CONCURRENT SESSION SPEAKERS

Ms. Elisa Ahern, From Fulbright to Tech: Leveraging Industry Experience and Technology to Drive Chapter Development

After completing her BA in Physics from Willamette University, Elisa was an English teaching assistant in Germany for the 2015-16 school year. She worked in a low income school, and helped plan science lessons and interactive labs for 5th graders as well as helped to teach English lessons for 5th-10th graders. After Fulbright she switched tracks and completed her MS in bioinformatics from the University of Oregon. Just to keep things exciting, she changed career trajectories and now works in revenue data science at Seabourn Cruise Line, a great opportunity to continue promoting cultural exchange. Elisa currently serves as the Vice President of the board for the Western Washington chapter of the Fulbright Association.

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Dr. Carmen Barker Lemay, Climate Diplomacy – The Fulbright Advantage

Dr. Carmen Barker Lemay is the founder of Transform LLC, affecting systems change to avoid the worst of the climate crisis. Working across sectors and industries, Transform collaborates with think tanks, NGOs, foundations and enterprises working to de-carbonize the economy and build resilient communities. Carmen’s consulting work includes more than a dozen years related to energy and sustainability issues. She earned a Ph.D. in Political Economy and Public Policy and Master’s in Economics from the University of Southern California. Her undergraduate degree in Political Science came from Gustavus Adolphus College. Her Fulbright took her to Malaysia where she studied the New Economic Policy. Carmen lives with her husband in Minneapolis where they enjoy biking, canoeing, and traveling to visit world heritage and cultural sites.

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Ms. Nancy Bartley, Doors to Democracy: Challenges to Global Press Freedom

Fulbrighter Nancy Bartley has shares in two Pulitzer Prizes for Breaking News. She is the author of the narrative nonfiction book, The Boy Who Shot the Sheriff (University of Washington Press, 2013). She is the recipient of more than 40 awards in journalism. She is a doctoral candidate at the University of Washington, Seattle.

 

 

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Dr. Christine Beresniova, Fulbright Students as Cultural Boundary Brokers: Three Case Studies for Educational Change

Dr. Beresniova is the Executive Director of the South Carolina Council on the Holocaust. In 2011, she was awarded a Fulbright to Lithuania. This award served as the foundation for her dissertation at Indiana University, which synthesized ethnographic research on Holocaust history instruction in Israel, the US, and Eastern Europe. For this research, Dr. Beresniova was awarded the Maris M. and Mary Higgins Proffitt Outstanding Dissertation Fellowship at Indiana University in 2014. She served as a Takiff Family Foundation Fellow at the Jack, Joseph, and Morton Mandel Center for Advanced Holocaust Studies at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum and a Global Studies Summer Fellow at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. She presently oversees the state-run commission for teaching about the Holocaust in South Carolina.

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Dr. Richelle Bernazzoli, The Application Process: A Panel Discussion with Fulbright Program Advisors 

Richelle Bernazzoli is Assistant Director of Undergraduate Research and National Fellowships at Carnegie Mellon University. She holds a PhD in political geography from the University of Illinois and received a 2011-2012 Fulbright grant to Croatia in order to conduct her dissertation research on the Euro-Atlantic integration process. Richelle taught and advised undergraduates in the Department of Geography before transitioning to fellowships advising with the National and International Scholarships Program at the University of Illinois. She joined the Undergraduate Research Office and Fellowships and Scholarships Office at Carnegie Mellon in 2016, where she has developed a workshop series on research design and proposal development, served as the Fulbright Program Advisor and campus representative for several other awards, and taught in the Department of History. Prior to entering academia, Richelle served in the Army National Guard and completed a peacekeeping deployment in Kosovo.

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Dr. Blase Billack, Connecting People-to-People-to-Places: Culture, Technology and Health Research

Blase Billack is a Professor of Pharmaceutical Sciences at the College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences at St. John’s University. Dr. Billack’s research investigates how chemicals cause toxic effects to the skin. He has presented his research at numerous national and international conferences in toxicology and, to the present date, has published 38 peer-reviewed manuscripts. He also currently serves on the scholarship selection committee of the Polish and Slavic Federal Credit Union and as a member of the Society of Toxicology Faculty United for Toxicology Undergraduate Recruitment and Education Committee. Prior to joining the faculty at St. John’s, he was a postdoctoral associate at the Weill Medical College of Cornell University. He holds a Ph.D. degree in pharmacology and toxicology from Rutgers University.

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Dr. Jill Blondin, Connecting Minds and Hearts for Global Change through Intercultural Agility

Dr. Jill Blondin, Interim Executive Director of the Global Education Office at Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) received her B.A. from Indiana University, and her M.A. and Ph.D. from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. She served as the inaugural director of VCU Globe, a global education living-learning program devoted to building cultural agility in students. Under her leadership, VCU Globe received the two most prestigious awards in international education: the 2015 NAFSA Senator Paul Simon Spotlight Award and the 2018 Andrew Heiskell Award from the Institute of International Education. Dr. Blondin has shared her expertise as a Fulbright Specialist to Brazil (2018), and as a speaker with the U.S. Department of State Study Abroad Engagement Grant Program and Fulbright Portugal (2019).

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Ms. Bahia Braktia, The Role of Social Media in the 2019 Algerian Protests

Bahia Braktia is an alumnus Fulbright scholar. She is a doctoral student at the Literacy Program and doctoral research assistant at the Educational Leadership Department at Sam Houston State University. Her research interest include topics related to: the incorporation of Information Communication Technology (ICT) tools in education, languages, social justice, and women empowerment.

