The George Mason University chapter of Phi Beta Delta offers its student members mentoring support and assistance from its faculty and staff members who have volunteered their time for this service. Mentors are available throughout the academic year to provide information and assistance to students on a range of issues or questions having to do with university policies and other professional and pedagogical questions. While mentors are usually well informed about questions and issues affecting international students, their most valuable assistance may often be advice that leads a student to the university office that can provide the most authoritative information on a given subject. Mentors will not provide counseling or advice on questions involving personal health, interpersonal relations, legal issues, or questions outside the purview of university faculty and staff. However, mentors should be able to direct students to the appropriate office or person who can provide assistance, official guidance, and responses to student inquiries on these matters.

The mentor roster includes the following:

Tomasz Arciszewski, Professor and Chair, Civil, Environmental, Infrastructure Engineering (CEIE) department
Office: Science and Technology Building II, Room 305
Telephone: 703-993-1513
Email: tarcisze@gmu.edu

Personal note: My formal background is in engineering. During the last 30 years, I taught and/or worked as a structural designer in Poland, Switzerland, and in this country. I am also an Igbo Chief (Igbos are an Nigerian tribe living in southern Nigeria). I enjoy international contacts and I have just completed two trips to Asia, including trips to Japan and Hong Kong.

Julie Christensen, Associate Provost for Educational Programs, Office of the Provost; Associate Professor of Russian, Modern & Classical Languages
Office: Mason Hall D109
Telephone: 703-993-8891
E-mail jchriste@gmu.edu

Personal note: My PhD is in Slavic Languages and Literatures from the University of California, Berkeley. My Slavic languages are Russian, Czech, and Old Church Slavonic, I've also studied Latin, Spanish, German, and Georgian. I lived in Moscow and in Tbilisi for six years. I write on literature and cinema, particularly from the former Soviet block I am also interested in cinema, television and computers as tools for language and culture study. My next language will be Norwegian (I hope!).

Robert Clark, Director, Honors Program in General Education, and
Professor of Government, Department of Public and International Affairs
GMU office: Enterprise 305
GMU telephone number: 703-993-1111
GMU email: rclark@gmu.edu
Best way to reach me: by appointment. Call 993-1111 or 993-1110.

Personal note: I have been at GMU since 1977 and have seen many changes in that time, most importantly the dramatic expansion of the international community at the university. We are fortunate to live and work in such a diverse community. I have done teaching, field research, and publication in Latin America (Venezuela and Honduras) and Europe (Spain and France), and I speak fluent Spanish. My three children and my wife are all GMU graduates, so I have seen the university from the student's perspective as well.

Sandarshi Gunawardena, Assistant Director, Office of International Programs & Services
GMU office: SUB 1, Room 310
GMU telephone number: 703-993-3964
GMU email: sgunawar@gmu.edu

Personal note: I am formally trained as an architect and did my bachelors and masters in Architecture in Sri Lanka and then came to the US on a Fulbright for graduate studies. I have a M.Arch from Clemson University, South Carolina and also dabbled with a Ph.D. in Architecture
at the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee. My focus in architecture is Environment-Behavior studies and I have a keen interest in traditional/vernacular environments and children's environments. My second career grew from my Fulbright experience and I was a Overseas
Educational Advisor at the Fulbright Commission in Sri Lanka before I began working in the Office of International Programs and Services at GMU. I am a strong advocate for International Education and and the benefits that it affords through cross cultural understanding public
diplomacy.

Peter Mandaville, Assistant Professor, Public and International Affairs
Office: A228, Robinson Hall
Telephone: 993-1054
Best way to reach me: email on pmandavi@gmu.edu

Personal note: I have been teaching at GMU since 2000 when I moved to the Washington DC area from the UK. I was born and raised in the Middle East--the third generation of my family to live in the region--and have worked and conducted research in Europe, Asia and Africa. My main areas of teaching and research, perhaps not surprisingly, are international relations and Islamic studies. I have particular interests in the philosophy of community in various non-Western traditions, and in possibilities for a new ethics of global cosmopolitanism. Phi Beta Delta has a role to play here!

Linda Miller, Assistant Dean of Academic Affairs and Student Advancement;
Chair, Dance Department, College of Visual and Performing Arts
Dance Department: 993-1114
Dance Office: 993-1121
Academic Affairs: 993-4551
Email: lmille6@gmu.edu
Best way to reach me: MWF 9:00-10:00 or by appointment

Personal note: I received my M.F.A. in Dance from the University of Hawaii. I have performed with the Cincinnati Ballet and Opera, Ruth Page's International Ballet Company, and Hawaii Dance Theatre and Repertory West. In Washington I have danced with numerous companies and choreographers, including the Washington Opera. I have choreographed works for university productions and musical theater, including the award-winning Pirates of Penzance. I was nominated for a Helen Hayes award for choreography of Interact's H.M.S. Pinafore.

Hung Nguyen, Associate Professor, Public and International Affairs
Office: A215 Robinson Hall
Telephone: 993-2957 or 993-3722
Email: hnguyen@gmu.edu
Best way to reach me: by appointment or email

Personal note: I am a product of two educational systems, the French-influenced and Amercian. I received my law degree from Vietnam and my Ph.D. degree in International Relations from the United States. My life was spent half in Vietnam, the country where I was born, raised and worked, and half in the United States where received my graduate education, lived and taught after the end of the Vietnam War. I was a foreign student in America, a political refugee, and have been a university professor in two different countries. I have traveled and attended conferences in many countries of Asia and Europe. I teach classes on American Foreign Policy and Asian politics. Both my academic background and life experience draw me naturally to the Phi Beta Delta mentor program.

Bill Reeder, Dean, College of Visual and Performing Arts; Professor of Arts Management; Heritage Chair in Arts & Cultural Criticism
GMU office: Mason Hall, D9
GMU telephone number: 703-993-8624
GMU email: wreeder@gmu.edu
Office hours: by appointment. Call 993-8624.

Personal Note: Bill has been at GMU for two years serving as Dean of the College of Visual and Performing Arts. As Dean, he oversees the departments of Music, Dance, Theater, and Art and Visual Technology, along with the performance and gallery activities of the Center for the Arts. He has enjoyed a 30-year career in education, management, philanthropic administration and the arts with strengths in strategic planning management and fundraising technical skills. His work experiences range from President of a music school to professional singing for 8 years as a leading operatic tenor in Europe.

Bill serves as a mentor to students regarding their career opportunities and works with voice majors on technique and style.

Esperanza Roman-Mendoza,
Assistant Professor of Spanish, Modern & Classical Languages
Office: 235A Thomson Hall
Telephone: 703-993-1232
Email: eromanme@gmu.edu

I earned a licenciatura and an M.A. in German Philology from the Universidad Complutense, Madrid, and my Ph. D. in Spanish and General Linguistics from the Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia. I have published many articles and book chapters on the use of Web-course management tools in the foreign language curriculum and other subjects in the field of Computer-Assisted Language Learning and Translation. A textbook for the intermediate level, Primer plano 3, of which I am a co-author has appeared recently in Spain. I have developed interactive Web-based learning materials for language and culture courses, and language teacher training.

I have lived in Spain, her native country, Germany, Belgium, and the United States. Reading, teaching, writing, and traveling are some of my passions.