JONESBORO -- Arkansas State University has hired a new administrator to run the Jonesboro campus' study- abroad programs.
The university said in a news release that Jeanne d'Arc Gomis -- a multilingual administrator with about 13 years of experience in international education, U.S. and international member relations management, and study abroad advising -- will start Feb. 1 as director of the study abroad programs.
Last year, an audit of Arkansas State University's study abroad programs detailed management concerns. The program used to be run by Deidra Hudson, the wife of then-Chancellor Tim Hudson. Other audits dealt with Tim Hudson's travel expenses.
The Hudsons are no longer with the university, and Tim Hudson has reimbursed ASU $1,671.92 for expenses flagged by the audit.
Arkansas Legislative Audit has turned over its findings related in part to Hudson and his wife to a prosecutor, whose office is reviewing the material.
Gomis was a director at the International Member Relations for International Student Exchange Programs in Arlington, Va. The nonprofit educational organization helps students to overcome financial and academic barriers to studying abroad. She managed membership relations with institutions and prepared development plans, reports and budgets. She also established new summer programs in Senegal and France.
From 2006-12, she worked at Appalachian State University as a study abroad adviser and, later, as assistant director of the school's Study Abroad and International Exchange department. She served as interim director during the 2010-11 year.
Gomis has a Master of Arts degree in comparative and international development education from the University of Minnesota, which she completed in 2005. She is fluent in six languages, including Wolof (a language of Senegal and some countries in west Africa), French, English, Spanish, Creole and Mandjak (another language spoken in Senegal, France and Gambia).
Her salary was unavailable from ASU on Friday.
State Desk on 01/14/2017