Jessica Hirshorn

Dr. Jessica Hirshorn’s mission is to promote intercultural understanding and communication. She has taught at Arizona State University for more than twenty years and received the Outstanding Teaching Award from the College of Integrative Sciences and Arts for the 2020–2021 academic year.

She is the author of the intercultural training simulation Rocket: A Simulation on Intercultural Teamwork, based on research conducted at NASA’s Johnson Space Center. The simulation explores intercultural interactions within the International Space Station Program. In partnership with EI Games, she also developed Space Quest: A Cultural Awareness Game, an online intercultural game that received 2nd place in the 2022 Serious Play Higher Education category.

Dr. Hirshorn holds a doctorate in Educational Foundations, with an emphasis in Multicultural Education and the Sociology of Education, from the University of Houston. She also earned a master’s degree in International and Intercultural Management from the SIT Graduate Institute and a bachelor’s degree in Asian Studies and Religion from Coe College.

Her international experience is extensive and continues to shape her teaching, research, and program leadership. As a Fulbright Scholar in Warsaw, Poland in 2022, she taught at the University of Warsaw and supported efforts to assist Ukrainian refugees. She has led study abroad programs in New Zealand, Ireland, the Dominican Republic, China, and the United Kingdom. She co-founded OLLI Corps with the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute and co-led its inaugural programs in Belize and Thailand. Earlier in her career, she served as a Peace Corps Volunteer on the island of Pohnpei in the Federated States of Micronesia and as the Coordinator of International Students at the University of Houston Clear Lake. As a student, she studied abroad in China, India, and Israel and has remained connected with many of the communities and colleagues she met during those experiences.

Dr. Hirshorn enjoys sharing the intercultural insights she has gained with her students and colleagues and remains committed to advancing her mission of fostering intercultural understanding and communication.