About Us

Staff: Ms. Karen Watts

Karen Watts is the associate director of the Center for International Business Education and Research (CIBER) at the Robert H. Smith School of Business, University of Maryland. Prior to joining the Smith school, Karen served as senior program officer in the Global and Specialist Programs unit at the Council for International Exchange of Scholars (CIES). In this capacity, Karen administered the Fulbright Scholar-in-Residence, European Union Scholar-In Residence, Occasional Lecturer and Metropolitan Area Enrichment Programs as well as organized annual conferences for Fulbright Visiting Scholars.

Karen previously directed the Foreign Language in Elementary School (FLES) Program for the Montgomery County Council of Parent Teacher Associations, providing extra-curricular language classes to children in grades 1 through 6 throughout Montgomery County, Maryland public elementary and middle Schools. On behalf of the FLES program, Karen received the 2002 Donald R. Spivac Community Service Award from Bruce Romer Chief Administrative Officer, Montgomery County Government in Maryland. Also, Karen worked at Youth for Understanding (YFU) International Exchange in various capacities, including International Secretariat liaison for YFU National Offices in Latin America and Canada.

The daughter of a career diplomat, Karen lived in Argentina, El Salvador, Ethiopia, Mauritania, Thailand, Tunisia and Uruguay before attending college. She studied for a semester at L’Université de Dijon in Dijon, France. She is fluent in Spanish and proficient in French. Karen holds a B.A. in comparative literature from Clark University (Worcester, Massachusetts) and an M.A. in communications from the University of Kentucky (Lexington, Kentucky).