Our Dedicated Staff
Xperitas is a leader in cross-cultural programs that embody authentic language and cultural immersion. Our staff strives to embody our mission of transforming lives through shared global experience and intercultural learning. Through our language and cultural immersion programs we work to provide travel experiences abroad that inspire personal and cultural connections with communities worldwide.
Jenny Behrens
Director of Operations
After graduating from the University of Wisconsin–La Crosse with degrees in Spanish and Geography, Jenny spent a year volunteering in Ecuador. She then lived in Spain for eight years, where she taught English and opened her own English academy. Jenny speaks Spanish fluently and earned her MBA from the University of St. Thomas in 2025. Jenny has been part of the Xperitas team for over nine years. She enjoys spending time with her family and friends in the Twin Cities and loves to travel and is always looking forward to her next flight.
Lucía Cervera Vazquez
Program Manager, Spanish
Lucía is a native of Granada, Spain. Her journey as a professional tennis player took her on adventures around the globe, allowing her to witness firsthand the transformative power of cultural exchange. These experiences ignited Lucía with a deep appreciation for diversity and a passion for fostering connections across borders. This passion led her to obtain a degree in Education and come to the U.S. to experience new cultures and ways of living.
Tricia Corbet-Duddy
Senior Customer Experience Manager
As a Massachusetts native, currently residing in Maine, Tricia has experience in customer service, product development coordination and sales operations support. A lifelong language learner and traveler, Tricia has participated in study abroad/language programs since high school in Spain and Germany, has volunteered in Peru, and spent 3 years living in Perth, Western Australia. She holds a bachelor’s degree in Spanish Language from the University of Mary Washington in Fredericksburg, Virginia.
Hanna Edwards
Senior Program Manager, German
Hanna is a German native, who moved to the United States full-time in 2015. She graduated from the University of Applied Sciences Cologne, Germany with a Bachelor’s degree in Multilingual Communication and earned her Master’s degree in North American Studies from the University of Bonn, Germany. The German word “Fernweh” (a strong urge to travel and get to know the unknown) has been an important part of Hanna’s life. As a high school and university student she took part in several student exchanges and language immersion programs.
Monika Estrada
Program Manager, German and Spanish
Monika is a language immersion enthusiast with a background in applied linguistics with a B.A. in Translation (University of Leipzig) and a M.A. in Hispanic Studies (Louisiana State University). Monika brings experience coordinating and managing German language education programs in St. Paul, MN and online and is a passionate advocate for language learning as a catalyst for inclusivity and social justice. She is a Polish native who grew up in the beautiful city of Hamburg, Germany and she currently resides in Dallas, TX with her husband and two children.
Leslie Gale
Executive Director
Leslie has 25+ years of experience in the global education space as a language teacher, curriculum designer and in K-12 school operations. She first experienced the life-changing impact of cultural exchange as a college student on a 10-week homestay program in Morelia, Mexico. Leslie sees Xperitas’ mission as an extension of her own passion for bridging the divisions between people through the development of cultural competency and understanding.
Matthew Lilly
Senior Program Manager, French, Latin and Italian
Matthew’s professional activity has included a variety of K-12 contexts. He has worked in The American School in Switzerland’s summer programs, taught English with the Teaching Assistant Program in France, and just concluded seven years at Norfolk Academy (VA) where he taught English and French and planned local, domestic, and international educational travel. Matthew completed his undergraduate work in French and Italian Studies at West Virginia University and holds an M.Ed. in Independent School Leadership from Vanderbilt University.
Julie Ratzloff
Staff Accountant
Julie earned her accounting degree from the University of Minnesota and began her career as an accountant for a nonprofit medical association. In this role, she became actively involved in planning annual meetings, which provided opportunities to travel to major cities across the United States, Europe, China, and Australia. When the pandemic disrupted the meetings industry, Julie transitioned back to her core expertise in accounting. Outside of work, she enjoys spending time with family and friends, baking, and traveling.
