Sara Steinert Borella

About the Executive Director

Sara Steinert Borella joined the Steger Center for International Scholarship as the executive director in August 2021. She has worked in higher education both in the US and in Switzerland for nearly 30 years, most recently as vice president and dean of academic affairs at Franklin University Switzerland, a liberal arts university in the nearby Swiss city of Lugano. At Franklin, she was responsible for all undergraduate and graduate academic programs, including the curriculum and faculty. She also served as a professor of comparative literary and cultural studies. Her teaching and research have focused on such topics as 19th- and 20th-century European literature, food studies, mobility and exile, and travel writing.

Steinert Borella is committed to global experiential education, and in particular the programs at the Steger Center. She looks forward to offering Virginia Tech students the opportunity to embark on a transformational experience, one that makes good on the Ut Prosim motto and the promise to serve other communities both at home and abroad.  One of her primary goals is to make study abroad at the Steger Center more accessible to a wide range of Virginia Tech students.

Steinert Borella earned a bachelor’s degree in French with a minor in German from Bates College. She earned a Ph.D. in comparative literature from Brandeis University.