Staff Bios
Justin O’Jack, Resident Director, received his B.A. in History at the University of California, Santa Cruz in 1988. He received his M.A. from the Department of Religious Studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara in 2002, where he researched late medieval Chinese pilgrimage traditions and religious geography. Justin served as the Academic Director of a study abroad program in the city of Hangzhou, China for three years before joining CIEE in Shanghai in 2006. He also serves as Vice President of the Royal Asiatic Society, Shanghai Chapter.
Catherine Q. E. Sim, Academic Director, received her Ph.D. from the University of Vienna, Austria (1998) and her M.B.A. in International Management from Thunderbird—School of Global Management, where she served on the faculty. She has also taught at the Marshall Goldsmith School of Management at Alliant International University in San Diego, the University of Graz, University of Linz, and University of Salzburg in Austria. She has also worked as a research psychologist at Tilburg University in the Netherlands. Having lived, studied, and worked in China, Singapore, Austria, France, the Netherlands, and the U.S., Dr. Sim has extensive experience with both Asian and Western businesses and cultural environments. She specializes in intercultural and cross-cultural competence.
Lei Chen Wong, Assistant Director, joined CIEE in 2005. She graduated from Hamilton College, where she concentrated in Chinese and Japanese languages. In 2004, she returned to study at the Hopkins-Nanjing Center, taking graduate-level courses in Chinese focusing on Sino-U.S. relations and contemporary Chinese society.
Liao Jianling, Language Director, joined CIEE in the fall of 2006. Originally from Jiangxi, China, Ms. Liao is a doctoral candidate in the area of Second Language Acquisition from the University of Iowa. While studying abroad in the U.S. at the University of Iowa, she also received two M.A. degrees in Teaching Chinese as a Foreign Language and Instructional Design and Technology. In addition, she holds an M.A. degree in Chinese Linguistics from Wuhan University. Her research interests include computer-assisted language learning and language pedagogy in study abroad contexts. Prior to joining CIEE, Ms. Liao also taught for five years at the Middlebury College Summer Chinese School.
Additional support services are given by Zheng Huan and Liu Yingying, the Academic Support Coordinators; Yang Lihong, Student Services Coordinator; Liu Lihua, Housing Coordinator; and Hui Li, Office Assistant.