Lenore Yaffee Garcia

International Affairs Director

Lenore Yaffee Garcia is Director of the International Affairs Staff in the Office of the Under Secretary, U.S. Department of Education, where she serves as the principal policy advisor to the Secretary and other senior officers on international matters. Her responsibilities include serving as spokesperson for the Department to foreign governments, international organizations, and other agencies; providing guidance on the development and implementation of international agreements, policies, programs, and projects; and coordinating the international activities of the Department's principal offices. She joined the Department of Education in 1990 as a policy analyst with responsibilities including international comparisons of education policies and development of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Education Network. Ms. Garcia has been an Educational Advisor to the U.S.-Colombia Binational (Fulbright) Commission in Bogota, where she also taught high school social studies and was a translator for The Latin American Times, a magazine on inter-American affairs. She is the co-author of a guidebook, Adjusting to the USA: A Guide for International Students, written while she was program coordinator at the Washington International Center. Ms. Garcia holds a B.A. in political science (University of Pennsylvania), an M.A. in Latin American studies (Georgetown University), and an M.S. in economics (University of Delaware). She was a Fulbright scholar in Quito, Ecuador.