Program Staff

The UAH Office of International Programs and Services (OIPS) is excited to welcome you to Huntsville! The members of the office share in the duties of coordinating and participating in the academic offerings, cultural activities, and skill enhancement sessions. We are responsible for overseeing students’ participation in the Institute, specifically to see that all students are taking an active part in the Institute, and will resolve any problems, as necessary. During your stay, please feel free to contact us if you have any questions or concerns. You may email the program staff at oip@uah.edu, or see the Contact page for more contact information. Again, welcome to UAH!

Dr. John R. Pottenger, director of the Office of International Programs and Services, and associate professor of political science at the University of Alabama in Huntsville, will serve as the academic director of the Institute. In this capacity, Dr. Pottenger will provide close guidance and professional advice as you participate in the Institute and develop a project for presentation in Washington, D.C. As a university professor, Dr. Pottenger has spent over 20 years teaching undergraduate and graduate courses in classical, medieval, and modern political philosophy; American political thought; contemporary social theory; and political ethics and public policy. His published research includes two books and numerous articles dealing with problems in classical philosophy, modern political theory, contemporary Christian and Islamic political theology, and civil society. Dr. Pottenger has given numerous community lectures on contemporary social issues, including presentations on the importance of civil society to visiting delegations from the Russian Federation, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan; he has also conducted workshops on civil society in Bukhara and Termez, Uzbekistan. Dr. Pottenger also has extensive and varied experience in international activities and projects, including living in Brazil for two years. He has also made numerous visits to the Soviet Union since 1989 and later some of the newly independent states (Kazakhstan, the Russian Federation, Ukraine, and Uzbekistan).


Ms. Sarah Hemmings serves as the assistant director of the OIPS. As a dual-national (Canadian and British) who is comfortable speaking French, Spanish, and German, Sarah is naturally inclined toward international education. She is a native of Toronto, Canada, but comes to us from Georgia, USA, where she earned her B.S. in Human Ecology and M.S. in Conservation Ecology and Sustainable Development at the University of Georgia. An avid traveler, Sarah studied abroad in Costa Rica, Ecuador, Galapagos, Peru, Bolivia, and South Korea.

Upon completing her Masters, Sarah was awarded a fellowship from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to conduct water quality research on the Georgian and Puerto Rican coasts. She then instructed an environmental studies course on two field seasons of GeoJourney, a field course for undergraduates studying geology, environmental studies, and American cultural studies at Bowling Green State University in Ohio. The trips covered 25 U.S. states over 8 weeks, using school-issued iPods to deliver reference materials through video “Podcasts” instead of textbooks. Sarah is fond of teaching, and these experiences have sparked her interest in the use of technology in education. She is currently pursuing her Masters of Public Health in Environmental Health from the University of Alabama in Birmingham, with a concentration in International Health and Global Studies. She is looking forward to learning how to use remote sensing and geographic information systems (GIS) to study the impacts of climate on human diseases.


Ms. Anita L. Rathz, OIPS senior program assistant, is involved with the coordination and oversight of UAH sponsored student programs. These include the Partnerships for Learning Undergraduate Students (PLUS) from Morocco, Yemen, Jordan, Iraq, Syria, and Saudia Arabia, as well as Freedom Support Act students from Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Ukraine, and Uzbekistan. As logistical coordinator, Ms. Rathz will oversee student support services. She will also coordinate activities designed to assist you in adapting to the UAH campus.

Ms. Kathleen Sobai, OIPS program assistant, is a graduate of Auburn University with a degree in political science. Her family has been a host for OIPS visitors for many years, and she was previously a student assistant in the OIPS office. For the past year, Kathleen has been living in Morocco with her husband, Abbes Sobai, an alumnus of the PLUS program at UAH. There, she studied at Al Akhawayn University, Morocco’s most prestigious university, in the Atlas Mountains town of Ifrane. After graduation, she worked briefly in the capital Rabat for the Moroccan-American Commission for Educational and Cultural Exchange, a binational Fulbright commission organizing adult and student exchange programs. Kathleen and her husband welcomed their first child, Sophia Carolyn, into the world this May! Congratulations!

Campus Counselors
Various UAH students have agreed to serve as Campus Counselors to help you adjust to life at UAH. Several members of the UAH CSSA are among these Campus Counselors. You can watch a video introducing the UAH CSSA at youtube.com. You can email any questions about student life at UAH to the CSSA at cssa.uah@gmail.com. Please direct other questions about the program to the program staff at oip@uah.edu.

See the Contact page for more details.