NAFSA Presents Prestigious International Education Awards at 63rd Annual Conference
WASHINGTON, June 15, 2011 – NAFSA: Association of International Educators recently presented several prestigious awards at its 63rd Annual Conference & Expo in Vancouver, British Columbia. This year’s award recipients are Ambassador Julia Chang Bloch for the Cassandra Pyle Award; Dr. Joan Dassin for the Marita Houlihan Award; Anita Gaines for the Homer Higbee Award; and Dr. James S. Frey, Patricia Jones, and Martha Wailes for NAFSA Life Membership Awards.
The Cassandra Pyle Award for Leadership and Collaboration in International Educational Exchange honors the contributions of a senior international educator to global educational exchange. This year’s awardee, Ambassador Julia Chang Bloch, is founder and president of the US-China Education Trust (USCET), a nonprofit organization dedicated to promoting US-China relations through education and exchange. USCET’s Student Leaders Exchange program supports study abroad in China among American students and is part of President Obama’s 100,000 Strong Initiative. Ambassador Bloch has had an extensive career in international affairs and government service, beginning as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Sabah, Malaysia, in 1964, and culminating as U.S. Ambassador to the Kingdom of Nepal in 1989. She was the first Asian-American to hold the title of Ambassador. After 25 years of government service, including at the U.S. Agency for International Development, where she was assistant administrator for Food for Peace and Voluntary Assistance and assistant administrator for Asia and the Near East, Ambassador Chang moved to the corporate sector to become group executive vice president at Bank of America. She later served as president and CEO of the U.S.-Japan Foundation and then shifted her focus to China, as visiting professor at the Institute for International Relations, as executive vice chairman of the American Studies Center at Peking University, and later affiliating with Fudan University in Shanghai and the University of Maryland as ambassador-in-residence at the Institute for Global Chinese Affairs. A native of China who came to the United States at age 9, Ambassador Bloch grew up in San Francisco. She earned a bachelor’s degree in communications and public policy from the University of California at Berkeley and a master’s degree in government and East Asia regional studies from Harvard University. She received an honorary doctorate of humane letters from Northeastern University. Ambassador Bloch serves on numerous corporate and nonprofit boards and has received many awards.
The Marita Houlihan Award was established to recognize individuals who have displayed imaginative activity, outstanding personal enterprise, and creative contributions to the field of international education through research, writing, or program development. This year’s recipient of the Marita Houlihan Award is Dr.Joan Dassin. Dassin has been the executive director at the Ford Foundation International Fellowships Fund (IFF) since its founding in 2001. She is currently responsible for design, policy planning, and implementation for the Ford Foundation International Fellowships Program (IFP), a graduate-level fellowship program that has provided opportunities for advanced study to more than 4,300 emerging leaders from marginalized groups and communities in nearly two dozen countries in Asia, Africa, the Middle East, and Latin America. Dassin has served three times as a Fulbright scholar in Brazil and is a recognized expert in higher education and international exchange policy, having published extensively on the IFP and on broader issues including brain drain, access and equity in global higher education, and leadership training for developing countries.
The Homer Higbee Award recognizes NAFSA members who are currently involved in association activities and have given at least 10 years of distinguished service to the association, have demonstrated leadership by acting as professional mentors to colleagues, and plan to continue service to NAFSA. This year’s recipient of the Homer Higbee Award is Anita Gaines, director of international student and scholar services at the University of Houston. Gaines has been in the field of international education for more than 30 years. She started her NAFSA service in 1990 as the representative for south Texas, working her way through the NAFSA regional leadership to become chair of NAFSA’s Region III, which includes Arkansas, Louisiana, Oklahoma, and Texas. In 1997 the region awarded her its Citation for Extraordinary Service in International Education. Gaines previously served as chair of NAFSA’s Council of Advisers to Foreign Students and Scholars, the predecessor to today’s Knowledge Community for International Student and Scholar Services, as well as NAFSA’s Subcommittee on Ethical Practice, and has been actively involved in the leadership of NAFSA’s Christian Special Interest Group, in her region, and at the University of Houston.
Life Membership
NAFSA Life Membership is awarded each year to senior NAFSA members to recognize their achievements in advancing the goals of the association and of international education and exchange. This year’s recipients are Dr. James S. Frey, Patricia Jones, and Martha Wailes.
For nearly 50 years, Dr. James S. Frey has had tremendous influence in the field of international education in the United States and around the world. He began his career in 1961 at in admissions at Marquette University and as an international credentials evaluator and later worked at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, the U.S. Educational Commission in Japan, Indiana University-Bloomington, World Education Services, Cardinal Stritch College, and finally at Educational Credential Evaluators (ECE), which he founded in 1980 and for which he served from 1980 to 2006. In 2006, he became ECE’s senior adviser. Frey has authored six books as well as many book chapters, articles, and newsletter columns. He has also coauthored eight books.
Patricia Jones retired from Western Illinois University in 2008 after nearly 30 years of service, most recently as assistant director of the University Advising and Academic Support Center, a position she took in 1996. Since July 2010 she has been the director of English as a Second Language at Western Illinois University and has also served as an interim academic adviser (January 2010–March 2010) for the department of English and journalism. Jones received her MS in college student personnel from Western Illinois University in 1981 and her BS in English and Spanish in 1970. Jones has served in numerous leadership positions at NAFSA at both the national and regional level, including as chair of NAFSA’s Region V (which includes Wisconsin, Michigan, and Illinois). She is a recipient of NAFSA’s Homer Higbee award.
Martha Wailes’ contributions to the field of international education have extended over more than three decades. She became an adviser in the office of international services at Indiana University-Bloomington in 1979 and has been a NAFSA member since 1990. Wailes was the first recipient of the George E. Hertrich Advocacy award, given by NAFSA’s Region VI (which includes Ohio, Indiana, and Kentucky), in 1997. She has served as a long-standing member of NAFSA’s Trainer Corps and has contributed to the NAFSA Advisor’s Manual for foreign student advisors. Early in her career, Wailes was a U.S. Foreign Service Officer in Mexico City and in London. She has held numerous leadership positions at the regional and national levels at NAFSA.
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With nearly 10,000 members, NAFSA: Association of International Educators is the world’s largest non-profit association dedicated to international education. Visit www.nafsa.org
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