About Us: GLA Team

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, 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, 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 i s 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, Program Manager

Jessica has an inherent passion for international travel, working with youth and for initiating positive change in the world. Jessica was raised in a rural community in Southern Oregon that fostered her dreams of a bigger and better world. Early on during her studies Jessica learned about the benefits of international education and travel. She first lived in another culture when she moved to Hawaii and then went on to study abroad in Spain and travel extensively throughout Europe. Upon returning home Jessica spent her last years at the university promoting international education, tutoring ESL students, and recruiting and orienting 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 strongly believes that international education is an imperative instrument for change in our world. By creating global citizens today, she sees a future led by conscientious leaders with a global perspective who model the GLA mission: "To empower youth to be positive elements of change across borders." Jessica graduated Magna Cum Laude from Oregon State University with degrees in History, Anthropology and Spanish.   She has managed programs in South Africa, Brazil and Costa Rica.

Annabel L. Smith, Academic Advisor

Annabel teaches 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.

Carley Cassity, Program Coordinator

Carley has worked in education and international causes for years.  Prior to joining GLA, Carley worked for the American Red Cross doing disaster preparedness training.  Carley has also worked as a tutor to outstanding students.  She has worked on the GLA programs in Costa Rica, Ghana and Brazil. Carley is a graduate of UCLA and speaks Spanish.