Bogdan Janakov | Oct. 27, 2026
The front doors of the Center for Experiential Learning on the Warren Wilson College (WWC) campus, where the Global Engagement office is housed in Swannanoa, N.C. in fall 2025. (Echo Yearbook/Neko Heinrich)
Meet Machelle Allman, Western North Carolina native and the newly hired director of the Global Engagement Office at Warren Wilson College (WWC).
Machelle Allman, director of the Global Engagement at WWC in 2025. (National Association of International Educators)
Although she has held this position for only a little longer than a month, her whole life has always revolved around international education. As a U.S. military kid, living on the move wasn’t something new for her. Allman’s father’s assignments took the family from one place to another, exposing her to different communities across the United States. But during high school, her family moved again, and this time much farther.
Allman’s father was stationed at San Vito Air Station near Brindisi, Italy. Her Italian was not strong enough to attend a local school, so she studied at a Department of Defense school. Outside the classroom, however, her family tried to live as locally as possible. Instead of staying on the American base, they lived in an Italian town.
“Living in Italy helped me to not only see the possibilities in the world, but have the confidence to be able to grasp them as they came up,” Allman said.
Back in the United States, that new confidence shaped her choices. She studied Spanish and German in college and completed study-abroad programs in Vienna, Austria, and Cuenca, Ecuador. Still, she did not know exactly what career she wanted.
“I knew I wanted to do international stuff,” Allman said. “I didn’t know what that would look like.”
After graduating in 1994, Allman accepted a position in international admissions at her college, the University of Wyoming. Initially, staying at the same institution after graduation felt strange, but it became the beginning of a career in international education.
She later moved from admissions into international student advising at the University of Washington, where she didn’t have to work with different students every year but instead advised the same students over time. Her life path felt clear.
However, life took another turn. Around 2018, after years in a high-volume international student office at the University of Washington, she left higher education for a remote position with the education software company Terra Dotta. Within a year, she realized she preferred working directly in higher education and returned to the University of Washington.
Years later, another unexpected path brought her to Warren Wilson. After moving back to Western North Carolina during the pandemic, she began studying library science while continuing remote university work. A class assignment required her to search for a real university job. While exploring Warren Wilson’s website for a library position, she noticed an opening for Director of Global Engagement.
“Oh my gosh, that’s perfect,” Allman recalled.
Next year, after completing her remaining commitments with the University of Washington, she expects to work fully at Warren Wilson. She is already considering new programs, possible courses, and ways to expand international opportunities for students. The path that began back in high school in Italy has now come full circle at Warren Wilson College.