Theresa Kaiser is Director of Global Opportunities at American University’s Washington College of Law (WCL) where she works to identify and implement new partnerships for the law school, creating international opportunities for students and faculty. During the four years she has been at WCL, she has brokered new student exchange agreements in Argentina, England, Italy, Korea, Norway, Spain and Sweden and she has incubated new law school programs on international trade, Brazil, international telecommunications, and hospitality law. She has formalized the law school’s relationship with various governmental and non-governmental institutions around the globe and has created a bevy of international student internships.
Ms. Kaiser also manages the school’s unique International JD Dual Degree programs in Australia, Canada, France and Spain as well as the extensive semester exchange programs which take place on six continents with more than 30 foreign law school partners. In addition, she oversees WCL’s long-standing summer abroad programs and leads faculty visits to partner institutions around the world.
During her time at WCL Ms. Kaiser has made numerous presentations on the topic of internationalization and legal education in places such as Istanbul, Paris, Buenos Aires, Verona, New Orleans, Houston, San Diego and Washington, DC. She serves in a leadership position with the Association of American Law Schools, has been interviewed multiple times by the National Jurist and was awarded the 20th anniversary Award of Recognition from the US Department of Commerce for WCL’s work in Iraq.
Prior to joining WCL, Ms. Kaiser taught undergraduate business law and French in Belgium, practiced as an attorney for the US Patent & Trademark Office, wrote U.S. government contracts in Italy, was a small business owner in the Washington, DC area and studied for a semester of law school in London. She has lived in Italy, England and Belgium and is fluent in French.
Ms. Kaiser has a Master of Education (M.Ed.) specializing in Higher Education from Harvard University, a JD from Emory University, and undergraduate degrees in French, journalism and political science from the University of Kansas.
