Heidi Manley

Heidi Manley is the chief of USA Study Abroad, part of the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs (ECA), serving as the lead for American student mobility within the State Department. She oversees two of the department’s leading programs to support American students, the Benjamin A. Gilman International Scholarship Program and the Critical Language Scholarship Program, which she launched in 2006. Manley also has the lead for creating and overseeing a number of capacity-building initiatives to increase and diversify American student mobility, including the IDEAS Program (Increase and Diversify Education Abroad for U.S. Students), and Study Abroad Engagement Grants for U.S. Embassies and Fulbright Commissions worldwide. She also oversees all public affairs initiatives and alumni programming for American student mobility programming and activities. Manley previously served as the deputy director of ECA’s Office of Global Educational Programs and as a special projects officer in the Office of Academic Exchange Programs, where she oversaw a number of programs and initiatives under the flagship Fulbright Program.