OISS Staff

Katrina Knudsen, Director

Sarah Cockcroft, Assistant Director

Sarah serves as UMBC’s Principal Designated School Official (PDSO). She oversees all aspects of the Center for Global Engagement’s Office of International Students and Scholars, including development, management, and continuous improvement of a portfolio of programs supporting co/curricular success, immigration compliance, retention, and wellbeing of international students and scholars.

Sarah is originally from Charleston, SC, but has lived in Paris, London, Suzhou, and Buffalo, NY. She has worked in international higher education since 2020.

Sarah Wong, International Student Support Manager

In her role, Sarah oversees the UMBC Global Ambassador team and works closely with campus partners to provide support to prospective and admitted international students. Sarah also serves as one of UMBC’s Designated School Officials (DSO). 

Diane Zeenny Ghorayeb, International Scholar Coordinator

Diane serves as a Responsible Officer (RO) for UMBC’s J-1 Exchange Visitor Program and coordinates H-1B petitions for specialty occupation workers. She obtained her Master of Arts in Intercultural Communication from UMBC. Diane was born in Beirut, Lebanon; lived in Paris, France, for more than 20 years; and moved to the U.S. in 2006. Diane is fluent in English, French, and Arabic.

Danielle Bolden, International Student and Scholar Advisor

Farhan Nadeem, International Student Career Advisor

Farhan serves as a Designated School Official (DSO) at UMBC. He has a shared role as the International Student Career Advisor at the Career Center. He also assists international F1 students with the process of studying in the U.S and helps answer immigration questions and concerns. He previously worked abroad on refugee resettlement and Global Human Rights issues.

Mariia Usova, International Student and Scholar Advisor

Lauren Mister, International Student and Scholar Advisor