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Meet OGA’s New Senior Director of Global Engagement, Ladi Carr

Machu Picchu, Peru

Ladi Carr will direct new and existing international initiatives that support research, teaching, and global engagement among students, faculty, and staff across the University of Washington.

The Office of Global Affairs (OGA) welcomes Ladi Carr, PhD as our new Senior Director of Global Engagement. Ladi joins OGA from the University of Virginia, where she served for nearly a decade in key leadership roles with the Center for Global Initiatives at the Darden School of Business. She brings a breadth and depth of experience that will advance the University of Washington’s global impact both locally and around the world, having developed and delivered academic programs in more than 20 countries.

Ladi is passionate about cross-cultural learning and the international exchange of ideas. She is an ardent advocate of the notion that universities are global catalysts for human progress, and she believes deeply in the value of high-impact global learning, research, and experiences.


Arctic Circle 66° 34’N, Finland

Q: What background and perspective do you bring to this role?
Originally from the Czech Republic (formerly part of Czechoslovakia), I grew up at a time when international travel was severely restricted by the government. Following the collapse of the Soviet Union and my country’s rapid transition to democracy, such travel restrictions quickly vanished. And so, upon finishing my graduate studies at Charles University in Prague (Univerzita Karlova), I was afforded life-changing opportunities to experience the world far beyond my borders, and I have dedicated myself ever since to enabling others to do the same.

During my past two decades in higher education, I have spent nearly ten years focused exclusively on global initiatives and engagement. At the University of Virginia, I was chiefly responsible for developing international programs, cultivating global partnerships, managing global operations, and serving as an international ambassador for the institution at-large. As a result, I bring to my role at the University of Washington an abundance of direct, on-the-ground professional experience in more than 20 countries worldwide. In addition, as an avid traveler throughout my life, I have lived, worked, and visited more than 30 other countries. I am thrilled to have this opportunity to bring my passion for global engagement and experiences to the UW community!


Helsinki, Finland

Q: What has been your most impactful international experience to date?
During the COVID-19 pandemic, Finland aspired to draw leading professionals from around the world to spend three months or longer in the country as part of a broader strategy to amplify its shrinking pool of native talent. To achieve this, the city of Helsinki created a special program, 90-Day Finn, making it possible for non-Finns to enter and stay in the country to immerse themselves in one of the world’s most dynamic, innovative, entrepreneurial, and tech-focused economies – despite Finland’s small population and remote location. After receiving more than 5,000 applications, my husband and I were among 15 people selected for this unique and life-changing opportunity.

Taking up full-time residence in Helsinki along with our middle school-aged son, we began a journey to understand and appreciate the virtues of a life in the Nordics. We became enchanted with Finland’s people and a culture that values transparency, honesty, directness, and equality. It is a place that respects its natural environment while also ensuring that urban spaces provide high levels of livability. And all this is achieved while delivering first-rate health care, education, and other public services. Finland’s model is a breathtaking achievement, considering that barely two generations ago, its economy had barely developed beyond the cultivation of its vast timber resources. Our horizons and perspectives were forever altered, and we now see the world in new ways – but only because we embraced this opportunity for global engagement.


Wuzhen, China

Q: How do your experiences align with the mission and work of the Office of Global Affairs?
As a bilingual, dual citizen (CZ-US) who has lived and worked in different cultural and political contexts around the world, I feel a personal sense of mission to introduce others to the transformational potential of international education and research. As my students and faculty colleagues would probably tell you, when it comes to global education and exploration, I am an ardent (exuberant!) cheerleader and champion for global experiences. In fact, I truly believe that universities have a uniquely important role to play in bridging the world’s most diverse cultures and contexts, and through our collective efforts they can serve as catalysts for human progress. For these reasons and many others, I am honored to do what I can to advance the mission of UW’s Office of Global Affairs in research, education, and community engagement – both at home and around the world.


Q: What do you hope to focus on in your first year of serving in this role?

OGA’s Strategic Plan

Four key priorities guide the Office of Global Affairs’ vision for global engagement at the UW.

