Joan Gabel (Chair since 2024; member since 2021)
Chancellor, University of Pittsburgh
International Education Administrators Award, India, 2017
As the 19th chancellor of the University of Pittsburgh, Joan Gabel oversees a community of more than 34,000 students and 16,000 faculty and staff members across five distinct campuses, all working to advance Pitt’s legacy of academic excellence, community service and research innovation.
During her tenure, the University has achieved record new student applications, graduation rates, postgraduation placement and research expenditures. Gabel also led the creation of the University’s first metrics-driven strategic plan, the Plan for Pitt 2028, which prioritizes the University’s values and impact. To ensure a Pitt education remains accessible and affordable, she launched the innovative Pitt Finish Line Grant to provide just-in-time financial support for students nearing graduation.
Since her arrival, Gabel became a founding member of College Presidents for Civic Preparedness, which has grown to represent 100 colleges and universities. She serves as chair of the Fulbright Scholar Advisory Board (CIES); as chair-elect of the board of the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities; as academic vice-chair of the Council on Competitiveness; and on the boards of the American Council on Education and the Association of American Universities.
Gabel previously served as the president of the University of Minnesota (U of M) System and Twin Cities campus. Under her leadership, U of M developed its first comprehensive systemwide strategic plan, which resulted in record-setting graduation rates and annual research expenditures, as well as unmatched startups, patents and private giving, including the completion of a $4 billion capital campaign that exceeded its goal by 10%. Transformational partnerships, such as the NXT GEN MED program between the university, Mayo Clinic and Google, led to reimagined research and student opportunities.
Prior to joining U of M, she served as executive vice president for academic affairs and provost at the University of South Carolina and as dean of the Robert J. Trulaske, Sr. College of Business at the University of Missouri. Gabel began her teaching career at Georgia State University, then joined Florida State University where she was the DeSantis Professor of Legal Studies; chair of the Department of Risk Management and Insurance, Real Estate and Legal Studies; and director of international relations within the College of Business. She is the recipient of numerous research, service and teaching awards, including recognition as a Fulbright scholar, elected
membership in the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and inclusion on the Pittsburgh Business Times’ Power 100 list of influential leaders. Gabel holds a bachelor’s degree in philosophy from Haverford College and a Juris Doctor from the University of Georgia School of Law.
Dr. Victor J. Boschini, Jr. (member since 2012)
Chancellor, Texas Christian University
Chancellor Victor J. Boschini, Jr., Texas Christian University’s 10th Chancellor, celebrated an impactful 20 years as Chancellor in 2023, coinciding with the university’s Sesquicentennial. Lead On: Celebrating 150 Years of TCU was a year-long celebration of TCU’s rich heritage, traditions and the shared spirit that connects all Horned Frogs. Today, TCU looks ahead to the next 150 years of excellence, impact and innovation.
In Chancellor Boschini’s 21 years at TCU, he has earned a renowned reputation for his visionary leadership. He and his executive team have been championed for their commitment to developing TCU’s unmatched student experience, academic excellence, athletic strength, and the unique culture of connection that sets TCU apart. TCU consistently ranks among the top universities and colleges in the nation, including being ranked by U.S. News & World Report as a top 100 national university for 14 years in a row.
The university’s most exceptional achievements over the last two decades include: the establishment of the Anne Burnett Marion School of Medicine at TCU; growth of the university’s endowment to over $2.6 billion, with the completion of the $1 billion Lead On: A Campaign for TCU in support of the university’s people and programs in fall of 2023; vast changes to the physical campus enabling the university to support strategic increases in enrollment and residence life; and outstanding athletics success competing in the highest level of NCAA Division I sports, winning 20 Big 12 Conference championships since joining the league in 2012.
Chancellor Boschini is a member of the President’s Council of the Association of Governing Boards of Universities and Colleges and is a member of the Fulbright Scholar Advisory Board. He also sits on the boards of the Van Cliburn Foundation, Moncrief Cancer Institute, the University of Mount Union and is an Emeritus board member of the Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra. He received recognition from the Institute of International Education with the IIE Centennial Medal and serves as a Strategic Asset for the Council on Higher Education. Chancellor Boschini also serves as a member of the Advisory Council for Education for the Global Tech Security Commission. He has served as Chairman of the Big 12 Conference and Mountain West Conference as well as the National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities.
