The Fulbright Association is proud to feature the following speakers for session presentations at its Virtual 44th Annual Conference, “Fulbright at 75: Celebrating a Legacy of Global Friendships”  Please note that this list is subject to change.

Opening Plenary

The Fulbright Program at 75: Past, Present and Future

October 20th – 12:00 pm – 1:30 pm EST

Our keynote plenary will be shared by three distinguished speakers who will lead a discussion on the past, present and future of the Fulbright Program. Lonnie Johnson, the premiere historian of the Program and former director of the commission in Austria, will open with a reflection on the founding and development of the Program. CEO of the Fulbright Finland Foundation, Terhi Mölsä will discuss the challenges and opportunities facing the Program today. And Jay Wang, director of the USC Center for Public Diplomacy, will share his thoughts on the future of public diplomacy. We invite you to participate with your questions, ideas and suggestions about the Fulbright Program.

Lonnie Johnson

Lonnie R. Johnson, a native of Minnesota, has lived and worked in Vienna, Austria in international education for over forty years and served as the executive director of the Austrian Fulbright Commission from 1997 until his retirement in 2019.  The author of numerous books and articles on Central European history, his work in recent years has focused on the history of the Fulbright Program for a book with the working title Remembering and Forgetting Fulbright: The Remarkable History of the Fulbright Program, 1946-1971 (University of Arkansas Press).  He has done research numerous times in the University of Arkansas Library’s special collections.

Terhi Mölsä

Terhi Mölsä is the CEO of the Fulbright Finland Foundation in Helsinki. A native of Finland, she has studied or conducted research in Estonia, Russia, and the United States, acquiring knowledge in eight languages, and has a Bachelor’s in Russian and a Master’s in International Relations from the University of Tampere. With a life-long passion for diplomacy through education, science, and the arts, she draws on 35 years of professional experience in higher education internationalization and exchanges. In addition, she has served as a consultant, trainer, and curriculum developer in international education leadership, and in volunteer leadership roles for international organizations such as NAFSA: Association of International Educators, and is currently a Board Member of ISEP Study Abroad.

Jay Wang

Jay Wang is Director of the Center on Public Diplomacy and Associate Professor at the Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism, University of Southern California. A scholar and consultant in the fields of strategic communication and public diplomacy, he has published widely on the role of communication in the contemporary process of globalization, including the latest edited volume Debating Public Diplomacy: Now and Next. He serves on the editorial board of the International Journal of Communication. He has previously worked for the international consulting firm McKinsey & Company.

Cynthia Baldwin

Moderator

The Honorable Cynthia A. Baldwin was the first African-American woman elected to the Allegheny County Court of Common Pleas and only the second African-American woman to serve on the Pennsylvania Supreme Court. She retired from the Pennsylvania Supreme Court in 2008. After her retirement from the Court, she became a partner with Duane Morris and also served as the first General Counsel for the Pennsylvania State University. A Fulbright Scholarship Lecturer on the Law Faculty of the University of Harare, Zimbabwe in1994, Justice Baldwin is serving a second term on the Fulbright Association Board in Washington, D.C. where she was recently elected Vice Chair. She has chaired the boards of the Association of Governing Boards of Colleges and Universities (AGB) and the Pennsylvania State University as well as serving on the board of Duquesne University. She also serves on the board of Vibrant Pittsburgh and the Advisory Board of the Pennsylvania Center for Women and Politics at Chatham University. A Distinguished Daughter of Pennsylvania, she recently retired from the corporate board of Koppers, Inc. Among her many awards are the ATHENA Award, the Heinz History Center History Maker Award and the HistoryMakers Award.

1946 Session

Boycott of the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics – Could one occur, and what would be its impact on China?

by invitation only

Susan Brownell

Susan Brownell is Professor of Anthropology at the University of Missouri-St. Louis and an internationally-recognized expert on Chinese sports and Olympic Games. She spent 2007 to 2008 in Beijing on a Fulbright Senior Research Award, conducting research on China’s first Olympic Games in 2008, when she wrote a blog for the U.S. embassy in Beijing and gave interviews to over 100 journalists from 23 countries. She is the author of Beijing’s Games: What the Olympics Mean to China (2008) and co-author of The Anthropology of Sport: Bodies, Borders, Biopolitics (2018), and multiple other works.

Selma Jeanne Cohen Dance Lecture Award

October 22nd – 12:45 pm – 1:45 pm EST

Dana Tai Soon Burgess

Dana Tai Soon Burgess is a leading American choreographer and cultural figure. The Washington Post Pulitzer Prize winning dance critic Sarah Kaufman writes of Burgess, “Not only a Washington prize, but a national dance treasure.” The Smithsonian named Burgess its first ever choreographer-in-residence in 2016. He is based at the National Portrait Gallery where he explores the confluence of dance and portraiture. Burgess has performed, taught, and choreographed around the world. He founded the Dana Tai Soon Burgess Dance Company (DTSBDC.org) in 1992. It is the preeminent modern dance company in the Washington, D.C. region. He is the host of slantpodcast.com which explores the lives and creative processes of prominent Asian American artists. Three portraits of Burgess reside in the permanent collection of the Smithsonian. Read More.

Panel Sessions

Session #1 – Fulbrighters Reaching Out Across The World

October 20th – 10:15 am – 11:30 am EST

Alex Akulli

Fulbright Alumni as Conduit for Creating Sustainable International Education and Exchanges at K-12 Schools

Dr. Akulli is an international educator and consultant. He serves as President of the Fulbright Association – South Carolina Chapter, a Board Member of the World Affairs Council of Upstate, and Vice President of Sister Cities International of Greater Spartanburg, SC. Dr. Akulli has dedicated his academic and professional service to citizenship diplomacy through global education, civic engagement, and cultural exchanges. His Fulbright experience in Hungary focused on capacity building in international education and exchanges. Dr. Akulli has served abroad in several countries across Africa, Asia, the America’s, and Europe. Dr. Akulli earned his Ph.D. Degree in Higher, Adult, and Lifelong Education from Michigan State University.

Jesse Appell

Public Diplomacy Online: People-to-People Exchange in the Age of the Internet

Jesse Appell is an intercultural comedian with more than 2 million fans in China and around the world. He began his career as a Fulbright scholar studying traditional Chinese Xiangsheng “Crosstalk” comedy. Now as an internationally renowned comedian, he uses both Chinese and English-language humor to bridge cultural gaps between China and the West.

Angela Ford

Celebrating a Legacy of Global Friendships: The Experience of an Ethiopian Cohort

Co-presenters: Dr. Tara Wilfong, Dr. Daniel Gelaw Alemneh, Dr. Addis Kidane

Dr. Angela Ford has been working in the field of education since 2007 in various capacities in both K12 and higher education. Angela was honored and thankful to be a Fulbright Scholar to Addis Ababa University in Ethiopia for the 2019-2020 academic year. Her research interests include learning environments, equity, international education, motivation, resilience, and persistence. She is currently the Vice President of the International Society for Educational Planning and is presently focusing her efforts on pursuing a second doctoral degree in Educational Psychology at Old Dominion University. Prior to working in the field of education, Angela served in the United States Air Force and the Virginia Air National Guard.

Dr. Tara Wilfong is a Public Health practitioner and Fulbright Alumni (2019-2020, Ethiopia) with a range of experience from clinical medicine to global health fieldwork in both East and Western Africa and Haiti. She was fortunate to be hired directly by the university where she did her Fulbright and is currently living in Ethiopia, continuing with some of the activities started during her Fulbright, which was abruptly halted due to COVID. Her current position as Associate Professor in Ethiopia at Haramaya University utilizes her research and teaching skills in Public Health. She has extensive experience with grant proposal writing, monitoring and evaluation, capacity building, and project implementation with a demonstrated history of working on several USAID projects. Her areas of expertise include nutrition-sensitive agriculture, HIV, WASH, nutrition, general medicine (including hepatitis), and One Health. Her hobbies include reading, traveling, hiking, and exploring Ethiopia and its diverse culture. Dr. Wilfong can be reached at twdoc@live.com.