Learn More

Listen, learn…and then listen some more. As is always the case at great universities, and as the old saying goes, I am privileged to stand on the shoulders of giants. The University of Washington has achieved a well-earned reputation as one of the very best and most highly ranked global universities. While I may have good and relevant experiences to contribute at the UW, I also have much to learn from those who have come before me. Fortunately, we can draw upon the Office of Global Affairs Strategic Plan (2022-2026) as well as an excellent framework for action developed by the Global Engagement Task Force (2021). Over the course of the year, I look forward to working though these ideas, consulting with UW’s leaders, meeting with stakeholders across the university, and together envisioning a future of even greater global impact and recognition for the University of Washington.

Building Scyborgs. An evening on decolonization

Tuesday, February 13 // 6:30-7:30 PM

Town Hall Seattle, Livestream (Hybrid)

Join us for a talk by K. Wayne Yang, Provost of Muir College and Professor of Ethnic Studies, UC San Diego.

Register Now

Monsters, machines, and mortals, we are the objects of colonization, and perhaps, we can be the agents of decolonization too. Join scholar, organizer, and co-conspirator K. Wayne Yang as he shares stories about decolonizing endeavors from past, present, future and speculative somewheres. How do we bend our own complicity in colonial institutions to forward Indigenous, Black, queer, and Other futures locally and globally? Come ready to consider your own scyborg powers and plans.

The livestream of this lecture will be accompanied by an ASL interpreter and will include CART captioning.

Co-sponsored by The Graduate School, UW Public Lectures, Simpson Center.

Co-hosted by UW Office of Global Affairs, School of Law, Comparative History of Ideas.

 

Spring 2024 Course: Achieving the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals

The Population Health Initiative and the Office of Global Affairs are partnering again to offer a one-credit General Studies course, “United Nations Sustainable Development Goals: Global Goals, Local Actions” (GEN ST 297A), on Tuesdays from 1:30 to 2:20 p.m. during spring quarter 2024 in Condon Hall 139.

Registration opens February 9, 2024!

This one-credit (graded as credit/no-credit) course will introduce undergraduate students to the United Nations’ 17 Sustainable Development Goals, research at the University of Washington that aligns with those goals and the role the goals play in improving local and global population health, societies and the environment. Yen-Chu Weng of the UW’s Program on the Environment is the lead facilitator of this course.

This seminar will invite experts and scholars from the UW and the Seattle region. Each lecture will include an overview of the selected SDGs, case studies based on speaker’s expertise and programs in the Seattle regions that are working towards realization of the SDGs. Visit our website to see the course overview, details, learning goals, and facilitators.

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War in the Middle East Lecture Series

January 16 – February 27 // 5:00-6:20 PM*

A series of talks and discussions on the aftermath of Oct. 7, the war in Gaza and responses worldwide.

Moderator: Reşat Kasaba, Jackson School Professor of International Studies and Middle East expert

When: Weekly from Jan. 16 to Feb. 27, 2024 from 5:00-6:20 p.m.*
Location: Lecture locations vary by session. Click here for session descriptions

RSVP

*Note: The Jan. 22 lecture will be held from 7:00-8:30 p.m.

This lecture series is free and open to the public.

Sponsored by the Henry M. Jackson School of International Studies and the Social Sciences Division, College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Washington in partnership with the Henry M. Jackson Foundation.

Questions? Email jsiscom@uw.edu

January 25 Globally-engaged Teaching Workshop

Thursday, January 25 // 2:00-3:30 PM

Join our virtual workshop to explore globally-engaged, inclusive, and culturally-responsive teaching practices that are particularly important in meeting the diverse needs of UW’s international student populations.

Register Now

A workshop for UW faculty and graduate teaching assistants.

Co sponsored by the UW Office of Global Affairs and the Center for Teaching and Learning.

Facilitators:

  • Anita Ramasastry, Professor of Law, School of Law; Senior Advisor, Office of Global Affairs
  • Anu Taranath, Teaching Professor, Department of English and Comparative History of Ideas
  • Dana Raigrodski, Associate Teaching Professor and Director, General Law LL.M., School of Law
  • Ben Gardner, Associate Professor, UW Bothell School of Interdisciplinary Arts & Sciences; Chair, African Studies Program, Henry M. Jackson School of International Studies
  • Wei Zuo, Instructional Consultant, Center for Teaching and Learning; Affiliate Assistant Professor, Department of English

DEADLINE EXTENDED: COIL Fellows 2024

Apply now! The 2024 UW Collaborative Online International Learning (COIL) Fellows program will be a tri-campus program open to faculty who teach full-time at UW Bothell, UW Tacoma, or UW Seattle.

