Leadership

Tom Mason, Ph.D.
Chairman & Founder

Dr. Tom Mason is a specialist in Chinese & Japanese language pedagogy, study abroad, and international higher education. In 2003 he founded the ALLEX Foundation (Alliance for Language Learning and Educational Exchange), an organization dedicated to changing lives through study abroad, intensive international education opportunities, and language study. For eighteen years he served as executive director before transitioning to chairman in 2020. He is now executive director of the U.S.-Japan Bridging Foundation. Dr. Mason has held leadership and teaching positions at Columbia University’s Kyoto Consortium of Japanese Studies, Cornell University, and several other institutions in Japan. He studied at National Taiwan University as the recipient of a fellowship from the Taiwanese government. In 2022 Dr. Mason was selected as a fellow for the Mansfield Foundation’s U.S.-Japan Network for the Future Program. He holds a non-academic, courtesy affiliation with the Reischauer Institute of Japanese Studies at Harvard University as Associate-in-Research. Dr. Mason is a passionate mentor, as well as a frequent speaker, in the fields of social entrepreneurship and international education. He is a member of the International House of Japan, the American Chamber of Commerce in Japan, the U.S.-Japan Council, the American Association of Teachers of Japanese, the Chinese Language Teachers Association, and the Association for Asian Studies. Dr. Mason earned his B.A. and M.A. from Cornell University in Asian Studies, and his Ph.D. from The Ohio State University in East Asian Languages.

Adrienne Henck, Ph.D.
Executive Vice-President &
Director of Programs

Dr. Adrienne Henck is a global education professional specializing in program development and implementation. She joined ALLEX in 2021 as a Senior Program Officer and led the resumption of the scholarship program following the COVID-19 pandemic. Dr. Henck began her career in international education nearly two decades ago as an Assistant Language Teacher in Gifu, Japan with the JET (Japan Exchange and Teaching) Program. She is an expert in global citizenship education, education policy, and approaches to improving school quality such as child friendly schools and whole-school assessments. Dr. Henck earned her M.A. in International Education and Development from New York University and her Ph.D. in International Education Theory and Policy from Penn State University.

Qi Wang, Ph.D.
Managing Director

Dr. Qi Wang is an expert in international higher education. She became Managing Director of ALLEX in 2020 after having served in several roles at ALLEX, including Director of Global Outreach and Research. Most recently she led the program’s expansion to Hong Kong, Macau, and Mainland China, areas that now comprise a significant portion of our annual applicant pool. She leads the organization’s administrative and candidate outreach operations. Dr. Wang has additional appointments as an adjunct assistant professor at the Graduate School of Education (GSE), Shanghai Jiao Tong University (SJTU) and a research fellow at the Center for International Higher Education, Boston College. She is the author of many books and articles on international higher education policy. Much of her research is on international student employment and world-class universities. Dr. Wang earned her M.A. and Ph.D. in Education from the University of Bath in the United Kingdom.

Eriko Akamatsu
VP of International Affairs

Eriko Akamatsu has led international affairs at ALLEX for more than a decade. During her tenure she has systemized the organization’s international operations while managing the ALLEX summer teacher training program and J-1 visa regulatory compliance. Ms. Akamatsu has mentored over 400 ALLEX lecturers on their journey to excellence in Asian language teaching. Akamatsu-sensei is also a specialist in Japanese language pedagogy, concurrently holding an appointment at Cornell University as Lecturer of Japanese. She is a graduate of the ALLEX program, having received her start in the field of Japanese pedagogy as a trainee in the first ALLEX class. Through ALLEX she earned a M.A. in Second Language Acquisition from the University of Maryland while teaching Japanese. Ms. Akamatsu also holds a B.A. in English Education from Hiroshima University and a M.A. in Secondary Education from Marshall University.