. She has worked at MSU for more than 10 years, primarily working with international professionals and students. She traveled extensively in China to promote MSU and various programs since late 1990s. She has initiated, coordinated and implemented many training programs and workshops with China. She is also an experienced translator between English and Chinese languages.
As the secretary for the Visiting International Professional Program, Ms. Rich provides clerical support for the director, program coordinators, and instructors.
Ms. Rich has over 20 years of customer service experience in various office settings from large corporations and small businesses, to educational institutions. Since 2005, she has worked in International Studies and Programs at Michigan State University.
Emily Williams earned her BA in Hospitality Business from Michigan State University. Prior to working for VIPP, she worked as a restaurant General Manager.
As the Operations Coordinator for VIPP, she not only provides financial and operational support for VIPP, but she also maintains records for VIPP projects and events, provides operational and logistical coordination for VIPP cultural events, workshops, conferences, and participant settlement, including coordinating travel both on and off-campus for MSU faculty and staff as well as non-MSU visitors.
