The Oct. 24 virtual event will feature an informational session and overview provided by Outreach & Recruitment of the Institute of International Education (IIE) and the International Research and Exchanges Board (IREX), Washington, DC, of the types of Fulbright awards that are available to U.S. teachers of early, secondary, and higher education. A panel of recently returned alumni will address the value and impact of their awards. Additionally, a panel of representatives from area colleges will discuss global teacher exchange programs at their respective institutions. Visit our event page for more details.
Meet Our Musicians:
Timothy Burris has performed widely in Europe and the US, with nine CDs to his credit, including modern premiers of works written for the Sachsen Court of 18th-century Dresden. Lute instructor at the Royal Flemish Conservatory of Music in Antwerp from 1990-96, he is currently on the applied music faculties of the Portland Conservatory of Music and Colby College. Holder of a soloist’s diploma from the Royal Conservatory in The Hague and a PhD from Duke University, Dr. Burris was the grateful recipient of a Fulbright to the Technical University of Dresden in 1994-95. He is playing works by James McGuire and Daniel Fortea from his upcoming recording project Music of Remembrance.
Hailing from Georgetown Island, Maine, singer/songwriter Lauren Crosby writes music that is a pure creative expression of the North Atlantic. A lobsterman’s daughter let loose in the modern world, Lauren’s old soul lends itself to the surrealism of her surroundings and everyday happenings. With hints of smoke and salt, her voice is deeply captivating, yet light with wit and life. Lauren graduated from the University of Maine at Farmington with a degree in Secondary Education, and served as an English Teaching Assistant (ETA) in Thailand (2017-2018). She works as a performing musician, white water rafting guide, owner and operator of the Salt Song Studio in Bath, Maine, and currently teaches English as a Second Language at Lincoln Academy. Lauren Crosby will perform one of her orignal songs on the guitar for your listening pleasure.
Meet Our Speakers & Panelists:
Emily Dudley is a Deputy Project Director for Fulbright Teacher Exchange Programs at IREX. Emily has over 10 years of combined, progressive experience in education and nonprofit sectors in the United States and globally, and has held leadership roles in private, public, and non-profit institutions. Her professional experience includes design and implementation of professional learning experiences for educators, program management, support and advocacy of families of students with special needs and work with displaced youth in crisis. Emily received a Master of Arts in Education and Human Development in International Education focused on education for marginalized populations from the George Washington University, and a Bachelor’s in History and Secondary Education from Appalachian State University. Emily will discuss the programs she oversees at IREX. These programs include the Fulbright Distinguished Awards in Teaching Research Program, Fulbright Distinguished Awards in Teaching Short-Term Program for U.S. Teachers, Fulbright Teachers for Global Classrooms Program, and the Fulbright Leaders for Global Schools Program.
Lee Rivers, Outreach and Recruitment Specialist at the Institute of International Education (IIE), will discuss the Fulbright awards that are available to students. With over a decade of experience managing outreach and recruitment strategies for exchange programs, Lee has experience collaborating with key stakeholders in education and government to create plans that support internationalization. In 2004-2005, Lee received the Gilman Scholarship to study at the University of Canberra, Australia. He also participated in a Fulbright-Hays Group Project Abroad in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, in 2005. Mr. Rivers received a Bachelor’s degree from Kansas State University in Kinesiology and a Master’s in Higher Education Administration, with a focus on International Educations, from the University of Central Missouri. As an advocate for educational opportunities abroad, he is passionate about increasing access for underrepresented populations.
Lillian Eckstein is a Community Health Promotion Specialist for the City of Portland. After graduating from Bowdoin College in 2018, she served as a Fulbright English Teaching Assistant in Madrid, Spain for the 2018-19 school year. As a lifelong student of anthropology and international relations, she coached her secondary school students in Global Classrooms (a simulation of the United Nations) and initiated an anti-smoking public health campaign at her school. When she was not in the classroom, she felt the joys of life in a grand city, especially while wandering around Museo Sorolla or sharing a slice of Spanish tortilla at sunset. Lillian will speak about why the yearlong English Teaching Assistant award was the perfect introduction to teaching bilingual students and how she continues to apply lessons learned from community-based education to her work in public health.
Guy Hamlin has been teaching life lessons to students in Maine and abroad for 27 years. He currently teaches social studies to 8th graders at Troy Howard Middle School in Belfast. Guy has been a Fellow with the Transatlantic Outreach Program (Germany, 2015) and with Fulbright Teachers for Global Classrooms (Indonesia, 2018) and is proud to be a TeachSDGs Ambassador. He earned a M. Ed in Global Education through the University of Illinois in May of 2019. Guy believes that his job is to help students learn not just about the world, but with, in, and for the world. He will discuss the Fulbright Teachers for Global Classrooms program and how it has played a part in transforming his views on education.