 

Screenshot of a February 2022 COIL Fellows workshop.

COIL – also known as international virtual exchange – is a virtual exchange pedagogy that fosters global competence through development of a multicultural learning environment, linking university classes in different countries. Using both synchronous and asynchronous technologies, students from different countries complete shared assignments and projects, with instructors from each country co-teaching and managing coursework.

DEADLINE EXTENDED to Thursday, November 30, 2023.

Learn More and Apply

 

Congratulating the Inaugural Cohort of UW Excellence in Global Engagement Award Nominees

As part of the UW Awards of Excellence Ceremony in June of 2023, UW President Ana Mari Cauce and Provost Mark Richards awarded the inaugural UW Excellence in Global Engagement Award to Dr. Faisal Hossain, John R. Kiely Endowed Professor of Civil & Environmental Engineering. 

The Excellence in Global Engagement Award honors faculty and staff at the UW for their leadership in global engagement, focusing on teaching, research, and service activities that connect UW students, faculty, and staff to global communities locally, nationally, and internationally. The Award alternates each year between faculty and staff honorees. 

Dr. Faisal Hossain was selected from a cohort of nine distinguished UW faculty. The Office of Global Affairs is excited to celebrate Dr. Hossain alongside the other eight nominees, and we invite you to learn more about their global impact below.

 

Introducing the 2022-2023 Excellence in Global Engagement Award Nominees

 

Faisal Hossain 

Dr. Faisal Hossain has deployed engineering technologies to reduce social inequity in the availability of food, water and energy around the world. Beyond his research impact, Hossain is dedicated to training the next generation of scholars in water management and forecasting systems. As a teacher, Faisal has personally trained 10 graduate students and 300 other trainees globally and manages the SASWE (sustainability, satellites, water, and environment) research group at the university. Prof. Hossain has received a number of awards including the Charles Falkenberg Award and the International Award (2020) from the American Geophysical Union. In 2022, Dr. Hossain was elected Fellow of the American Meteorological Society and the Environmental and Water Resources Institute of the American Society of Civil Engineers. He is a two-time recipient of the Office of Global Affairs’ Global Innovation Fund Grant.


S. Charusheela

Over the past three years Dr. Charu has made significant contributions to institutionalizing internationalization efforts on the Bothell and Tacoma campuses. She has served as the faculty advisor to Global Initiatives at UW Bothell from 2019 to 2022 and during that time started the Global Initiatives Advisory Board. Charu was part of the first cohort of COIL fellows and has since introduced new processes that make COIL more sustainable as a curricular offering.  A former international student herself, Charu helped to advocate on behalf of a new international student fee structure at UW Tacoma. Charu’s own scholarship focuses on issues of gender, globalization, postcoloniality and decoloniality. She has twice served as an elected member of the board for the International Association for Feminist economics, and is currently focused on projects for local and global change through research on and support for socially just and ecologically sensitive approaches to solidarity economies. 

Listen: Dr. Charu on the Diverse Economies podcast.


Heidi Gough 

Through her research, teaching, and service, Dr. Heidi Gough has forged pathways to improve global gender equity in the water sciences, particularly in regions where women engineers and scholars are often marginalized. Her research has included wastewater treatment practices in Syrian refugee camps, in agricultural communities in the Eastern Nile Delta and along the Mt. Everest summit trail in Nepal. She has provided guest lectures for classes in Jordan, Egypt, and Turkey. In 2012, she established the first engineering-themed faculty-led study abroad course at the university, leading students to learn about water engineering practices in the water-scarce country of Jordan. Dr. Gough is a co-founder of the Women Water Nexus (WWN), a technical committee within the International Council of the Environment and Water Resources Institute that facilitates international engagement for Water Engineering Professionals. She is a recipient of the Outstanding Teaching award at UW for her study abroad efforts and a three-time recipient of the Office of Global Affairs’ Global Innovation Fund Grant.


