Kristen Grace spent her childhood experiencing different US cultures before attending Bryn Mawr College where she studied sociology and French.  Her study abroad experience in Senegal launched her international experiences, primarily in places U.S. students rarely go.  For her first “real job” after graduation, Kristen worked for the Community Development Office of the Episcopal Diocese of Haiti, later going to East Jerusalem right after the end of the first Gulf War where she worked in administrative positions and as a writer.  After her return to the States, Kristen landed at Cornell where she earned a masters in Adult Education and a Ph.D. in Educational Administration.  She taught ESL at Cornell and several courses in the former Education department before entering the study abroad field in 2003.