Dear LACIS faculty, students and friends,

As you may know, we had the pleasure to offer the position of  LACIS Outreach Coordinator and Undergraduate Advisor to Sarah K. Ripp.  Sarah accepted our offer and started on in her position on January 7th.  We have been very pleased with Sarah’s contribution to the program and now we are taking this opportunity to introduce her formally to you and tell you a little bit about her background and responsibilities.

Sarah comes to LACIS with a strong background, including a B.A. in International Studies with minors in Latin American Studies & Spanish, from Miami University, in Oxford OH (1997) and a M.A. in International Administration with concentrations in Human Rights & International Law, from the University of Denver’s Graduate School of International Studies (2001). Sarah  studied abroad at the  Universidad de las Americas, in Puebla, Mexico in 1996 and at the Centro de Lenguas e Intercambio Cultural (CLIC) in Seville, Spain (1997).

She has extensive experience working and advising undergraduates through her work as adjunct faculty member, coordinator of the cultural lecture series and international coordinator at Barat College of DePaul University, located in Lake Forest, IL, from 2002 to 2005. Sarah also taught two courses: “The Effects of Globalization on the Environment” and “The History of Human Rights” on behalf of DePaul’s undergraduate, Global Studies Undergraduate Program.  She was also an instructor of International Economics and English at the Instituto Tecnológico y de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey, Hermosillo campus in 2002.

Previously, Sarah acted as the International Director at the Center for Cultural Interchange (CCI) in St Charles, Illinois where she created partnerships with other study abroad organizations worldwide. More recently, Sarah worked for the Wisconsin Ethics Board as the public outreach administrator, and as a development associate, event planner and fundraiser for American Players Theatre, in Spring Green, Wisconsin.

Sarah is mainly responsible for advising the approximately 80 undergraduate students majoring in LACIS and managing the LACIS Outreach program, including Title VI related activities and contacts with the larger Madison community interested in Latin American, Caribbean or Iberian issues.  Sarah is also coordinating the proposals for the the Tinker-Nave subcommittee on Visiting Scholars, Artists and Lecturers and providing assistance to coordinate the Tinker Visiting Professorship Program.

She has traveled to Norway, the Netherlands, France, Italy, England, Portugal, Spain, Mexico, Costa Rica and Canada and lives in Lodi with her husband and their three month old son, Beau.

For the past two years, Sarah has been a member of a book club called “Based on the Novel” which was recently featured in the “WI Woman Reads” section of Wisconsin Woman’s Magazine.  She spends much of her free time sewing and renovating/decorating her turn of the century home.

We look forward to working with Sarah to continue strengthening LACIS and to keep it among the best Latin American, Caribbean and Iberian Studies programs in the nation. If you haven’t done so yet, please join us in welcoming Sarah to the program.

Sarah can be contacted at:
209 Ingraham Hall
(608) 262-0616
 skripp@wisc.edu

Sincerely,

Ksenija Bilbija Director
Alberto Vargas, Associate Director