Mary Kay Gugerty 

Dr. May Kay Gugerty is Professor of Nonprofit Management & Philanthropy, the Associate Dean for Teaching & Learning, and the Principal Investigator for the International Program on Public Health Leadership (IPPHL) at the Evans School of Public Policy & Governance. IPPHL works with emerging African public health leaders and as of 2023 comprises a community of over 150 African leaders across 24 countries. Her research has included work on NGO and nonprofit evaluation and accountability, the impact of community self-help groups on women’s social and economic well-being and the impacts of donor funding on local organizations.  During her time at UW, Dr. Gugerty has published one book, two edited volumes, and more than two dozen peer-reviewed articles. She actively engages doctoral students, having co-authored extensively with PhD students and serving on more than 30 dissertation committees.


Divya McMillin 

Dr. Divya McMillin is Associate Vice Chancellor for Innovation & Global Engagement and Professor of Global Media Studies at UW Tacoma. She is a leading scholar of participatory design and global media studies with three critically acclaimed books and numerous journal articles and book chapters on the impact of globalization in emerging economies. Her fieldwork in sweatshops and call centers have merited her Top Paper Awards from the International Communication Association, marking her as a postcolonial scholar who has shaped the field of International Cultural Studies. At UW Tacoma, Dr. McMillin is known as the Builder, having pioneered the Communication major, served as founding Executive Director of the Global Honors Program, and created the Institute for Innovation and Global Engagement and the Global Innovation and Design (GID) Lab, while forging international partnerships and collaborations to enrich curricular offerings. The GID Lab provides community design thinking workshops connecting students to project based learning. All programs demonstrate Dr. McMillin’s commitment to experiential learning, integrating curricular pathways with community engagement. In addition to courses in Global Media Studies at UW Tacoma, Dr. McMillin is guest lecturer in the London School of Economics Executive Msc in Cities Program. She is the only faculty at UW Tacoma to receive all three honors in research, teaching, and community engagement with a Distinguished Research Award (2012), Distinguished Teaching Award (2017), and Community Engagement Legacy Award (2021).


Stephen Meyers 

Dr. Stephen Meyers is Associate Professor in Law, Societies and Justice (LSJ) and the Jackson School of International Studies (JSIS) (and core faculty in Disability Studies). He is also Director of the Center for Global Studies in the JSIS.  Within disability studies, Dr. Meyers is actively working to define “global disability studies” as a new subfield within both international studies and disability studies. This includes two forthcoming books, one the forthcoming Routledge Handbook on Hierarchies in Disability Human Rights, which features chapters from academics, activists, and others from more than twenty countries, the majority of whom identify as persons with disabilities, and What is Global Disability Studies? a new monograph from University of California Press. In his Social Justice through Philanthropy Class, an undergraduate seminar in partnership with the Philanthropy Lab Foundation and the Seattle Intenrational Foundation, students study a key global social problem and then award grants to both grassroots associations and international development and humanitarian non-governmental organizations addressing those issues. To date, the course has granted over $300,000 to organization around the world. Finally, through the Disability and International Development Initiative (DIDI), which was founded by Dr. Meyers and Megan McCloskey, Dr. Meyers has involved over forty graduate and undergraduate students as DIDI Fellows in applied research projects, which have ranged from supporting the UN Secretariat on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities to organizing focus groups with youth around the world for UNESCO’s “Every Child Should Be Welcome”: School violence and bullying involving young people with disabilities report, researching and writing case studies for the UNFPA’s activelyg Young Persons with Disabilities: Global Study on Ending Gender-based Violence and Realizing Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights, and developing an amicus brief for the Inter-American Court of Human Rights..


Ana Lucia Seminario

Dr. Ana Lucia Seminario, originally from Peru, is an Associate Professor in the Department of Pediatric Dentistry and adjunct faculty in the department of Global Health. She has taught courses, provided clinical care, and conducted research on behalf of the UW since 2007.  Most notable is her work as Director of the UW Timothy A. DeRouen Center for Global Oral Health, which she leads since  2017 to improve quality of life by promoting collaboration and inclusivity in oral and craniofacial research. The Center focuses its efforts in Thailand, Kenya, Peru and Washington state (working with the refugee population). Notable accomplishments include: a virtual manuscript program for Kenyan oral health professionals, creating internships in global oral health, setting up the Visiting Scholar program for global oral health at the UW and increasing research capacity in the sites she works at through NIH funding. .


