Committee: Education Abroad Knowledge Community (EA KC)
Position:   Member, Subcommittee on Health and Safety Education Abroad 
Term Dates: Two-year term, renewable for one term (maximum of 4 years) 

The Subcommittee on Health and Safety in Education Abroad is charged with developing resources to promote health and safety in education abroad. Members of the subcommittee are responsible for serving the field as a cadre of experts offering timely advice and practical information on health, safety, risk assessment, and crisis response in education abroad.

Position updated June 2019

Applications are not currently being accepted.
Major Functions and Responsibilities
  • Develop resources on health, safety, risk assessment, and crisis response in education abroad in accordance with the annual EA KC Work Plan.  
  • Maintain a strong familiarity with NAFSA’s resources and offerings on health, safety, risk assessment, and crisis response in education abroad. Assist members in locating these resources.
  • Maintain attentiveness to health, safety, risk assessment, and crisis response issues by observing, prompting, and participating in online discussion forums and reading NAFSA.news. Act as a resource for colleagues with questions and concerns throughout the year.  
  • Encourage and facilitate the inclusion of content on health, safety, risk assessment, and crisis response for consideration at annual and regional conferences, as appropriate.
  • Curate content for NAFSA web pages on health, safety, risk assessment, and crisis response and ensure information is relevant and current.  
  • Collaborate with and recommend ideas to the Education Abroad Regulatory Practice to educate the field about regulatory issues related to health, safety, risk assessment, and crisis response.
  • Work collaboratively with NAFSA staff, the EA KC team, and others to plan and deliver resources and services.
  • Demonstrate current understanding of member needs for health, safety, risk assessment, and crisis response.
  • Adhere to the EA KC Charge for the Subcommittee on Health and Safety in Education Abroad

All NAFSA leaders are expected to foster an inclusive environment and seek to learn and understand the multicultural perspectives of the committee/team, our constituents, and stakeholders to align with the NAFSA Diversity and Inclusion Statement. An expression of leadership in this area includes:

  • Engaging the committee/team to identify and implement strategies for increased personal outreach, recruitment, and onboarding for all, especially diversity-focused and underrepresented groups
  • Increasing accessibility and participation from underrepresented groups, individuals, and institutions
  • Expanding educational content within the committees’ purview through intentional outreach and recruitment of diverse presenters and institutional types in partnership with various NAFSA groups

 
NAFSA: Association of International Educators is a professional association driven by its Strategic Plan as established by the Board of Directors.  The success of the association depends on the productive engagement of three key constituencies: the Board, member-leaders, and staff.  Member-leaders are advocates for the association’s mission, vision, values, diversity and inclusion, and ethical principles. They align their work closely with the Board through its vice presidents and with staff to carry out the Strategic Plan. Member-leader roles are guided by objectives assigned by the Strategic Plan, by outcome accountabilities outlined in the Standing Rules, and by position descriptions for specific roles.

Relationships
  • This position collaborates closely with other NAFSA leaders to enhance work efforts across the association. 
  • This position partners closely with the NAFSA staff partner assigned. Effective relationships reflect and include responsiveness to phone calls, email correspondence, timely delivery on responsibilities, open communication, and mutual respect among other characteristics.
Commitment
  • Serve a two-year term, renewable once for a maximum term of 4 years.
  • Devote 2 to 4 hours per month to subcommittee work for ongoing email correspondence, projects conference calls, and other responsibilities.
  • Attend annual subcommittee meeting during NAFSA annual conferences, when possible
Qualifications
  • Demonstrated knowledge of the common challenges of and potential solutions for promoting safe and healthy education abroad experiences
  • Willingness to adopt organizationwide perspectives and EA KC strategic priorities
  • Ability to work effectively with a team and with NAFSA staff in an outcomes-based environment
  • Strong coordination, analytical, oral, and written communication skills
  • Ability to manage unconscious bias in the assessment and decisionmaking processes
  • NAFSA membership through the term of service is appreciated
  • Ability to meet the volunteer commitment outlined and planning calendar deadline