W. Chad Futrell has spent almost twenty years studying, conducting research, and working in China and South Korea, including consulting for numerous NGOs. Chad is currently the Executive Director of Student Life at Schwarzman College, Tsinghua University, where he oversees the Deep Dive mobile learning course, Practical Training Project internship program, and Chinese and English language programs. He was previously the Center Director of the CIEE Study Center at Peking University and Minzu University of China. Before shifting into higher education administration, Chad won several teaching awards for his courses on China’s development and environmental challenges, international relations, government, and business culture. An avid hiker, Chad has led groups to many sections of the "wild" Great Wall, and has designed and led study abroad programs in various places in China including Tibet, the grasslands of Inner Mongolia, rural Guizhou Province, and the border regions of North Korea and Russia. Chad spent his undergraduate years studying Chinese religion and philosophy at UNC-Chapel Hill and University of Sussex before spending several months studying Zen Buddhism at South Korea’s Songgwangsa Temple. He later completed graduate work in Environmental Management, Asian Studies, and Development Sociology at Cornell University, and earned certificates of Advanced Chinese and Korean from Tsinghua and Sogang universities, respectively. His research and language studies were generously supported by Fulbright-Hays, Korea Foundation, and FLAS fellowships, among others.