Dr. Ischinger was appointed Director for Education on 1 January 2006.

Dr. Ischinger has held a range of senior international positions over the last 13 years in the fields of international co-operation and education, with a focus on Europe, the United States and Africa.

Before joining the OECD, Dr. Ischinger was Executive Vice-President for International Affairs and Public Relations at Berlin Humboldt Universität (2000-2005).  Her experience includes the reshaping of academic curricula and professional training to adjust them to the labour market conditions and social development.

Between 1992-1994, she was a Director at UNESCO heading the Division of International Cultural Co-operation, Presentation and Enrichment of Cultural Identities.  From 1994 to 2000, she was Executive Director of the Fulbright Commission for Educational Exchange between the United States and Germany.

Dr. Ischinger’s experience with the American university system includes several sojourns of teaching and research at Columbia and Harvard universities.

She holds a PhD from Heidelberg University and a post-doctoral degree from Cologne University in African Literature.  Alongside her full-time appointments since 1993, she has been Adjunct Professor in the Institute of African Studies at Cologne University, where she has undertaken research and supervised MA and PhD theses.

She has published numerous papers in English, German and French in the field of international relations and on the international higher education system.