Dr. Daniel Gelaw Alemneh is Digital Curation Coordinator for the Digital Libraries Division at the University of North Texas (UNT) libraries. He received his BS in Library and Information Science from Addis Ababa University, Ethiopia (1994), his MA in Library and Information Management from the University of Sheffield, UK (1998), and his PhD in Information Science from the University of North Texas (UNT) (2009). Dr. Alemneh is also an adjunct professor at the UNT College of Information teaching indexing, abstracting, and information retrieval courses. He publishes extensively and has participated in several national and international research projects, including the IMLS funded ETD-Lifecycle Management project and a U.S. Department of State grant to establish innovative partnerships with other universities in Ethiopia. Daniel has been actively involved in various local, national, and international professional societies and served in various capacities, including as a member of the Board of Directors of the International Council on Knowledge Management (ICKM) and Association for Information Science and Technology (ASIS&T) and selected as distinguished member by ASIS&T. Dr. Daniel Alemneh served as Fulbright Scholar in Ethiopia in 2019-2020 and will be serving again in South Africa for the 2021-2022 academic year. He can be reached at Daniel.Alemneh@unt.edu.

Dr. Addis Kidane is an Associate Professor of Mechanical Engineering at the University of South Carolina. He got his Ph.D. from the University of Rhode Island in 2009 and spent two years at California Institute of Technology as a postdoctoral scholar before he moves to Columbia. His research focuses on, multifunctional materials, materials behavior at extreme conditions, experimental mechanics, materials subjected to shock and blast loading and fracture and failure of materials at different length and time scale. He was a 2019/2020 US Fulbright scholar to Ethiopia

Dr. Kidane, is a recipient of many prestigious awards including, the 2018 J. W. Dally Young Investigator Award, from Society of Experiment Mechanics, the 2016 ORR Early Career Award from ASME Materials Division, and the 2014 Young Investigator award, from U.S. Air Force Office of Scientific Research (AFOSR).

Julia C. Roberts

Inspiring “Changemakers”: International Exchange and the Emergence of Youth Volunteerism in Lao PDR

Born in the mountains of North Carolina, Julia studied as a James B. Duke Scholar at Furman University from 2012-2016. She graduated top in her class with a B.A. in Political Science and a minor in Poverty Studies. From 2016-2017 she worked in Laos as an English Teaching Assistant for the Fulbright Program. Between 2017-2019 she was the Director of Development and Operations for a charity serving at-risk youth. Compelled to study Japanese language and culture, she moved to Sapporo for the JET Program in 2019. In October 2020, Julia matriculated at Trinity College, University of Cambridge on the William Wyse Bursary to pursue a Master of Philosophy in Social Anthropology. In October 2021, she will continue at Trinity for a PhD in Social Anthropology.

Session #2 – Climate Change

October 20th – 2:15 pm – 3:30 pm EST

Paul Arthur Berkman

Building Global Inclusion with Common Interests: Art and Science Diplomacy in the Arctic

Paul Arthur Berkman is a Fulbright Arctic Chair Norway 2021-2022 and former Fulbright Distinguished Scholar. Professor Berkman is CEO and Director of the Science Diplomacy Center at EvREsearch LTD. He also is Director (from Boston) of the Science Diplomacy Center at MGIMO University in Moscow. He is an Affiliated Fellow of the United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR) and Faculty Associate of the Program on Negotiation at Harvard Law School. Following his 1981 winter SCUBA research expedition to Antarctica, when he was 22, Paul began teaching science diplomacy the following year as Visiting Professor at the University of California onward, triangulating education, research and leadership to help balance national interests and common interests “for the benefit of all on Earth across generations.”

Gillette Hall & Germán Huanca

Combatting Climate Change and Global Poverty: Harnessing the Power of Indigenous Peoples

Gillette Hall is a former World Bank economist and professor at the Georgetown University School of Foreign Service. She holds a PhD and an MPhil in Economics and International Development from the University of Cambridge, England. Her areas of focus include poverty, social protection, economic inclusion and Indigenous Peoples.

Germán Huanca, Master of Financial Economics, graduated from Ohio University through a Fulbright Scholarship.  He is an Aymaran Indigenous from Bolivia.  He currently serves as Program Leader, Business Partnership and Indigenous Economies, at the Forest Stewardship Council Indigenous Foundation. Previous positions include Vice Minister of Strategic Planning of Bolivia, Advisor of the Andean Community (CAN) and Program Manager at USAID.  He was also a member of the board of directors for seven state-owned companies, and is a former Professor at the Bolivian Catholic University (UCB), and Bolivian Private University (UPB).

Aghaghia Rahimzadeh

Socio-economic and Environmental Changes Leading to Chilgoza Pine Nut Decline in Kinnaur, Western Himalaya

Aghaghia Rahimzadeh (PhD, Environmental Science, Policy, and Management, UC Berkeley) has spent the last decade conducting research in Kinnaur, Western Himalaya, investigating the social implications of climate change. As a Fulbrighter, her dissertation examined Kinnaur’s social and environmental transformation associated with market economy. Her second Fulbright fellowship explored Kinnaur’s declining chilgoza pine forests. Her most recent project studies the intersection of climate change and tourism. Aghaghia has worked with UNDP and UNIFEM in Tajikistan, and with the IUCN in Iran. Her publications have appeared in World Development Perspectives, Land Use Policy, Conservation and Society, Human Ecology, and Newfound. When she is not writing, she takes educational tours to the Himalaya, practices Iyengar Yoga, backpacks the California wilderness, and hikes the trails of beloved Mt. Tamalpais.

Krti Tallam

Climate resilience in coastal India and limits to adaptation in the face of globalization

Krti is an eco-epidemiologist with Stanford University. She studies marine environmental diseases with links to human systems, including seagrass wasting disease, schistosomiasis, dengue, and lyme disease. Some of her work includes analyses on the responses of dengue to said stressors off the coast of the Bay of Bengal, and understanding the role of schistosomiasis in environmental reservoirs where freshwater snails serve as hosts. Krti utilizes machine learning and fieldwork, and is interested in long-term policy implications for planetary health. Krti is a budding scientist, an innovator, a first-generation student, a woman of color, and a proud daughter of immigrants.

Session #3 – Global Citizenship

October 20th – 4:00 pm – 5:15 pm

Kathleen Balgley

Work That Changes Minds: Women’s Travel Writing and International Projects

Co-presenters: Dr. Sherry Rosenthal and Marla Raucher Osborn, JD

A Ph.D. in literature from UC San Diego, Kathleen Balgley has been a tenured professor of English at Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo; Lecturer at UCLA Writing Programs; Associate Director of Writing at UCSD. Balgley was recipient of a grant from the California Council for the Humanities for her project on Roma culture and history, and a Fulbright fellow to Poland, among other awards and grants. Returning to Poland several times, travelling to Belarus, she researched her family’s history at Warsaw’s Jewish Historical Institute, and at archives in Belarus. Her new memoir, Letters to My Father: Excavating a Jewish Identity in Poland and Belarus chronicles the story of her father’s veiling of his Jewish identity, and her journey to recover it for herself and for him.