Patrick Robbins
Air Manager
Patrick brings to Xperitas 15 years of experience in airline operations specifically in the leisure travel space. He holds a master’s degree in Travel and Tourism Operations from Temple University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Patrick was nationally recognized for a position paper on marketing experiential travel to youth in 2018. He remains an advocate for the existential good of travel not just as a means of leisure, but also for business and cross-cultural understanding. Patrick’s passion for travel seems to know no ends as he
Emma Rojas
Director of Language Programs
Emma’s deep love for travel and adventure began in college when she first went abroad and studied in London. This experience led her to seek further opportunities to see the world, and she decided to study the Spanish language and travel to Costa Rica. Emma graduated with a degree in Family Social Science and Spanish from the University of Minnesota. Upon graduation, she returned to Costa Rica to obtain her TEFL certificate. What she envisioned as 6 months in Costa Rica turned into 5 years! During her time living there, Emma taught
Meet our Board of Directors
Jane Ditewig
Jane joined the Xperitas Board in 2021 but has been a beloved part of the Xperitas family for more than 25 years. Prior to her recent retirement, Jane taught high school and college level French in Longview, Washington for 45 years and during that time led students from R.A. Long High School on 19 programs to France with Xperitas. Jane had great undergraduate and graduate school classroom experiences but believes her most impactful education has been during her global immersion opportunities. From her study in Avignon during college to a year as a Fulbright teacher in Bethune and all the immersion experiences with her students, she gained an understanding of language immersion travel.
Kevin Dostal Dauer
Vice Chair
Kevin joined the Xperitas board in 2022 and currently works at the University of Minnesota as the Director of International Health, Safety, and Compliance. He discovered his passion for international travel and education only after overcoming an intense fear of flying from childhood. He has worked with inbound international students and outbound education abroad students in higher education for the past 20+ years.
Lauren Eimers
Lauren joined the Xperitas Board in 2021. She currently serves on the leadership board for the WILD Network, a social enterprise providing leadership and professional development programming for women in the global development sector and has also served on the volunteer leadership team for the Minnesota International NGO Network. Lauren received a bachelor’s degree from the University of St. Thomas and is a huge advocate for language education and cultural immersion.
Amy Fairchild
Board Treasurer
Amy is a native of the United Kingdom where she studied Marketing at Lancaster University and then went on to qualify as a Chartered Accountant (FCA). Since moving to the U.S., she has also qualified as a CPA and currently works in an innovation focused role designing and implementing auditing technology solutions in the Twin Cities. Amy specializes in international work and so has had the pleasure of working with people from all over the world every day.
Carrie Ryan Gallia
Board Secretary
Carrie Ryan Gallia is Senior Associate General Counsel in the Office of the General Counsel at the University of Minnesota, where she practices in student affairs and litigation. Prior to joining OGC, Carrie was an attorney at Lindquist & Vennum and, before that, at Fish & Richardson, both in Minneapolis. She graduated magna cum laude from Princeton University with a degree in English Literature and earned an M.F.A. in dramaturgy from the Columbia University School of the Arts. In 2008, Carrie received her J.D. summa cum laude from the University of Minnesota Law School, where she served as a Managing Editor of the Minnesota Law Review, was a member of the Order of the Coif, and won the William B. Lockhart Award for Excellence in Scholarship, Leadership, and Service. After law school, Carrie served as a law clerk to Judge Carlos T. Bea on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.
Pam Harens
Pam joined the Xperitas Board in 2019 and is currently a high school Spanish teacher at Eastview High School in Apple Valley, MN. Her first trip to Spain was with Xperitas (then ISE) when she was a sophomore in high school and the friendships made on that trip continue to this day. Pam went on to St. Olaf College where she graduated with a BA in English and also received a BS in Spanish and Education and an MA in Education from the University of Minnesota. She has traveled to Mexico, Colombia, and various European countries, including Spain, where she lived and studied after graduating from college.
Mike Hirschberg
Mike joined the Xperitas Board in 2018 and currently works as a Director for Northborne Partners, advising clients on mergers and acquisitions. Mike has served on the nonprofit Board of Directors for the Association of Corporate Growth’s Minnesota Chapter and recently joined the Citizen Diplomacy Research Group (CDRG). Mike received his Bachelor of Science from Indiana University in Bloomington and an MBA in Finance from American University’s Kogod School of Business. During his MBA program Mike was able to study and travel in Brazil, which was a great experience.
