Great Lakes Colleges Association, Strengthening Education in the Tradition of the Liberal Arts
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Re-Imagining International Engagement Summit

The GLCA is pleased to host a summit on Re-Imagining International Engagement. This summit, by invitation only, will take place October 24-26 at the Hilton Garden Inn in Ann Arbor, Michigan. We are excited to announce that the speakers and facilitators have been secured for this important event. They will contribute to the thinking, planning, and collaborative work of the teams each campus sends.    

The pandemic, climate change, and disruption of the global supply chain are only the most recent reminders of global interdependence and the sometimes-opaque connections between the local and the global. Internationalization of the curriculum and co-curriculum, study away, international student enrollment, international partnerships, and engagement with diversity in local communities are higher education’s embrace of this reality. There are emergent forces reshaping how our schools think about and do international engagement. The summit on re-imagining international engagement will explore these forces and innovative ways to respond to them with an eye toward opportunities for sharing and collaboration across the GLCA. 

 

Speakers and Facilitators

Dr. Kate Patch, Grinnell College

Speaker and Facilitator

Dr. Kate Patch is the Senior International Officer and the Senior Director of Global Initiatives at Grinnell College. Kate directs the Institute for Global Engagement where she oversees the following units: Off-Campus Study, Center for Languages and Intercultural Learning, Global Culinary Kitchen, Visiting Scholars Program, Global Health and Safety and Global Partnerships and Collaborations. She is active in the American Council on Education, the Forum for Education Abroad, AACU, and NAFSA and sits on various study abroad boards and committees.  Kate is a trained cultural anthropologist whose current research examines mentored undergraduate research in global contexts. She previously held administrative positions at The College of Wooster and Michigan State University. Her latest publication Undergraduate Research Abroad: Challenges, Pedagogies and Approaches, examines how U.S. higher education institutions and program providers navigate best practices related to U.S. undergraduate research opportunities abroad.  

Dr. Margaret Wiedenhoeft, Kalamazoo College

Speaker

Dr. Margaret Wiedenhoeft is the Executive Director of the Center for International Programs at Kalamazoo College in Kalamazoo, Michigan. Currently she manages the operations of the Center, which includes study abroad, study away, and international student support. Margaret is active in several international education organizations and will be conference chair for the NAFSA 2023 conference in Washington, DC. She is also co-editor of the 5th edition of NAFSA’s Guide to Study Abroad (2022). Margaret received her B.A. in International Studies from Emory University her M.B.A. and doctorate from Western Michigan University. Professional interests include equity in higher education and study abroad, and developing project-based study abroad programming.

Dr. Chrystal George Mwange, George Mason University

Speaker and Facilitator

Dr. Chrystal George Mwangi is an Associate Professor of Higher Education at George Mason University. Her scholarship centers on (1) structures of opportunity and barriers impacting how students access and navigate college (2) internationalization and the impact of globalization and migration on higher education and (3) African and African Diaspora populations in higher education. Dr. George Mwangi has given over 100 presentations nationally and internationally as well as authored nearly 60 book chapters and articles. She is a recipient of NAFSA’s Innovative Research in International Education Award and has also received awards for her research from the Comparative & International Education Society (CIES). In 2020, Dr. George Mwangi co-created a global network for education scholars and practitioners interested in the ways race and racism are present in higher education internationalization. She is an Associate Editor for the Journal for Diversity in Higher Education and has served in leadership positions with the Association for the Study of Higher Education (ASHE), American Educational Research Association (AERA), and Comparative & International Education Society (CIES). Prior to becoming a faculty member, she worked for a number of years as a college administrator in student services and support initiatives. Dr. George Mwangi received her PhD in Higher Education Administration from the University of Maryland, College Park.

Dr. Karen McBride, Bound International

Speaker and Facilitator

Karen is a career international higher education professional with 17 years of experience cultivating international academic opportunities for American college students as well as visiting students and scholars from abroad to the U.S. She specializes in multi-faceted partnership development, education abroad programming and intercultural training. She is now focused on reconciling environmental sustainability, as well as issues around Climate Action and Climate Justice, with these endeavors. Karen has worked for a large public university and a mid-sized private university in the U.S., two third party study abroad program providers as well as an Italian institute of higher education. She studied abroad in Costa Rica and Scotland, interned abroad in Ireland, was an international graduate student in the United Kingdom and is a Returned Peace Corps Volunteer (Antigua, West Indies). She earned her doctorate in Educational Policy and Administration for International Educators at the University of Minnesota, having conducted research in, and later returning as a Fulbright Specialist to, Bangkok and Chiang Mai, Thailand. She is the Past Chair of NAFSA’s Education Abroad Knowledge Community and, most recently, a member of the Climate Reality Project Leadership Corps.