Speakers

Hermann Agis

... received his master's degree in biotechnology in 2007 from the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences (BOKU), Vienna. In 2011, he successfully finished his PhD at the Medical University of Vienna (MedUni Vienna). From 2013-2014, he was a visiting scholar at the Dental School of the University of Michigan, where he focused on the cellular mechanisms underlying oral soft tissue augmentation. In 2014, he received the "venia docendi" (Privatdozent) from the MedUni Vienna. 2017 he was promoted to Associate Professor. His research focused on oral tissue engineering. In 2019 he became Executive Director of the Austrian-American Educational Commission (Fulbright Austria).

Bernhard Bauer

... is full professor for tourism and event management at the SRH University of Applied Sciences at the Campus Heidelberg in Germany. He has been working as an individual consultant in the sectors of tourism development as well as the cultural and creative industries in more than 25 countries over the last 15 years. Bernhard has a PhD in cultural anthropology from the University of Vienna and spent one year in New Orleans for an ethnographic field research, working with the Mardi Gras Indians, Social Aid and Pleasure Clubs, musicians, Voudou priestesses, and other cultural bearers of the crescent city. 

Günter Bischof, 

Director Emeritus of Center Austria was the first degree-seeking student from Innsbruck at UNO after receiving a graduate assistantship from the UNO's History Department in 1979. He taught at UNO for 35 years, at the Innsbruck International Summer School 13 times, and served as its Academic Director three times. He returned to Innsbruck several times as guest professor and guest lecturer.  In 2000 he was appointed as Executive Director of Center Austria. He also launched the Contemporary Austrian Studies journal and was its editor for many years. 

Upon his retirement and to honor his work, his family set up the Bischof Scholarship which benefits students from both institutions.

Bridget Bordelon

Dr. Bordelon’s research interests include tourism policy and planning, tourism accessibility and inclusion, apparent and nonapparent disability - food allergies and travel access, social and cultural tourism, crisis management and recovery, and cross-cultural analysis. Before joining the University of New Orleans, she worked in Denver, CO. as an event planner, as a research analyst at the Institute for Social Research at the University of Michigan and traveled and taught with Boston University’s International Honors Program in Brazil, India, and South Africa. Additionally, Dr. Bordelon teaches Sports Tourism and International Tourism with the UNO Innsbruck summer program.

Carrie Broussard

... is the Assistant Secretary of the Louisiana Office of Cultural Development, overseeing the Louisiana divisions of Archaeology, Historic Preservation, and Arts; the Council for the Development of French in Louisiana (CODOFIL); and the Atchafalaya National Heritage Area. She also serves as the Louisiana State Historic Preservation Officer. Before being named the Assistant Secretary by the Lt. Governor in 2025, Carrie served as the deputy for the office for six years.

Carrie has 25 years of experience in preservation, city planning, association management, and economic development. She has a bachelor's degree in political science from Louisiana State University with a concentration in state and local government.

Michael Burri

... is a Program Officer at the Botstiber Institute for Austrian-American Studies and editor of the Journal of Austrian-American History. He is a former president of the Austrian Studies Association, teaches in the Department of German at Haverford College, and is co-editor with Günter Bischof of the recent Bruno Kreisky's Foreign Policy: A Reassessment.

Margaret F. Davidson,

(B.A., Smith College; M.A., Ph.D., Tulane University; two years Free University Berlin with Fulbright) joined the University of New Orleans in 1989 as a full-time study abroad administrator and adjunct Assistant Professor of German. After moving to Innsbruck, where she resides since 1997, she implemented and conducted as Resident Director the UNO-Innsbruck Academic Year Abroad, and also directed the American Corner Innsbruck for the U.S. Embassy in Vienna in partnership with the University of Innsbruck. Retired since 2021, Dr. Davidson remains involved with the UNO-UIBK bi-lateral friendship and city partnership and serves since 2019 as the U.S Citizen Liaison Program volunteer in the state of Tirol, Austria for the U. S. Consulate in Vienna.

