Women’s History Month 2024: A Celebration of Women who Advocate for Equity, Diversity & Inclusion
As we march forward toward the warmer days of spring, we are already well into Women’s History Month where a new theme celebrating and amplifying the achievements of women, past and present, is set for the year ahead. We’d like to acknowledge several of the many inspiring and hard-working women in the international education field who advocate tirelessly for equity, diversity, and inclusion – 2024’s theme, which resonates deeply with the team at EdOdyssey.
The Women’s History Alliance elaborates, “Today, equity, diversity, and inclusion are powerful driving forces that are having a wide-ranging impact on our country. Advocacy is an action of courage. Throughout 2024, we honor local women who have taken the lead to show the importance of change and to establish firmer safeguards, practices, and legislation reflecting these values. Following decades of discrimination, we are proud to celebrate women who work for basic inclusion, equality, and fairness.”
To the women below and countless others in the study abroad industry who share and dare to stand up for these values, thank you for all you do.
Dr. Fanta Aw
Executive Director & CEO of NAFSA
One of the most recognized names in International Education, Dr. Fanta Aw is consistently a strong voice, a frequent speaker, and a persistent advocate for diversity, equity, and inclusion in higher education. In an interview with The PIE News just over a year ago, discussing her induction as Executive Director and CEO of NAFSA, she said, “It will be really important for us to look at the intersection of the work of IE along with diversity, equity, and inclusion. I often say that the center of gravity around this work is shifting along with the demographic shift that’s happening globally. We really need to be thinking about how we open up opportunities for areas of the world that have never been as engaged.”
Melissa Torres
President & CEO of The Forum on Education Abroad
Like Dr. Fanta Aw, Melissa Torres leads one of the biggest professional organizations in international education in her role as President and CEO of The Forum on Education Abroad, and she uses her powerful role to speak out about the importance of diversity, equity, and inclusion in the field of study abroad and beyond. increasing diversity in the field is a key priority for the Forum, and Melissa has spotted change in this area, commenting in an interview with The PIE News after last year’s March conference, that, “There was a noticeable increase in the number of people working in this field now who are representative of the changing demographics of our students and communities. It’s a wonderful change and made me proud of The Forum’s leadership in this area.”
May Arthur, Alissa Kramer Briggs & Jennifer Dressen
NAFSA Region XI “Chair Stream”
As our headquarters are Boston-based, EdOdyssey has always had a particularly strong tie to NAFSA Region XI where President Peter McGovern served on the leadership team for three years. The recent “Chair Stream”—May Arthur, former chair who is now “retired” as an international education consultant and recently won a Lifetime Achievement Award for her contribution to the field; Alissa Kramer Briggs, Past-Chair from Clark University; and Jennifer Dressen, current Chair from Brown University—make an incredible trio. They hold tightly to the values of equity, diversity, and inclusion, as set out in NAFSA’s own values that the leadership of each region upholds: “We believe that international education lies at the core of an interconnected world characterized by diversity, equity, inclusion, social justice, and well-being for all. NAFSA believes that diversity in our classrooms, our communities, and our workplaces is our strength.”
May Arthur on LinkedIn
Alissa Kramer Briggs on LinkedIn
Jennifer Dressen on LinkedIn
Sarah Reid & Maddie Reeves
EdOdyssey
We’d also like to acknowledge two amazing women from our team at EdOdyssey who always keep diversity, equity, and inclusion at the top of their minds. They are both advocates for DEI and work behind the scenes to make our programs, registration, communications, student experience, and more as inclusive and as equitable as possible, and supportive of diversity in all its forms. One example of many: When Sarah joined EdOdyssey years ago, she led an effort to recreate our registration and student housing forms to make them more inclusive, adding new options for students to specify gender, pronouns, and preferred names, etc. should they wish to do so. We’re proud that, with the help of Sarah, Maddie, and the rest of our wonderful team, we’ve been able to support so many incredible students of so many different identities and backgrounds through the years, helping them discover and learn from our beautiful and complex world.
Besides these remarkable women—who are all dedicated and dynamic leaders in organizations that EdOdyssey is proud to be an active part of as a team and company—are so many others; to all of you who continue to drive home the importance of equity, diversity, and inclusion in international education, we salute you!
As the Women’s History Month proclamation sets out, “Let us honor the women who have dedicated themselves to advocating for equity, diversity, and inclusion, and let us continue to work together to build a more just, equitable, and inclusive world.”
DEI in International Education Resources
Sources
The PIE News. “Fanta Aw, incoming CEO, NAFSA.” 12 January 2023. https://thepienews.com/pie-chat/the-big-tent-of-international-education-an-interview-with-fanta-aw/.
The PIE News. “Forum Pictures US Education Abroad Sector’s ‘New Normal.’” 27 May 2023. https://thepienews.com/news/forum-discusses-eas-new-normal-at-annual-conference/.
NAFSA. “Mission, Vision, Values.” https://www.nafsa.org/about/about-nafsa/mission-vision-values.
National Women’s History Alliance. “The 2024 National Women’s History Theme.” https://nationalwomenshistoryalliance.org/2024-whm-theme/.