Alysa’s passion for all things global stems from her being dragged around as an only child to “boring” places like Ljubljana, Slovenia and the Golan Heights on the Syrian/Israeli border.
When she was 7, she lived in Zurich, Switzerland and attended both a British school (where she learned to ask for a new rubber when her pencil’s eraser wore out) and a Swiss school where she practiced penmanship and received bug stickers for her work (ladybugs for a job well done, cockroaches for lackluster performance).
She led horse-drawn carriage tours in her hometown Boston while majoring in American Studies at Brandeis University. Her honors thesis dealt with issues related to assimilation of European immigrants. She went on to receive her Master’s degree in International Law, East European Studies and Intercultural Communication from the Fletcher School of Law & Diplomacy at Tufts/Harvard Universities.
Her work has ranged from the United Nations in Vienna to a Presidential Commission on Eastern Europe to Procter & Gamble. At the Wharton School, she ran a month-long MBA global immersion program to 5 European countries and created and led a Dean’s Tour throughout the US as well as Japan, Mexico and England while serving as UCLA’s Director of Corporate Initiatives. At BlessingWhite, she delivered keynote addresses from Encino to Egypt and led a sales team which promoted leadership development and employee engagement within top global organizations.
Alysa lives in southern California but is on the road quite extensively indulging her passion for travel, food, and connecting with people around the world. When stateside, she can be found creating yummy things in her kitchen, reading food and travel magazines, and watching movies filmed in foreign locations.