March 2022

She comes to UCEAP from the UC Santa Barbara Office of Admissions where she has worked as an admissions counselor since October 2018. Working on freshman and transfer academic review, she researched domestic and international education systems to evaluate transcripts and make decisions on transferable credit. From July 2018 to June 2021, she was president of the UCSB Professional Women’s Association. She has a bachelor’s degree in Psychology and studied abroad at the John Felipe Rome Center.

Amanda Cheung has taken up a new position at UC Berkeley as career advisor with the School of Information. Since 2019, she has been in the role of intake adviser at Berkeley Study Abroad, supporting hundreds of students' journeys abroad.
Amanda has taken the Peer Advising program to the next level during the shift to virtual, substantially revising the curriculum, and creating opportunities for our peer advisors to develop as professionals.

Jason Hall has joined UCEAP as the facilities operations and administrative services coordinator. Jason will take over the day-to-day onsite operations of UCEAP and serve as backup to Lance Heather. He has spent his working life in the service sector, including 24 years in the grocery industry where he and Lance first worked together in the 1990s. He brings with him a wealth of experience and a fresh perspective as UCEAP moves to 420 S. Fairview Ave. in Goleta and looks toward a possible future home at UCSB’s Devereux site.

Amber Nicholson has joined Team MEEA (Middle East, Europe, and Africa) as an academic specialist. She has over 13 years of higher education experience and comes to us from the Health Professions Advising Center at UC Riverside where she has been the assistant director/health professions advisor since 2012. She has provided advising for over 5,000 pre-health students, conducted workshops for students and campus departments, and was responsible for all data collection for admissions reports for all health careers. She has a bachelor's degree in Biology and a master’s degree in Higher Education Administration and Policy.

Valerie Ong has joined the Berkeley Study Abroad team, serving in the role of intake advisor.
Born and raised in Malaysia, Valerie's first study abroad experience was to the state of Maryland as a high school exchange student. During college, she studied abroad in Lithuania and Oxford and worked with study abroad students on a ship sailing around the world.

Marge Pamintuan-Perko has taken the role of marketing and communications director. She had previously served as the marketing and communications director at the UCSB Graduate Division and the Coastlines magazine editor with the UCSB Alumni Association. Marge has spent three decades in the marketing and communications industry, working in positions ranging from producer to writer to designer and (even) cartoonist. Marge grew up in Manila, the Philippines, and went on to earn a bachelor’s degree in Broadcast Journalism at the University of Hawaii at Manoa. She’s proud of her dual Filipino and American citizenship, and speaks English, Tagalog, and French.