Karin Emprechtinger

... is the first woman to serve as a Executive Director of the Austrian Marshall Plan Foundation. She studied business administration and management in Vienna and began her career in the finance and real estate sectors. With her extensive economic and strategic background, she is dedicated to building lasting partnerships between universities, research institutions, and policymakers.

Christine Keth

Marc Landry

... is the Marshall Plan Professor in Austrian Studies and Director of the Austrian Marshall Plan Center for European Studies at the University of New Orleans. He teaches courses in environmental, global, and Central European history. His research focuses on the environmental history of modern Europe. He has held grants and fellowships from the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, the Louisiana Board of Regents, and was the Fulbright-Botstiber Professor in Austrian-American Studies at the University of Innsbruck. His book Mountain Battery: The Alps, Water, and Power in the Fossil Fuel Age (Stanford University Press) won the Baker-Burton Prize from the European History Section of the Southern Historical Association and the George Perkins Marsh Prize for the best book in environmental history from the American Society for Environmental History.

Markus Mailer

... heads the newly established Unit of Intelligent Transport Systems. This unit brings together the former Institutes for Road Construction and Transport Planning, as well as the Institute for Railway Engineering and Public Transport. This strengthens a multimodal approach. The unit is a competence center for planning, constructing, operating, and managing traffic systems, focusing on walking, cycling, private vehicles, and public transportation on roads, rails, and cable cars. Currently, Markus's research focuses on mobility behavior change and the transition of transport systems towards reducing energy consumption, climate impact, and increasing sustainability. Together with partners, he leads the “Centre for Mobility Change,” an innovation lab funded by the Federal Ministry. The center focuses on rural areas and tourism regions in particular.

Franz Mathis

Professor Emeritus for Economic and Social History, University of Innsrbuck, Prof. Mathis was Dean of Studies for the Faculty of Humanities, the Rector's Representative of the University of Innsbruck for the partnership with the University of New Orleans, a board member of the International Society for Historical Alpine Research, and editor of the journal *Tiroler Wirtschaftsstudien* (Tyrolean Economic Studies). His research and teaching focused on comparative urban history, comparative business history, the Third World, general economic history, and the interrelationships and foundations of socio-economic development.

Franz-Stefan Meissel

... is full professor of law (teaching Roman law, Private law, Legal History and Comparative law) and Vice Dean of the Law School of the University of Vienna. He serves as Director of the Sommerhochschule "International and European Studies" of the University of Vienna (which was founded in 1949).

Wolfgang Meixner

... holds a PhD in Economic History, awarded in 2001 with a dissertation on historical entrepreneurship in the Cisleithanian part of the Habsburg Monarchy. Since 2007 he holds the position of Assistant Professor. His research focuses on (regional) social and economic history, particularly the history of sport, tourism, transportation history, and the economic aspects of National Socialism. He served as Vice Rector for Personnel at the University of Innsbruck from October 2007 until February 2020.

David Mueller

... is Assistant Vice President of Corporate Sponsorships at Ochsner Health, where since 2019 he has led sponsorship strategy and oversees marquee partnerships with the New Orleans Saints and Pelicans, plus 100+ partnerships and community programs. Previously, he spent 12 years at GMR Marketing, launching integrated programs across sports, arts and entertainment, the U.S. Olympic Trials, and national tours. He also has public, private, and nonprofit experience and has served on the Greater New Orleans Sports Foundation board since 2021. Mueller holds a B.S. from the University of New Orleans and dual MBA/MS degrees from the University of Central Florida.

Gordon H. "Nick" Mueller

... is President and CEO Emeritus of The National World War II Museum. Dr. Mueller assisted historian Stephen Ambrose in founding the institution, initially known as The National D-Day Museum; he led the organization as Chairman of the Board from 1998 through its fundraising and construction to the Grand Opening on June 6, 2000.

Dwight Norton

... is Chief Planning and Capital Projects Officer. Dwight has been with the Regional Transit Authority (RTA) since 2021, when he joined the team as Senior Director of Strategic and Long-Range Planning and has contributed greatly over the last couple years in terms of moving the agency's strategic plan forward. Dwight has more than 18 years of experience in transportation and community development. With the support of his planning and capital team, he continues to advance transportation capital projects, push for innovation in transit service planning, modernize fare technology and software systems, and spearhead the region’s first Bus Rapid Transit project.

