Kristine Billmyer Appointed Associate Dean and Executive Director of CGS
February 2005
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Dr. Kristine Billmyer has been named associate dean for continuing education in the School of Arts and Sciences and executive director of the College of General Studies, effective February 1. Dr. Billmyer has served as interim director of CGS since July of last year and as executive director of Penn’s English Languages Programs since 1990. Prior to serving as executive director, she served as the ELP’s associate director from 1987 to 1990 and before that as a language specialist from 1981 to 1987. She chaired the Philadelphia Region Intensive English Program Consortium from 2000 to 2003.
In announcing the appointment, arts and sciences Dean Rebecca Bushnell noted that Dr. Billmyer, who was selected after a national search, has “significantly expanded the ELP from a single year-round program to a diverse and internationally respected series of credit and non-credit offerings. During her seven months as interim director of CGS, Kristine has been extremely effective in engaging faculty, staff and students in thinking afresh about CGS’s challenges and opportunities and has demonstrated a keen understanding of the place of continuing education in the context of both the liberal arts and a major research university.”
Dr. Billmyer, a nationally recognized scholar in her field, earned her Ph.D. in educational linguistics from Penn’s Graduate School of Education, where she is an adjunct associate professor. She holds a B.A. from Vassar College and M.Ed. in English Education (TESOL) from Temple. Her research interests are sociolinguistics and second language acquisition. She has published widely on the acquisition of pragmatic competence among second language learners. She has been an advocate on matters of international education and is president of the American Association of Intensive English Programs.