From very rocky to more stable ground — the outlook for exchanges in the U.S. in 2026

Speaker:

Mark Overmann,

Executive Director
Alliance for International Exchange

Visa pauses, funding holds, anti-immigration actions, and more made 2025 one of the most challenging years on record for international exchanges in the United States. Yet, exchanges enter 2026 on relatively stable ground, especially compared to where we’d been and where we feared events might take us. Many challenges are still on the horizon, and yet we also have opportunity to continue to consolidate political support for international exchange programs in the U.S.

Join Mark Overmann, Executive Director of the Alliance for International Exchange, for an update from Washington that touches on these topics and more during this WYSE webinar.

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Mark
Overmann

Executive Director

Alliance for International Exchange

Mark Overmann serves as Executive Director of the Alliance for International Exchange, a public policy association that acts as the collective advocacy voice of the educational and cultural exchange community in the United States. Mark previously worked at the Alliance as Assistant Director and Deputy Director from 2009-2015.

Mark has also served as a Senior Manager at Accenture Federal Services supporting global health and diplomacy programs; Vice President of External Affairs at InterExchange; Director of College Communications at Georgetown University; and Program Associate for Communications at Global Ties U.S.

Mark has a bachelor’s in English from the University of Notre Dame and a master’s in International Communication from American University’s School of International Service. He is co-author with Sherry Mueller of Working World: Careers in International Education, Exchange, and Development (Georgetown University Press, 2008, 2014).