Duke Management Academy Scholars

Irina Adams

Title: Director, Student Engagement
Department: Duke Office of DKU Relations (DODR)
Entity:
Class Year: 2023

Bio:
Irina Adams currently serves as the Director of Student Engagement in the Duke Office of Duke Kunshan University (DKU) Relations. She leads a small team that provides programming and support for cohorts of up to 250 visiting DKU undergraduates at Duke each semester, as well as to Duke-DKU student groups. Her areas of responsibility span the program cycle including design and delivery of orientation, coordinating student services across campus, directing academic and co-curricular engagement, student communications, and program assessment.

Between 2016-2019, Irina served as Program Manager in the same office. She developed and implemented student and executive education programs at DKU and Duke, supported DKU graduate programs, administered the work of the China Faculty Council, managed communications, and collaborated on a variety of projects to advance the development of DKU. From 2010-2016 Irina was an Assistant Director with DukeEngage, where she managed a portfolio of 20 civic engagement programs and directed student-designed projects across the globe. In this role, she helped establish frameworks for study abroad providers to partner with Duke faculty on custom programs, for contractual and risk management, and for advising, mentorship, evaluation, and case management of student-led projects. Irina first came to Duke in 2009 to work with a global health center coordinating clinical rotations abroad and other training opportunities for US and international physicians. Prior to 2009, Irina worked in high school exchange (inbound and outbound), in communications, and marketing.

Irina holds a Master's in International Education from SIT, BA degrees in Chinese and Romanian from the University of Bucharest, and spent two years of her undergraduate studies at Zhongshan University in Guangzhou.