Dr. Dennis Hart serves as the Director of the Visiting International Professional Program at Michigan State University and joined VIPP in 2011. He earned his PhD in Comparative Politics from the Political Science Department of the University of Washington in Seattle, Washington.
As the Director of VIPP, Dr. Hart provides vision, leadership, and advocacy for the world's leading non-degree program in international professional education. Since arriving at VIPP, he has helped lead initiatives to strengthen and diversify VIPP's programs, audience, and regions of interest.
Prior to coming to VIPP, Dr. Hart served as the Associate Director of the Asian Studies Center at the University of Pittsburgh. At ASC, Dr. Hart actively led that university's multi-faceted initiatives to promote knowledge and research about Asia to students, faculty members, and the community. As part of his duties, he administered their Title VI grant and oversaw daily operations and center budgets.
Dr. Hart's research interests include nationalism, culture and identity, and politics in the Koreas. He has authored over fifty academic articles, popular works, book reviews, and book chapters. His book, titled From Tradition Consumption: Constructing a Capitalist Culture in South Korea, was selected as a Distinguished Academic Book by the Korean Academy of Sciences. His current book project is titled Letters from the Empire and is a collection of political essays. Dr. Hart has lived, studied, and worked in South Korea for over eight years.
Dr. Hart served as a university faculty member for nearly two decades, and enjoyed teaching students at the Graduate School of Public and International Affairs at the University of Pittsburgh as well as the political science departments at Kent State University and Western Illinois University. During this time, he received numerous teaching awards, including the Distinguished Teaching Award from Kent State University.
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. Dr. Diffendal 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.
Dr. Mina Shin serves as a program coordinator and faculty member of the Visiting International Professional Program at Michigan State University. She is also affiliated with the Asian Studies Center and Asian Pacific American Studies Program at MSU. Her primary research and teaching areas are globalization of East Asian cinemas and popular cultures, migration and diaspora, and the
politics of media representation of race and ethnicity.
Prior to joining VIPP in 2013, Dr. Shin was a Visiting Assistant Professor
of Film Studies and Korean Studies in the Department of Linguistics &
German, Slavic, Asian and African Languages and a core faculty member of
Global Studies in Arts and Humanities at Michigan State University. During
her tenure, she has developed a wide range of Asian film and culture courses
including "Asian Images in Hollywood Cinema," "Globalization and Asian
Popular Cultures," "East Asian Cinema" and "Korean Cinema." She has published
numerous articles in both academic and popular journals and presented her
work at many conferences.
Reflecting her various educational and professional backgrounds (B.A. in
Korean Language Education from Seoul National University in Korea and Master
and Ph.D. from the School of Cinematic Arts at the University of Southern
California, and work experiences as a professor, copywriter, and freelance
journalist) she is passionate about developing programs for international
professionals in education, advertising, journalism, film, and media.
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.
Peggy Gallandt earned her Bachelor's in Business Administration Degree from Davenport University in Lansing, Michigan. Prior to working for VIPP, Peggy lived in Texas and worked in the Human Resources Department for a large global Manufacturing Company. While in that position, she assisted employees from the Shanghai, China, plant with getting settled during their training in the US. Her previous background also includes working for Davenport University and Vernon Community College in Wichita Falls, Texas.
Samantha Shaughnessy graduated from Michigan State University in May 2012, earning her B.A. in journalism and arts and humanities.
Prior to joining VIPP, Samantha worked at MSU Extension (MSUE) and the W.K. Kellogg Biological Station (KBS). During her duration at MSUE and KBS, Samantha worked extensively in public relations and communications. She has written articles and content for MSU Today, MSUE News and MSUE's Climate Change and Variability site. In addition, Samantha has designed workshop materials and factsheets, along with activity and tour booklets. She was also the Communications Coordinator for the North Central Region Sustainable Agriculture Research Education (NCR-SARE) Carbon, Energy and Climate Conference and the Michigan Carbon, Energy and Climate Discussion, as well as, the Communications and Project Assistant for the Climate Change and Sustainable Agriculture Workshop.
As secretary, she provides support to the VIPP staff, faculty and participants.
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.
Emelia Hammond joined VIPP in 2012 and serves as the Assistant Middle East Program Coordinator. In this position, she develops and coordinates workshops, programming, and cultural events. Prior to VIPP, she worked as a refugee specialist in the social services field, providing services and programs to help recently-arrived refugees build new lives in Michigan. Emelia earned her MA in International Human Rights along with a Certificate in International Development from the University of Denver. Receiving her BA from Alma College, Emelia double-majored in Political Science and Foreign Service.
