FULBRIGHT ASSOCIATION LAUNCHES CHAPTER DEDICATED TO COMMUNITY COLLEGES
Chapter Aims to Expand Fulbright and International Education Awareness
Contact Chapter President David J. Smith for more information
davidjsmith@davidjsmithconsulting.com
[Washington, DC, February 20, 2024] – The Fulbright Association (FA) recently established a chapter dedicated to U.S. community colleges. Founded in 1977, FA is the national membership association of Fulbright grantees. Currently the association is organized through 57 chapters representing around 6,500 Fulbright alumni. Though most chapters are geographically situated, the Community Colleges Chapter of the Fulbright Association is an affinity chapter that meets virtually to encourage membership from across the country.
The mission of the chapter is to advance Fulbright objectives and international education in America’s community and technical colleges. Today there are nearly 1,100 community colleges in the U.S. serving nearly 40% of all U.S. undergraduates including 53% of Native American, 48% of Hispanic, 34% of Asian Pacific Islander, and 39% of African American students. Community colleges are often referred to as “democracy’s colleges” because of their open enrollment, affordability, and diversity in student population. Yet, they have been under-represented in the awarding of Fulbright grants. This chapter seeks to raise the profile of community colleges in the Fulbright program and across the world.
The overall objectives of the chapter are to:
- Welcome, support, and connect community college students, faculty, administration, leadership, and staff with the Fulbright Association as valued members of the academic community and sustain the commitment to international education exchanges;
- Understand the complexities and commitments of being a community college professional while pursuing international educational grants, scholarships, and faculty and administrative positions;
- Raise awareness among global institutions of the pedagogical excellence, community orientation, and unique characteristics that community colleges bring to Fulbright programs;
- Advance the community college mission, vision, and values globally through scholarly collaboration;
- Through member experiences, illustrate how Fulbrights changed lives, pedagogy, and the direction of faculty, administration, and student research and understanding of cross-cultural ways of knowing.
The inaugural board and officers of the chapter include:
President David J. Smith is based in Rockville, MD. He is adjunct faculty at the Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter School for Peace and Conflict Resolution in Arlington, VA. He was a Fulbright U.S. Scholar at Harford Community College in Bel Air, MD in 2003-2004 teaching conflict resolution and peace studies at the University of Tartu in Estonia. He is president of the Forage Center for Peacebuilding and Humanitarian Education.
Vice President Toni Holland is the Southeast Honors College Director at Houston Community College and teaches in its English and humanities departments. The Library of Congress lists her dissertation on its Poet Laureate: History of the Post webpage. This project was completed during her time in the Fulbright U.S. Student Program at the University of Alberta. She is a poet whose works are published in Literary Matters, Solstice Magazine, Blue Unicorn, and Potomac Review.
Treasurer Stephanie Hallock is professor of political science at Harford Community College in Bel Air, MD. She was named to the Fulbright Specialist Roster in 2023, and collaborates on grant-giving with the Lois Roth Foundation, and pedagogy and student learning in the discipline of international relations with the Council on Foreign Relations.
Secretary Laurie Wolfe was a Fulbright U.S. Scholar in Uzbekistan in 2019. Dr. Wolfe is a psychology professor at Anoka Ramsey Community College in Minneapolis, MN. She is also a certified yoga and meditation instructor. Her research focuses on the application of positive psychology and stress management techniques to teaching and learning.
Officers will serve 2-year terms.
Board member Vincent L. Briley has participated in a variety of Fulbright award programs including the Fulbright U.S. – Germany International Education Administrators Program (2012), Fulbright Germany “On the Road” (2019), and Fulbright in the Classroom (2021). He is an alumnus of the American Association of Community Colleges John E. Roueche Future Leaders Institute and serves as a lecturer at Montgomery College in Rockville, MD.
Board member Cheryl J. Fish was a Fulbright U.S. Scholar in Finland. She is professor of English at Borough of Manhattan Community College, CUNY, and has been on the Friends of Fulbright Finland board. She meets regularly with Finnish Fulbright grantees in NYC. Her debut novel Off the Yoga Mat, was published by Livingston Press/UWA. She is the author of The Sauna is Full of Maids, and Crater & Tower, poems, and co-edited A Stranger in the Village: Two Centuries of African-American Travel Writing.
Board member Reza Jafari is the chairman of the Board of Trustees at Chesapeake College (MD). He also serves on the Maryland Economic Council, the Maryland Association of Community Colleges, and as the state coordinator for the Association of Community College Trustees (ACCT). He is the former chairman of the board of International Telecommunication Union (ITU), a UN Agency; and former group president of HP for Global Telecom and Media and Entertainment industries.
Board member Sandra Jowers-Barber, a CAORC Fellow in Senegal, is the director of the Division of Humanities and Criminology at the University of the District of Columbia Community College in Washington, DC. A public and oral historian, her scholarship focuses on African American and African deaf schools and communities, and women of color in higher education.
Board member Selina Lemay-Klippel is a professor and coordinator of Workforce Development in Health and Human Services at North Country Community College in the Adirondack Park of New York. She was a Fulbright U.S. Scholar in Ufa, Russia in 2018 at the Bashkir State Medical University and was named to the Fulbright Specialist Roster in 2021.
Board member Tabitha Morgan is tenured faculty at the Community College of Philadelphia in the history, gender studies, and English departments in Philadelphia, PA. Morgan’s scholarship focuses on working class women’s art, ecopoetics, and intersectional feminism in the Americas. She was the Garcia-Robles Chair of American History for Fulbright in 2021-2022 at University of Veracruz, Mexico.
Board members will serve 3-year terms.
The chapter invites all current and former Fulbright grantees – regardless of type of award – to join the Fulbright Association and designate the Community Colleges Chapter as their chapter. Those wishing to support Fulbright advancement in community colleges who have not received a Fulbright award can also join. In addition, the Fulbright Association welcomes institutional members.
If you are currently a member of a Fulbright Association geographic chapter, you can join this virtual chapter without losing the affiliation with your geographic chapter. Go to fulbright.org to learn more.
The Community Colleges Chapter of the Fulbright Association can be found on the web at communitycolleges.fulbrightchapters.org and soon through various social media sites.