OUR TEAM

CRISTINA GRASSET

CEO (SEP)

Cristina has been the CEO of SEP since she founded the company in 2008. She is the current President of Profesionales por la Educación Internacional, a non-profit with more than 2,500 members seeking to promote international education, and a board member at Paris College of Art and a private real estate investment trust.

Cristina has a Doctor of Education degree in Organizational Leadership, Policy, and Development from the University of Minnesota, a Master in Educational Leadership from Saint Leo University, the degree of Asesor de Inversión y Financiación from Universidad Complutense de Madrid, and a Bachelor in Business Administration from Loyola Marymount University.

KIM GRIFFIN

Academic Program Counselor

Kim Griffin is responsible for program design and development. Prior to this she was the Academic Director of the Comillas Foundation (Cantabria, Spain), where she built the institution’s organizational structure and designed its strategic plan. Kim combined these responsibilities with a position as Research Fellow in the International Campus of Excellence program at the University of Cantabria. From 1996 to 2011 she was Resident Director of the Middlebury College School in Spain, where she had also taught Spanish as a Second Language; and Theory and Methodology. Before joining Middlebury Kim was the Dean of the College of Translation/Interpretation and Director of Foreign Languages and Study Abroad at the Universidad Europea de Madrid. Kim holds a Ph. D. in Foreign Language Education from the Ohio State University, a Master of Arts in Spanish from Middlebury College, and a Bachelor of Arts in Secondary Education-Spanish from SUNY Oswego.

BARBARA GARCÍA MENÉNDEZ

Barbara García Menéndez has contributed to SEP’s research studies and oversees data collection and analysis for various of our projects including The Economic Impact of International Students in Spain where she is a Co-Author. She has a degree in Biology from Universidad Complutense de Madrid and has worked as an environmental educator and animal trainer/caretaker at Madrid’s Zoo. She has been an administrator at several cultural programs and associations and currently combines her work at SEP with the position of Coordinator at the Association of North American Programs in Spain (APUNE).

FERNANDO MARANON

Marketing and Communications Coordinator

Fernando Maranon joined SEP in 2011 as Marketing and Communications Coordinator, acting as community manager, guiding partner-selection processes, leading site reviews of host institutions, and structuring data-gathering procedures. Fernando holds a Bachelor’s degree in Public Relations and Advertising from ESIC Business and Marketing School (Universidad Rey Juan Carlos, Madrid, Spain); and a “Titulo Superior en Marketing” from the same institution. In the past two years his expertise has focused on website maintenance through Oracle’s CMS, conducting external communication campaigns for our partner institutions, providing customer-facing materials for presentations and events, and generating brand-compliant collateral to support marketing activities

LAURA P. TREVIJANO

SEP’s expert in program branding

Laura P. Trevijano is SEP’s expert in program branding, advertising campaigns, and social networks. From her first internship at Visualzink in 2014, in motion design and video editing, she moved on to KABAK where she was the Art Director for three years. In early 2019 Laura started working as an independent professional creating content in platforms such as Youtube and Instagram for L’Oreal, Maybelline, Coca-Cola, Nocilla, Mugler, Yves Rocher and others. She also worked as a freelance photographer and video director for various clients including well-known influencers. In May 2020 Laura founded TANITHMEDIA. Her clients include numerous companies and brands for which she has designed online advertising campaigns and managed paid media and social networks. Laura holds a Masters’ degree in Motion Design and bachelors' degrees in Advertising & Public Relations and Audiovisual Communication, from Universidad Europea de Madrid.

CRISTINA RUBIO HIGNETT

SEP’s expert in program branding

Cristina Hignett is a Program Adviser at SEP, where she helps design and incorporate language learning and co-curricular areas contributing to enhance students’ learning outcomes. Cristina has been a curricular developer for pre-school and first grade and is currently teaching at California Language School where she is also in the process of co-publishing a series of text books. Cristina was born and raised in Pittsburgh, PA, and after completing a double Bachelor’s degree in Hispanic Literature and Linguistics with a minor in European Studies at the University of Pittsburgh, she moved to Spain where she has been developing her career as a teacher, translator and consultant with SEP. She holds a Master’s degree from Universidad de Jaen in Teaching Spanish as a Second Language.

MARIA LUISA (SISA) SIERRA

SEP’s expert in program branding

Sisa Sierra is the Internationalization at Home expert at SEP, helping expand`the impact of programs on host and home university communities. She currently teaches Intercultural Communication, Civic Humanism, and Human Rights at San Jorge University (Zaragoza, Spain), and works as a project-based consultant with SEP. She previously worked in international development (education and management) in Guatemala, El Salvador, the Philippines, Indonesia, Bangladesh, and India. Maria Luisa holds a doctorate in Education from the University of Minnesota, and a Bachelor’s degree in English Linguistics and a Teaching Certificate from Universidad de Zaragoza (Kingdom of Aragon, Spain). She is also a qualified administrator of the Intercultural Development Inventory (IDI).

SANTI ALIAS

SEP’s expert in program branding

Santi Alias has spent 25 years recruiting students from all over the globe. In his words, those years “have given me enough information about how to behave in every country with local Higher Education Systems, Consular Authorities, Recruitment Agencies, On line Recruitment and Marketing Platforms”. He the Founder and Barcelona Manager for SAS, an International Student Recruitment Consulting company helping universities become truly international; and collaborates in SEP projects as an internationalization, program design, and marketing specialist.

Over the course of the past 25 years, Santi has held the following positions: International Relations and Business Development Director, ELISAVA School of Design and Engineering; International Marketing Manager, Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona; Study Abroad Director, Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona; Overseas Courses Organizer, FIAC Language School. Santi holds degrees from Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona in Translation and Interpretation, Teaching English as a Foreign Language, and ESL.

ALMENDRA STAFFA-HALEY

Almendra Staffa-Healey was born in Granada, Spain to US American parents, and has lived extensively in both countries as a child and as an adult. She is a true Adult Third Culture Kid (ATCK) -a term that’s applied to adults who have were raised in a culture outside of their parents’ culture for a significant part of their development years-, and consequentially has pursued professional interests fitting with the global orientation of her upbringing. She is one of SEPs experts in topics related to intercultural competence.

Over the past fifteen years she has worked in the field of international and intercultural education and business. In addition to serving as Resident Director for a number of US university programs in Madrid, she has taught studio art and Spanish as a foreign language at a Public High School in New York City. Almendra combines her work in building intercultural competencies and understanding in education and business as Director of Intercultural Understanding, with her role as Madrid Director for EUSA Academic Internship Programs. She has prepared US students extensively for working in Spain and Spanish employers for hosting US interns.

JULIANA MORENO

Juliana is a Sociologist, whose research topics have focused on Techniques and Research Methods in Sociology and Communication Theory and in Applied Linguistics. She holds a Master of Arts in Spanish from Michigan State University, and combines her work as part of SEP teams with her roles as: Director of eSTUcampus, a company dedicated to advancing and supporting international education; and Madrid Office Manager for SAS. With more than twenty years of experience as Coordinator of the School of Business Languages of the Chamber of Commerce of Madrid and Director of International Projects of Eduespaña, Juliana has been dedicated to establishing, designing, enhancing, planning, developing and monitoring international programs. Her professional focus in on the training at the workplace and teaching languages as applied in a professional context.