CEHD Fulbright Initiative
CEHD's Fulbright Initiative provides support to faculty applying for the Fulbright Scholar Program.
The Fulbright U.S. Scholar Program is one of the most prestigious international exchange programs that grants support for college or university faculties and administrations. It offers nearly 470 teaching, research or combination of teaching and research awards in more than 125 countries. The program seeks out individuals of achievement and potential who represent the full diversity of their respective societies and selects nominees through open, merit-based competitions.
The Fulbright Scholarship will provide CEHD with opportunities to develop intercultural relations and competence, cultural diplomacy, and global perspectives of its faculty members through exchanging research experience, knowledge, and skills. CEHD highly appreciates the work from the previous Fulbright awardees and looks forward to the future Fulbright researchers to enrich our department with sharing their values and experiences.
2020-2021 Fulbright Senior Scholar Award Winner
Professor Priscilla Gibson, School of Social Work, received a Fulbright Scholar Award to conduct research on intergenerational caregiving and to teach social work courses for the 2020 academic year at the University of Namibia in Windhoek, Namibia. She has collaborated with colleagues from Namibia to publish papers on social work and social policy in Namibia. She facilitated a discussion on racism at the Embassy during black history month. In addition to presenting the keynote lecture for new student orientation in the Department of Social Work, Gibson presented at two alumni panels at the 2021 Fulbright’s Pre-departure Orientation Meeting.
Past Fulbright Participants
Professor Elizabeth Lightfoot, School of Social Work, received her second Fulbright Senior Scholar Award to conduct research and teach in the Faculty of Sociology and Social Work at the University of Bucharest in Romania for the 2018-2019 academic year. Her first Fulbright award was for research in Namibia, which led to an MOU and ongoing exchanges with students and lecturers between the School of Social Work at the U of M and the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences at the University of Namibia.
Professor Nina Asher, Department of Curriculum and Instruction, received a Fulbright-Nehru Academic and Professional Excellence Award (Research) in 2014-15 for her research project, Examining the Intersections of Globalization, Privatization, and Education after Two Decades of Economic Liberalization in India. In addition to presenting papers on and publishing based on this project, Nina has also served as a reviewer on national Fulbright panels.
Professor Joan G. DeJaeghere, Department of Organizational Leadership, Policy, and Development, was a Fulbright Scholar with the Academy for Policy and Development, Ministry of Planning and Development, Vietnam 2013; and a Fulbright Specialist to the Vietnam Institute of Educational Sciences, Ministry of Education and Training, Vietnam in 2014. Additionally, Joan has served on the Vietnam Fulbright Student review panel and Africa student review panel for the Graduate School.
Associate Professor Christopher J. Johnstone, Department of Organizational Leadership, Policy, and Development, has participated in two Fulbright experiences. His first experience was through the International Education Administrators Seminar program. In 2014, Johnstone traveled to India to learn about the country's higher education system on a group program with eight other administrators from universities around the US. In 2018, he participated in the Fulbright Specialist Program as a visiting faculty member at Masaryk University in the Czech Republic. While there, he lectured on inclusive internationalization and helped to deepen a partnership between Masaryk's Faculty of Education and CEHD.
Professor Rebecca Ropers, Department of Organizational Leadership, Policy, and Development and vice provost for faculty and academic affairs, was Fulbright-Klagenfurt Visiting Professor in Higher Education Research in Vienna in Spring 2014. She studied how gender mainstreaming policy was enacted or resisted in Austrian universities and throughout the European Higher Education Area.
Associate Professor Bhaskar Upadhyay, who holds a dual appointment in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction and the Department of Organizational Leadership, Policy, and Development, was awarded the Fulbright Fellowship (1998-2000) in Nepal for graduate education in secondary science education, Teachers College, Columbia University.
Professor Frances Vavrus, Department of Organizational Leadership, Policy, and Development, was a Fulbright Scholar in Tanzania 2006-2007. Frances also received a Fulbright Doctoral Fellowship to support a year of research in Tanzania (1996) and was a member of a Fulbright-Hays Group Project Abroad in Tanzania in Summer 1990. Currently, she is on the Fulbright Specialist Roster.
Innovation and Partnership Officer, Ryan Warren, participated in the Fulbright Educational Experts Seminar: "Do More with Less - Implementing Change in Higher Education Management in Germany" in 2012 as one of fourteen U.S. delegation members. The delegation met with higher education leaders in Berlin, Bielefeld, and Hamburg to compare change management strategies at U.S. and German universities and identify best practices in both systems.