From Nebraska to Berlin: Alexandrea Swanson on Cultural Diplomacy, Women in Tech, and Going All In

In this episode of Fulbright Pulse, we sit down with Alexandrea Swanson, communications professional, advocate for women in technology, and committed transatlanticist, to trace a decade-long journey that began with a Fulbright English Teaching Assistant grant in 2014 and has never really stopped since. Alex grew up in Nebraska, studied international relations and German studies at Creighton University, and arrived in Kirchheim, Hessen as one of the few Americans many of her students and their parents had ever met. What followed was not a straight line, but a series of deliberate, all-in decisions: a second Fulbright with the Pädagogischer Austauschdienst, a master's degree in politics, economics, and philosophy, and years of building her career from the inside of German industry — before stepping into her newest chapter as Head of Business Development at VML in Berlin. In this conversation, we follow Alex from that first classroom in Hessen with its overhead projectors and overwhelming number of keys, through the moment she first encountered the word Digitalisierung at a Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung event and felt something click into place. We hear about the years she spent navigating German residency law, working at Scholz & Friends, AmCham Germany, and the Goethe-Institut, before landing at the BDI to build SheTransformsIT. We dive into that initiative: why only 17 to 18 percent of Germany's IT workforce is female, one of the lowest rates in Europe, and what it actually takes to change that number. Alex walks us through the FRIDA project, winner of the Impact of Diversity Award 2024, and the cross-party 10-Point Plan that made it into Germany's coalition contract. She reflects on where she found allies, where she hit walls, and why visibility alone is never quite enough. We close with a conversation that feels especially timely: what it means to be a transatlanticist in 2026, how the Fulbright community fits into a turbulent moment in German-American relations, and why the only thing that will get us unstuck is movement. Alex is the 2025 recipient of the Jürgen-Mulert-Award for Mutual Understanding, awarded by the German Fulbright Alumni Association. Interviewed by Jonas Happ. -- If you liked this episode, please consider rating and reviewing the podcast on your favorite podcast platform. Your feedback helps us reach more listeners and continue sharing the diverse voices of the Fulbright community. We want to hear from you! If you have recommendations for future guests or stories that should be shared on Fulbright Pulse, drop us a message at [email protected]. We're always excited to hear from our community.

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