Toshiko Takenaka 

Dr. Toshiko Takenaka is Washinton Research Foundation/W. Hunter Simpson Professor of Technology Law at the law school and a world-renowned expert in comparative patent law and intellectual property (IP) law with a global footprint. Toshiko established the globally-recognized Center for Advanced Study and Research on Innovation Policy (CASRIP), which aims to improve discussion and exchange of views among legal professionals impacting IP law and policy across the world. She is fluent in English, Japanese, and German and both teaches and conducts research in all three languages. Since Professor Takenaka started working at the UW nearly 3 decades ago, she has educated more than 500 J.D. students, many of whom practice IP law in the U.S. nationwide, and approximately 200 students and visiting scholars who serve important roles in the patent bar, government, and judiciary in Asia and Europe


Anu Taranath

Dr. Anu Taranath is Teaching Professor in CHID and English and has been at the UW for 23 years. She serves asa racial equity and DEI consultant across the UW campuses and around the country. Her research focuses on the politics and practices of diversity, social justice and global consciousness. Just some of the accolades Dr. Anu has received are: four-time member of Humanities Washington Speakers Bureau, Seattle Weekly’s “Best of Seattle” recognition, the UW’s Distinguished Teaching Award, and multiple US Fulbright Fellowships. Her 2019 book, Beyond Guilt Trips: Mindful Travel in an Unequal World, has gained widespread recognition and is the winner of multiple book awards. Dr. Anu’s impact on campus has been extensive and includes collaborations with partners in over a dozen countries and leading study abroad programs in India, Ghana and Mexico.  She serves as a consultant and coach for UW international education programs as well as more widely in the travel industry, and is a founding member of the  Pedagogies of Reciprocity project and Global Reciprocity Network.

Global Visionaries: Ray Li

Ray Li profile photo with light purple in background

The Office of Global Affairs is excited to celebrate Ray Li for our April 2023 edition of the Global Visionaries series. The Global Visionaries series highlights the University of Washington’s global impact by featuring innovative, globally-engaged faculty, staff, and students.

Ray Li, Assistant Vice President for International Advancement and 2023 recipient of University Advancement’s Marilyn Batt Dunn award, describes his experience with community building, fostering relationships with alumni, and international fundraising.

Ray Li obtained a Master of Nonprofit Leadership from Seattle University and a Bachelor of Biopsychology from The University of British Columbia. He held the role of Senior Director of International Advancement at the University of Washington for 11 years. Ray’s prior experience includes serving as the Director of Strategic Initiatives and Advancement for Neighborhood House, working as the Assistant Director of Development for the American Red Cross -Greater Hartford Chapter, and supporting the Canadian Red Cross and the American Red Cross -Seattle King County Chapter.


Tell us about your background and experience.

I grew up in Vancouver, Canada. I was on a pre-med track in high school and was involved in student government. During that time, I was selected to be part of a leadership development program run by the Canadian Red Cross. It was a very pivotal experience for me and I learned a lot about leadership and civic engagement. Supporting the Canadian Red Cross became a passion of mine so I continued to volunteer with them through high school and university. Upon graduating from The University of British Columbia, I realized that I wanted to spend my time making a meaningful impact on my community.

Every job I have had in my career has been focused on community building, leadership development, and organizational change.

I went from working with the Canadian Red Cross to the American Red Cross, where I led a youth leadership development program. I then had a chance to go to graduate school, where I earned a Master of Nonprofit Leadership from Seattle University. At the same time, I started working as the Director of Development for Neighborhood House. Neighborhood House is a social service organization with a long history of supporting immigrants and refugees when they first arrive in the United States of America. I was charged with building the organization up. It was quite an experimental role where I was able to apply my graduate school learning on an evening and weekend basis to my weekday job. During my 12 years at Neighborhood House, our team went through three capital campaigns, raising close to $20 million – something that the organization had never done before. When I left, the organization had grown from 90 staff to 300 staff, our annual operating funds had increased more than four-fold and the organization had buildings they could call their own.

The real core of my work at Neighborhood House was community building. I did a lot of thinking about how to be forthright and authentic with the communities we were serving. I strove to include community members in our fundraising efforts and to invite community members to serve on our board to ensure their voices were heard. I learned some of my greatest fundraising lessons from that role. I learned to treat everyone with equity and to create space for all kinds of donors so they could make their own choices. I learned so much from that job about being aware of my own preconceived notions and about how to create inclusive environments where everyone feels a sense of belonging in some way.