Chancellor Boschini and TCU’s First Lady Megan Boschini are actively engaged on campus and in the greater Fort Worth community. Together they are committed to ensuring that TCU achieves its vision as a world-class, values-centered university that offers a premier campus experience. They both believe that we share the responsibility — and the honor — to shape and transform the leaders who will shape and transform our world.
Dr. Rafael L. Bras (member since 2019)
K. Harrison Brown Family Chair, Georgia Institute of Technology
Dr. Rafael L. Bras recently stepped down as the provost and executive vice president for Academic Affairs at the Georgia Institute of Technology. As provost, Bras oversaw all of Georgia Tech’s academic and related units, including the colleges, the library, educational innovation activities, international relationships, professional education, the arts, and enrollment.
His current initiatives include implementing the results of the Commission on Creating the Next in Education that he charged to define the future of higher education and Georgia Tech’s role in that future. He is also responsible for the ongoing Library Next project that seeks to reinvent the functionality and facilities of the library of the future.
Prior to becoming provost, Bras was distinguished professor and dean of the Henry Samueli School of Engineering at the University of California, Irvine. For 32 years prior to joining UCI, he was a professor in the departments of Civil and Environmental Engineering and Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He is past chair of the MIT faculty, former head of the Civil and Environmental Engineering department and director of the Ralph M. Parsons Laboratory at MIT.
His many honors and awards include: Distinguished member of ASCE, honorary degrees from the University of Perugia in Italy and Universidad Sagrado Corazón, Puerto Rico, Hispanic Engineer National Achievement Award Hall of Fame member, NASA Public Service Medal, the Macelwane Medal of AGU, John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship, Athalie Richardson Irvine Clarke Prize, James R. Killian Jr. Faculty Achievement Award of MIT, Simon W. Freese Environmental Engineering Award, Honorary Diplomate of Water Resources Engineering of the American Academy of Water Resources Engineers, Horton Medal of AGU, AGU Hydrology Days Award, and Drexel University's 2010 Anthony J. Drexel Exceptional Achievement Award.
He is an elected member of the U.S. National Academy of Engineering and the Academy of Arts and Sciences of Puerto Rico, and a corresponding member of the Mexican National Academy of Engineering. In 2012 he was named a Corresponding Member of the Mexican Academy of Sciences. He is also an elected Fellow of AGU, ASCE, AMS and AAAS.
Bras maintains an active international consulting practice. For many years he chaired a panel of experts that supervised the design and construction of a multibillion-dollar project to protect the city of Venice from floods. He has published two textbooks, more than 230 refereed journal publications, and several hundred other publications and presentations.
Hannah Buxbaum (member since 2019)
Vice President for International Affairs, Indiana University
John E. Schiller Chair in Legal Ethics and Professor of Law
Hannah Buxbaum is a professor at the Indiana University Maurer School of Law, where she holds the John E. Schiller Chair in Legal Ethics. She was appointed vice president for international affairs in 2018. Prior to that appointment, she held a number of administrative positions at the university, including as interim dean (2012–14) and executive associate dean (2009–12) of the Maurer School of Law. From 2015 to 2018 she served as the inaugural academic director of the IU Europe Gateway in Berlin.
As vice president, Buxbaum promotes global engagement at IU across all aspects of the university’s mission. She provides strategic leadership in advancing IU’s international presence and works collaboratively with administrators, faculty, and staff to expand international research and educational opportunities. She oversees the offices that manage international admissions and student services, study abroad, international partnerships, and international development, as well as the university’s Global Gateway Network.
Buxbaum brings a longstanding commitment to international research and education to her role as vice president. Following completion of her undergraduate and law degrees at Cornell University, she earned a master’s degree from the University of Heidelberg. Over the course of her teaching career, she has held visiting appointments at a number of foreign universities, including Humboldt University, the University of Cologne, and Université Paris II, Panthéon-Assas. She has also delivered courses on international regulatory law for the Hague Academy of International Law in the Netherlands and in Buenos Aires.
