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Duilia de Mello Vice Provost for Global Strategiesdemello@cua.eduDr. de Mello received her Bachelor of Astronomy from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in 1985 and her Ph.D. in Astronomy from the University of Sao Paulo, Brazil, in 1995. She joined Catholic University in 2003 and is now Professor of Physics. For the first five years she was a research associate at the University's Institute of Astrophysics and Computational Sciences based at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center. Previously, she was assistant professor at Chalmers University of Technology in Sweden for three years. She was a postdoctoral fellow at the Hubble Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, MD, and a postdoctoral fellow at Cerro Tololo Interamerican Observatory in Chile and National Observatory in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
Dr. de Mello is the recipient of the Professional of the Year Award of the Brazil Diaspora in 2013. She was named one of the most influential Brazilians by the Epoca magazine in 2014. She is deeply committed to communicating and popularizing science and to inspire young women to consider careers in STEM fields.
Maricy Schmitz International Relations Officerschmitzm@cua.eduMaricy joined the Office of Global Strategies in March 2023. Before coming to The Catholic of America, she was the Deputy Education Attachée at the Embassy of Brazil. A native of Curitiba, Brazil, Maricy was a Visiting Scholar at Antioch College, and served as Director of Exchange and Study Abroad Programs at Wright State University. Maricy is a board member of the District of Columbia and Virginia Chapters of Partners of the Americas, and a grant award recipient of the Education and Culture Program sponsored by Partners of the Americas and the U.S. Department of State. She was a Trainer Corps Ambassador for NAFSA Trainer Corps and is a member of Partners of the Americas and Phi Beta Delta Honor Society for International Scholars. Maricy is a civil engineer and a specialist in international education.
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Education Abroad Staff
The Office of Education Abroad (CUAbroad) develops and administers international educational opportunities overseas for Catholic University and non-Catholic University students in coordination with academic and administrative units as well as other institutions in the U.S. and abroad.-
Robert Dowden Director of International Programs
Robert joined The Catholic University of America in July 2014 to serve as Education Abroad Advisor for the Office of Global Strategies. His appointment as Director began in July 2021. He provides support to students and faculty in addition to program management. Robert is originally from Connecticut, having also lived in North Carolina and Ohio. He participated in a spring break study abroad program in France and a summer abroad program in Costa Rica while attending Gardner-Webb University as an undergraduate majoring in English Composition. Robert also lived and worked in Bogotá, Colombia as an ESL teacher before eventually pursuing a master's degree in Higher Education Administration at Kent State University.
Intensive English Program Staff
The Intensive English Program (IEP) is an ESL academic program for undergraduate and graduate students who need to increase their English language proficiency before or after admission to a degree-granting program at The Catholic University of America.-
Sister Margaret Andrew Baker, O.P., Ph.D. Director, Intensive English Program bakermar@cua.edu, intensive-english@cua.eduA veteran educator, Sister Margaret Andrew Baker began teaching in The Catholic University of America’s Intensive English Program in 2019. She first taught undergraduate English in 1990 at Aquinas College in Nashville, Tennessee. Additionally Sister has over 20 years of experience teaching English within secondary schools and undergraduate college programs. She enjoys working with international students, because she knows what they need to learn about writing, reading, listening to, and speaking English in the academic situations they will encounter in undergraduate, graduate, and doctoral studies. Also, Sister Margaret enjoys the challenges of teaching students to write formal essays and short research papers using the English language because international students are motivated to learn and share their intellectual insights at the Catholic University of America.
A convert to Catholicism, Sister has been a member of the Dominican Sisters of Saint Cecilia Congregation since 1985. Sister received her undergraduate degree in English at Sewanee - The University of the South. Since becoming a consecrated religious, she received a Master's degree in education from Belmont University, an M.A. in Religious Studies from St.Charles Seminary, and a Ph.D. in Education from the University of Alabama. She enjoys reading poetry, especially Dante's Divine Comedy and the essays of Walker Percy.