Sherry Rosenthal is Professor of English at the College of Southern Nevada. She has a Ph.D. in Comparative Literature from the University of California, San Diego, and was a Fulbright lecturer in American Literature and Civilization at the Central University of Barcelona (Universidad Central) from 1983-85. Also, she is the recipient of a 2020 Project Grant for Artists from the Nevada Arts Council and the Nevada Arts Council’s 2019 Artist Fellowship in Fiction. She has been awarded writing residencies by the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts (VCCA), VCCA in France (Moulin a Nef), the Jentel Artist Residency Program; and the Hambidge Center for Creative Arts and Sciences. In addition, she is co-author of two Holocaust memoirs including My Brother’s Voice: How a Young Hungarian Boy Survived the Holocaust (Stephens Press, 2003). Her goals as a writer, teacher, international traveler and former Fulbright fellow include assisting Holocaust survivors in telling their stories.

Marla Raucher Osborn holds a law degree from Hastings College of the Law, University of California, San Francisco. She practiced law in San Francisco for 13 years focusing on business start-ups, non-profits, and real property. In 2011, Marla and her husband, Jay, founded the volunteer organization “Rohatyn Jewish Heritage” which in 2015 became a registered Ukrainian non-profit NGO. RJH today initiates and manages a number of physical heritage preservation and education projects aimed at reconnecting the 400-year history of Rohatyn’s now-lost Jewish community with the people and places of the modern Ukrainian city, many projects including the cooperation of current Rohatyn residents and volunteers from around the world. From September 2019 to June 2020, Marla was a Fulbright US Research Scholar. In July 2020, Marla published a new website: “A Guide to Jewish Cemetery Preservation in Western Ukraine”, whicih is no online in both English and Ukrainian.

Carla Cabrera Cuadrado

An introduction to the Golden Circle of Public Diplomacy

Carla Cabrera Cuadrado is a Spanish Fulbright scholar pursuing a PhD in Communication and Interculturality, with a focus on Spain’s Public Diplomacy in the United States and the role of the European Union. She recently graduated from American University School of International Service, where she completed her M.A. in Intercultural and International Communication with a concentration on Cultural and Public Diplomacy. She is an intercultural communication specialist with experience in non-profit organizations, private corporations and public administration in three different continents. Furthemore, Carla Cabrera is the first elected and youngest President of SIETAR Europa (Society of Intercultural Education, Training and Research), and she is a member of the Fulbright Association and the Public Diplomacy Council.

Andreas Dewald

Moving from Inspiring Conversation to Collaborative Action

Prior to going to the U.S. on a Fulbright scholarship in 2017/18, Andreas graduated with a Bachelor’s degree in Engineering Management from Hochschule Darmstadt. He spent his Fulbright at Purdue University in Indiana where he pursued a M.A. in Technology, Leadership and Innovation. After also finishing his Master’s degree in Engineering Management, he started to work as a consultant for digitalization at Deutsche Bahn. He is currently the president of the German Fulbright Alumni Association. Andreas is passionate about technology, future mobility, intercultural exchange, and connecting people.

Trangdai Glassey-Tranguyen

A Fulbright Global Garden: Cultivating “Home in Stockholm” and In The World

Trangdai Glassey-Tranguyen, Ph.D. (trangdai.net) is an award-winning bilingual author. The founder/director of the Vietnamese Diasporas Projects, she has conducted hundreds of oral history interviews and multi-sited ethnographies on the Vietnamese diasporas in North America, Europe, Australia, and Asia for over 27 years. She holds an M.A. in History (CSU Fullerton), M.A. in Anthropology (Stanford University), M.A. in Southeast Asian Studies, and a Ph.D. in Anthropology (UC Riverside). She has published over 3,000 poetic, creative, translation, and critical works in academic journals, K-12 texts, anthologies, and the media worldwide in English & Vietnamese. She authored five books of bilingual poetry with translations in thirteen languages.

Joseph Bernardo de Mattos Reynolds

Belonging on the Frontier – A Photographic Study of the Creation of Place in Cristalândia, Brazil

Joe Reynolds is a photographer, teacher and writer based in Lawrenceburg, TN. Twice a Fulbright grantee, he studied at the Salzburg Summer Academy of Fine Art in Salzburg, Austria, and was a resident at the Anderson Ranch Arts Center in Snowmass, CO. He holds degrees from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, East Tennessee State University and the Massachusetts College of Art and Design. His work relies on the slow process of the large format camera to build relationships with the land and people he photographs. His pictures describe bonds formed from shared experience, bonds which weave us more deeply into each other than labels of nation, creed, race or gender.

Session #4 – Health, Housing, and Social Value

October 21st – 9:30 am – 10:45 am EST

Ana Batista

Two surveys on the symbiotic relationship between humanism and finance
Co-presenters: Lais Endo and Pedro Belisario

Ana Leticia Adami has been a Fulbright Alumni since 2018, when she completed her Ph.D in Philosophy from Columbia University and University of São Paulo. She works as a manager for Nucleo Humanismo e Empresa at ISE Business School. Lais Endo is founder of HumanidadeBrasil, a platform that connects donors and NGOs. She also works as a RA, after years working in Investment Banking. Lais holds a B.B.A. degree from University of São Paulo and an M.B.A. from University of Michigan. Pedro Belisario is a Professor of Finance and Decision Analysis at ISE Business School. He holds a Master Degree and a PhD in Financial Management from IESE Business School. Before joining ISE, Pedro founded the NGO Eu Penso no Futuro.

Juliet Flam-Ross

Factors Associated with Opioid-Related Overdose Among Previously Incarcerated Persons in the U.S.: A Community Engaged Narrative Review

Juliet Flam-Ross is a research data associate at Boston Medical Center. She has a bachelor’s degree in economics from Oberlin College where she also received research grants to study alcohol prohibition policies in India. Juliet spent 2019-2020 in Jharkhand, India researching inpatient substance use treatment on a Fulbright award. Her current research focuses on overdose, medications for opioid use disorder, and drug policy.

Greta Garniss

There is an Economic and Social Return on Investment in Housing All Mature Residents – Not Just the Oldest Old

She is a Boston, Massachusetts native and attended Boston University where she earned a bachelor’s degree in International Relations. Additionally, she is a certified real estate paralegal and certified teacher of English as a foreign language. In 2009, she came to Krakow to Uniwersytet Jagiellonski (Jagellonian University) and in 2011 received a Master’s degree cum laude in Central and Eastern European business studies. Her master’s thesis discussed seniors and housing issues. She was encouraged to expand her research on seniors and housing in Poland. Her Fulbright was from 2011-2013, and allowed her conduct significant and original research. The results of her work were published in August 2019 in *Housing Opportunities for Mobile Seniors in Poland*, which is available on amazon.com

Daya Singh Sandhu

Significance of Equity and Diversity in a Multicultural World: Understanding the Psychodynamics of Acculturation and Acculturative Stress

Dr. Daya Sandhu, Ed.D., NCC, LPCC has been serving as the Director of Research and Professor in the doctoral degree program of Counselor Education and Supervision at the Lindsey Wilson College since August 2014. He was formerly a distinguished professor of research and chairman of Department of Educational and Counseling Psychology at University of Louisville. Dr. Sandhu holds six graduate degrees. He has served his profession of counselor education with distinction for more than 35 years. He is Fellow of American Counseling Association and Diplomate of AMHCA. Dr. Sandhu is credited with more than 125 publications including 15 textbooks. He has made more than 250 professional presentations nationally and internationally. Dr. Daya Sandhu is the recipient of numerous awards, including three Senior Fulbright Research Awards.