Her internationally recognized research is in the areas of private international law and international litigation and jurisdiction, and she has been the recipient of research fellowships from organizations including the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation. She is also co-author of a leading casebook on international business transactions. Buxbaum is an award-winning teacher in areas including conflict of laws and contracts, and a five-time recipient of the law school’s Gavel Award for outstanding contribution to the graduating class.
She is active in a number of national and international organizations. She has been elected to the Curatorium of the Hague Academy of International Law and to membership in the American Law Institute, and is membre titulaire of the International Academy of Comparative Law. In 2016, she joined the advisory board of the Max Planck Institute for Comparative and International Private Law in Hamburg.
Prior to joining the faculty, Buxbaum practiced in the area of international securities transactions in the New York and Frankfurt offices of Davis Polk & Wardwell.
Joy Connolly (member since 2021)
President, American Council of Learned Societies
Joy Connolly began her service as President of the American Council of Learned Societies on July 1, 2019. A scholar of ancient Roman political thought and literature and their enduring influence in modernity, she came to ACLS after serving as provost and interim president of The Graduate Center of The City University of New York, the principal doctorate-granting institution of the nation’s largest public urban university. Prior to joining CUNY, she was dean for the humanities in the Faculty of Arts and Science and director of the College Core Curriculum at New York University. Joy was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2021.
Since she arrived at ACLS, eight months before the Covid-19 shutdown, Connolly has emphasized support for recent PhDs through programs like the Emerging Voices Fellowship, which she established with the help of ACLS Research University Consortium members, who serve as hosts for the Fellows. She has expanded ACLS activities to include programming for humanist administrators, public humanities, and open books publishing. With the Luce Design Workshop for a New Academy and the Mellon Leadership Institute for a New Academy, she has supported action to advance the adaptation of humanistic values and practices to meet the changing needs of scholars and society.
Connolly’s interest in progressive transformation derives from her scholarship and her past administrative experience. Her current book, tentatively entitled GreeceandRome, advocates for an emergent transregional, transcultural approach to the study of ancient societies. As provost at the CUNY Graduate Center, with support from the Mellon Foundation, she established a major initiative to transform doctoral education, with the aims of orienting graduate research projects toward the public good and enriching students’ career options after completion of the PhD. Committed to hiring diverse faculty and recruiting a diverse student body, she sought to improve students’ experience by increasing staff in student services, offering training in quantitative skills and methods, and establishing best practices in doctoral mentoring. As a divisional dean at NYU, Connolly secured a $2 million grant from the Mellon Foundation to support a collaborative initiative in urban humanities, and helped build NYU’s sibling campuses in Abu Dhabi and Shanghai.
Connolly earned an AB in classics from Princeton University in 1991 and a PhD in classical studies from the University of Pennsylvania in 1997. She held professorships at the University of Washington and Stanford University before moving to NYU in 2004.
She is the author of two books, The State of Speech and The Life of Roman Republicanism, and over seventy articles, book reviews, and essays. Her current board and advisory group service includes the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the National Humanities Alliance, the National Humanities Center, Middlesex School, and the Journal for the History of Ideas. She is a past member of the board of directors of the Society for Classical Studies. Her writing has appeared in The New York Times Book Review, the Independent, the Village Voice, the Times Literary Supplement, the Chronicle of Higher Education, and Inside Higher Ed. Deeply interested in contemporary art, she served as an interpreter/player for the artist Tino Sehgal and is at work on a creative translation of Vergil’s pastoral poetry. She speaks and writes regularly about the future of the humanities and the necessity of public funding for higher education as a keystone of a robust democracy.
Anna Harvey (member since 2022)
President, Social Science Research Council
Anna Harvey is President of the Social Science Research Council; Professor of Politics, Data Science, and Law and Director of the Public Safety Lab at New York University; and Co-Director of the Criminal Justice Expert Panel. The Public Safety Lab works with teams of social scientists and data scientists to support more effective and equitable criminal justice practices. Its projects include the Jail Data Initiative, a large-scale effort to collect and report daily individual-level jail records in over 1,300 county jails in the United States, and the Prosecutorial Reform Initiative, a collaborative effort with district attorney’s offices to develop more effective and equitable prosecutorial policies. Professor Harvey is the author of two scholarly books and a co-authored casebook on judicial decision making, in addition to numerous peer-reviewed articles.
