Kim Santiago works for the University of Wisconsin-Madison, but as the institution's Asia coordinator, she spends most of her time far from her Midwestern home campus. Her globe-circling initiatives serve multiple departments, offices and programs, reflecting the new ways universities are delivering education on an international stage. International education and the idea of accelerating internationalization figure prominently in the university's strategic plan. The university offers 100 international programs on six continents, and nearly 4,000 international students, representing 120 countries, are enrolled at UW-Madison. She has served as Asia coordinator since 2002 and previously was senior director of international alumni relations for the Wisconsin Alumni Association. Santiago earned a bachelor's degree from the University of Wisconsin. She can be reached at kimsantiago@uwalumni.com.

You work for UW, yet spend the lion's share of your time in Asia. How does the arrangement work?

My job is based in Japan. I spend about seven months here and come back to the United States three times a year, for a total of four months. Then I spend another month traveling to visit our Asian alumni chapters as well as accompanying administrators and faculty when they visit Asia. (I try my best not to be in Wisconsin in January and February!)

You could say I'm the liaison and first point of contact when UW representatives are headed to Asia or thinking about heading there. In Asia, I'm always looking for a way to connect the UW to institutions, agencies, programs and development opportunities. Our international alumni population is about 28,000, with more than 10,000 living in Asia.

There are many interrelationships among the schools and colleges I work for. My home base is the Wisconsin Alumni Association. I also work closely with the UW Foundation. While separate, these organizations work closely together in our various alumni regions. Also providing support for my position are the Division of International Studies and the university's office of technology transfer. I'm working both "within and without" each of the four offices, so I try to have a more global view of who's interacting with whom, and where, so I can pinpoint these people and pull them together. That's an important point because we are a very decentralized campus within a large university.

Where have your recent Asia projects taken you?

In May 2007, I accompanied our university's chancellor on a meeting with university presidents of the 16-member Worldwide University Network in Beijing, China.

On this trip, we hosted alumni events in China, Hong Kong, Japan and Korea. I worked with our university's Center for East Asian Studies. We're planning a follow-up trip in June with the dean of the College of Letters and Science. In August, we expect to inaugurate our first official alumni chapters in Beijing and Shanghai.

You also recently traveled in India where you are getting ready for the summer launch of a new exchange program. Please describe it.

The Khorana Program for Scientific Exchange is named for a former UW biochemist who earned a Nobel Prize while on the faculty of UW in 1968. It will bring students and scholars from India to UW for a summer research experience. UW students will travel to India to participate in applied research programs in Indian agricultural development.

During my recent tour, I visited seven cities and had 25-plus meetings with academic institutions, research organizations, government agencies, nonprofit and non-government agencies. We also held three alumni events to help identify successful alumni for leadership and development as we pursue our India Initiative, which includes supporting the establishment of a viable alumni network in that part of the world.

While in India, we received a great reception from alumni. Everywhere we went, alumni said, "Just tell us what you want us to do, and we'll do it." They are happy to help in any way possible.

After returning to Japan, I attended a reception for Indian government officials in Tokyo and talked with them about some of our programs, which resulted in a new collaboration in dairy development between UW-Madison and the Rajiv Gandhi Foundation.

You have an unusual background to match your unusual job description. As a college freshman, you competed in the Miss Wisconsin pageant and competed on the U.S. rowing team in the 1988 Olympics. What led you to pursue international program work at your alma mater?

After the Olympics, I was sure I'd feel a huge void. I said to myself, I wish I could find a job as fulfilling as when I was training for the Olympics. Well, I did. I love to travel and I love meeting the alumni. They are so welcoming and so happy to reconnect with the university and other alumni. And just as I embraced the Olympic mission, I believe in the mission of the university and something we call the "Wisconsin Idea"-that the "boundaries of campus are the boundaries of the state" and, more recently, the global community.

What is the biggest challenge in your job?

The greatest challenge is finding enough time in the day to fully address the competing demands in my job-alumni relations, development, building collaborations, and technology transfer. Because of the unique nature of my position-as I'm the university's one and only Asia coordinator-it is easy to get bogged down in necessary minutiae. However, the many rewards of working with such diverse, intelligent and passionate groups and individuals definitely supersede the difficulties.

As a state university, we are always trying to find creative ways to achieve goals within budget constraints, and positioning me in Asia has provided a presence for the university in Asia at a relatively low cost.

This article is from the March 2008 issue of BriefCASE.
Please share your questions and comments with Pam Russell via e-mail at russell@case.org or by telephone at +1-202-478-5680.