Session #5 – Fulbrighters in Action

October 21st – 11:00 am – 12:15 pm EST

Jasmin (Bey) Cowin

Fulbright Alumni, Global Friendships & Action: Teacher Training in Yemen

As a Fulbright Scholar; current TESOL faculty at Touro College; project coordinator for access and equity in digital literacy for Computers for Schools Burundi; current Chair of the of the 51st NYS TESOL conference, Assistant Professor Cowin brings over twenty-five years of experience as an educator, technology specialist and education champion for underserved communities. As an Education Policy Fellow at the EPFP™ Institute, Columbia University/Teachers College, she became part of a select group of strategic leaders analyzing trends regarding effective educational policy and leadership. Her extensive background in education, Fourth Industrial Revolution, not-for-profit leadership and commitment to the idea of education as a basic human right, provide her with unique skills and vertical networks locally and globally.

Janet Goldner

i ni ce, thank you, merci: An Ongoing Dialogue about Art, Life and Building Bridges

My work explores culture, identity and social justice. I make steel sculpture and installations that also include photography and video. Bridging diverse cultures, my work celebrates the unique beauty and genius of each as well as what we have in common. My research takes the form of immersive fieldwork. Annual visits to Mali provide inspiration.

My life experiences play an integral part in the development of my work. A master welder, I work in three dimensions as well as on paper, on the floor, on walls, and suspended from the ceiling, indoors and outdoors. The evolution of my art traces my enduring exploration of sculptural form, my ongoing relationship with African culture, and my lifelong involvement in social activism.

See Janet’s Art in the Virtual Art Exhibit.

Kevin F. Quigley & Bruce Svare

Fulbright Chronicles: An On-Line, Peer-Reviewed Journal on Fulbright’s Impact

Kevin Quigley has extensive leadership experience in higher education, civil society, philanthropy and government. As president of Marlboro college, he arranged a strategic partnership with Emerson College supporting Marlboro’s faculty and students, while preserving Marlboro’s identity. He served as Chair of the Association of Vermont Independent Colleges and Vermont’s gubernatorial-appointed independent college representative to the New England Board of Higher Education. He was also on the board at Swarthmore College, American University of Afghanistan, American University of Nigeria and president of the National Peace Corps Association. Quigley has extensive teaching and publishing as an academic practitioner. He was a Fulbright Senior Specialist in Thailand in 2007 and has plans to work with eight provincial universities in Northern Thailand on the coming consolidation in higher education there, when COVID allows that. He and Professor Bruce Svare are the founding co-editors of The Fulbright Chronicles.

Dr. Bruce Svare is professor emeritus of psychology and neuroscience at the State University of New York (SUNY) at Albany. He taught and conducted research in the graduate and undergraduate behavioral neuroscience program and has published extensively in the fields of behavioral neuroendocrinology, anabolic steroid abuse, sports reform, and international education. He has received research grants from the National Science Foundation (NSF), the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), the National Institute on Aging (NIA) and the Harry Frank Guggenheim Foundation. Dr. Svare is a two-time Fulbright Senior Scholar to Thailand in the field of behavioral neuroscience and has lectured widely in colleges, universities, and medical schools in that country and throughout the Asia-Pacific area. He recently received a Fulbright ASEAN research program award for work in Laos and Indonesia. Once the pandemic subsides, he will be continuing his work in those countries to spread the discipline of contemporary psychology, assist faculty with curriculum development and scholarly publishing, research psychology infrastructure in higher education, and assess mental health care systems and ASEAN’s critical need to train more professional psychologists. He and Dr. Kevin Quigley are the founding co-editors of the Fulbright Chronicles.

Parul Srivastava

Studying the people in India’s Partition

Parul Srivastava is a Fulbright-Nehru Doctoral Research Fellow 2020-2021 from India visiting the Department of History, University of Massachusetts Amherst. She is a PhD candidate in the Department of History, University of Hyderabad. For her research, she is looking at the Oral narratives of Partition (1947) migrants and eyewitnesses to understand the suffering of the common people of the Subcontinent through questions of pain, affect, religiosity and broken relationships.

In 2018, she was selected for the Story Scholar Program by the Berkeley based ‘1947 Partition Archive’ jointly with Stanford University Libraries under which she recorded the experiences of Partition migrants and eyewitnesses. She has assisted the 1947 Partition Archive as a Convener on their project titled, ‘Responsible Accessibility and ethical use of conflict zone oral histories’ in 2019-2020.

Session #6 – African Americans and Innovative Fulbrights on Five Continents

October 21st – 5:00 pm – 6:15 pm EST

Jacqueline Leonard

Jacqueline Leonard, PhD was appointed as the first African-American director of the Science and Math Teaching Center at the University of Wyoming in August 2012. She continues to serve at the University of Wyoming as professor emeritus of mathematics education and principal investigator on the Bessie Coleman Project (National Science Foundation grant 2016-2020). Dr. Leonard’s recent awards and recognition include: Fulbright Research Chair in STEM Education (University of Calgary, 2018-2019); Outstanding Research and Scholarship (University of Wyoming, 2017-2018); and Leadership, Dedication & Advocacy (Committee on Women and People of Color, 2016) Her research focus continues to be teaching mathematics for social justice and liberation, as well as broadening underrepresented students’ participation in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) by fostering computational thinking and computational participation.

Beverly Lindsay

Beverly Lindsay, PhD, EdD has been awarded Fulbrights to Indonesia, Mozambique, Myanmar, South Korea, and Zimbabwe. She has published eight books with the latest Comparative and International Education: Leading Perspectives from the Field (2021) and over 150 articles, chapters, and essays. She is: Co-Director and Principal Investigator of a Ford Foundation multi-year grant at the University of California; Fellows of the Comparative and International Education Society and American Association for the Advancement of Science; member of the Council on Foreign Relations; and former Guest Professor at Oxford University and Visiting Professor at University College London.

Claude Louishomme

Claude A. Louishomme, PhD is Associate Professor of Political Science at the University of Nebraska-Kearney. He was awarded a 2009 Fulbright to Rostock, Germany. His research focuses on the politics of casino gambling, race and politics, and public policy

Yolanda Moses

Dr. Moses currently serves as Professor of Anthropology and is the former Associate Vice Chancellor for Diversity, Equity and Excellence at the University of California, Riverside. Dr. Moses’ research focuses on the broad question of the origins of social inequality in complex societies through the use of comparative ethnographic and survey methods. She has explored gender and class disparities in the Caribbean, East Africa and in the United States. More recently, her research has focused on issues of diversity and change in universities and colleges in the United States, India, Europe and South Africa. Dr. Moses’ published volumes include: How Real is Race: A Sourcebook on Race, Culture and Biology (with Carol Mukhopadhyay and Rosemary Henze) and Race: Are We So Different? (with Alan Goodman and Joseph Jones). Dr. Moses was a distinguished Fulbright Scholar in Australia in 2016-2017 and has been named an AAAS (American Association for the Advancement of Science) Fellow. Dr. Moses is former President of the City University of New York/City College, The American Association for Higher Education, and the American Anthropological Association. Dr. Moses earned her PhD in Anthropology from the University of California, Riverside.

Jeanne Maddox Toungara

Jeanne Maddox Toungara taught courses on contemporary Africa, the African Diaspora and Women in Africa. Her research focuses on Côte d’Ivoire and Francophone Africa. Awards include Fulbright Hays, NEH, West African Research Association and training grants from the USIP and UNCF.  She lectured abroad for the State Department Office of Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs, taught at the Foreign Service Institute, and served as a Public Member on Foreign Service promotions panels. She joined the USAID 2015 Democratization, Human Rights and Governance team for its assessment on Côte d’Ivoire. As a former Assistant Provost for International Programs, she led Howard University in establishing partnerships with several African institutions and the IIE-sponsored outreach to Brazil. She is a Fulbright Scholar Ambassador, a Salzburg Global Seminar alumna, a Mellon Foundation Global Citizenship fellow, and a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. She earned BA, MA, and PhD degrees in African Studies and History at the University of California at Los Angeles.