 

 

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Dr. Alessandro Brogi, The “On the Road” Experiment: Network Building as Public Engagement

Alessandro Brogi is Professor of History at the University of Arkansas. He is a specialist in U.S. diplomatic history and transatlantic relations and is the author of A Question of Self-Esteem: The United States and the Cold War Choices in France and Italy, 1944-1958 (Westport, CT: Praeger, 2002) and Confronting America: The Cold War between the United States and the Communists in France and Italy (Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 2011). He is currently working on a book tracing the role of the Fulbright program in shaping U.S.-European relations.

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Ms. Ashley Conard, Developing or Creating Your Fulbright Association Chapter

Ashley is a PhD student in Computational Biology at Brown University under the NSF Graduate Research Fellowship. She currently serves on the US Fulbright Association Board of Directors. She pursued her Fulbright in Belgium in the Machine Learning Group at the Université Libre de Bruxelles, where she developed a protein design algorithm utilizing game theory, machine learning, and parallel computing. Ashley has pioneered in related projects at MIT Lincoln Labs, Eli Lilly and Company, Vanderbilt University, and DePauw University. She has been very involved in STEM outreach at Google, the American Chemical Society, and several schools.

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Mr. Cesar Corona, The Fulbright Program: Is it Really Public Diplomacy?

Cesar Corona specializes on public diplomacy and world expos. He holds a BA in International Relations from Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico, and a MA in Public Diplomacy from the University of Southern California, which he pursued under a Fulbright scholarship. In 2011, he worked with the Deputy Major for Strategic Partnerships at the City of Los Angeles as a Fulbright Public Policy grantee. His professional experience includes work at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Mexico, USAID at the U.S. Embassy in Mexico, the Bureau International des Expositions, and the USC Center on Public Diplomacy.

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Dr. Kimberly Battle-Walters Denu, Identifying Structural and Cultural Impetuses and Impediments to Ethiopian Women Faculty Applying to or Completing Doctoral Programs in Ethiopia

Fulbrighter Nancy Bartley has shares in two Pulitzer Prizes for Breaking News. She is the author of the narrative nonfiction book, The Boy Who Shot the Sheriff (University of Washington Press, 2013). She is the recipient of more than 40 awards in journalism. She is a doctoral candidate at the University of Washington, Seattle.

 

 

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Mr. Andreas Dewald, Best practices of Fulbright Alumni Associations around the world

Priot to going to the US on a Fulbright Scholarship, Andreas Dewald graduated with a bachelor’s degree in Engineering Management from Darmstadt University of Applied Sciences. At Purdue University he pursued a master´s degree in Technology, Leadership and Innovation which he received at end of 2018. Currently he is writing his masters´s thesis about the stationary use of fuel cell technology at Daimler AG for his German master´s degree. He gained first experience in Process Optimization through several Lean Management assignments and receiving a Six Sigma Black Belt Certificate at Purdue University. He currently serves as the Vice President for Members of the German Fulbright Alumni Association. Andreas Dewald is passionate about technology, future mobility, intercultural exchange and connecting people. “The world is small if your network is big”

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Dr. Barbara Engebretsen, Tigers, Hearts, and Summits: Connecting Minds for Global Health in Nepal

Dr. Engebretsen earned her PhD in Altitude Physiology from Colorado State University and is a professor at Wayne State College. Past president of the Nebraska Physiological Society, she has coordinated numerous grants to support physiology teaching, Service-Learning, a Rotary Global Grant for water and democracy in South Sudan, and developed an interdisciplinary minor in Public and Global Health. The recipient of the WSC Teaching Excellence Award in 2015, her academic homeostasis was disturbed by the growing disconnect between advancing knowledge of the mechanisms and prevention of non-communicable diseases (NCDs), and their escalating global prevalence. It was further disturbed by socioeconomic disparities in the global burden of NCDs. Dr. Engebretsen is completing a Fulbright Global Scholar Award in Ethiopia and Nepal to address NCDs.

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Dr. Lori Felton, The Application Process: A Panel Discussion with Fulbright Program Advisors

Dr. Lori A. Felton is a fellowships advisor in the Office of Merit Awards at American University. She earned her M.A. and Ph. D. in History of Art at Bryn Mawr College, specializing in German and Austrian Modernism. Her dissertation, Egon Schiele’s Double Self-Portraiture, examines Schiele’s double self-portraits as an independent body of works, tracing their development as a creative strategy over the course of Schiele’s short career. The recipient of national and international awards, Dr. Felton’s distinctions include a Fulbright study grant to Austria in 2011, an Austrian-American Educational Commission award, and a DAAD scholarship.

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Dr. Bruce Fowler, Strengthening Fulbright Association Advocacy

B.S. degree in Fisheries (Marine Biology), University of Washington (1968). Ph.D., (Pathology) University of Oregon Medical School. (1972). Research Scientist, NIH/NIEHS,(1972-1987), Director, UMD, Toxicology Program 1987-2002, Scientific Director Division of Toxicology, CDC/ATSDR, 2002-2011. Concurrent Positions include Adjunct Professor Emory University, Presidents Professor, University of Alaska- Fairbanks, and various Advisory Committees of, NAS/NRC, NIH, USEPA, WHO, IARC, USP and WHO/FAO JECFA. He is the author/co-author of 260 articles and 10 books. Dr. Fowler has been honored as a Fellow of the Japanese Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS), a Fulbright Scholar and Swedish Medical Research Council Visiting Professor (Sweden) and elected as a Fellow of the Academy of Toxicological Sciences. He is a Rotary International Paul Harris Multiple Fellow and a member of the Fulbright 1946 Society.