Billy Nungesser

... is the 54th Lieutenant Governor of the state of Louisiana. He was elected in 2015 and took office in January 2016. From July 2019 to July 2020, Nungesser served as Chairman of the National Lieutenant Governors Association, a professional association which charts issues and work to be pursued by the second-highest ranking officials in all 50 states and U.S. territories.

Under his administration, the state of Louisiana celebrated a fourth consecutive year of record-breaking visitation as Louisiana welcomed more than 53.2 million visitors, bringing in more than $18.9 billion to the state.

Mike Peters

... heads the SME and Tourism research group and is spokesperson of the Tourism and Leisure Research Center at the University of Innsbruck. He conducts applied research on sustainable tourism in the Alps. His research also focuses on family businesses and succession in tourism, and on entrepreneurial behavior.

Joe Pine

... is cofounder of Strategic Horizons LLP, a consulting studio that helps organizations design innovative ways to create economic value. A former IBM executive, he is a widely published author and frequent contributor to leading outlets such as Harvard Business Review and The Wall Street Journal, and is regularly featured in major media including Forbes, The New York Times, and Bloomberg BusinessWeek. He is best known as coauthor (with James H. Gilmore) of The Experience Economy, a best-selling book arguing that businesses must move beyond goods and services to stage memorable, personalized experiences—a concept that continues to shape how companies compete for customer time, attention, and loyalty worldwide.

Gerhard Rampl

... is a senior researcher at the Institute of Linguistics at the University of Innsbruck, specializing in corpus linguistics and onomastics. He spent the 2011–12 academic year as a visiting scholar at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). During the fall semester of 2016, he served as a visiting professor at the University of New Orleans, where he taught courses on the Romance heritage reflected in Louisiana’s place names, among other topics. Since 2016, he has served as Coordinator for the UIBK–UNO partnership (serving as Deputy Coordinator from 2016 to 2018).

Philipp Rehberger

Projectmanager sustainable mobilty and theme manager cycle tourism at Verkehrsverbund Tirol.

Mark Romig

A native New Orleanian, Mark is the Senior Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer of New Orleans & Company, the tourism industry’s destination marketing and sales organization responsible for enhancing the hospitality economy through effective marketing and promotional programs. His public relations career has spanned more than 40 years and has taken him from U.S. presidential campaigns to public relations and marketing counseling, from college classrooms to a world’s fair. Mark has also served as the New Orleans Saints stadium announcer.  Mark is a graduate of the University of New Orleans (UNO) (’78) and was named the 2016 Alumnus of the Year for UNO.

Martin Schnitzer

... is full professor of Sport Science (Sports Economics) and Head of Department of the Department of Sport Sciene at the University of Innsbruck. Martin is a scholar-practitioner specializing in the economics and development of sport. As co-founder of a w/eo University spin-off, he bridges academia and industry, advancing evidence-based strategies in sports events, sport and tourism, and sport development. His research informs policy and practice, with a focus on sustainable growth and community impact.

Robert Steiger

... is Associate Professor at the Department of Public Finance, University of Innsbruck. His research interests are in the field of sustainable tourism development, regional economics, behavioral economics (tourist behavior) and climate change impacts on tourism. He has worked on the topic of climate change and tourism for more than ten years and is co-author of the Austrian Climate Report (AAR2).

Erich Thöni

Professor Emeritus, Department of Public Finance, University of Innsbruck, Prof. Thöni was the University Representative for International Relations from 1992-2003. Initiator of the Partnership Agreement and Friendship Treaty with the University of New Orleans. He was the chief planner and organizer for the Austrian Student Program at UNO in 1982,1984, and 1989. He was the executive editor of the Contemporary Austrian Studies Journal between 1992 and 1998.

Matthias Triendl

As head of digital transformation at Verkehrsverbund Tirol GesmbH, Matthias is delivering strategic projects and programms aiming to increase the satisfaction level of public transport customers in Tirol. Matthias is an UIBK and Imperial College London alumni.