The Global Liberal Arts Alliance is an organization of 27 liberal arts colleges and universities, located in 15 nations, whose purpose is to strengthen education in the tradition of the liberal arts through the exchange of experience and the development of mutually beneficial programs.

The Alliance is managed by the Great Lakes Colleges Association.

Funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the New Directions Initiative provides support for the renewal and continued professional growth of liberal arts faculty members in 'mid-career' - the extensive professional period between receiving tenure and thinking seriously about retirement. A particular emphasis of this program is to help faculty members think outside traditional boundaries and divisions of their discipline and of typical faculty work - to chart a course that leads beyond the familiar waters of one's early academic achievements and…

The Great Lakes Colleges Association (GLCA) Expanding Collaboration Initiative supports collaborative curricular initiatives involving faculty and key professional staff who share common academic interests. With funding from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the program seeks to foster multi-campus communities of practice, allowing them to share expertise, develop joint programs, bring new perspectives to current courses, and engage in new realms of thinking and creativity involving one or more academic disciplines.