Session #7 – Storytelling and Social Consciousness

October 22nd – 11:00 am – 12:15 pm EST

Jonathan Goodman Levitt

Global Friendships & Social Change Through Film

Jonathan is an Emmy-nominated filmmaker and the founder of Changeworx. His films as director and/or producer have been supported by BBC, PBS, Netflix, NHK-Japan, Ford Foundation, and Sundance Institute. Documentaries he’s worked on have followed people from five continents as their lives unfold over multiple years.

Changeworx’s credits include the Tribeca 2021 premiere Being BeBe (Director Emily Branham) about Cameroonian drag artist Marshall Ngwa, and Among the Believers, about a firebrand Pakistani cleric. A collaboration with Pakistani and Indian filmmakers, Among played 60+ festivals in 25+ countries and won 30+ awards. Jonathan’s Silver Telly-winner Follow the Leader aired internationally around the American elections. Sunny Intervals and Showers (2003) aired on BBC (Storyville), and received Grierson and Mental Health Media nominations.

Sharon Lynn Smith

“Stories Are Important!” Navigating Narratives, Reclaiming Stories, and Humanizing Writing Through a Translingual Story Studio

Sharon L. Smith, Ph.D. is currently working with elementary children as a teacher in Miami-Dade County Public Schools and with pre-service and in-service teachers as an instructor at the University of Miami. After completing Bachelor’s degrees in both Elementary Education and Spanish from Purdue University, Dr. Smith served as a Fulbright English Teaching Assistant in Colombia (2013-14). She then taught at the elementary level in Fulton County Schools before completing her doctorate in Teaching and Learning with an emphasis on Language and Literacy Learning in Multilingual Settings at the University of Miami. Dr. Smith’s research currently centers around action research and the application of critical, humanizing literacies in the elementary school context with a specific focus on honoring and sustaining the stories of diverse children.

Carol Sterling

Successful Strategies using the arts and puppetry in working with host institutions in Global Education

It has been my honor to serve in arts and arts education leadership positions on local, regional, national and international levels. In addition to serving as a Fulbright Program Specialist, I have conducted training workshops throughout the United States as well as in nine countries. I am the recipient of the “Distinguished Service for Arts Education Award,” presented by the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C. and the Puppeteers of America Award for Outstanding Contributions in Education to the Field of Puppetry. I was honored to be invited to the White House by President Bill Clinton in recognition of my work on behalf of the Goals 2000 Education Reform legislation. I am a graduate of Barnard College and Teachers College, Columbia University and have done work towards my Ed.D at New York University.

Karin Waidley

Arts-Based Resilience Building with Young Women in the Global South
Co-presenter: Dr. Michelle Cude

Dr. Karin Waidley is an artist, teacher and scholar with degrees from Berkeley, Northwestern and University of Washington. Before receiving her PhD, she founded a theatre program for adjudicated teens. Waidley spent 12 years as a Professor at Western Colorado University specializing in devising original work and theatre for social justice. She has been awarded multiple grants for developing new work with students. She directs regularly in both academic and professional settings. Waidley has published in Theatre/Practice, Texas Theatre Journal, Multilingual Margins, Journal of Dramatic Theory and Criticism, and presents annually at conferences. Dr. Waidley was a Fulbright Scholar to Kenya and is currently on the Fulbright Specialist roster. She has recently worked as the Director of Education at the Community Safety Network in Jackson, Wyoming, a Visiting Professor at Bucknell University and is visiting faculty at University of Redlands. Her research links embodied performance dramaturgy with the neurobiology of trauma. She is currently co-editing an anthology on Kenyan Theatre.

After nine years as a middle school teacher, Michelle D. Cude earned her Ph.D. in Social Studies Education at University of Virginia. She teaches future teachers at James Madison University, focusing on cultural competencies and global education. She helped to start a girls’ school in Kenya for Maasai girls who lack an opportunity to go to school. Through her international collaborations, she is able to introduce her students and alumni to the rewarding work of making a global citizens and the role of transformative teaching and engagement. As a Fulbright Scholar for 2017-2018, she was researching and teaching at Maasai Mara University (MMU) in Kenya and assisting in directing Nasaruni Academy. She continues to grow the international partnership between JMU and MMU through scholarship and exchange.

Mrinalini Watson

Viewing syncretism in India’s border states through folk music and folk tales

Ms. Mrinalini Watson, a retired CPA and tax accountant, recently completed an MFA in literary translation from Mills College and an MA in linguistics from California State University, Northridge. For her MFA thesis she translated two Rajasthani folktales and discussed how these stories addressed issues of social injustice. She is currently learning multiple Indian languages so she can continue to translate folktales from those languages to raise awareness about syncretic practices and highlight issues of social injustice in these communities. She also co-founded enLighten 2 emPower, an NGO that addressed the challenges of educating teenage girls in rural Rajasthan who had dropped out of school. Mrinalini loves to walk as she explores spaces, whether it is a new city or her own neighborhood.

Session #8 – Education

October 22nd – 3:45 pm – 5:00 pm EST

Clara Amador-Lankster

A Tale of Three Countries: Bilingual/Dual Language Education Policies in California, Costa Rica and Colombia

Dr. Clara Amador-Lankster is a Professor and Academic Program Director in the Teacher Education Department at the Sanford College of Education, National University. in California. She began her education career in the United States as a first-generation immigrant and bilingual education teacher in the Los Angeles Unified School District teaching language minority students and has served in K12 Public Schools across the nation for 15 years and has worked in Higher Education in California and internationally for 16 years. She is currently Director, Master of Bilingual Education with MS/SS with Bilingual Authorization; Member of the Board of Directors, CA Association for Bilingual Teacher Education, and Fulbright Senior Specialist, World Learning, Bureau of Education and Cultural Affairs of the Department of State, US Secretary of State.

Sarah Cullip

Double Dutch: A language-focused case study on the bridges and barriers to newcomer student integration in the Netherland

Santiago Vladimir Gustin López

Global to Local: Creating an Online Community of Professional Development for English Teachers in Colombia

Santiago is a language teacher with experience teaching English and Spanish as foreign languages. He graduated from Universidad de Nariño with a BA in English and French and holds a MA in TESOL from Portland State University. He was a recipient of the Fulbright Scholarship for Colombian English Teachers in 2015. His professional interests include educational leadership, teacher training, communities of practice, and applied linguistics.
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As the president of Nariño Tesol Network, I intend to work for the benefit of underrepresented English language teachers in my region, and to connect professionals with the right resources, programs and opportunities to advance in their careers.

Yaser Said Natour

The Efficacy of Jordanian Speech Teletherapy Practice During the Outbreak of COVID-19

Professor Yaser Natour, the former director of Al Ahhlyyia Amman University Hearing and Speech Center and the faculty member in Al Ahhlyyia Amman University and the University of Jordan. Professor Natour is a Fulbright Alumnus and a graduate of the university of Florida, USA, 2001. He has published more than 29 peer reviewed papers and has authored three books in Arabic and multiple book chapters through international publishers. Professor Natour has co-established multiple speech pathology programs throughout the Arab World. He also launched the teletherapy group In Jordan and other Arab countries during and after the COVID 19 pandemic. He is one of the few who have obtained the rank of professor of communication sciences and disorders in the Arab world. He has devoted his career to evidence based clinical practice and supervision. He is also a certified ASHA member CCC-SLP. And the Jordanian Ministry of Health. He served in multiple leader positions (Department chair, vice dean, SLP Certification committed chair, and Jordanian Ministry of Health.

