Retiring Executive Director represented NAFSA at White House in planning stages of initiative as part of commitment to international education
DENVER, Col., May 31, 2016 – NAFSA: Association of
International Educators is pleased to announce the 2017 Marlene M. Johnson
Innovation Challenge, a NAFSA-sponsored $250,000 grant round for the 100,000 Strong in the
Americas Initiative. Johnson’s public policy leadership
resulted in NAFSA becoming a founding partner in the initiative, President
Obama’s signature education program in the Western Hemisphere. This donation recognizes
Johnson’s leadership in increasing and diversifying study abroad and her
commitment to strengthening relations within the Americas through international
education.
Johnson, who served with distinction as NAFSA’s
Executive Director and CEO since 1998, announced in March that she will retire at
the end of 2016. During her time at NAFSA, Johnson founded and institutionalized
NAFSA’s annual Latin
America Forum as a demonstration of the association’s
commitment to expanding partnerships and mobility in the Western Hemisphere. Johnson
has led the field of international higher education in focusing on broadening
international education opportunities for all students and diverse
institutions, in particular, those that have historically been
underrepresented. Through NAFSA’s
advocacy on the Senator Paul Simon Study Abroad Foundation
Act, she continues to lead the call for a national program that would
incentivize higher education to exponentially increase study abroad and provide
a cost-effective, sustainable way to ensure more diverse U.S. undergraduates
can study internationally.
As tribute to her unparalleled leadership, NAFSA’s
Board of Directors unanimously approved a resolution pledging sponsorship of a
grant round. The pledge illustrates NAFSA’s commitment to increasing study
abroad through the use of a competitive grants model. The competitive grants
model used in the 100,000 Strong in the Americas Initiative is inspired by
NAFSA’s 2003 National Strategic Task Force on Education Abroad; the work of the
late, distinguished Senator Paul Simon, who advocated for a federal program to
increase and diversify both students and locations of study abroad; the report
of the federal bipartisan commission, the Abraham Lincoln Commission on Study
Abroad, which recommended funding institutions, rather than national student scholarship
programs; and legislation for which NAFSA advocated in multiple congresses to
significantly increase and diversify study abroad.
Under Johnson’s leadership, NAFSA has been
instrumental in launching multiple public-private partnerships to increase
study abroad, the largest of which is the 100,000 Strong in the Americas
Innovation Fund. This dynamic fund – led by Partners of the Americas in
partnership with NAFSA, the U.S. Department of State, and the White House
–awards grants on a competitive basis to higher education institutions across
the Americas to develop partnerships that make international study more
accessible. In recognition of Johnson’s commitment to making international
educational opportunities available for all, and to building key partnerships
with our closest neighbors, the competition will focus on those parts of the Americas
that have been underserved, namely Central America and the Caribbean, providing
incentives for matching funding to leverage greater opportunities for those
institutions and countries who must navigate greater challenges for
partnerships in educational mobility.
“The NAFSA Board of Directors wanted to put its money
where its mouth is,” said Dr. Fanta Aw, NAFSA President and Chair. “NAFSA is a founding
partner of the 100,000 Strong in the America’s Initiative, and to honor
Marlene, it made perfect sense to us to invest in this initiative that will
diversify study abroad in a more efficient and effective way than any other
model in existence. The new research NAFSA releases this week further supports
our belief that competitive grants for higher education institutions demonstrably
grows and encourages study abroad.”
“The goal of 100,000 Strong in the Americas, President
Obama’s signature education initiative in the Western Hemisphere, is to
increase the number of U.S. students studying in the Western Hemisphere to
100,000 annually, and the number of students from Latin America and the Caribbean
studying in the United States to 100,000 annually by the year 2020,” explained
Steve Vetter, President and CEO of Partners of the Americas. “No one has been
more committed to reaching that goal than Marlene. Her steadfast leadership at
the helm of NAFSA has helped us develop a lasting and sustainable program that
will benefit institutions for years to come. This grant round is a fitting
tribute to her unwavering dedication to the field of international education.”
The Marlene M. Johnson Innovation Challenge will open in
January 2017. Grant recipients will be announced at the 2017 NAFSA Annual Conference
and Expo in Los Angeles.
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Sample
tweet: .@NAFSA honors @MarleneAtNAFSA with $250,000 donation
to #100KStrongAmericas to fund competitive grants to grow study abroad.
About NAFSA: With more than 10,000 members, NAFSA: Association of
International Educators is the world's largest nonprofit association dedicated
to international education. Visit us at www.nafsa.org/press.
To learn more about our advocacy efforts on behalf of international education,
visit www.ConnectingOurWorld.org
and @ConnectOurWorld on Twitter.
About the 100,000 Strong in the Americas Innovation
Fund: The 100,000 Strong in the Americas
Innovation Fund is a public-private collaboration of the White House, U.S.
Department of State, Partners of the Americas, and NAFSA: Association of
International Educators that was announced by Secretary of State John Kerry in
January 2014. Since then, 70 Innovation Fund grants have been awarded to
teams of 153 higher education institutions from 19 countries in the Western
Hemisphere. Learn more at www.100kstrongamericas.org.