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Ms. Cydni Gordon, Connecting Minds and Hearts for Global Change through Intercultural Agility

Cydni Gordon received her B.S. in Psychology, Mass Communications, and African American Studies from Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU). While at VCU, Gordon participated in the VCU Globe living-learning program. She studied abroad and conducted research in Oaxaca, Mexico, and also participated in a 100,000 Strong in the Americas Grant in Puebla, Mexico. Gordon also studied abroad in Doha, Qatar. She received a 2017-18 scholarship from the Fulbright U.S. Student Program to research the subjective experiences of using psychopharmaceuticals in treatment of bipolar disorder in Buenos Aires, Argentina. She presented at the Fulbright Regional Enrichment Seminar (Chile, 2018), on her secondary work which explore the role of technology in supplementing traditional forms of mental illness treatments as part of a panel on innovations in public health.

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Ms. Mariana Grassi, The Impact of Study Abroad Experiences on L2 Learner beliefs: A Case Study

Mariana Hernandes Grassi is Brazilian and holds a BA in Language Education from Universidade Federal de Pelotas. After her graduation from college, she was awarded a Fulbright FLTA grant and spent one year teaching Portuguese at a community college in New Jersey. Upon completion of her Fulbright program, she returned to Brazil to work as an EFL teacher at a US-Brazil Binational Center in Brasilia. In 2017, Mariana moved back to the US to start her MA in TESOL in which she concluded in May 2019 at American University. She is currently an ESL adjunct at American University and Community College of Baltimore County. She is interested in aspects that affect language acquisition, such as motivation and beliefs.

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Dr. Sudha Haley, Strengthening Fulbright Association Advocacy

Dr. Haley is First Vice President and Legislative Director for MD/NARFE, Maryland’s lead advocate on Capitol Hill. She is on the Board of Directors of the Worldwide Responsible Accredited Production; Commissioner on Calvert County’s Commission on Aging; Fulbright Association and United Seniors of Maryland Advocacy Task Forces; and performs Indian Classical Kathak Dance, among others. She has managed Programs, Personnel and Budgets for ten USDOL Agencies as Assistant Deputy Associate Secretary of Labor. She served on State Department’s Senior Promotions Board and led negotiations of Labor Chapters on International Trade Agreements. She was Fulbright Scholar to Israel and adjunct Professor at George Washington University. She speaks several languages and received national and international awards. Married to Dr. Kenneth Haley, they have three sons.

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Dr. Laurence Hare, The “On the Road” Experiment: Network Building as Public Engagement

Laurence Hare is Associate Professor of History and Director of the International & Global Studies Program at the University of Arkansas. He is currently leading a team of scholars in a grant program aimed at developing the needed infrastructure to promote the study of both the effectiveness of international exchange and the Fulbright Program in particular.

 

 

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Mr. Eric Howard, Climate Diplomacy – The Fulbright Advantage

Eric Howard is the Director of Strategic Partnerships at Second Nature. He guides the development of dynamic partnerships, integrating them into climate action programs, advocacy and policy efforts. He builds new alliances that align with Second Nature’s core areas of expertise and advances activities that will have a positive impact on the communities served. Prior to joining Second Nature in 2018, Eric focused on corporate partnerships for Oxfam America (2017-18) and for Northeastern University’s College of Engineering (2013-17.) Previously he was Executive Director of the Fulbright Academy of Science & Technology (2003-2012). Eric has a B.A. in Geology from Wesleyan University, a Master of Environmental Management from Duke University, and a Certificate in Business Administration from Northeastern University. He is currently finishing doctoral work at Northeastern on Organizational Leadership. Eric lives north of Boston, and his children attend various East Coast universities.

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Ms. Megan Hull, The “On the Road” Experiment: Network Building as Public Engagement

Originally from Lansing, MI and growing up just outside of Chattanooga, TN, Megan now calls Little Rock, AR home, where she serves as an Admission Counselor for her alma mater, Hendrix College. Exchange programs in the Harz Mountains and in Marburg led to a Fulbright English Teaching Assistantship in Mainz, Germany (’16-’17) and then a U.S. Teaching Assistantship in Vienna, Austria (’17-’18).

 

 

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Dr. Luca Iandoli, Connecting Communities through Participatory Action Research

Dr. Iandoli is Associate Dean for Global and Online Programs at St. John’s University, College of Professional Studies, and an Associate Professor in the Division of Computer Science, Mathematics, and Science. Dr. Iandoli has served as an Associate Professor at the University of Naples Federico II (Italy), and as Visiting Research Professor at Stevens Institute of Technology. He was a Fulbright Visiting Scholar at the Center for Collective Intelligence of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He has published more than 100 papers on the analysis of interfirm collaboration, collective intelligence in online networks, serving as a member of the editorial board of several academic journals. Dr. Iandoli’s current research focus is on how online interaction and collaboration might be leveraged to help groups, organizations, communities, and companies aggregate and store dispersed knowledge; increase creativity, innovation, and problem solving; and support large-scale, collective intelligence. Dr. Iandoli has served as President of the International Council for Small Business for the 2016–17 term.

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Dr. Chandni Jaishwal, Tigers, Hearts, and Summits: Connecting Minds for Global Health in Nepal

Chandni Jaishwal graduated with a Bachelor of Dental Surgery from Kathmandu University in 2014. She completed a 14-week Health Care and Management diploma course from the University of Basel, Switzerland in 2018. Since graduation, she has been working under Nepal Ministry of Health in a different roles from dental surgery, as district health officer, medical superintendent, and a policymaker. During her dental services in Nepal’s rural district, she witnessed that many Nepali lost their lives owing to the poor health system. Her aim has been and still is to strengthen the Nepali health system through evidenced-based decisions. She will be pursuing an MPH from Emory University, USA on a Fulbright scholarship in 2019 fall. She is also the recipient of an international peace scholarship.

