Dr. Kristine Billmyer
Associate Dean for Continuing Education and Executive Director
of the College
of General Studies
As
associate dean for continuing education, Dr. Billmyer has
delegated responsibility for the College of General Studies,
summer sessions and for continuing education programs in
the arts and sciences at Penn. She joined the staff of the
English Language Programs in 1982, became director in 1990
and executive director in 2003. In 2004 she was appointed
interim director of the College of General Studies and became
the executive director seven months later. She is also an
adjunct associate professor in the Graduate School of Education.
Dr. Billmyer is also a nationally recognized scholar in her field. She earned her Ph.D. in educational linguistics from Penn’s Graduate School of Education, where she is an adjunct associate professor. Her research interests are sociolinguistics and second language acquisition, and she has published widely on the acquisition of pragmatic competence among second language learners. She has been an active advocate on matters of international education and is currently president of the American Association of Intensive English Programs.