Dorca V. Kisare-Ressler

Dorca’s professional world revolves around international education and organizational leadership. Previously, she worked as an international student advisor and Designated School Official (DSO) in the Office of Global Programs at Penn State University. She has used her management skills by serving as the director of international student services at variousuniversities, where she provided leadership as a DSO and a Primary Designated School Official. Dorca has also supervised and mentored student leaders, as well as advising students on their academic and compliance with immigration status requirements while directing the institutions to develop and implement co-curricular educational programming. Dorca has successfully executed campus-wide community engagement and open dialogue on initiatives relating to international education and intercultural awareness. Dorca has also collaborated with administrative leadership, guiding the support of co curricular educational initiatives, and worked in partnership with faculty and staff.

Dorca’s research explores the beliefs of international development workers in sub-Saharan Africa and the role intercultural competency skills play in the success of globalized transnational and transcultural organizations. Her study examines the opinions of Tanzanian non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and non-Tanzanian international non-governmental organizations (INGOs) international development workers on the role intercultural competency skills training (ICST) play in sustaining international development programs. As a Tanzanian American, she hopes to explore how international development workers’ discourse and views on ICST inform their international development project implementation practices to accomplish their shared goals and objectives. Furthermore, her research aims to explore how development workers from the Global North and the Global South negotiate cultural, social, and economic tensions within their transnational/cross-cultural work experiences. She and her husband have three adult children and live in central Pennsylvania. While completing her dissertation and research, she also volunteers for an organization that facilitates refugee resettlement within her local community.