Natalie A. Mello received her BA from
Connecticut College in 1984. After graduation, she served in the
Peace Corps in Central America. She began her tour in Belize,
working with youth groups to develop agricultural programs. She
then traveled to Costa Rica, where she resided for two years,
while teaching English as a Second Language at Costa Rica Academy
in San José. She returned to the US in 1987 and took an
administrative position in the Frances L. Hiatt School of
Psychology at Clark University in Worcester, Massachusetts. While
at Clark, she earned a Graduate Certificate in Teaching English as
a Second Language in 1990, and completed her Masters of Liberal
Arts in 1993. She taught English as a Second Language at both
Clark University and Anna Maria College from 1991 until 1994.
In 1993 she joined the administration at WPI
as Program Manager of the Product Realization Consortium. This
Consortium, made up of Cornell University, Massachusetts Institute
of Technology, Tuskegee University, North Carolina A&T and WPI,
was funded through the Technology Reinvestment Project and aimed
at making significant changes in the curriculum for undergraduate
manufacturing engineers.
Since 1997 Mello has worked in the
Interdisciplinary and Global Studies Division at WPI. As Director
of Global Operations, Mello oversees all aspects of the
administration and management of WPI’s Global Perspective Program,
including student recruitment, risk management, health and safety
issues, participant orientation and faculty advisor training. More
than 500 students a year complete a degree requirement off-campus.
These locations include: Bangkok, Thailand; Boston, MA;
Copenhagen, Denmark; Goddard Space Flight Center, MD; Hong Kong,
People’s Republic of China; Johnson Space Center, TX; Limerick,
Ireland; London, England; Madrid, Spain; Melbourne, Australia; San
José, Costa Rica; San Juan, Puerto Rico; Silicon Valley, CA;
Venice, Italy; Wall St., NY; Washington, DC; Windhoek, Namibia;
Worcester, MA and Zurich, Switzerland.
Mello has taught workshops in educational
outcomes assessment, and is a member of the university’s student
outcomes assessment committee and a newly formed university
Taskforce on the First Year Experience. She is involved with
national study abroad organizations particularly in the areas of
risk management and is recognized as developing a best practice
model for responsible risk management for off-campus experiences.
She has developed and hosted workshops designed to train faculty
and study abroad professionals in the areas of risk and crisis
management.
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