Profile: David Griffin

David Griffin’s blood might just run purple. He is a double alumnus of Emerson and just celebrated his 35-year anniversary as an Emerson employee.

As director of Education Abroad and Domestic Programs (EADP) in the Office of Internationalization and Global Engagement (IGE), one of his primary duties is to recruit and enroll students in the Kasteel Well Program; Emerson Los Angeles Program; Washington, DC, Internship Program; and Berklee Valencia Program. Each year, approximately 170-180 students study at the castle, approximately 400 students study at Emerson Los Angeles, and approximately 15 students study in Washington, DC, or at Berklee Valencia. Griffin is also chair of the Emerson Los Angeles Selection Committee. The committee is composed of Boston and Los Angeles staff who read and evaluate all applications and meet throughout the year.

An important component of Griffin’s job entails providing students with health and safety information for the various countries where they will be traveling. He is often the first point of contact for students who are having issues while abroad. A dramatic example is from Fall 2018, when the College had to suddenly evacuate three students from one of Emerson’s Hong Kong exchange partners during that period of social unrest and instability. Another was the evacuation of Kasteel Well students back to the US earlier this year due to the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as the repatriation of all other study abroad students around the globe.

Griffin spends a large portion his time advising students on what their goals are for study abroad, what kind of study abroad program is appropriate, and where they want to go. Some students have very clear ideas about what they want to do, and others have no idea at all. The College does not have an “approved” list of study abroad options (other than Emerson-sponsored programs), which gives students a great deal of latitude in selecting non-Emerson programs, if they wish. Any student interested in studying abroad through a non-Emerson program is required to have at least one advising appointment with Griffin.

He also advises international students who are interested in having a “study abroad” experience. As a DSO (designated school official), he has the authority to issue I-20s [Certificates of Eligibility for Nonimmigrant Student Status] to select international students from Emerson’s exchange partners.

What has kept Griffin at Emerson for over three decades? One factor is the students. “They are my kind of people. Interesting, creative, and passionate about what they do,” he said. He has also greatly appreciates the fact that Emerson is an LGBTQ-friendly workplace; he has been out as an openly gay man during his entire tenure. He also noted, “What I most like about Emerson is that it is always changing. I’ve seen the College build and move an entire campus from the Back Bay to the Theatre District. That’s extraordinary. I’ve worked under four Presidents and with countless staff and faculty. Constant change keeps the work interesting and meaningful.”

Soon after he received a BFA in Musical Theatre in 1985, he realized that professional theater work was not what he wanted to pursue. He took an administrative assistant position in Emerson’s Computer Applications Department (in which current VP for IT Bill Gilligan was a faculty member). In 1988, he transitioned to working with the Kasteel Well and Los Angeles programs in the Continuing Education Department, which later spun off into a separate department known as International Study and External Programs. This department became part of the IGE Office when it was created in 2014. He obtained a graduate degree in Speech Communication in 1993.

Griffin grew up in Brattleboro, Vermont, and has a twin brother. He has lived in Boston since moving here for college in 1981; he currently lives with his husband, Jimmy, in South Boston. He keeps busy outside of work by reading, seeing theater, and traveling. He caught the reading bug from his mother, who often read a book a day. His go-to topics are LGBTQ literary fiction and early 20th-century history, but he’s also been known to read the occasional trashy novel. His favorite author is Edmund White, and he also enjoys the work of John Boyne, David Leavitt, and Mary Renault.

Since he has a degree in musical theatre, it’s no surprise that he loves to attend the theater. He and his husband see as many local productions as they can, and they also travel to New York a couple times per year to see Broadway and off-Broadway shows. His favorite playwright is Tony Kushner, and Angels in America is his favorite play. He also enjoys musicals from the Golden Age; Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Carousel is his absolute favorite (as well as the very first musical he saw as a kid, at the Ogunquit Playhouse in Maine).

Through both personal and professional travel, Griffin has been to six out of seven continents. He still hopes to visit Antarctica at some point. Italy is his favorite destination, but the places that impacted him the most were Kenya and Tanzania. “Seeing wildlife up close is a once-in-a-lifetime experience,” he said. “Also, seeing how many Kenyans and Tanzanians live was a shock. I’d never seen such poverty before in person. It brought home to me, in a very powerful way, the great privilege I enjoy as an American.”

Nancy Howell (Communications and Marketing)