Robert Glass, Director

Robert Glass joined Long Island University in 1997 as the Director of the Comparative Religion and Culture Program, traveling with students for the next three years as they studied the world's religions in Japan, India, Israel, Thailand and Nepal. He has a Ph.D. in Comparative Religion and has published a book and several articles on Buddhism and comparative thought. He has been Dean of the College since 2001.

Kerry Mitchell, Associate Director

Kerry Mitchell’s experience in international education began during his undergraduate years, with a six week summer abroad program in Austria. He never fully recovered. His travels have taken him throughout Europe, and to Central and South America, Asia and the Near East. He is an experienced teacher, working with undergraduates since 1997, with particular skills in social scientific and anthropological approaches to the study of religion. Kerry began studying religion at Indiana University where he developed an interest in religion outside of traditionally recognized institutions. After receiving his B.A. in 1994, he spent two years in Europe, at the Université des Sciences Humaines de Strasbourg in France and Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg in Germany studying philosophy and literature, before returning to the United States to pursue graduate studies. Kerry wrote his Ph.D. dissertation at the University of California, Santa Barbara, on the state production of spirituality in national parks, while teaching in the Department of Religious Studies at the College of Charleston in South Carolina. Outside of his academic life, Kerry enjoys kayaking, yoga, and French and German poetry.

Heidi Hillman, Assistant Director

Originally from Portland, Oregon, Heidi joined the Friends World Program (Global College) in 1998 after a year of studying and traveling in Britain and Europe. She began her studies with Friends World in Long Island, NY, and then moved to Sydney, Australia, where she worked under a folklorist/playwright and lived in a truly international family composed of a Norwegian host-mother, British host-father, and Swiss "sister." Under the influence of her host-father, a passionate humanitarian and poet, Heidi stepped into herself as an engaged global citizen and scholar. She spent the bulk of her Friends World career in London and Copenhagen, and wrote her undergraduate thesis on "Scandinavian Conceptions of Nature and the Self."

Upon graduating from Friends World, Heidi worked in Switzerland as an au pair and realized that she was not yet done studying. She enrolled in a MA/PhD program at Pacifica Graduate Institute in Santa Barbara, California, in 2001, and received her doctorate in Mythological Studies and Depth Psychology last year, after completing a dissertation on the poetry of Jelaluddin Rumi.