Robin Helms (member since 2017)
Vice President, Membership & Educational Services Association of Community College Trustees (ACCT)
Robin Matross Helms is vice president for membership and educational services at the Association of Community College Trustees (ACCT). In this role, Robin leads and guides the association’s member benefits and engagement initiatives, as well as trustee education programs, board services, publications and events.
Prior to joining ACCT, Robin led programs and global initiatives at the American Council on Education, where her portfolio focused on institutional transformation, student success, higher education leadership development, global engagement, and equity and inclusion.
Previously, Robin has worked in international education and academic affairs at the University of Minnesota, the Institute of International Education, EF Education, and CET Academic Programs. She has also served as a consultant to a number of organizations in the international and higher education fields, including the World Bank, the Institute for Higher Education Policy, and Harvard University’s Collaborative on Academic Careers in Higher Education, and is a member of the National Academy for International Education.
Robin holds a bachelor’s degree in East Asian Studies from Princeton University, and an MBA and PhD in higher education administration from Boston College.
A. Sarah Ilchman
Co-President, Institute of International Education
A. Sarah Ilchman, Co-President, IIE, advances the strategic excellence, relevance, and impact of the Institute’s programmatic work across the world, including the implementation of the global Fulbright Student and Scholar Programs at IIE, as well as emergency initiatives supporting artists, scholars, and refugees. Championing the organization and advocating its mission to internal and external stakeholders, Ms. Ilchman develops relationships with U.S. and foreign governments, higher education institutions, multi-lateral organizations, and NGOs to promote access to opportunity, advance scholarship and build economies.
With three decades of dedicated service to IIE, Ms. Ilchman has demonstrated an impressive record of impactful results in program management, inspiring ideas and innovation, and strategic planning. Prior to becoming the first woman Co-President of IIE, Ilchman was Senior Vice President overseeing the global Fulbright Student and Scholar Programs. Previously Ms. Ilchman directed the Fulbright Foreign Student program after spending more than a decade leading programming with Africa, South and Central Asia and the Near East. Elected a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and an inaugural member of the National Academy for International Education, the first learned society dedicated to international education, she also chairs the Institute-wide Emergency Management Task Force. Ms. Ilchman has presented on panels and led workshops in numerous countries on five continents.
Ms. Ilchman received her BA from Vassar College, has studied in the United Kingdom (at Oxford) and in France, and holds a master’s degree in Management with a concentration in Non-Profit Management from the New School for Social Research.
Cynthia Jackson-Hammond (member since 2021)
President, Council of Higher Education Association
Cynthia Jackson-Hammond, President, has been a member of the higher education community for over 30 years. Her professional career has included tenured and administrative positions in universities throughout various regions of the United States: University of Louisiana Monroe, California State University Dominguez Hills; Delaware State University; University of North Carolina Charlotte, Winston-Salem State University; and Coppin State University. Most recently, Dr. Jackson-Hammond completed her tenure as president of Central State University in Ohio.
She is a sought-after thought leader on accreditation, multicultural diversity and inclusion. Her academic discipline is Education and Higher Education Administration. Dr. Jackson-Hammond spent the majority of her career in administration serving as director of TRIO programs, academic dean, provost and president. Jackson-Hammond has served on many national boards including Thurgood Marshall College Fund; NCAA Division II Presidents Council; American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education; and the Council for Higher Education Accreditation. She has appeared several times on Capitol Hill providing testimony regarding the status of 1890 Land-Grant institutions.
Dr. Jackson-Hammond is an ardent advocate for quality assurances and transparency in higher education and is committed to the advancement of college success, equity and integrity in higher education.
Lee Lambert (member since 2024)
Chancellor, Foothill-De Anza Community College District
Lee D. Lambert became chancellor of Foothill-De Anza Community College District on July 31. Chancellor Lambert is a visionary leader who has served as a senior-level community college executive for more than two decades.