Christopher Thron

Building the Second Tier of African University Faculty

Chris Thron is an associate professor of mathematics at TAMU-Central Texas. Previously he worked as a wireless communication systems engineer at NEC and Motorola/Freescale Semiconductor. He has completed three Fulbright regular fellowships in Chad, Cameroon, and Sudan/Nigeria, in addition to specialist awards in Chad and Sudan. He has also conducted courses and seminars in multiple African countries, frequently with support from the International Mathematicians’ Union. He has published over 25 research articles with African collaborators in the fields of modeling and system simulation, operations research, and applied statistics.

Session #9 – The Fulbright Award: Impact, Benefits, and Ethical Implications

October 22nd – 5:15 pm – 6:30 pm EST

Jack Corbett

The Fulbright Oaxaca Cluster:Synergy and Multiplier Effects

Recipient of Fulbright awards to Mexico and Canada, including the Fulbright Carlos Rico Award in 2015-2016, Jack Corbett’s engagement with international education dates from study in Iran in 1964. More than 1100 students, practitioners, and professionals have participated in programs he has organized and led in Canada, Central America, Ecuador, and Mexico, while nearly 300 have traveled from Latin America to the United States for similar opportunities. Today former students and colleagues he successfully encouraged to pursue Fulbrights can be found across the United States and as far away as Singapore and Kyrgyzstan. In Oaxaca Jack is widely known for his ongoing work with local universities, collaboration with nongovernmental organizations, and support for emerging scholars and public service professionals.

Jeff Kelly Lowenstein

The Ingredients of A Lifelong Fulbright Friendship and Its Implications For the Program

Jeff Kelly Lowenstein is an investigative journalist, author and the founder and executive of the Center for Collaborative Investigative Journalism (CCIJ). He is also the Padnos/Sarosik Endowed Chair of Civil Discourse at Grand Valley State University. His work has been published in The New Yorker and the Center for Public Integrity, among many publications, and has earned national and international recognition from organizations like Investigative Reporters and Editors (IRE), the National Press Club, the National Headliner Club, the Society for News Design and the National Association of Black Journalists. Jeff has participated in national and international fellowships about racial justice, the environment, health, business and trauma. A Fulbright Scholar, Specialist and Teacher, he has written or edited six books. He and his wife Dunreith, a writer and educational consultant, live in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

Charlotte McDaniel

Ethics & Documentary Work: Fulbright Appointments

As a Fulbright Scholar with expertise in Empirical Ethics, McDaniel has had the wonderful opportunity to work in different (4) countries, highlighting how we depict those countries and residents. She was also president and founding president, Georgia and Central VA chapters, respectively, and served on the Chapter Advisory Board. She taught at Yale University and UPMC, Pittsburgh; retiring from Emory University, Atlanta, GA, she continues as a Faculty Scholar in their Ctr. for Study of Law & Religion, She continues her research, recently publishing work on racial-ethnic and job disparities among long-term care employees; she also consults to colleges on ethics initiatives. Her undergraduate work: Washington University (St. Louis.) and Vanderbilt University; grad work at Univ. CT. and Columbia University, NYC.

Daphne W. Ntiri

The Paradox of Scant: Taking the Proactive Leap as a Fulbrighter

Dr. Daphne W. Ntiri is Distinguished Service Professor, Department of African American Studies, Wayne State University. She served as a Fulbright Scholar at the University of Ouagadougou (commonly called Ouaga) in the 2014/15 academic year. Her teaching focused on gender studies and African American literature. Her research interests have focused on African and African American Studies, adult literacy and its intersection with gender empowerment. She has authored/ edited over 40 peer-reviewed articles/chapters and eight books. She has been recognized with several distinguished awards including International Adult and Continuing Education Hall of Fame, President’s Award for Excellence in Teaching and many more. Her robust international service history includes consultancies to the International Labor Office, UNESCO and the International Foundation for Education and Self-help. Her faculty appointments include Universities of Uppsala, Ouagadougou, Djibouti and Teacher’s College, Kismayo, Somalia. Prof. Ntiri received her graduate degrees from Michigan State University and a Bachelors degree from Fourah Bay College, the University of Sierra Leone.

Juanita Babet Villena-Alvarez

Fulbright Global-Local Impact: From Fulbright Experience to Local Community Lectures

J. Villena-Alvarez is Coordinator for USCB’s International Programs and Interim Assistant Vice Chancellor, Academic Affairs. She was Chair of Humanities/Fine Arts at USCB from 2007-2016, was awarded the Carolina Trustee Professorship in 2012 (UofSC System Board Trustees), and was the South Carolina Governor’s 2010 Professor of the Year. Past leadership roles include Program Director-Liberal Studies, then Spanish prior to 2007. From 2003-2006, she was PI for a grant from the US Dept of Education UISFL to internationalize USCB curriculum. She started as an Assistant Professor (French and Spanish) at USCB in 1994. She holds graduate degrees from L’Université de Paris-IV Sorbonne (Magistère), el Instituto de Cooperación Iberoamericana – Madrid (Diploma de Profesor), and the University of Cincinnati (Ph.D. Romance Languages, French Literature).

Poster Fair

Poster Fair #1 – Immigration, Culture Wars, and Human Rights

October 21st – 3:30 pm – 4:45 pm EST

Ellen Anders

Fashion Advocacy for Human Rights

I hold a B.A. Art, and a B.A. in French Language and History from San Jose State. For most of my life I have been involved in fashion in one way or another. I grew up on a cotton farm and from a very young age I made doll clothes for my dolls. As an adult I started my own fashion business. As a teacher I use my art and design skills and include fashion visuals in my classes. My Fulbright in Canada (1980) increased my interest in Native American culture by allowing me to take weekend classes in Native American apparel for a snow bound winter. I learned how to make mukluks (deer skin boots) and other items. These classes were taught by members of local tribes. In this manner I gained morel awareness of Native American culture, history and environmental protection. In my Fulbright to Morocco (1998) it was common to be involved in fashion as most people made their own clothing and shopped in textile souks. I have made Fashion Studies presentations at: Pop Culture Association Annual Conference; In Pursuit of Luxury Conference at the University of Hertfordshire, England; and, at the European Studies Association, Paris, France, where I provided lectures and tours of major Paris Couturier houses.

Nadia Delanoy & Tom Butkiewicz

Advocacy: Supporting Equity – A Global Context

Dr. Nadia Delanoy is an Assistant Professor (Adj.) at the University of Calgary and the Project Manager of the Werklund Professional Learning Series. She also has been a consultant for over 14 years in areas of organizational change, program development, and educational design. As the President of the Walden Virtual Fulbright Chapter, Dr. Nadia Delanoy brings to her role on the Fulbright Board a diverse perspective and well-rounded experiences from within the fields of business, technology, and education. From a complementary capacity, her research spans leadership development, educational leadership, the meaningful integration of technology, data analytics and organizational change, literacy programming, assessment frameworks, and instructional design. She has had many speaking engagements nationally and internationally to help mobilize knowledge/research which have included the American Education Research Conference, the UK Literacy Association Conference at Sheffield University, A Child’s World Conference in Wales. The Walden Virtual Chapter has engaged in projects to support literacy and citizenship in Haiti as well as a bilateral initiative in the United States and Canada to support veterans transitioning to civilian life.

Dr. Tom Butkiewicz is a core research faculty member in the Ph.D. in Management program, College of Management and Technology at Walden University. Tom serves as the Vice President on the leadership board for the Walden University Virtual Fulbright Chapter. His scholarly experience includes dissertation chair, second committee member, university research reviewer, lead faculty for dissertation and research courses, mentor at residencies, and reviewer for the International Journal of Applied Management and Technology. He functioned as a committee member voting on the Curriculum and Academic Policy Committee. He also fulfills the role of faculty advisor for the National Society of Leadership and Success and the Ph.D. Management Fellowship program.

