Tara Boyce-Hofmann has worked tirelessly with AFS in a variety of international and U.S.-based positions for 32 years. She currently leads AFS-USA as President and Partner Director. Before her appointment by the Board to this role in November 2018, Tara served as Chief Operating and Organizational Development Officer. In that role, she spearheaded AFS-USA’s strategic development, innovating new tools, practices, and programs. Tara joined AFS-USA as a Senior Business Development Strategist in 2009. Before coming to AFS-USA, Tara was the Executive Director of AFS Hong Kong for almost 10 years, where she expanded the operations of AFS in mainland China. During and prior to that time, she oversaw the launch of AFS student programs with China in the mid-1980s.

Prior to relocating to Hong Kong, Tara worked for AFS International for nearly 10 years. There, she was responsible for international program coordination and organizational development in the AFS operations in Asia. She was integral in establishing AFS in Central-Eastern Europe in the early 1990s when the political realities shifted, allowing AFS to establish a presence and program in the region. Throughout her career at AFS, Tara has worked in volunteer development, Board development, training, and fundraising. Tara started her professional career in the advertising field in New York City.

Tara’s life-long interest and commitment to intercultural learning through student exchange began as a high school exchange student to France. She advanced her studies in France at the Universite de Strasbourg. She graduated from Syracuse University with a degree in Communications and French. She attended the Nonprofit Management Executive Certificate program at the School of Public Diplomacy at Georgetown University in 2009. A New York City native, she currently lives just outside Washington D.C. in Maryland with her husband and two children.

Rodrigo has served as the Partner Director for AFS Chile since April 2017. Before AFS, he had experience in the NGO sector working for 3 years as the Executive Director of Educafrica in Kenia and South Africa, working with schools in the slums of Nairobi and Johannesburg. Before that, he worked for BHP Billiton coordinating technology projects. After the earthquake of 2010, he was assigned logistic coordinator for TECHO in one of the regions in Chile. He graduated as a Business Engineer from the Catholic University of Chile. Since 2018 he has been the President of SIETAR Chile. He comes from a very AFS family, his parents and sister are AFS alumni, and in 2001 he participated in an exchange program to Australia with AFS.

Andrea has been the Secretary General of Intercultura (Italian Partner of AFS Intercultural Programs) since 2017. Andrea served as the Volunteer Manager at Intercultura since 2009, and was a life-long volunteer for AFS since his study abroad program in 1996 to Germany. He is former Board member for Intercultura and former Board member and Vice Chair for EFIL, the European Federation for Intercultural learning. I served as a co-opted member of AFS Partner Director Representatives in 2018-2019. Before joining AFS as a staff member, Andrea worked in journalism and public relations. He holds a master’s degree in Political Science at the University of Bologna.

Dr. Josephine Jim is Partner Director of AFS Hong Kong. As an educationist, Josephine was an Associate Head at a local university responsible for executive education programs design and delivery. She also held various senior management positions in the private education sector. As a business psychologist, Josephine provided consultancy services to sizable organizations and senior executives. She also runs a social enterprise to help students seeking scholarship opportunities in overseas universities and provide them with academic coaching. Josephine started her career as a pharmacist in retail pharmacy in the U.K., then as Regulatory Affairs Manager and Head of Marketing in multinational pharmaceutical companies. She holds a B.Sc. Pharmacy from the University of Manchester, an MBA from the University of Warwick, a PhD Education from the University of Hull, U.K. And she completed her training in Psychology and Coaching at the University of Cambridge.

Marcel Krause has been the Executive Board of AFS Germany since April 2019. Born in Germany, he moved to Spain in 2001 for his own intercultural experience, starting shortly after to work for AFS. As a former New Business Development Manager in a Marketing & Communications Company he decided to combine personal and mission driven goals in order to pursue a deeper impact in society. AFS was the perfect fit. He served the AFS Mission ever since in different positions on an operational and strategical level – formerly as General Manager to the AFS branch office in Madrid until he got in charge of AFS Germany. Intercultural learning was important in his career not only for personal development but also for becoming a global citizen.

Diana has been the Partner Director of AFS Ghana since March 2019. She has 20+ years of experience working with government agencies, private sector, corporate and nonprofit organizations within Ghana and in parts of sub-Saharan Africa. Diana has managed regional and global programmes across a variety of sectors, including media, education, youth development, and arts. Diana spent 16 years at the British Council, Ghana serving in multiple roles, including Acting Country Director, Communications Manager, Head of Corporate Affairs, as well as leading a scholarship program (funded by a private corporation) in seven countries across Sub-Saharan Africa and three countries in South America. She holds an MBA from University of Northampton (UK).