Prior to Foothill-De Anza, Lambert served as chancellor of Pima Community College in Tucson, Arizona, where he led a transformation of the college into Centers of Excellence in applied technology, health care, hospitality, information technology and cybersecurity, public safety, and the arts. Lambert is a dynamic advocate for diversity, equity and inclusion, student success, and community engagement. He also believes and invests in employee professional development and growth to better serve students and the community.
Among Lambert's many achievements and recognitions, he was the recipient of the Humanitarian Award from the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC), the Association of Community College Trustees (ACCT) awarded him with the Marie Y. Martin CEO of the Year Award, and the National Guard and Reserves of the U.S. named him a Patriotic Employer. Earlier this year, Lee was named Tucson Man of the Year. He currently serves on several committees and boards, including the Advisory Committee of Presidents for ACCT, the National Association of Workforce Boards' executive committee and the NOVAworks Workforce Board. He previously served as an American Association of Community Colleges board member.
In addition to his published writings, Lee is an international and nationally recognized speaker on the future of work and learning.
Lee was born in Seoul, South Korea, grew up on three continents, and served in the U.S Army. He received a bachelor’s degree in liberal arts from The Evergreen State College in Olympia, Washington and a Juris Doctor degree from Seattle University School of Law.
Reitumetse Obakeng Mabokela (member since 2019)
Vice Provost for International Affairs and Global Strategies, University of Illinois
Fulbright New Century Scholar, 2006
International Education Administrators Award, France, 2018-2019
Reitumetse Obakeng Mabokela is the Associate Chancellor and Vice Provost for Global Affairs & Strategies and Professor, Education Policy, Organization and Leadership. Prior to joining the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, she served as the Assistant Dean for International Studies in the College of Education and Professor of Higher Education in the Department of Educational Administration at Michigan State University. Originally from South Africa, she received her BA in Economics from Ohio Wesleyan University, magna cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa. She pursued and graduated with a Master’s in Labor and Industrial Relations and Ph.D. in Educational Policy Studies, both from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.
A former Fulbright New Century Scholar (2006), Professor Mabokela's research examines experiences of marginalized populations and aims to inform institutional policies that affect these groups within institutions of higher education. She has devoted a significant part of her career studying higher education issues in developing and transitional countries. She is the author, co-author, editor or co-editor of seven books and has published extensively in national and international journals.
Gary May (member since 2021)
Chancellor, University of California Davis
Gary S. May leads the most comprehensive campus in the University of California system, with four colleges and six professional schools. UC Davis enrolls more than 40,000 students, brings in more than $1 billion annually in sponsored research and contributes more than $12.5 billion annually to California’s economy. In 2019, UC Davis reached the Top 10 in four national rankings of universities, including fifth among public universities in the Wall Street Journal/Times Higher Education College Rankings.
May believes success is best judged by how we enhance the lives of others. Throughout his career, he has championed diversity and mentorship in both higher education and the workplace. He developed nationally recognized programs to attract, mentor and retain underrepresented groups in the STEM fields of science, technology, engineering and math.
In 2015, President Barack Obama honored May with the Presidential Award for Excellence in STEM Mentoring. In 2018, May was inducted to the National Academy of Engineering for his success in growing diversity and his innovations in semiconductor manufacturing. In 2020, he was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences for educational and academic leadership. In 2021, he was selected as a Fellow member of the American Society for Engineering Education and received the Lifetime Mentor Award from the American Association for the Advancement of Science. In 2023, he received the Lifetime Member of the Year award from the National Society of Black Engineers, and the Education Award from the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers’ Electron Devices Society for his “dedicated leadership and mentorship that has diversified academic leaders in education.”
May also believes in the positive impact academia and industry have when they partner for the common good. He launched Aggie Square in April 2018 to spur economic growth in Sacramento and help create jobs at a variety of education levels. In November 2019, May and Sacramento Mayor Darrell Steinberg were recognized with a Leadership Award from the Association of University Research Parks for creating this unique partnership.
