LaVonn Schlegel, executive director of the IIB, aims to establish the IU Kelley School of Business as a leader in the successful globalization of American businesses from government, academic, and business perspectives with an emphasis on entrepreneurship, social enterprise, and bottom-of-pyramid efforts. She manages a portfolio of projects worldwide that include partnerships with USAID, US Department of State, Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation, Yangon University of Economics, Bethlehem University, US Department of Education, World Federation of Direct Selling Associations, Hewlett-Packard, Gap Inc., and Coca-Cola Corporation. She also oversees IIB’s Center for International and Business Education Research (CIBER), which has been funded since 1992 by the US Department of Education to provide connections to global market resources, support professional development programs on international business issues, strengthen students’ understanding of business in a global context, and promote the study of world languages.

LaVonn joined the Kelley School of Business in 2007, bringing to Kelley organizational leadership experience ranging from entrepreneurial start-up to multinational corporate environments, and a significant set of organizational management, business partnership, personnel development, research evaluation, and program innovation skills. Early in her career, she developed and launched Hallmark Cards’ first successful foray into the Hispanic market and its first strategic creative manufacturing partnership. As senior marketing manager and then acting director for Sprint’s Medium Business unit, she was responsible for the billion-dollar mid-market business group, where she developed innovative programs to enhance connections with the business community. From 1997 to 2007, she served as president/CEO of an independent strategic management and marketing consulting group that provided services for international and national clients in the utility, entertainment, high tech, services, import/export, hardware, and health care industries. She received her MBA from Indiana University’s Kelley School of Business. 

Christine Everett has been with the IIB since June 2010. In her time with the IIB, Christine has used her deep background in program development and management to develop and manage a number of new innovative and collaborative programs, including Business Is Global and the Global Business Institute. As director of programs, Christine enjoys working with all of IIB’s amazing program managers to help them meet the objectives of their programs. Before joining the IIB, Christine held a number of roles in the Kelley MBA program, including her most recent position serving as the director of operations and diversity. In this role, she was responsible for delivering a series of leadership skill development modules for the first-year MBA students, evaluating the curriculum offerings of the MBA program, and leading the organizational effectiveness efforts for MBA program office. She holds a bachelor of science in business with a concentration in business economics and public policy from Kelley and a master of science in education with a concentration in higher education administration from IU.

Suzanne Lodato is director of proposal development and research communications for Indiana University’s Institute of International Business, where she designs, develops, and implements proposals in the area of international development. Before joining the institute, Suzanne directed the Faculty Development Team for University of Tennessee/Knoxville’s Office of Research and Engagement. There she led the team’s efforts to develop the capacity of UTK faculty—in particular, early-career investigators—to formulate and write successful proposals for external funding.  

Her current position at the Institute for International Business represents a return to Indiana University, where she had originally worked in the Office of the Vice Provost for Research as proposal development specialist. There she researched, coordinated, and wrote grant proposals to federal agencies and private funders to support academic units representing a wide range of disciplines, and she trained faculty on the proposal development process and strategies for seeking and obtaining external funding. During that time, she was also codirector of the Institute for Digital Arts and Humanities, where she directed an academic digital arts and humanities unit that supported faculty fellows and other digital arts and humanities projects at the university.

Before moving to IU, she served as a consultant to the Library of Congress’s Library Services Division, as director of the Division of Preservation and Access at the National Endowment for the Humanities, and as associate program officer in the Scholarly Communications Program at the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. Over eight years, she evaluated, awarded, and managed more than 630 grants totaling nearly $258 million for research libraries, library technology, the humanities, digital humanities, and higher education. She received her PhD in musicology from Columbia University.

Celebrating fifteen years with Indiana University’s Kelley School of Business in 2017, Timothy Smith joined the Institute for International Business as director of international relations and business development in October 2015. His role focuses on building and sustaining relationships, and creating lasting value for individuals, communities, institutions and organizations throughout the world. He leads all international outreach and development efforts for the IIB, leveraging his significant administrative and varied professional experience.