Miranda Richman was part of the 2019-2020 cohort of Fulbright English Teaching Assistants in South Korea. Miranda embarked on her Fulbright award directly after graduating with a BA from Harvard University, where she studied government and East Asian studies, with a focus in Korean politics. In South Korea, she taught middle and high school students in Andong for one semester while living with a host family before COVID-19 suspended the program prematurely. She is now back in Portland, ME where she grew up, working remotely with a government contracting firm. Miranda will discuss her South Korea ETA Fulbright experience and its lasting impact. Miranda is currently a Technical Assistance Coordinator at Synergy Enterprises, Inc. in Silver Spring, MD.
Erin Towns is a graduate of the University of Maine at Farmington and holds a degree in Secondary Education Social Studies, and is recognized as an experienced and adventurous social science teacher at Edward Little High School in Auburn, Maine. She is a 2020 PolarTREC Educator, 2018 National Geographic Grosvenor Teacher Fellow and an alumnus of numerous global professional development programs such as the Japan Fulbright Memorial Fund Program, Fulbright Teachers for Global Classrooms Program, Fulbright Hays Seminars Abroad Program, German-American Exchange Commission’s Education in Germany Program, and Fulbright Collaborative Groups Abroad Projects Program. Additionally, she is an active member of the Maine Council for Social Studies and serves as Teacher Ambassador to the Camden Conference in the Classroom Program, a foreign policy organization in Maine which serves fifteen schools and promotes public discourse on topics of global relevance. Her students regularly share solutions oriented global geo-inquiry projects with local school administrators, city councils, business leaders, state legislators, and public officials using storytelling with the goal of inspiring others to act. Erin will discuss the varied awards she’s garnered while teaching World History at the Edward Little High School in Auburn, Maine, and their impact on herself, her teaching and her students.
Dr. Linda Beck is Associate Dean of Experiential & Global Education at the University of Maine at Farmington. Before becoming Associate Dean, Linda was a political science professor and director of UMF’s International & Global Studies program. A recipient of a Fulbright-Hays scholarship in Senegal (1992), Linda participated in the 2019 Fulbright Japan IEA program and currently serves on the board of the Maine Fulbright Association. Her educational background includes a BA from Skidmore College and a MA and PhD from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Linda will discuss UMF’s international pre-professional teaching opportunities and alumni participation in the Fulbright English Teaching Assistants program.
Dr. William Lindblad received a B.S. degree in Chemistry from the University of Maine followed by an M.S. degree, also in Chemistry, from Cleveland State University and a doctoral degree in Pharmacology & Toxicology from the University of Rhode Island. He then held a post-doctoral position and first academic position at the Medical College of Virginia – Virginia Commonwealth University. He held academic positions in the Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences at the Eugene Applebaum College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences at Wayne State University, Detroit and currently is Professor of Pharmacology and Director of the University Office of Research & Scholarship at Husson University. He is an established investigator in the area of dermal tissue injury, repair and regeneration. Over the past 30 years, he has received numerous grants and contracts from the National Institutes of Health and private corporations to support this research. Dr. Lindblad has published extensively in his field and was the Founding Co-Editor and Editor-in-Chief of the biomedical journal Wound Repair and Regeneration, the preeminent journal in the field. Dr. Lindblad will discuss the faculty exchange program between Husson University and Nanyang Medical College, China.
Dr. Joanne (“Jo”) Williams currently serves as Dean of the College of Management & Human Service at the University of Southern Maine. In this role, she oversees the School of Business, School of Social Work, Muskie School of Public Policy and the School of Education and Human Service. She previously served as a faculty member and department chair in the School of Business and was responsible for teaching in the Sport Management program. Prior to her appointment at USM, Dr. Williams spent 10 years at Nichols College in Dudley, MA. She has extensive experience in global and experiential education focused on both student and faculty development. Her research interests are in sport and destination marketing, sponsorship, and experiential learning. Her educational background includes a doctoral degree in sport management from Springfield College, MA in 1997, a Masters degree from Springfield College and a Bachelor of Education from Brunel University in the UK. Dr. Williams will discuss opportunities and programs developed in Reykjavik, Iceland to support multicultural and global perspectives at the University of Southern Maine.