May is a member of the Boyer 2040 Commission, created by the Association for Undergraduate Education at Research Universities to design a blueprint for excellence and equity in undergraduate education. He serves as Chair of the Association of Public and Land-Grant Universities Board of Directors; Chair of the Universities Research Association’s Council of Presidents; board member for the American Council on Education; and member of the governing board of the Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities. He is a member of the Task Force on Higher Education and Opportunity; member of the National Academy of Engineering's Committee on Racial Justice and Equity; member of the Fulbright Scholar Advisory Board (CIES) and an advisor for the National Society of Black Engineers. He is also a Commissioner of the Council on Competitiveness, a national organization dedicated to growing America’s economy, fostering innovation and increasing productivity through public-private partnerships. May serves on the board of directors for Leidos.
An accomplished scholar and engineer, May came to UC Davis in 2017 after a three-decade career at the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta. He was dean of the institute’s College of Engineering — the largest and most diverse school of its kind in the nation.
A native of St. Louis, May is married to LeShelle R. May, a software engineer with CNN. They have two grown daughters, Simone and Jordan.
Ted Mitchell (member since 2022)
President of the American Council on Education
Ted Mitchell has served as president of the American Council on Education (ACE), the major coordinating body for the nation’s colleges and universities, since September 2017. Mitchell and his team work closely with Congress, the executive branch, and the private sector to develop policies and innovative practices that serve our country’s postsecondary learners.
Mitchell’s leadership of ACE and the entire higher education community is informed by a career committed to increasing access to high-quality education and improving outcomes for all students. Mitchell served in the Obama administration as U.S. under secretary of education from 2014 to 2017 and was responsible for all postsecondary education policies, such as initiatives focused on Historically Black Colleges and Universities, minority serving institutions, and federal student aid. Mitchell and his team at the Department of Education (ED) reinstated Pell Grants for incarcerated adults, created the College Scorecard, and restored millions of dollars to students who were defrauded by their institutions. Before joining ED, Mitchell served in a variety of higher education leadership roles, including as president of Occidental College (1999–2005); vice chancellor and dean at the University of California, Los Angeles; professor and department chair at Dartmouth College; and a member of the Stanford University Board of Trustees.
Mitchell has also been a leader in K–12 education. He served as chief executive officer of the NewSchools Venture Fund—a venture philanthropy that invests in K–12 innovation to support low-income students, schools, and communities—and as president of the California State Board of Education. Throughout his career, Mitchell has worked to create an educational system that serves the goals of excellence, equity, and social justice.
Fernando Reimers (member since 2019)
Ford Foundation Professor of Practice in International Education
Faculty Director, International Education Policy, Harvard Graduate School of Education
Fernando M. Reimers is the Ford Foundation Professor of the Practice of International Education and Director of the Global Education Innovation Initiative and of the International Education Policy Masters Program at Harvard University. An expert in the field of Global Education, his research and teaching focus on understanding how to educate children and youth so they can thrive in the 21st century.
He has written or edited 27 academic books and over one hundred articles and chapters which have been translated into multiple languages including Arabic, Mandarin, Portuguese, Spanish, Turkish. Recent books include Teaching and Learning for the 21st Century, Preparing Teachers to Educate Whole Students: An International Comparative Study, Letters to a New Minister of Education, Learning to Improve the World, Empowering Global Citizens, Empowering Students to Improve the World in Sixty Lessons, Learning to Collaborate for the Global Common Good, Fifteen Letters on Education in Singapore, Empowering All Students at Scale, and One Student at a Time. Leading the Global Education Movement.
He serves on the Massachusetts Board of Higher Education and on the board of directors of Inversant, Facing History and Ourselves, Teach for All, World Teach, and on the advisory boards of The Fulbright CIES program, the Global Scholars Program at Bloomberg Philanthropies, and Envoys.