I became aware of the opportunity to create the International Advancement program at the University of Washington due to my fundraising work in Seattle. I was drawn to the job because it was about building a program from the ground up, which felt familiar after my work at Neighborhood House. It felt like a pivotal moment in my career and I was eager to start a new professional adventure.

How did you go about building International Advancement at the UW?

I started building the International Advancement program from the ground up at the University of Washington 11 years ago. My early days with International Advancement were focused on creating opportunities with foreign ministries and setting up visits with quasi-governmental international entities. I did not have a strong background in international fundraising but I knew that community building was a core element of this kind of work. Looking back, there was a lot of unknown at the time but there was also a lot of goodwill. What was most challenging during those first few years was that I had to balance where the University of Washington wanted to go and what the community was ready for.

During my first international trips on behalf of International Advancement, I heard three major consistent themes from international alumni -they loved Seattle and the University of Washington, they had no idea what the University of Washington was doing, and they were eager to create more sustainable relationships. There was also a disconnected feeling amongst international Huskies. I saw there was an opportunity to build more trust. I also realized that I needed to spend time creating a culture of philanthropy -similar to what we have in the United States of America -but also in the various countries where international Huskies reside. It involved creating a multicultural culture of philanthropy – learning about cultural dynamics, the histories of countries, and the legal realities of what’s possible.

It was clear that we needed to build a robust and sustainable International Advancement program that would make the University of Washington successful as a global presence for years to come. We started with building up communities where there were already concentrations of international Huskies. I prioritized cultivating environments where the university could infuse philanthropy, engagement, and life-long learning. Those three elements are actually thematically present in all of our work in International Advancement –in our fundraising, alumni relations, and marketing and communications.

What inspired you to launch UW Converge?

UW Converge is the University of Washington’s signature event for international alumni and friends. Each year it is hosted in a global city by one of our international alumni communities. It offers a direct connection to the UW, its faculty and leadership, and its global alumni network.

UW Converge was born out of good fortune. Michael Young, former President of the University of Washington, was eager to elevate the university’s global presence. He was also very involved in the Pac-12. In 2015, the Pac-12 launched a globalization initiative and one of their first events was to host an exhibition basketball game between the University of Texas and the University of Washington in Shanghai, China. I worked closely with President Young and Jeff Riedinger, Vice Provost for Global Affairs, to collaborate with partners from across campus to make the most of the moment. We ended up using the opportunity to publicly launch the Global Innovation Exchange (GIX) in China. We hosted an international innovation summit that featured faculty and students from across the University of Washington who were working on innovative projects. We were lucky to have about 300 people attend from all over Shanghai and China. We also held our first global alumni board meeting with all of our chapter leaders. They came together to share best practices and to connect with President Cauce, who was on her first international trip, as the newly installed UW president, on behalf of the University of Washington. UW Converge in 2015 in Shanghai really laid the groundwork for strong stewardship with a number of international Huskies.

Group holding large check donation to UW
UW Converge, Thailand, 2016

During UW Converge in 2015, the Thailand chapter president raised his hand and asked to host the event the next year. UW Converge in 2016 was therefore hosted in Bangkok and also the island of Koh Samui. The Beijing chapter volunteered to host UW Converge in 2017, which focused on leadership. Then the Japan chapter hosted UW Converge in 2018. That UW Converge focused on innovations in leadership and was modeled after TED Talks.

 

Group photo of International Huskies and President Cauce in Taipei
UW Converge, Taipei, 2019

For 2019, the Taiwan chapter raised their hand to host UW Converge and focused on artificial intelligence -the business of artificial intelligence, the laws, ethics, and policies of artificial intelligence, and research and innovations in engineering. During that Converge, we were also able to feature the University of Washington’s Taiwan Studies Program and meet with various government ministries. President Cauce also had the opportunity to personally present the coveted Laureate vase to one of the foundations that had been giving to the university for many years.

Group photo with Seattle skyline in the background
UW Converge, Seattle, 2022

After two years of the COVID-19 pandemic, we were able to host UW Converge in 2022 in Seattle. It was really great to bring folks together on campus after two years of virtual pivot. As far as this year’s UW Converge, I’m looking forward to the Indonesia chapter hosting the event in Jakarta on August 12, 2023.

