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2025 Tour Facilitators
Erica Edwards is the Associate Director of the European Studies Center at the University of Pittsburgh. Prior to joining the ESC, she held faculty and administrative positions at North Carolina State University, Miami University Ohio, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and the Institute for Advanced Studies in Vienna. She obtained her Masters in European Studies from the College of Europe in Bruges, Belgium, where she was a Fulbright scholar, before going on to obtain her PhD in political science for the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. A native of Houston, she has lived in five different US states and five European countries. Her teaching and research interests are in the fields of comparative politics, political parties and party systems, governance and politics of the European Union, and public opinion.
Samantha Moik is the Engagement Coordinator of the European Studies Center at the University of Pittsburgh. In addition to coordinating the annual Brussels-Lux Summer Study Tour for Educators, she is responsible for the Center’s various outreach initiatives, including Model EU simulations and collaborative projects with Pitt’s University Center for International Studies (UCIS). Sam has a B.A. in German and International Studies from Allegheny College and an M.S.Ed. in Higher Education and Student Affairs from Indiana University.
Katie Shanahan Lindner is the Executive Director of the Center for European Studies at UNC. Before joining the Center in 2015, she spent many years at the Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin managing and organizing programs including the TransAtlantic Master’s Program, Euromasters, the German-Turkish Masters as well as the international doctoral program at the Berlin Graduate School of Social Sciences. She focused on such aspects as program development, student and career services, international recruitment, and collaboration with international partners. Katie has a BA in International Studies and German from UNC Chapel Hill and an MA in Trans-Atlantic Studies (TAM Program) from the Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin. Before TAM, she worked at the International Visitors Council in RTP, which is where she discovered her love of organizing programs and international education. She moved back to Chapel Hill with her husband and three children after sixteen years in Berlin and enjoys spending time with her family in the sunshine.
Brett Harris is the Education Outreach Coordinator at UNC-Chapel Hill's Center for European Studies, and organizes a variety of professional development and community outreach opportunities for educators across North Carolina, including community roadshows, language pedagogy workshops, and educator fellowships. Brett has a BA in Comparative Literature & European Studies from UNC, and MAs in Political Science from UNC Chapel Hill and Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin. For fun, Brett volunteers as a Mental Health First Aid instructor and works as a docent at UNC's Ackland Art Museum.
Colton Ames is the Associate Director of the Institute for European Studies at Indiana University-Bloomington. He is a former teacher educator and coordinates numerous outreach efforts to educators around the state of Indiana. As Lecturer in European Studies, he regularly teaches introductory courses on the European Union and conducts research on international and comparative education in contexts around Europe and East Asia, particularly in the field of citizenship and national identity. He holds B.A. degrees from Northern Arizona University and has done his graduate work for both his M.A. and Ph.D. at IU.