Click here to download the official Press Release, Community College Fulbright Chapter, 2024
Chapter Aims to Expand Fulbright and International Education Awareness
[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 o
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.