In 2019, he received a Centennial Medal from the International Institute of Education for his work advancing international education, especially through the leadership of the International Education Policy Program which he designed at leads at HGSE. In 2017 he received the Global Citizen Award from the Committee on Teaching about the United Nations for his work advancing global citizenship education. In 2015 he was appointed the C.J. Koh Visiting Professor of Education at the National Institute of Education in Singapore in recognition of his work in global education. He received an honorary doctorate from Emerson College for his work advancing human rights education. He is a fellow of the International Academy of Education and a member of the Council of Foreign Relations. He is a member of UNESCO’s high-level commission on the Future of Education.
Vaughan Turekian (member since 2018)
Executive Director of the Policy and Global Affairs Division (PGA), National Academies
Vaughan Turekian is the executive director of the National Academies’ Policy and Global Affairs division. Prior to joining the STS program, Dr. Turekian served as the fifth Science and Technology Advisor to the U.S. Secretary of State. In this capacity, he advised the Secretary of State and other senior State Department officials on international environment, science, technology, and health matters affecting the foreign policy of the United States. From 2016 to 2017, he served as a country co-chair, along with the Kenyan Ambassador to the United Nations, for the Multi-stakeholder Forum on Science, Technology, and Innovation for the Sustainable Development Goals, a high-level discussion at the United Nations designed to accelerate progress toward globally agreed upon development targets. In 2018, Dr. Turekian was appointed by the U.N. Secretary General as one of the ten international members to promote the role of science, technology, and innovation for achieving for the 17 SDGs.
Dr. Turekian drew upon his background in atmospheric chemistry and extensive policy experience to promote science, technology, and engineering as integral components of U.S. diplomacy. Previously, he was Chief International Officer for the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) and the Director of AAAS's Center for Science Diplomacy (2006 - 2015). In this capacity, he worked to build bridges between nations based on shared scientific goals, placing special emphasis on regions where traditional political relationships are strained or do not exist. As Editor-in-Chief of Science & Diplomacy, an online quarterly publication, he published original policy pieces that have served to inform international science policy recommendations. In addition, Dr. Turekian worked at the State Department as a Special Assistant and Advisor to the Under Secretary for Global Affairs (2002 - 2006) on issues related to sustainable development, climate change, environment, energy, science, technology, and health. He also served as Program Director for the Committee on Global Change Research at the National Research Council (2000 - 2002), where he was study director for a White House report on climate change science.
Dr. Turekian holds a B.S. in Geology and Geophysics and International Studies from Yale University and a M.S. and Ph.D. from the University of Virginia where he focused on the transport and chemistry of atmospheric aerosols in marine environments. Dr. Turekian not only brings both technical expertise and over 15 years of policy experience to the position, but also a decorated track-record and steadfast commitment to utilizing our nation's capital science and technology innovation to advance the long-term sustainability and U.S. diplomacy.
Ben Vinson III (member since 2024)
President, Howard University
Ben Vinson III, Ph.D., a distinguished historian, began serving as the 18th president of Howard University on September 1, 2023. An accomplished visionary leader, President Vinson guides the institution’s direction as a comprehensive, research university consisting of 14 schools and colleges; 13,000 students; 2,900 staff; and 1,200 faculty. He also serves as a tenured professor of history in the University’s College of Arts and Sciences. Prior to accepting the presidency at Howard, Dr. Vinson served as provost and executive vice president of Case Western Reserve University from 2018-2023.
Dr. Vinson’s scholarly work centers on the African diaspora with a focus on Latin America history and culture. As an award-winning historian and author on Latin America history and culture, and co-author and editor of numerous publications and journals.
He has previously served as Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at George Washington University, Director of the International Studies Program at Johns Hopkins University, Vice-Dean for Centers, Interdisciplinary Programs and Graduate Education at Johns Hopkins University, and Director/Founding Director of the Center for Africana Studies at Johns Hopkins University. He has served as a faculty member at Barnard College, Penn State University, Johns Hopkins University, and George Washington University.
Dr. Vinson is president-elect of the American Historical Association, and an elected member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the American Antiquarian Society. He also serves on the Boards of the American Council of Education Board, Fulbright Scholar Advisory Board, National Humanities Alliance, and National Humanities Center, among others.
President Vinson is married to Yolanda Fortenberry, Ph.D. They are the proud parents of daughter Allyson and sons Ben and Brandon.