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Dr. Sonora Jha, Doors to Democracy: Challenges to Global Press Freedom

Dr. Sonora Jha is a professor of journalism at Seattle University. She holds a doctorate in political communication. Her research has been published in leading scholarly journals. She is the co-author of New Feminisms in South Asian Social Media, Film and Literature (Routledge 2017) and is the author of the novel, Foreign (Random House India, 2013).

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Dr. Károly Jókay, Developing or Creating Your Fulbright Association Chapter

An expert in municipal finance and bankruptcy, Jókay taught municipal finance, public budgeting and public management in the Department of Public Policy at Central European University between 2005 and 2017. Jókay has extensive consulting experience in Central and Eastern European countries, including Serbia, Bosnia-Herzegovina and Macedonia, completing projects on municipal bond disclosure standards, public utility transformation and regulation in the municipal services sector, as well as municipal debt regulation. He was born in Chicago to Hungarian refugee parents, earned a B.A. in Economics from the University of Michigan and has an M.A. and Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of Illinois. Jókay, who moved to Hungary in 1994, active in several civil society organizations, established a family foundation to support the education of poor, rural children in the High School of the Reformed Church in Pápa.  Jókay has been Executive Director of the Fulbright Commission in Hungary since November 1, 2012.

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Dr. Tiffany Kershner, The Application Process: A Panel Discussion with Fulbright Program Advisors

Since February 2019, Dr. Tiffany Kershner has served as the Associate Director of Hicks Honors College at the University of North Florida, where she is responsible for advising students interested in applying for national fellowships and scholarships. Prior to this position she was the Director of the Fellowship Advising Office at North Carolina State University for 8 years. Dr. Kershner earned a B.A. in Anthropology from the University of Iowa and a Master’s Degree in Anthropology from SUNY-Albany. Her training continued at Indiana University where she focused on linguistics and African languages, completing another MA and then her doctorate in Linguistics. Dr. Kershner has an extensive background in linguistic and cultural anthropology, descriptive linguistics, and African languages. She has done intensive fieldwork among the Sukwa culture of Malawi, through which she received funding through a Fulbright Student Grant (1999-2000) and a National Science Foundation Dissertation Improvement Grant.

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Dr. Tia Kansara, Climate Diplomacy – The Fulbright Advantage

Tia Kansara is a multi award-winning entrepreneur. She is co-founder of Kansara Hackney Ltd – the first ISO-certified sustainable lifestyle consultancy, for which she is the youngest awardee of the RIBA honorary fellowship. She’s the CEO of Replenish Earth Ltd, a cause and a collective action to protect the global commons. She was invited to advise the UNCTAD, BioTrade Initiative on sustainability between 2009-12. She has advised the UN-Habitat in Hue, Vietnam with the Building and Social Housing Foundation. Her Ph.D. at UCL, Energy Institute on the design of future cities – she worked alongside MIT and the Urban Planning Council, the Executive Affairs Authority, Department of Municipal Affairs, Abu Dhabi Water and Electricity Authority, Regulation and Supervision Bureau to create the first energy baseline and comprehensive energy evaluation in the Gulf.

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Ms. Joanna Kukielka-Blaser, Fulbright Scholar Outcomes and Impact: Development and Testing of Data Driven Assessments

Joanna Kukielka-Blaser is Director for International Partnerships in the Office of International Affairs at The Ohio State University (OSU). Joanna is responsible for the oversight and administration of OSU international partnerships. In addition, she directs the U.S. Department of Education Fulbright-Hays Doctoral Dissertation Research Abroad (DDRA) Fellowship program and is the Campus Liaison for the Fulbright Scholar program. In 2016, Joanna received the Fulbright Scholar Grant for International Education Administrators (IEA) to Germany. Previously, Joanna served as Assistant Director of the OSU Mershon Center Civic Education Program where she administered grants from the U.S. Departments of Education and State with partners in Poland, Ukraine, and South Africa. She was also a Soros Teaching Fellow in Poland. Joanna has lived and worked in multiple countries and speaks, Polish, Russian, and German. She holds an M.A. degree in Russian Language and Literature from OSU.

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Dr. Joanne Lisosky, Doors to Democracy: Challenges to Global Press Freedom

An emeritus professor of communcations at Pacific Lutheran University, Tacoma, Wa., Lisosky has received three Fulbrights, one which took her to Azerbaijan where she met persecuted journalist Sevinj Osmanqizi. Lisosky, the co-author of War on Words: Who Should Protect Journalists, has partnered with Osmanqizi in Osmanqizi’s life-threatening struggle for press freedom.

 

 

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Dr. Deborah Logan, The Fulbright Legacy in Mexico: a Gift that Keeps on GivingPandal-hopping in the City of Joy: Being a Fulbrighter in Kolkata

Deborah A. Logan (PhD UNC/Chapel Hill) is professor of English at Western Kentucky University. She teaches British and World Literatures and is editor of the academic journal, Victorians Journal of Culture and Literature. She has published extensively on Victorian author Harriet Martineau, including literary biography and scholarly editions (letters, periodicals writing, history, empire literature). Her most recent book is The Indian Ladies’ Magazine: From Raj to Swaraj (Lehigh UP 2017), which examines the role of this English-language publication in the Indian nationalist movement aimed at independence from the British Empire. Forthcoming is an anthology of Indian women’s writing in English, The Life Literary: Writings from The Indian Ladies’ Magazine, which will be published by Jadavpur University Press (2020).

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Ms. Mary Beth Marklein, Academic exchange, higher education reform and the multiplier effect

Mary Beth Marklein is a PhD candidate at George Mason University, where she is pursuing dissertation research on the long-term cumulative impact of U.S. public diplomacy on higher education reform in Vietnam. A longtime journalist at USA TODAY specializing in higher education, she taught journalism at universities in Romania in 2004-2005 as a Fulbright scholar, and in Vietnam in 3014 as a Fulbright Senior Specialist. She is U.S. correspondent for University World News.

