Christopher Medalis is an international education global programs and strategy expert based in New York City.  He has more than 25 years of experience leading strategic international education initiatives, advancing university internationalization, and managing grant programs and academic exchanges on behalf of governments, universities, foundations, and corporations.  As a consultant, he most recently served SIT as Special Advisor to the President on Student Affairs, and before that as Senior International Advisor in the International Office of Palacky University in Olomouc, the Czech Republic.

His career in the U.S., Europe, and the Middle East has included representing the U.S. State Department’s EducationUSA network as Regional Director (REAC) for Europe, in Istanbul and Bratislava.  Previously, he was Director of Global Scholarship Programs at IIE in New York and directed IIE's Europe Office in Budapest from 1998-2007.  He serves as an advisor and reviewer to the National Science Foundation, the European Commission, European countries’ ministries of education, and several U.S. private foundations and NGOs.

He holds a PhD in History from Columbia University (2009), where his dissertation focused on the role of the Fulbright Program in higher education transformation in Central and Eastern Europe. His research interests include history, public diplomacy, popular culture, and comparative and international education.