Vicki Birchfield is the executive director of the First-Year Semester Abroad (FYSA) program, a joint initiative between the Office of Undergraduate Education and Student Success (OUESS) and the Office of International Education (OIE), and a program she helped design and launch in 2021.

Vicki received a DES from the Graduate Institute of International Studies from the University of Geneva, Switzerland and a Doctorate in Political Science from the University of Georgia. She is the author of Income Inequality in Capitalist Democracies and co‑editor of multiple pieces on European Union diplomacy, energy policy, and immigration. Her work appears in top international relations journals, and she serves on editorial boards for Journal of European Integration and Globalizations. She was named “Chevalier dans l’Ordre National du Mérite” (Knight in the National Order of Merit) in 2012 and promoted to “Officier” in 2022.

Vicki is a professor in the Sam Nunn School of International Affairs at Georgia Tech. She directs the study abroad program on the EU and Global Affairs and co-directs the Center for European and Transatlantic Studies.