 

 

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Dr. Richard Marranca, Connecting Communities through Participatory Action Research

Richard Marranca, Doctor of Arts, has Life Coach Certification from Fowler Wainwright International, Yoga & Meditation Certification from Center for Transpersonal Studies, and a Doctor of Arts Degree from the Steinhardt School of Education of New York University (creativity & general humanities). In addition, he has studied at Integral Yoga NYC, Sivananda Yoga Farm in Grass Valley, California, Sivananda in Munich, KTD Monastery in Woodstock, Omega Institute in NYC, the Open Center in NYC, C.G. Jung Foundation in NYC, Wat Mahathat in Bangkok, and elsewhere. He is Past President of the New Jersey Fulbright Association and presently a Trustee of New Jersey College English Association

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Dr. Nabil Marshood, Connecting Communities through Participatory Action Research

Dr. Nabil Marshood is a Fulbright Scholar, an author, and a professor of sociology at Hudson County Community College, He earned his BA and MA from the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, and his Ph.D. from Columbia University. His research interest centers on the study of power structures and the social construction of knowledge. He is the author of Voices from the Camps: People’s History of Palestinian Refugees in Jordan, 2006 (2010), and Palestinian Teenage Refugees and Immigrants Speak Out (1997). He has also written a number of articles and contributed to book reviews, and coauthored Everyday Sociology (a textbook) for numerous editions that lasted for 17 years.

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Ms. Emily Massah, Building Cyber Resilience in a Technology-dependent World

Emily Massah is a Consultant and cyber specialist based in Washington, DC. She helps organizations successfully prepare for, respond to, and recover from enterprise-threatening issues. Emily has experience in security and risk assessments, cyber program development, threat intelligence and analysis, and cyber education. At Control Risks she uses her talent to assist organizations with cyber risk and resilience matters to include enterprise risk management and strategic risk analysis. Emily holds a Master of Science in Computer Science with a focus on Computer Security and Information Assurance from The George Washington University and a Bachelor of Arts degree in Linguistics and Arabic, Armenian, Persian, Turkish and Islamic Studies from the University of Michigan. Emily also served as a Fulbright English Teaching Assistant in Turkey.

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Ms. Suzanne McBride, “Building and Strengthening Connections Around the World: Why Global Citizens Must Make Sorting Fact from Fake News a Priority”

Suzanne McBride has worked in the media industry for more than three decades, serving as a top newspaper editor and reporter before joining Columbia College Chicago’s faculty in 2005. Suzanne serves as chair of Columbia’s Communication Department and also works as an editor at the Chicago Sun-Times. She has launched two local news web sites – ChicagoTalks and AustinTalks – which have been honored by the country’s leading journalism organizations. Suzanne served as a specialist in Thailand for the U.S. Department of State and as a Fulbright Scholar in Ireland, where she researched online journalism and taught at the Dublin Institute of Technology. She’s a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of the University of Iowa and earned a master’s degree with distinction from Northwestern University.

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Mr. Joseph McDonough, Developing or Creating Your Fulbright Association Chapter

Joseph B. McDonough is the Massachusetts Chapter Fulbright Association President.

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Mr. Kevin Merges, Connecting Communities through Participatory Action Research

Kevin Merges is the Executive Director of Global Education Programs at Rutgers Preparatory School.  He has presented at conferences around the United States; as well as Canada, China, Jamaica, and Turkey, on the topic of communication through online environments.   Through Dr. Merges’ work with the United Nations, Rutgers Preparatory School became the first high school in the world affiliated as an NGO with the United Nations through the Department of Public Information (UNDPI).  He currently serves as the Treasurer of Study New Jersey and the K-12 Representative for NAFSA Region X (New Jersey and New York) with a focus on connecting international students in K-12 with higher education admissions officers.

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Dr. Brook Milligan, Tigers, Hearts, and Summits: Connecting Minds for Global Health in Nepal

Dr. Brook Milligan is a population geneticist with strong interests in conservation biology and modeling. He obtained his B.A. in Physics from Dartmouth and his Ph.D. in Ecology from UC, Davis. His work is broadly cited, makes important advances of science, and combats illegal trade. As a Jefferson Science Fellow in the U.S. State Department, he advises governments and NGOs on genetics, international policy, and environmental issues. Most recently, as a Fulbright Scholar, Dr. Milligan applied his quantitative skills and international experience to enhancing science in Nepal. His experience there identifies the lack of collaborative and transparent science as the greatest impediment to improved science capacity and better livelihoods. Nevertheless, the foundations and expertise already exist in Nepal, so facilitating connections could be transformative.

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Dr. Donald Mooers, Strengthening Fulbright Association Advocacy

Donald Mooers is an attorney focusing solely on immigration and nationality law. He counsels and represents clients before the Departments of Labor, Homeland Security, and State. He is an Adjunct Professor at Catholic University. Earlier in his career Mr. Mooers worked for nearly two decades in the fields of diplomacy and international development, primarily in Africa, Asia, and Eastern and Central Europe. He worked in Congress, at the State Department, and at Peace Corps HQ. He was the Democratic nominee for Congress in Maryland’s 8^th District, and served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Sierra Leone. He earned a Bachelor’s degree from Duke University and J.D. from George Washington. He was Fulbright Scholar in Mauritius.