Tom’s research interests comprise management, positive leadership, business strategies, organizational behavior, workplace spirituality, emotional intelligence, social change, diversity, appreciative inquiry, and virtue ethics. He worked 26 years in the automotive industry for Mitsubishi Motors in operations management, corporate strategic planning, training and development, marketing, district and region management, and customer service. Tom proudly concluded 20 years of honorable service as a Chief Warrant Officer—CWO3 in the United States Marine Corps Reserve.

Rocío Galarza-Molina

Researching disinformation and its implications for democracy in the Global South: The case of Mexico

Rocío Galarza Molina (PhD, University of Missouri, 2018) is a researcher at the Political Communication Lab (LACOP) from the Autonomous University of Nuevo León (UANL). She received the Fulbright-García Robles scholarship to study her PhD in Communication in 2014. Her research interests concern political communication, online deliberation, and media’s role in democracy. Her current academic work focuses on disinformation and fake news. She is also involved in an a feminist activist group called Mujeres+Mujeres, which pursues the incorporation of gender perspective into media and public discourse.

Lisa Molomot

Missing in Brooks County

Lisa Molomot (Co-Director, Producer) has directed and edited documentaries about the American Southwest in recent years including Precious Knowledge, Missing in Brooks County, The Cleaners, and Soledad. She has also focused on stories about education. Her hugely popular film School’s Out has been an integral part of the movement for providing outdoor education for young children, and her recent short film Teaching in Arizona is an inside look at the teaching crisis in that state. Lisa was a Fulbright Scholar in Ontario, Canada in 2019.

Margaret Eaholtz Scranton

Fulbright’s Legacy: Caught in Culture Wars on Campus

Dr. Margaret E. Scranton is a professor of political science and public administration at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock. She held Fulbright Grants for Research in Panama and for Teaching in Panama. Her scholarly research focus on the Panama Canal Treaties, democratization in Panama, the Clinton Presidency and First Ladies Hillary Rodham Clinton and Rosalynn Carter. She has worked as an international election observer for the International Federation of Election Systems and published articles on Panama’s democratic transition, electoral reforms, and its Electoral Tribunal.

Poster Fair #2 – Education, COVID-19, and Mental Health

October 22nd – 9:30 am – 10:45 am EST

Majda Atieh

Combating COVID’s Isolative Challenges through the Renaissance of School Soundscapes

Dr. Majda Atieh is a Fulbright scholar and Professor in African American and Comparative Literatures. She received her MA and PhD from Howard University’s Department of English in African American and Arabic Literatures (USA 2002-2007). Her research interests focus on cultural studies. Atieh has published on various topics in refereed journals and edited collections, including MELUS, Coldnoon: Travel Poetics, The Strangled Cry: the Communication and Experience of Trauma (Oxford: InterDisciplinary Press, 2013), and Contemporary African American Fiction: New Critical Essays (Ohio UP, 2009). Atieh has also presented at numerous national and international conventions including: Fulbright Association, MLA, MELUS, NeMLA, SAMLA, PCA, CLA, and CEA annual meetings, The 2nd Global Conference on Trauma(Prague), and Literature and Pathology Conferences.

William Hills

Tele-Healthcare Then and Now: Development of Virtual Service Delivery in the COVID-Era

William E. Hills earned a Ph.D. (1987) and a Master of Science (1982) from the University of Georgia, and holds a master’s degree and license to practice in Social Work (1993) from the University of South Carolina. He has taught gerontology on a Fulbright Scholarship and conducted US-Russia Peer-to-Peer Dialogue grant-funded research in Russia, and he maintains a working relationship with a Moscow-based physician who provides home-based medical services for pensioners and older adults in Russia identified as Victims of Repression. Hills spent spring 2019 in Poland teaching gerontology on a Fulbright Scholarship at the Medical University of Lublin, where he held an appointment in the Department of Family Medicine. He is currently planning research in Poland for Summer 2022 as a Fulbright Specialist.

Teresa Kennedy

International Engineering Design Challenge: Innovations to address the COVID-19 Pandemic.

Dr. Kennedy was a Fulbright Scholar in Ecuador (1993) and Argentina (2014-15) and is a member of the Fulbright Association Dallas Chapter. She joined The University of Texas at Tyler in 2009 and holds a joint appointment as Professor of International STEM and Bilingual/ELL Education in the College of Education and Psychology School of Education and in the College of Engineering. She has over 30 years of experience in higher education and also taught for 15 years in K-12 classrooms. She has traveled to over 100 countries through her work and educational experiences and has taught language, science and social studies lessons in K-12 and university classrooms around the world. She currently serves on committees at UNESCO, ICASE, iEARN, NNELL, NSTA, and Tyler Sister Cities.

Heather Ridge

Building Partnerships to Build Resiliency: Using the International Exchange Alumni Network to Address Mental Health Needs within the Refugee Community

Heather Ridge has spent the last few decades getting her best lessons from trotting the globe and meeting the people, places, and practices that make it a better place on which to spin. As an educator who has participated in Fulbright’s Teachers for Global Classrooms and Distinguished Award in Teaching, she has been able to use these experiences to create engaging, cross-cultural material for her actual classrooms and in humanitarian and scientific applications.

Al R. Schleicher

Global Partnership: Secondary School Debate and Language Acquisition

Al R. Schleicher is a credentialed classroom teacher in the State of California and instructor in the School of Teacher Education at San Diego State University. As a 10th grade English teacher, Al was also the Speech & Debate coach for seven years. He is a recipient of the 2017 Fulbright Distinguished Award in Teaching, and his research and teaching praxis centers around democratic schooling in K-12 education. Currently, he is a Ph.D. student in the Joint Doctoral Program in Education at Claremont Graduate University and San Diego State University. Al’s work explores questions of critical thinking and collaborative problem-solving in classroom contexts. As an interdisciplinary educator, Al’s work further examines discussion, deliberation, and debate pedagogy as equitable disciplinary literacies.

Emily Tan

Come for the Songs, Stay for the Moms: Community-Based Post-Partum Support in Libraries Across Sydney

Emily Tan graduated from Bates College in 2019 with a B.A. in Psychology and minors in Spanish and Religious Studies. As an undergraduate, Emily took an interest in developmental psychology, interning at the New England Center for Children and the Harvard Laboratory for Developmental Studies. Emily’s senior thesis investigated the link between religious support and wellbeing in parents of children with autism. After graduating from Bates, Emily accepted a Fulbright research scholarship to study infant language acquisition with Dr. Denis Burnham at the MARCS Institute for Brain, Behaviour and Development at Western Sydney University. She currently serves as the Program Coordinator of the Depression Clinical & Research Program at Mass General Hospital, and is applying to PhD programs in clinical psychology to study postpartum depression.

Poster Fair #3 – International Networks, International Health, and Cultures

October 22nd – 2:00 pm – 3:30 pm EST

Akosua Obuo Addo

Cataloging Ghanaian Children’s Play lore

Akosua Obuo Addo is an Associate Professor of Music at the University of Minnesota. Previously, she was an assistant professor of music education at the University of Connecticut, Visiting Post-doctoral Research Fellow at Roehampton Institute, London, and an administrator for the Centre for Intercultural Music Arts, City University in London. Her research interests include international education and collaborative and comparative research on children’s music play cultures. Dr. Addo has over 20 years of teaching experience in Ghana, England, Canada, and the USA. At the University of Minnesota, she teaches elementary music pedagogy, world music in education, research methods and supervises student teachers and thesis writing. Addo’s research has been presented at several conferences and published in book chapters and professional and research journals.

