Events Calendar

About the Program: Global competency has become a staple in education curriculum. Schools and academic institutes of all kinds have recognized the need for students to be able to successfully navigate an increasingly diverse and interconnected world. This means being able to work and live with people of diverse backgrounds, recognize different perspectives, communicate cross-culturally, and take action on complex global issues. Yet, as global competency has grown, systemic racism continues to plague the fabric of society and our economy, not just in the United States, but globally.

While international educators address issues of cultural understanding, they historically have left issues of racism to diversity and inclusion specialists. But diversity and inclusion and cultural competency are inherently linked, and both require an interdisciplinary approach. How can one be culturally and globally competent if they are not prepared to address issues of race in their education, community and economy? International educators should be leaders in dismantling systemic racism, as global competency demands an understanding of all global issues, including racism.

So how can international educators lead in crafting a vision for a post-racist world?  How can we leverage the multiple tools that intercultural learning and cross-cultural communication provides to develop the next generation of anti-racist leaders? How can we work to normalize cross-cultural and intercultural diversity in the communities that we inhabit? Join us on November 17th as experts, Dr. Harvey Charles, Dr. Roberta Espinoza, and Dr. Darla Deardorff, talk about why international educators should be leaders in dismantling systemic racism.

About the Speakers: Dr. Harvey Charles, is currently Professor of International Education at the University at Albany, SUNY.  He has served as Senior International Officer at a number of institutions around the US, including Georgia Institute of Technology, Northern Arizona University, San Francisco State University and the University at Albany.  Charles has been actively engaged in the field of international education and served as President of the Association of International Education Administrators, the leading association worldwide for university leaders of international higher education.  Apart from his deep administrative experience, Charles has published on issues including leadership in international higher education, internationalizing the curriculum and comprehensive internationalization. He serves on a number of boards, frequently consults and gives addresses on international education issues in the US and around the world. Dr. Charles earned his doctorate in Higher Education and Student Affairs from The Ohio State University in 1991.

Dr. Roberta Espinoza serves as Vice Provost for Global-Local Initiatives and Professor of Sociology at Loyola Marymount University (LMU). She draws from 10+ years of professional experience in diverse higher education environments, including at a large, public Hispanic-Serving Institution (California State University, Fullerton) and at a small, highly selective private liberal arts college (Pitzer College). Dr. Espinoza received her B.A. from Pomona College and earned her M.A. and Ph.D. in Sociology from the University of California, Berkeley.

As Vice-Provost for Global-Local Initiatives Dr. Espinoza’s responsibilities include oversight of the Office of Study Abroad, the Office of National & International Fellowships (ONIF), the Center for the Study of Los Angeles (StudyLA) and the Center for Urban Resilience (CURes). As LMU’s inaugural senior international officer, her role is to facilitate collaborations and professional relationships among LMU faculty, staff, alumni, and other institutions on efforts related to comprehensive internalization (global) and strategic community engagement (local).

Dr. Darla Deardorff is the Executive Director of the Association of International Education Administrators (AIEA). In addition, she is a research scholar at Duke University’s Social Science Research Institute and holds faculty positions at universities in several countries, including as a research associate at Nelson Mandela University (S. Africa), Meiji University (Japan), Shanghai International Studies University (China) and adjunct faculty at North Carolina State University. She is on the faculty of Harvard University’s Global Education Think Tank and has served as faculty for Harvard’s Future of Learning Institute as well as the Summer Institute of Intercultural Communication in Portland, OR. With over 20 years of experience in international education, she has also held national leadership positions with NAFSA and with Forum on Education Abroad. Author/editor of 8 books and over 60 book chapters and articles.

She regularly gives invited talks, trainings and workshops around the world on intercultural competence, international education assessment, and global leadership and serves as a consultant and trainer on these topics, including with UNESCO and OECD. The intercultural competence models developed from her research are being used in numerous countries, and she is the recipient of several awards related to her work. Founder of ICC Global, her areas of specialty include cross-cultural training, assessment and evaluation, teacher/faculty preparation/development, curriculum internationalization, global leadership, and intercultural coaching. She received her master’s and doctorate degrees from North Carolina State University.