Purdue International Scholar Assistance (PISA) Team

Photo of SARAH UNDERWOOD

SARAH UNDERWOOD

PISA Manager
Sarah has been an employee of Purdue University for ten years, and a Lafayette resident for twenty. She has a Bachelor’s and a Master’s degree in Business Management and Leadership from Western Governors University. She enjoys spending time with her family, her cats, dinosaurs, reading, walking and traveling. She plans to someday visit Nepal and tour Everest Base Camp.
Photo of Mabel Chan

Mabel Chan

PISA Specialist

Mabel Chan is originally from Hong Kong and moved to the United States in 2001. She speaks Cantonese, Mandarin, Chaozhou Dialect and English. Mabel has three years of experience at Purdue Univeristy, and prior to this, she spent more than 9 years engaged in customer service in the  government and banking industries. She has a varied academic background that includes a bachelor's degree in Chinese Language and Literature with a minor in Art Studio, and an Associate of Arts degree in Social Science and Humanities.

When not at the office, Mabel enjoys traveling, singing karaoke, watching drama movies & TV shows at home, chatting on the phone with friends and family, and taking long walks.

Photo of Severina Cox

Severina Cox

PISA Specialist

Born in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, Severina has been living in the US for sixteen years, with two of those years spent at Purdue University. She holds a bachelor's degree in Business Administration and a master’s degree in Business Management from Instituto Tecnológico de Santo Domingo, and has spent more than fifteen years working with international professionals, including students and professors. Severina is bilingual in Spanish and English.

Seve has friends everywhere and loves traveling, trying new restaurants, and meeting new people wherever she goes.

Photo of LAURA LATHROP

LAURA LATHROP

PISA Specialist
Laura joined Purdue University’s PISA team in September 2022 as a recent transplant to Indiana from Minnesota (where it is much too cold). Laura holds a Master of Arts in Teaching and a BA in History, and spent two years teaching English to undergraduates at Ningxia University in China. Returning stateside, Laura worked first in special needs classrooms, and later as a host and outreach facilitator for an organization serving international scholars at the University of Minnesota. She freelances as a writer and editor, volunteers as a trained domestic violence survivor advocate, and draws from a broad experience in office administration, information management, and content creation.

In her spare time, Laura enjoys taking road trips all over the US, exploring Indiana, reading, cooking, and mastering new board games with her family.
Photo of Olivia Williamson

Olivia Williamson

PISA Specialist

Olivia began her Purdue career as a PISA Specialist in January 2023. A graduate of Indiana University-Bloomington with a BA in Anthropology and a Liberal Arts and Management certificate, Liv studied social/cultural anthropology abroad in South Africa, and has spent her subsequent eight-year customer service career working in senior care, childcare, and food service industries. Having completed her 200-hour yoga teacher certification in 2022, she especially enjoys teaching gentle yoga to seniors and those with mobility constraints.

Liv strives to find time to read every day (audio books count!) and can often be found chatting on the phone with long distance friends and family — usually joined by her cat, Lil’ Chicken Nugget.