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Dr. Dianne Morrison-Beedy, Fulbright Scholar Outcomes and Impact: Development and Testing of Data Driven Assessments

Dr. Dianne Morrison-Beedy is the chief talent and global strategy officer and The Centennial Professor for the college of nursing at The Ohio State University where her responsibilities include developing educational, research and clinical partnerships across the globe for both students and faculty. Previously as Dean of a College of Nursing, she established international educational and business partnerships across several continents. She was recently selected as a Fulbright Specialist in Oslo, Norway in 2019. She was a Fulbright scholar in Edinburgh, Scotland in 2016-17 and received a Fulbright International Educators Administrator award in France in 2014. She was a Global Nurse Leadership Fellow in Geneva, Switzerland. She holds a PhD from the University of Rochester and is a fellow in the American Academy of Nursing, the National Academies of Practice and the American Academy of Nurse Practitioners.

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Dr. Grace Mukupa, Intersectionality of culture

Dr. Grace Mukupa holds a PhD in International Development from State University of New York at Buffalo. She is a Fulbright fellow and former Peace Corps Volunteer. Born in Zambia, grow up in Japan; lived in Belgium, Macedonia, Tajikistan and United States. She is the CEO and founder of GroundUp Rural development, an NGO that supports education, farming, Health, and gender empowerment in Zambia. She is a member of Rotary international, a volunteer at the Fire Station; certified Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) and a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority Inc. Currently, she is the Senior Associate, for student success initiatives for the American Indian Higher Education Consortium (AIHEC), an organization that serves the 37 accredited tribal colleges and Universities (TCUs)

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Dr. Ann O’Connell, Fulbright Scholar Outcomes and Impact: Development and Testing of Data Driven Assessments

Dr. Ann A. O’Connell is Professor, Quantitative Research, Evaluation and Measurement at The Ohio State University and served as Director of the Research Methodology Center at the College of Education and Human Ecology from 2015-2018. Her primary areas of specialization are in statistical methods, evaluations for health and education interventions, and models for methodology capacity building. She was a Fulbright Scholar to Ethiopia in 2013-14, where she taught methodology courses, supported research and mentored students at Addis Ababa University and several other universities across the country. Dr. O’Connell continues to teach and research in Ethiopia and is dedicated to efforts that improve capacity for research methodology and data use locally and abroad.

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Ms. Sevinj Osmanqizi, Doors to Democracy: Global Challenges to Press Freedom

Sevinj Osmanqizi, award-winning Azeri journalist, has worked in television journalism for more than 30 years. She has worked at the BBC and Independent ANS TV in Baku as well as other outlets. She now owns and operates her own YouTube daily news platform with more than 150,000 subscribers that she broadcasts from her self-imposed exile in Washington, D.C. She left her native Azerbaijan in 2016 after being beaten for her reporting. She continues to work closely with a Fulbrighter (Joanne Lisosky) she met in Baku in 2011.

 

 

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Dr. Katia Passerini, Connecting People-to-People-to-Places: Culture, Technology and Health Research

Katia Passerini is Dean of the College of Professional Studies at St. John’s University, where she also holds a Professor appointment in the Division of Computer Science, Mathematics and Science. Prior to joining St. John’s, she was Professor and Hurlburt Chair of MIS and served as Dean of the Albert Dorman Honors College (2013-16) at the New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT). She holds MBA and PhD degrees in MIS from George Washington University. She worked as a management consultant in the automotive and telecom industries. Her research focuses on understanding drivers of knowledge management, wireless broadband applications trends; and, computer-supported learning. Dr. Passerini published over a hundred peer-reviewed journal and proceedings articles and has received numerous teaching, research, and service recognitions.

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Ms. Julia Pataky, How and why do countries promote their culture through public diplomacy? What are the strategies they use to promote it? A Case Study Analysis of Amerika Haus

Julia Pataky is an Austrian Fulbright award recipient pursuing an MA degree in intercultural and international communication with a concentration in public diplomacy at American University‘s School of International Service. Prior to her studies in the US, she worked to strengthen public diplomacy relations between Austria and the US at the Public Affairs Section of the US Embassy in Vienna. Her project is a product of her Fulbright grant and is inspired by her time at the embassy‘s cultural institution Amerika Haus and Fulbright‘s mission of promoting mutual understanding between nations. She currently works at the Press and Public Diplomacy Section of the EU Delegation to the US where she focuses on the strategic implementation of the European Commission’s foreign policy instruments in the US.

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Dr. Elaine Potoker, Chapter Development: Addressing Chapter Succession through Strategic Planning and Networking.

Elaine S. Potoker (B.A. SUNY, Potsdam, N.Y.; MAT University of Chicago; Ph.D. The Ohio State University) is Professor Emerita of Business, Maritime Academy in Castine, Maine, USA., having taught in both their graduate and undergraduate program for 17 years. She has distinguished herself in the following areas through publications, awards, and consultancies: Organizational Development, Global Education, Strategic Planning, Research Design, Cross-Cultural Training, and Workforce Development. Additionally, she is owner since 1993 of Interloqui®, a business development consulting firm (www.interloqui.com). Dr. Potoker is also a two-time Fulbright award recipient (2007, 2012), and has authored 2 books on the subject of workforce development. She is President of the Maine Chapter of the Fulbright Association, and a former Board member and current member of the Bangor, Maine Noontime Rotary (International).

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Ms. Tracie Powell, Building and Strengthening Connections Around the World: Why Global Citizens Must Make Sorting Fact from Fake News a Priority

Tracie Powell is the founder of AllDigitocracy.org, which focuses on how media impacts communities of color. She is also a Senior Fellow with the Democracy Fund and a 2016 JSK (Knight) Fellow at Stanford University where she researched how techniques used in online advertising to reach specific customers could be used by newsrooms to reach specific news consumers and to grow audience. She’s written regularly for the Columbia Journalism Review and Poynter, and she serves on the board of LION (Local Independent Online News) Publishers. She earned a law degree from Georgetown University Law Center and clerked for the U.S. Department of Justice. She’s reported for several daily newspapers including The Austin American-Statesman and The Augusta Chronicle.

