Svetlana Stepchenkova, Ph.D. is Associate Professor at the Dept. of Tourism, Recreation, and Sport Management, University of Florida. Her research interests focus on destination marketing, branding, and positive image building. She studies tourism behavior and the effectiveness of destination promotion efforts in situations of strained bilateral relations between nations. She is also interested in usability of user-generated content for managerial decision-making. Svetlana serves as the academic manager for the MOU between the University of Florida and Lobachevsky State University of Nizhni Novgorod, Russia. The activities jumpstarted in year 2010 with the $800,000 grant from the US Dept. of Education and the Russian Ministry of Science and since have focused on curriculum development, course delivery, student mobility programs, faculty training, seminars to disseminate best practices, and collaborative research initiatives. Svetlana has more than 40 published articles to date. She serves as an editorial board member for Journal of Travel Research, Tourism Management Perspectives, and International Journal of Tourism Cities