After earning a master of music degree in vocal performance from IU and enjoying a brief career as a professional singing artist, Tim began a doctoral degree at IU’s Jacobs’ School of Music with plans to teach voice at the college level. His rich professional experience of working full-time for the Kelley School while completing his doctoral coursework confirmed that he was called to the diverse, dynamic, and rewarding landscape which is a career in higher education administration with an elite business school.

He enjoys being outdoors (particularly in Norway) with his wife and children, as well as cooking whole foods for them. Tim still finds great pleasure in singing, learning and speaking other languages, travelling internationally, playing ice hockey, and doing all of this while deepening his relationship with his wife and children. He chooses to serve the Kelley School of Business in this important capacity in order to change the world for the better. Come join us in working to do so!  

Trina is thrilled to be part of the IIB team! She joined the Institute for International Business as the travel and event coordinator in September 2015. Her role manages and supports all travel activity for the IIB staff, faculty, and visitors. Additionally, Trina is involved in planning and executing IIB events and coordinating relationships with various vendors. Her deep institutional knowledge is leveraged daily by the IIB faculty and staff.

After earning an associate degree in computer programming from Ivy Tech, Trina began her career at Indiana University with human resources in the records and benefits area. Soon after she transferred to travel management, where she worked for 21 years before assuming her current role with the Institute for International Business at the Kelley School of Business. 

Ryan joined the Institute of International Business team as program manager in 2019. His role focuses on managing multiple IU Center for International Business Education and Research (CIBER) programs, and continuing to work with CIBER partners to grow global awareness and opportunities.

Prior to transitioning to the IIB, Ryan served as the assistant director of adventure education with Bradford Woods, Indiana University's outdoor education center. During this time, Ryan developed many relationships across IU and beyond to provide experiential education programs, and experiential opportunities for people of all abilities.

Ryan has a passion for facilitating experiences and enabling others to develop and grow. He is excited to support the IIB's mission to change the world for the better utilizing a global perspective. Whether it's hosting cultural awareness programs for staff and students, exposing members of other countries to the resources that IU has to share, or developing partnerships to create cultural awareness resources, Ryan's goal is to create a memorable experience for participants and IIB's program partners.

Teresa Crafton joined the Institute for International Business in January 2022. Having recently returned to Indiana, she was excited to find a role at Indiana University that would allow her to use her organizational and technology skills to support people and programs, and to join a team of professionals working in concert to make a difference in the world. She will be managing multiple IU Center for International Business Education and Research (CIBER) programs as well as other exciting new IIB programs, including Global Business Institute – Lebanon.

A Pacific Northwest native, Teresa received a master’s in library science from the University of Washington and then moved to the Midwest to begin her career in academic libraries. With a second master’s degree in educational technology, she transitioned into information technology while at Indiana State University, offering technology training and documentation and supporting faculty and graduate students with survey research instruction. Teresa has more recently served as a librarian at an independent school in Fort Worth, Texas, providing library programming and teaching technology and research skills to students in grades 9–12 to prepare them for college-level research. She has also taught an adjunct course for the University of North Texas in the School of Library and Information Science to introduce teachers pursuing their library degrees to technology and media in a library environment.

Britt Rust has been with IU-Kelley for three years, having worked in both the FAST office and JCEI before joining the Institute for International Business (IIB). She is happy with the new IIB appointment, joining the team that strives to make positive changes in the lives of many worldwide who are interested in growing their knowledge of business. Her specific responsibilities will be to manage the office’s contract and grant finances and provide support to IIB’s grant programming.

She holds a master’s degree in International Business from the American Graduate School of International Management and she speaks conversational German, Spanish and Swedish having been fortunate to travel starting at a young age. Outside of Bloomington, she loves anything Swedish and hopes to return there soon in the next year or two.

Spending time with her husband, grown twins, and her two cats is the most important thing to Britt. After that, she enjoys sampling the many diverse restaurants Bloomington has to offer.