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Ms. Kelly Richardson, What Can Be Learned Through the Lessons of Circus

Kelly Richardson directed the documentary film, WITHOUT A NET, during her Fulbright year in Brazil. The film won several post-production and festival awards and screened around the world, including in the Mill Valley Film Festival, SF DocFest, Los Angeles, and New York, Raindance in London, the Human Rights Film Festival in Buenos Aires, and Cirque de Demain in Paris. Kelly is a board member of the Bay Area chapter of the Fulbright Association, speaks four languages and, with a background in many sports, including circus, she makes her living as a stuntwoman in Hollywood movies while currently pursuing her MFA in fiction writing at New York University, Paris campus.

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Ms. Ana Marcela Montenegro Sanchez, The Role of Social Media in the 2019 Algerian Protests

Ana Marcela Montenegro S. is a doctoral research/teaching assistant at Sam Houston State University. Her current research interests are the teachers and students’ perceptions about the incorporation of mobile technologies in the classroom instruction, second language acquisition, digital literacies, women empowerment, and the implementation of ICT’s in Latin America educational settings.

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Ms. Emily Saras, Fulbright Students as Cultural Boundary Brokers: Three Case Studies for Educational Change 

Emily is a graduate of Wellesley College (BA, magna cum laude, Honors), Central European University (MA, Honors), Northeastern University (Graduate Certificate in Leadership Studies), and Florida State University (MS, Graduate Certificate in Institutional Research). Emily has recently been named as a 2019-2020 P.E.O. Scholar, receiving funding for her dissertation work on racial inequality in undergraduate STEM education. She is also a classically-trained operatic soprano with international concert experience.

 

 

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Ms. Jan Schaffer, Building and Strengthening Connections Around the World: Why Global Citizens Must Make Sorting Fact from Fake News a Priority

Jan Schaffer is the ombudsman for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. She has run two of the nation’s most successful incubators for news innovations and is a long-standing observer of the rapidly changing news landscape. A Pulitzer Prize winner for The Philadelphia Inquirer, Schaffer left daily journalism to lead pioneering initiatives in civic, interactive and entrepreneurial journalism. In 2002, Schaffer launched J-Lab: The Institute for Interactive Journalism to help newsrooms use digital technologies to engage people in public issues. It has funded more than 100. The center also engages in research and consulting. J-Lab was a spinoff of the Pew Center for Civic Journalism, a $14 million initiative led by Schaffer that funded more than 120 news experiments at public and commercial news organizations.

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Dr. Michael Smith, Paths to Resilience: A Community Environmental History Project in Nicaragua

Michael Smith has taught history and environmental studies at Ithaca College since 2001. A former Carnegie Scholar at the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching and 2011 recipient of an NEH Digital Humanities Grant, he received a Fulbright Core Scholar research grant to work in Nicaragua in 2017. A co-authored chapter based on his Fulbright research, “Paths to Empowerment: A Case Study of Local Sustainability from Rural Nicaragua,” will appear in the forthcoming Routledge book Global Champions of Sustainable Development.

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Ms. Kelly Weissberger, The Application Process: A Panel Discussion with Fulbright Program Advisors

Kelly holds a master’s degree in English literature from the University of Virginia and a bachelor’s in English and history from the College of William and Mary. She served as a Fulbright ETA to Bosnia and Herzegovina in 2008-2009, where she taught at the University of Sarajevo and the Gazi Husrev Begova Medresa through the U.S. State Department’s Access Program. She has previously worked in study abroad, community engagement, and fellowships advising at the Virginia Commonwealth University and West Chester University, and coordinated a community-based learning program in Bosnia for the College of William and Mary. She is currently the Associate Director of the Center for Scholar Development at Drexel University, where she serves as a Fulbright Program Advisor.

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Dr. Melda Yidiz, Connecting Communities through Participatory Action Research

Melda N. Yildiz is a global scholar, teacher educator, instructional designer, and author. Yildiz teaches in the School for Interdisciplinary Studies and Education at NYIT. Melda served as a Fulbright Scholar in Turkmenistan (2009) and Azerbaijan (2016) teaching and conducting research integrating media education in P16 classrooms. Yildiz co-authored, published, and presented on topics including media and information literacy, instructional technology, multicultural and global education. She received Ed.D. from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst in Math & Science and Instructional Technology and an M.S. from Southern Connecticut State University in Instructional Technology. She majored in Teaching English as a Foreign Language at Bogazici University, in Turkey.

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Ms. Biyun Zhu, Designing effective public diplomacy program: the significance of the Fulbright program

Biyun Zhu is a third year PhD student in Arts Administration, Education and Policy, the Ohio State University. Hailing from Beijing, China, Biyun earned a Master’s Degree in Public Policy from King’s College London and a Bachelor’s Degree in Cultural Industry Management from the University of International Business and Economics. Before the PhD program, she worked in the Ministry of Culture in China and UN ESCAP in Bangkok. Her research focuses on international cultural policy and cultural diplomacy.

