Christina Watts

Office Manager of the Center for Eurasian, Russian, and Eastern European Studies
Hometown: Littleton, Colo.
Time at Georgetown: 6 years

What drew you to the job?
I started working at Georgetown over six years ago for a research project, and then I moved over to this job in part because I love the former Soviet Union and Russia, and this has given me an opportunity to work in that field.

What’s the day-to-day of your job?
A lot of what I do is finance and administration. I handle our department’s budget and work with students and faculty on a variety of other issues.

Is there anything in your time at Georgetown that has changed profoundly?
The technology that Georgetown has implemented has definitely changed. Constantly innovating the systems that we use as well as expanding into social media.

What’s something you’ve learned at Georgetown?
I’m also an alumna of the master’s program, so it’s hard to name one thing that I’ve learned. My time here has not only been work but also academic, and I go to a lot for the events that we put on. One thing I’ve learned was just about Jan Karski, who explained some of the Polish ghetto experiences in World War II and then came to Georgetown. I had never really heard of him before I came to Georgetown.

Is there someone in the department whom you really admire?
I certainly work very closely with Dr. Angela Stent, who’s our director and who teaches our capstone, so she was my academic advisor. I really admire that she is incredibly intelligent, and that she is a woman in foreign policy who has made a big impact particularly in the area of Russian-American foreign policy, which is difficult to do. 

Is there a memory from your experience that you would tell someone is defining of Georgetown?
One of the things I love about being here at Georgetown is graduation time — being able to see everyone and their families completing their journey. The sense of mutual respect and accomplishment between students and faculty and staff is something I love to see year after year.

Interview by Danny Funt