Ben Ikeda
Ben graduated magna cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa from Gustavus Adolphus College with a B.A. in Economics and Japanese Studies and received an M.B.A. with honors from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. He has worked as a private equity investor and investment banker working with founder and family-owned small businesses for more than 11 years.
Ben is passionate about the mission of Xperitas having experienced the value of language and cultural immersion firsthand when he studied abroad in Osaka, Japan during college.
Jennifer Lorenz
Jennifer joined the Xperitas Board in 2025 and has worked in marketing for over 20 years. She loves compelling stories and Xperitas has a great one. Her own love of travel developed in her teens and continues to grow. Jennifer believes that developing global citizens is critical to the success of our world, and one of the best ways to do that is to get kids out into it. She holds a degree in Communications from The University of Wisconsin-LaCrosse.
Kelly McGee
Kelly earned a dual BA in Russian and Slavic & East European Studies from West Virginia University; an MA in Russian, East European, and Eurasian Studies from the University of Michigan; and a PhD in Slavic Languages and Literatures from the University of Pittsburgh. She is Senior Director, University Partnerships at EUSA – Academic Internship Experts, a non-profit educational organization that works in partnership with colleges to create for-credit academic internship programs across Europe.
Tracy Rucker
Tracy Rucker is a native of Royston, Georgia, but was raised in Atlanta. He studied French at The University of the South in Sewanee, Tennessee and it was there that he passionately learned to manipulate conditional sentences and nuanced subjunctive forms, honing his craft by embracing cultural anecdotes from the Francophone world. He graduated with a B.A. in French and later matriculated at Middlebury College where he also participated in theater and specialized in studies of the Francophone world. Mr. Rucker currently teaches all levels of French at Louisville Collegiate School in Louisville, Kentucky.
Belma Sadikovic
Dr. Belma Sadikovic is the Curriculum and Content Coordinator at AACRAO, where she develops on-demand courses, micro-credentials, and webinars. She joined AACRAO in 2021 after more than 16 years of experience in K–12 and higher education, including teaching undergraduate and graduate courses and serving as an assistant professor of Curriculum & Instruction at Minnesota State University Moorhead. Belma earned her BA in German Language and Literature and M.Ed. in English as a Second Language from Boise State University, where she also completed her Ed.D. in Curriculum and Instruction with a focus on Multicultural and Social Justice Education.
Mallory Tuominen
Mallory is the Chief Program Officer at World Savvy, a national nonprofit focused on equipping students for success in a diverse, interconnected world. She holds a B.A. in History and an M.Ed. from the University of Minnesota, an M.Ed. in Education, Culture, and Society from DePaul University, and a certificate in Instructional Design. Mallory serves as Vice-Chair of the Leaders of Today and Tomorrow board and on the University of Minnesota’s CEHD Alumni Society Board. Her intercultural teaching experiences, including in Xibo, China, have shaped her passion for global education and align with Xperitas’ mission.
Nick Vournakis
Board Chair
Nick joined the Xperitas Board in 2021 and has worked in the travel and tourism industry for CWT (formerly Carlson Wagonlit Travel) for 20 years. CWT focuses on B2B business travel and is one of the largest global management travel companies, serving many of the worlds Fortune 500 companies. Nick is responsible for CWT’s top 350 client relationships, a portfolio of over $1B in annual revenue. Through his work at CWT, Nick has been able to travel internationally quite extensively and has gained a deep appreciation for the value of cultural diversity.
Jill Woerner
Jill Woerner is the Senior Director of Education and Outreach to Schools for AFS Intercultural Programs USA. She holds a B.A. in Secondary Spanish Education from Purdue University and an M.Ed. in Educational Leadership and Administration from Anderson University. Jill has extensive nonprofit board experience, including serving as Chair of the Central States Board of Directors. She is also currently on the boards of Indiana Partners of the Americas and Global Indiana. Jill was drawn to Xperitas by its mission to provide accessible, short-term homestay experiences abroad for high school students.