ROUNDTABLE DISCUSSION PRESENTATIONS

	Dr. Majda Atieh Text-mining and Geo-tagging of Cultural Diplomacy in the Pedagogy of Undergraduate World Literature Courses
	Dr. Adria Baker Global Ripple Effects of the GREAT Project
	Dr. Martha Beck Indonesian Democracy and Ancient Greek Culture
	Dr. Diane Boothe Critical Issues Impacting Gender Diversity among Gifted Females
	Ms. Ashley Conard Fulbrighters in Global Science Policy
	Dr. Sachi Dastidar Connecting Minds and Hearts through Partition Documentation Project
	Mr. Sergey Donskoy How to connect knowledge to creating modern jobs
	Jessica Ellerbach Engaging with Institutions Abroad Through the Fulbright Specialist Program
	Dr. Laurence French Working collaboratively with host country on critical issues
	Mr. Philip Hopper The Portrait Project
	Ms. Karen Hills & Dr. William Hills The Provision of Virtual Mental Health Services during a Semester-long Fulbright in Poland: Use of Modern Technologies in Support of Global Community-based Activities
	Mr. Alexander Lee Using Binding with Prosody to Encourage and Discourage Further Participation
	Dr. Kelly Matush Measuring the Effect of Head-of-State International Visits
	Dr. Barbara Mossberg Quantum Entanglements: The Genius of Fulbright’s Chaos (Theory)/or, The Art of Transformation (and yes, it is rocket science)
	Dr. Eve Mullen Indonesian Elections: Religious Violence, Religious Tolerance, and the Future of Pancasila Policy
	Ms. Amirah Nelson Engaging with Institutions Abroad Through the Fulbright Specialist Program
	Ms. Veronica Pidduck Finding Treasure
	Dr. Noor Sabah Rakhshani Listen clearly, so others can hear you
	Dr. Amy Roberts Defining and Designing Transnational Field Research
	Ms. Diane Rubino The Friends You Make: The Multiplier Effect of NGOs
	Ms. Michelle San Pedro Bridging the Divide between Research and Practice: Building Coalitions to Support Survivors of Intimate Partner Violence in Nicaragua
	Mr. Jesse Scinto Free to Speak: Exploring Cross-Cultural Expectations
	Ms. Neha Singh TRefugees & Entrepreneurship: A Path to Integration and Social Mobility in France
	Mr. David J. Smith Leveraging Your Fulbright Experience to Advance Your Career
	Mr. Mahmoud Suliman Valproate activates endoplasmic reticulum stress elements in human embryonic kidney cells
	Dr. Joyce Trompeta The Future of Organ Donation & Transplantation in Japan
	Ms. Nasiba Usmonova Gender Pay Gap in the Banking Sector: Has the Great Recession changed the obvious?
	Dr. Jui Ching Wang I Sing; therefore I am: Tembang Dolanan Anak (Javanese Children’s Singing Game) and Its Historical, Local, and Global Context
	Mr. Robert Wetherington Understanding Collective Consciousness Reflected in the Ceramic Art Vessel

POSTER PRESENTATIONS

	Ms. Susanna Alford & Trey Guinn Hey Fulbright, what’s your story: Storytelling through social media strategic planning
	Dr. Victor Alvarado Globalization: one Fulbright Scholar at the Time.
	Dr. Majda Atieh Fostering Cultural Diplomacy through Augmented-Reality Platforms and Streaming Artforms: Communicating the American Educational Curriculum in the ESL Classroom
	Ms. Nazgul Bayetova Neoliberalism and Kazakhstan’s Emerging Higher Education System
	Ms. Celia Blandon Children’s Literature: Connecting the Globe Through Language, Literature and Culture
	Dr. Paul Bobrowski The Experience of Teaching in Germany
	Dr. Federica Bressan Welcome to Technoculture: Investing in science and education in the golden age of podcasts
	Ms. Ashley Conard TIMEOR:Method to characterize how transcription factors influence development integrating RNA and ChIP-seq
	Ms. Liset Contreras Fulbrighters 4 Communities
	Mr. Nils de Mol van Otterloo Minimizing Social Isolation In Low And Middle-Income Countries: Practice, And Implementation For Dementia Care
	Dr. Darlene DeMarie Then and Now: A Study Abroad Trip to Budapest before 1989 and a Fulbright Scholar Award in Budapest for 2019-2020
	Dr. Matthew Feminella Creating a Fulbright Culture at the University of Alabama
	Ms. Kimber Guinn Lose the Lecture: Hands-On Literature
	Dr. Beverly Hawk ETA Strategies: Language Learning Through Conversation Partners, The Global Cafe Model Partners
	Dr. William Hills & Ms. Karen Hills The integration of older adults into community life in Poland: The experience of a Fulbrighter in Lublin
	Mr. Saad Islam SPOILER: Speculative Load Hazards Boost Rowhammer and Cache Attacks
	Mr. Jakub Tomasz Kamiński Robotic Ultrasound: Autonomous Control Of Ultrasound Sensors For 3D Human Tissue Scanning
	Dr. Teresa Kennedy Exchanging Innovations in Engineering.
	Ms. Amela Malkic Discovering India through Fulbright: Takeaways from the International Education Administrators Seminar
	Dr. Dorothy McClellan Operation Storm: Ending Humanitarian Disaster & Genocide in the Balkans
	Dr. Judithanne S. McLauchlan The Multiplier Effect: How my Fulbright to Macedonia Inspired Many New Programs and Activities
	Dr. Harold Mortimer Changing Hearts and Minds: Violet; A Broadway Musical in South Africa With “Non-traditional” Casting.
	Ms. Farah Nadeem  Machine Learning Tools for K-12 STEM Assessments
	Ms. Andrea Neves Build International Friendships: Travel with the Fulbright Association
	Ms. Sharon Nickols Build International Friendships: Travel with the Fulbright Association
	Ms. Jacquelyn O’Keefe Beyond Due Diligence: Business Protection of Human Rights through Engagement with the UN Sustainable Development Goals
	Magdalena Parkhurst Global Citizenship in the time of Brexit: A Case Study of Global Citizenship within UK Higher Education
	Ms. Veronica Pidduck Finding Treasure
	Ms. Queen Ramirez You are #fakenews: Namecalling and other propaganda techniques in popular media
	Dr. Desirée Rowe Gender, international diplomacy, and #metoo
	Ms. Mary Stanton Build International Friendships: Travel with the Fulbright Association