About Us: Staff

If you are interested in joining the team as either a member of our program staff or office staff, read more about available positions with GLA.

Fred Swaniker, Co-Founder

Read a letter from the founder

Fred is the founder of Global Leadership Adventures. Originally from Ghana, West Africa, Fred has lived and worked in South Africa for several years, and spent his formative years in four other African countries before attending university and graduate school in the United States. These international experiences taught Fred that having a worldview is especially important in today’s increasingly inter-dependent world, and provided him with the inspiration to create Global Leadership Adventures.

Fred’s main objective in launching GLA is to provide an avenue for future leaders of the world to obtain a more global view of the world and to understand the inter-connectedness of various cultures and societies. His hope is that students graduating from GLA will view the world from a different perspective and will develop an appreciation for alternative points of view.

Fred is a graduate of Macalester College in St. Paul, MN, USA, and helped to manage one of the top-performing schools in Botswana before attending the Stanford Graduate School of Business. In earning his MBA, Fred was an Arjay Miller Scholar, a distinction awarded to those graduating in the top ten percent of each MBA class at Stanford.

Andrew H. Motiwalla, Co-Founder & Executive Director

Andrew leads GLA with significant experience in managing international education and volunteer programs. Although most recently Andrew helped launch a couple of internet start-up companies, his true passion lies with international education. Along with his passion, Andrew brings expertise in experiential learning from having served as Senior Vice President for Cross-Cultural Solutions, a non-profit organization that offers international volunteer programs. At CCS, he helped build programs from scratch, personally recruiting country directors and managing operations in Brazil, China, Costa Rica, Cuba, Ghana, Guatemala, India, Kosovo, Peru, Russia, Tanzania, and Thailand. He designed and launched CCS international internship programs and implemented systems to catapult the organization’s growth.

International education and service opportunities have always been integral to Andrew’s life. In fact, prior to his experience with CCS, Andrew spent two years in Honduras with the Peace Corps teaching small business skills to rural community groups.

Andrew is a graduate of Lawrence University and speaks Spanish and Portuguese.  In addition to international education, he also enjoys studying languages, anthropology, technology and loves spending time with his wife and two daughters at their home in San Diego.

Jessica Rose Miller, Director of Admissions

Jessica has a passion for international travel and for working with teenagers. Jessica was raised in a rural community in Southern Oregon; this fostered her dreams of exploring the rest of the world. During her university career Jessica studied abroad in Spain and traveled extensively throughout Europe. Upon returning home she worked tutored ESL students and recruited and oriented students preparing to study abroad.

After graduating, Jessica taught as as ESL Assistant Professor at the University of Cantabria in Northern Spain where she cemented her Spanish language skills. Jessica graduated Magna Cum Laude from Oregon State University with degrees in History, Anthropology and Spanish. Jessica and her husband live in San Diego. In past summers, Jessica has managed our programs in South Africa, Brazil, Costa Rica, Ghana, Tanzania and Dominican Republic. During the rest of the year she leads our Admissions team.

Annabel L. Smith, Academic Advisor

Annabel Smith is the Director of Global Studies and Community Partnerships at the American School in London. Previously, she taught Human Rights Education at the Taft School in Connecticut. Although originally from England, she has taught at independent high schools in the UK, US, and Kenya. Additionally, she has led student trips to France, Italy, Greece and Russia. Annabel received MSc in Human Rights from the London School of Economics, as well as a PGCE from Oxford University.  She served as a GLA Program Director in South Africa in 2006 and 2007 and currently advises GLA on curriculum development and developing methodologies to mainstream international service-learning in secondary school curricula.

Bridget McFaul, Enrollment Advisor

Bridget enjoys helping high schools students find international experiences which will benefit them for the rest of their lives. She has a deep passion for international relations, community service and working with youth. It was during her senior year of high school that she went on a community service trip to Montana to volunteer with the Blackfeet Indian children; this opened her eyes to the world around her and motivated her to study abroad during college. While at San Diego State University, she was accepted into their program to study in Western Australia. The experience of living with people from around the world and exploring the Australian outback solidified her commitment to international education and cross-cultural learning.

Cari Miller, Enrollment Advisor

Cari is pursuing a degree in Nursing and has a deep passion for community service and helping others. She leads many grassroots service initiatives in her home community and believes that the future of tomorrow needs to be led by thoughtful, dedicated global citizens. As a mother of children who have volunteered abroad, she has witnessed first-hand the impact on them. She enjoys advising students on our programs and working with other parents to help them understand how safe and enriching of an experience Global Leadership Adventures can be.

Alexandra Harbert, Enrollment Advisor

While in high school, Alexandra lived in Argentina for a year. This experience motivated her to pursue studies in International Development and Anthropology. She is also a lover of languages; she speaks Spanish and Portuguese and is excited to learn more languages in the coming years.

Vince Bayard, Enrollment Advisor

Vince is a native of California; he has lived in San Diego, Los Angeles and San Francisco. He received a degree in Cultural Anthropology from San Francisco State University. Vince was on the administrative teams for both the San Diego Natural History Museum as well as the San Francisco Fine Art Museums. At the San Diego Natural History Museum he was part of the team that developed the multi-million dollar permanent exhibition, “Fossil Mysteries”. Vince has lived and worked in France where he organized educational programs for cultural and gastronomy educational experiences for non-French citizens. He has organized these group tours in Spain, England, Italy, Canada, and Argentina as well as in the United States. His passion for travel and food has taken him to many countries around the world.

Chariane Fife, Enrollment Advisor

Chariane is committed to empowering others to make an impact in the local and international community. At the age of seven, she volunteered with her family at a soup kitchen in downtown Las Vegas. This event challenged her to a life of learning, understanding, and serving others. Born in Japan, Chariane has since visited or lived in several other countries, including Canada, Mexico, Peru, Uruguay, Argentina, Costa Rica, Italy, England, and the Philippines as well as throughout the United States. She speaks English, Spanish, and basic Tagalog and aspires to learn even more languages. Chariane is currently the volunteer director over the Mexico Orphanage Impact Team at Flood Church and is completing her degree in International Business & Latin America at San Diego State University.