Staff
Michael McCarry
Executive Director
Michael McCarry has led the Alliance as its Executive Director since October 1994. Prior to joining the Alliance, he spent 18 years with the U.S. Information Agency (USIA) as a Foreign Service Officer. He served as U.S. Cultural Attaché in Beijing in the years immediately following the Tiananmen Square events of 1989, and led negotiations, which resulted in the restoration of the Fulbright program after its suspension by the Chinese government. He also served as director of USIS Chiang Mai, Thailand, and as Assistant Cultural Attaché in Bangkok. He speaks Chinese and Thai.
Michael’s domestic assignments with USIA include staff director/special assistant in the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, chief of Advising and Student Services, policy officer for East Asia, Voice of America branch chief for Southeast Asia, and desk officer for Southern Africa. Prior to joining the Foreign Service, Michael worked as a legislative and press aide for Rep. Robert McClory (R-IL), and as a journalist in Illinois and Texas.
Michael received an M.A. from the University of Texas (Austin), a B.A. from Notre Dame, and spent a year at Melbourne University in Australia as a Rotary Graduate Fellow. He is originally from Chicago, IL.
Mark Overmann
Assistant Director and Senior Policy Specialist
Mark Overmann has served as the Assistant Director and Senior Policy Specialist at the Alliance since February 2009. Prior to joining the Alliance, Mark was the Director of College Communications at Georgetown University, where he worked closely with the university's outreach and exchange programs to China. He also previously worked as the Program Associate for Communications at the National Council for International Visitors.
Mark made his first substantive trip abroad during college to study in Angers, France. Following his graduation with a B.A. in English from the University of Notre Dame, he taught English and studied Chinese in Northeast China’s Yanbian Korean Autonomous Region. He subsequently earned his M.A. in International Communication from American University’s School of International Service. Mark is coauthor with Sherry Mueller of Working World: Careers in International Education, Exchange, and Development (Georgetown University Press, 2008). He speaks French and Chinese, and is originally from Cincinnati, Ohio.
Lisa Heyn
Policy Specialist
Lisa Heyn joined the Alliance as Policy Specialist in November 2011. From August 2010 to July 2011, she was the Alliance's Public Policy Fellow. Lisa holds a Masters degree in Regional Sciences North America, Public Law, and Scandinavian Studies from the University of Bonn, Germany. During her studies, she spent a year abroad as Language Assistant of German at Ripon College in Ripon, Wisconsin. Earlier on, she gained international experience as a high school exchange student in the UK and as a Daycare Assistant in Canada in 2005.
Lisa is originally from Bonn, Germany, and speaks German, English, and Swedish.
Martina Erber
Administrative Fellow
Martina Erber started on with the Alliance in February 2011. Before joining the Alliance, she obtained her Bachelor's degree in Business Consultancy from the University of Applied Science, Wr. Neustadt, Austria. Her fields of specialization included Organizational Development, Human Resource Consultancy, and Real Estate Management.
During her studies Martina gained work experience as a human resource intern at REWE International AG, an international Food Company where she was responsible for the development and implementation of a new employee learning method called “blended learning.” She also volunteered as an assistant for a local construction company in Austria where she had the opportunity to acquire administrative skills. Martina successfully completed her First Certificate in English in August 2010 and is working on her Certificate in Advanced English. Martina is also the proud holder of a European Union Computer Driver's License.
Martina is originally from Trumau (Vienna), Austria and speaks German, English, Italian, and basic Norwegian.
