BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Christie Doherty – Chair

As a former telecom and cable executive, Christie has extensive experience successfully leading large, complex organizations through organizational change and transformation. 

Previously, Christie was vice president, Wholesale Service Delivery at Qwest, with responsibility for Wholesale Customer Service Operations, managing over 1,500 employees and having revenue responsibility for $3.2 billion.  

Currently, she is the President of the Women's Vision Foundation, the only professional non-profit organization in Colorado dedicated to advancing corporate women leaders. Christie has grown the organization to over 3000 members and expanded the focus of its offerings to include leadership, management and professional development programs..

She held a number of positions throughout her career, including assignments in strategic planning, customer operations, marketing, sales, and organization effectiveness.

Christie is the Chair for the Foundation for Asia Pacific Education, a member of the International Women's Forum and the WiseWomen’s Council, board secretary for INROADS-Colorado, and a member of the Regis University executive advisory council..

She is the recipient of the US West Chairman's Leadership Award, the CWLC Women's Leader of Excellence Award, and the 2004 Woman of Vision Award.

Cynthia Banks – President

Cynthia is executive director and founder of AustraLearn / AsiaLearn / EuroLearn – Educational Programs of GlobaLinks, a Westminster, Colo.-based company with a 17-year history sending more than 18,000 students abroad to Australia, New Zealand and the South Pacific.

Cynthia founded AustraLearn in 1990 and since then it has grown into the largest provider of programs in Australia, New Zealand and the South Pacific. Those programs include semester, year-abroad and full-degree options, as well as teacher education, internship, summer/January and leadership programs.  Currently, AustraLearn sends 3,000 students overseas annually, employs 45 people in its domestic and overseas offices and generates $25 million in annual revenues.  In 2007, AustraLearn launched sister programs AsiaLearn, with programs at six Asian universities, and EuroLearn, with programs at seven European universities.

A native Coloradoan educated in state, she holds a bachelor’s degree in business (marketing) from Colorado State University, a master’s degree in organizational development from the University of Colorado-Denver and a graduate certificate in entrepreneurship also from the University of Colorado.

A leader and frequent speaker in the field of international education, Cynthia is a member of NAFSA: Association of International Educators, has served on the association’s executive team for Region II and was the 1999 co-chair of local arrangements for the group’s national conference. Her other associations and memberships include: The Forum on Education Abroad, the European Association for International Education (EAIE), Council on International Educational Exchange (CIEE), Australian Education International (AEI), Canadian Bureau of International Education (CBIE), and the Women's Vision Foundation in Denver. Cynthia has extensive travel experience in Australia, New Zealand, the South Pacific, Asia and Europe. She makes her home in Superior, Colo., with her husband and two children.

Lawrence Bell – Treasurer, Secretary

For the past 18 years, Larry has been the chief international officer on the campus where he has worked.  Each of the three campuses where he has served in this capacity has been somewhat differently organized but all three offices have been responsible for both the inbound and outbound students and faculty. 

Originally trained as an ESL teacher, Larry is a graduate of Southern Illinois University (SIU) where he taught for two years.  He also taught in and directed the Intensive English Program at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee for 12 years before moving into international education administration on that campus.  All told, the higher education international experience combines for a total of 32 years.

Larry has served NAFSA: Association of International Education in a number of positions including regional chair, national office, conference organizational positions.  Larry was Chair of Region V in 1993-4.  Prior to that he held a variety of state and regional positions on the Region V NAFSA teams.  He recently served as NAFSA’s Vice President for Policy and Practice (2005 – 07).  He served as Chair of the Consular Affairs Working Group from 2001 to 2004.  He has been conference and local arrangements chair for TESOL Regional and NAFSA Regional conferences and was Local Arrangements Co-Chair for NAFSA ’99 the annual conference of 6,000 plus held in Denver.

Larry developed his interest in international activities while serving as a draftee in the military in Viet Nam.  After leaving the army, he studied Vietnamese language and linguistics (his BA is in Vietnamese Language from SIU, MA in Linguistics) and that started him on his international journey.

Shelia Houston – Director

Shelia is the Director of AustraLearn's in country operations in Australia, New Zealand, and the South Pacific. She has worked with AustraLearn for more than 12 years and has served as the Acting Executive Director in the US office.

Shelia was born in the USA and following her university study, she traveled the world extensively and immigrated to Australia. She has a broad business background in international businesses in both public and private sectors. Recently she has become a founding member of the Australian Internship Industry Association.

Amy Deppe – Executive Director

Amy attended the University of Colorado at Boulder and has a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology.  Her love for travel, interest in the non-profit sector, and experience in international education led her to the Foundation for Asia Pacific Education, where she is the Executive Director and has been with the organization since November 2007.  Prior to this position, Amy worked as a recruiter for senior academics at universities in the Asia Pacific region as well as a manager for degree program student services at AustraLearn, an Educational Program of GlobaLinks.