In retrospect, UW Converge began due to interest from our various chapters of international Huskies. They had a strong desire to build relationships within specific disciplines but also to create opportunities for alumni within a country to connect across disciplines too. They were also interested in creating spaces for alumni from different countries to come together and establish relationships across international borders. Because of UW Converge, the University of Washington is now more strategically aware of all the relationships and units across campus that are focused on specific countries.

How do you approach international fundraising?

My approach involves a mix of community building, cultivating trust, and brand promotion. The basic principles of traditional fundraising still apply but there is also a lot of nuance to international fundraising. It’s important to be mindful of jargon and to use culturally sensitive language. To be aware of the realities of the geopolitical landscape. To emphasize shared values. At every international interaction I have, I share that if it was just for tuition, the UW would be a good university, but it is because of philanthropy that the UW is a great university. It’s the difference between being able to retain faculty, create international exchanges, launch innovative initiatives, and construct new buildings.

I also try to have a strong understanding of the unique tax laws of international countries. Is philanthropy incentivized or disincentived? Is it incentivized within a country or outside of a country? I make sure to tailor my approach to philanthropic conversations with international donors by meeting them where they are at before taking a deep dive into how they want to give to the University of Washington. In my opinion, it all boils down to having a strong foundation of trust. My job is to clearly convey the impact of what a personally significant gift would mean to the University of Washington.

I should also mention that International fundraising happens over a different medium than traditional fundraising. I often find myself navigating gifts via platforms like WeChat and WhatsApp. Since the pace of those conversations can happen very quickly, I always try to make sure to set the expectations of our prospects from the start so that they keep in mind that the University of Washington is a large university and it can take time to launch new initiatives or process donations.

What guides your leadership style?

My leadership style is guided by the values of community and community building. I am a huge advocate of cultivating relationships of trust. I understand that things can take time when working at a large university. I take pride that I am resilient and perseverant. I like to operate with a glass half full mentality. I recognize when the time is right and when the time is not right. I also have a strong value of failing forward and exploring and implementing innovative ideas after reflecting upon community feedback.

I like to plant seeds for the future and navigate with a forward vision of what might be possible down the road.

What are you most proud of about your work with International Huskies?
Big group photo of UW Converge Taipei in 2019
UW Converge, Taipei, 2019

I am most proud of the feeling of camaraderie around the world amongst our UW community that now exists because of the International Advancement program. It is rewarding to know that when members of our UW community (faculty, staff, alumni, family) go to a country where there is a large number of international Huskies, they will feel welcomed and know that alumni understand what is happening at the university. I am also very pleased that there is now a strong sense of purpose, a passion for philanthropy and a deep community of connection that didn’t exist before.

May 15 Worlds of Difference Event

Monday, May 15 // 12-1 PM PT

Worlds of Difference: Partnerships in an Unequal World: A Workshop to Explore Reciprocity, Institutionality and How We Want to Engage Globally

Books in a circle with a purple backgroundMany of us are grappling with how to do good work and lead meaningful lives in an unjust and unequal world. While our intellectual and political projects link us with people in other parts of the world, the institutions through which we work can sometimes help and sometimes seriously hinder our collaborations. Whether you are new to international collaboration or have experience with international partnerships, we invite you to join our three UW faculty panelists – co-founders of The Global Reciprocity Network – as they share practical guidance from their ongoing work with international partners. We’ll engage in hands-on-activities and participate in lively discussions about how we navigate issues of reciprocity and structural inequality, and connect meaningfully across difference.

This free event is hosted by the Office of Global Affairs. UW faculty and staff are encouraged to attend.

Register Now

Husky Giving Day 2023

Husky Giving Day is April 6, 2023!

The Office of Global Affairs is excited to be participating in Husky Giving Day, a 24-hour period during which alumni and friends come together to support the people, programs, projects and causes they care about most at the University of Washington. Husky Giving Day is the largest single-day of philanthropic giving of the year, lasting from 12:01 a.m. to 11:59 p.m. Pacific Standard Time on April 6, 2023.

The Office of Global Affairs will be raising funds to support:

Learn More