Silvia Dall'Olio

Silvia Dall'Olio serves as director of Notre Dame Rome. She is the senior administrator responsible for advancing ND Rome's research collaborations, partnerships, and academic initiatives, as well as for managing academic programs, finances and budgets, and personnel. Dall'Olio also spearheads the development of ND Rome's engagement in the broader Mediterranean region (Southern and Eastern Europe, North Africa and the Near East). 

Dall’Olio earned her laurea quinquennale from Università di Bologna, her master’s from the University of Notre Dame and her Ph.D. in linguistics and second language teaching from Università per Stranieri di Siena.

Dall'Olio regularly teaches Practicum courses that focus on students' development of intercultural competence through guided reflection. She designs and conducts research programs for assessing intercultural learning during study abroad. Additionally, she writes and presents work on education abroad, second language learning in education abroad and community-engaged learning. Dall'Olio is also a qualified administrator of the Intercultural Development Inventory, a widely-used cross-cultural tool to assess intercultural competence.

Prior to her work at ND Rome, Dall’Olio has taught in the Romance Languages Department at Notre Dame, as well as in Italy and in the state of Qatar, and has worked as an editor and a translator.