Rachel Emerine Hicks

Exploring Cultural Values and Building Friendships through Photo Elicitation

Rachel Emerine Hicks is a Ph.D. Candidate in Anthropology at University of California, San Diego. As part of her dissertation fieldwork, she completed a Fulbright US study/research grant to Solomon Islands in 2019. While in Solomon Islands she conducted research at two secondary schools and in the surrounding communities, examining the opportunities and challenges that youth face during and after schooling. Her dissertation project asks how secondary schooling affects the cultural values, identities, social networks, and language use among youth. Rachel holds an M.A. in Anthropology from California State University, Long Beach and an B.A. in Anthropology and Intercultural Studies from Biola University.

Neil Huben

Highlighting Cultural Practices that Support Maternal Well-being Across the Globe

Neil Huben completed a Fulbright Scholarship to Greece in 2011-2012. He attended the University of Nebraska-Omaha for his bachelor’s degree, and completed medical school at the Alabama College of Osteopathic Medicine. Dr. Huben is currently a second-year resident in Obstetrics and Gynecology at the University of Mississippi Medical Center.

Brenda Faye Mcgadney

Call to Glory: Ghanaians Celebrating the Life of a Deceased Loved One Pre-Covid-19

Dr. Brenda F McGadney, a social gerontologist, holds degrees from The University of Chicago’s Social Service Administration (PhD) and The University Michigan (MSW & BA). Her career in social work practice, undergraduate and graduate education, research and scholarship, and academic administration spans four decades. She has focused much of her research, teaching, and scholarship on applied gerontology, international social work, human rights, health care for the poor and underserved, advocacy for black elders, and indigenous peacekeeping strategies of internally displaced females, elder-care in the recovery of severely malnourished grandchildren. She is known for innovative applied student-focused teaching informed by social work and advocacy for indigenous and minority communities in universities in the U.S, Canada, and Ghana. Fulbright-Hayes awardee, Brenda conducted a multi-country elder-oral history project in francophone W Africa.

Deanna Saylor

Developing Neurology Care and Training in Zambia

Dr. Deanna Saylor is an Assistant Professor of Neurology and Director of the Global Neurology Program at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore, MD USA. In 2018, she was selected as a Fulbright Scholar Award recipient and relocated to Lusaka, Zambia where she launched and still currently leads the first-ever neurology post-graduate training program and neurology in patient service in Zambia. Dr. Saylor continues to reside in Zambia where she has also led the develop of a neurology research program focusing on understanding the epidemiology of neurological disorders in Zambia and developing systems-based approaches to improving care and outcomes for patients with neurological disorders. She is an internationally recognized expert in global neurology and international neurology training.

Jay L. Wenger

Three Fulbrights, Three Continents, Nearly Three Decades: One Scholar’s Photographic Journal of Relationships in Estonia, Kenya, and India

Jay Wenger earned his PhD in experimental psychology from the Pennsylvania State University in 1994. Then he taught and conducted research at the University of West Alabama for 10 years. Currently, he is a senior professor of psychology at HACC: Central Pennsylvania’s Community College, Lancaster, PA. During his career, he completed four Fulbright assignments – traditional assignments to Tallinn University in Estonia (2001), Masinde Muliro University of Science and Technology in Kenya (2011), Loyola College in India (2018), and a Fulbright Specialist assignment to De La Salle University in the Philippines (2014). His resume includes 22 scholarly publications.

Virtual Art Exhibit Panel

October 21st – 1:30 pm – 3:00 pm EST

Adam de Boer

Adam de Boer graduated with a BA in Painting from the College of Creative Studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara (2006) and an MA in Fine Art from the Chelsea College of Art, London (2012). Recent exhibitions include Gazelli Art House, London (2021); The Hole, New York (2021); ISA Art + Design, Jakarta (2020); Hunter Shaw Fine Art, Los Angeles (2020/2018); Kristin Hjellegjerde Gallery, London (2020); World Trade Centre, Jakarta (2018); and Art|Jog, Yogyakarta (2018/2015). In 2017, de Boer was awarded a Fulbright research fellowship to Indonesia. Other grants include those from the Joan Mitchell Foundation, Arts for India, The Cultural Development Corporation, and the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities. For the past ten years de Boer has travelled throughout Indonesia to investigate his Eurasian heritage. His recent work employs imagery and traditional crafts from the region as a way to connect his artistic practice with those of his distant cultural forebears. He currently lives in Los Angeles.

View Adam’s Art in Virtual Exhibit

Julie Denesha

Julie Denesha is a freelance documentary photographer based in the Kansas City area. She graduated from The University of Kansas with degrees in Journalism and Russian Language and Literature. From 1996 to 2004, Julie was based in Prague, Czech Republic, where she covered Central and Eastern Europe for newspapers and magazines. Her work has appeared in The New York Times, The Guardian, Time, Newsweek, The Economist and The Christian Science Monitor. In 2007, Julie was awarded both a Fulbright and a Milena Jesenská Fellowship to continue her ongoing project on the Roma in Slovakia. Her project on the Roma was featured in an exhibit of the Roma at the U.S. Embassy in Bratislava, Slovakia, The World Bank in Brussels, Belgium, The Half King Gallery in New York, and The Institute For Human Sciences in Vienna, Austria.

View Julie’s Art in Virtual Exhibit

Anya Farion

Anya Farion is a sculptor born in New York 1954 to Ukrainian immigrant parents. She received her BFA from Manhattanville College, Purchase, New York (1975). Also studied stone carving techniques at the Instituto Statale d’Arte in Massa-Carrara, Italy. In 1988, was awarded a Fulbright Grant to sculpt in Pietrasanta, Italy. Her grant was extended with a Child’s Fund Scholarship based in Florence, Italy. During the summer of 1994, she represented the U.S. at the Invitational International Sculpture Symposium in Kyiv, Ukraine. Has exhibited extensively in the United States, Canada, Italy, and Ukraine. Her work is part of public and private collections in the US, Canada, Germany, and Ukraine, including the National Art Museum in Kyiv and The Ukrainian Museum in New York City.

View Anya’s Art in Virtual Exhibit

Aparna Keshaviah

Aparna Keshaviah is a classically trained Bharatanatyam dancer and musician whose choreography modernizes Indian dance to engage contemporary audiences more deeply. She has held performances and artist residencies at global institutions such as the American Academy in Rome, Himalayan Institute, National Museum for Women in the Arts, and Black Mountain College Museum + Arts Center, and she conducts master classes at dance schools and universities across the country. Early on in her career, she was a soloist with the Ragamala Dance Company and Navarasa Dance Theater and served as Artistic Director for the performance troupe Sanchali. Keshaviah co-founded the Dance ARĪS residency in Western North Carolina and is a recipient of the Fulbright grant in Dance for her study Decoding the Modern Practice of Bharatanatyam.

View Aparna’s Art in Virtual Exhibit

Eva Polizzi

Joe Vitone

Moderator

Joe Vitone is a documentary fine art photographer. His work includes portraiture and landscape in and outside the USA. Professor of Photocommunications at St. Edward’s University, he has been a National Endowment for the Arts fellow, a Fulbright Scholar in Costa Rica, and a Fulbright Specialist in Italy. Abroad, he has lectured on his photography in Australia, China, France, Italy, Japan, Malaysia, Thailand, and Vietnam. He has led American students on programs in China, France, Japan, and Thailand. With focus on documentary photography, he has worked with Australian, Costa Rican, French, Italian, and Thai students outside of the U.S. Collections holding his work include Cleveland Museum of Art, Center for Creative Photography, Museum of Fine Art, Houston, and Smithsonian Institution National Museum of American History.

View Joe’s Art in Virtual Exhibit