Holli A. Semetko, Ph.D. is vice provost for International Affairs and director of Office of International Affairs (OIA) and The Claus M. Halle Institute for Global Learning , and professor of political science. Under her leadership, Emory launched new international programs and partnerships; received external funding to promote global learning, faculty exchanges and new forms of study abroad; and expanded Emory in the World publications to include a new gateway website, news about faculty research, student field experiences, and Emory's international engagements. Semetko oversees Emory's International Student and Scholar Programs (ISSP) unit, serving a growing population of some 2,800 international students and scholars from 123 countries and their host departments. As VPIA, she chairs the governance committee of Emory's Confucius Institute and serves on the following Emory boards: The Emory Spine Center for Outreach & Medical Education (ESCOME), the Emory-Tibet Partnership, and the Institute for Developing Nations.

In 2007-08, Emory launched new international programs, partnerships and institutes including the following highlights. The Confucius Institute was launched at Emory and in Atlanta in partnership with Nanjing University and Atlanta Public Schools with support from the People's Republic of China. In India, Emory launched of the ICGEB-Emory Vaccine Center , a joint venture of the Emory Vaccine Center and the New Delhi-based International Center for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology. Faculty in Emory's growing Institute for Developing Nations (IDN) worked with The Carter Center and colleagues in a number of countries in Africa and Latin America to conduct research, build capacity and strengthen international partnerships and programs in those regions. His Holiness the Dalai Lama visited Emory as presidential distinguished professor and the Emory-Tibet Partnership was expanded to include the new science initiative that brings Emory science faculty to India to teach western scientific theories and concepts to Tibetan monastics. With support from the Academy of Korean Studies, Emory launched Korean language and culture courses; and with support from The Halle Foundation and Atlantik-Brücke, Emory students experienced study abroad in Berlin and Brussels as part of a senior seminar. From November 2007 to February 2008, The Halle Institute brought an expanded "Cartooning for Peace" exhibition to Emory's Schatten Gallery that was visited by many from the Emory and Atlanta communities. With support from Dr. Raymond Schinazi, the exhibition included new cartoons from around the world on global health issues. Read Emory's international news and 2007-08 key accomplishments in various regions of the world at www.international.emory.edu.

Before coming to Emory in 2003, Dr. Semetko spent 8 years at the University of Amsterdam, the Netherlands, as professor and chair of Audience and Public Opinion Research in the Faculty of Social and Behavioral Sciences. She served as chair of the Department of Communication Science and founding chair of the Board of the Amsterdam School for Communications Research, a school for advanced research recognized by the Royal Dutch Academy of Sciences (KNAW). Major grants from the European Union and Dutch National Science Foundation supported her work on political communication and media effects in the context of European governance, referendums and elections, and the European political and economic integration process. With more than 80 publications, including five books and 35-plus peer-reviewed journal articles, Semetko has held elected offices in the American Political Science Association (APSA), International Political Science Association (IPSA), International Communication Association (ICA) and the World Association for Public Opinion Research (WAPOR).

Recognized internationally for her research on news contents, uses and effects in a comparative context, she has received numerous grants, honors and awards including the Samuel H. Beer Prize for the best dissertation on British politics and the ICA's article of the year for "The Divided Electorate: Effects of Media Use on Political Involvement" in The Journal of Politics, a leading journal in the field. A fellowship from the German Marshall Fund of the U.S. supported her research in Germany in 1990-91, where she held a visiting position at the Zentrum für Umfragen, Methoden und Analysen (ZUMA) in Mannheim. She was a research fellow at The Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics and Public Policy at Harvard University in 1994. She took M.S. and Ph.D. degrees at The London School of Economics and Political Science and has held teaching and research positions at Syracuse University, the University of Michigan, and Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government.

She edited a special issue of American Behavioral Scientist (published January 2009) on media and public diplomacy in times of war and crisis. She is currently editing the Sage Handbook of Political Communication due out in 2011. Over the past two decades, she has worked in newsrooms and studied the news and public opinion in national elections in Germany, Spain, and the UK. Coauthored with Claes de Vreese, her book Political Campaigning in Referendums (Routledge, 2004) focuses on the role and impact of parties and the media on referendums in the EU context. Her many articles have appeared in such journals as the British Journal of Political Science, Political Communication, European Union Politics, Journal of Communication, Communication Research, International Journal of Public Opinion Research, European Journal of Political Research, The Journal of Politics and the International Review of Press/Politics.