Darla Deardorff, PhD

Dr. Darla K. Deardorff is an internationally recognized expert in intercultural competence, global education, and internationalization of higher education. She is the chairholder of the UNESCO Chair on Intercultural Competence at Stellenbosch University in South Africa. In addition, she is a research scholar at Duke University and holds several other faculty appointments at universities around the world including in Japan, China, and Canada.  

She teaches through Harvard University and has taught at Harvard’s Global Education Think Tank and Future of Learning Institute. She previously served 19 years as executive director of the Association of International Education Administrators and has held elected leadership positions within NAFSA.  She has worked in the international education field for over thirty years in nearly every facet including in education abroad, international students, recruitment, intercultural programmes, language teaching, teacher training,  and senior leadership. 

She specialises in intercultural competence and training, intercultural assessment and evaluation, teacher/faculty preparation/development, curriculum internationalisation, and global leadership and she is regularly invited to speak around the world on these topics. In addition, she consults with organisations such as OECD, UNESCO, World Bank and International Baccalaureate Organization, among others.  Founding president of the World Council in Global and Intercultural Competence, a global NGO (www.iccglobal.org), she is author/editor of 15 books and 80+ book chapters and articles.  She holds a masters and doctorate from North Carolina State University and can be reached on LinkedIn.