Bettering Best Practices: Cultivating Agency for International Students

Dr. Nikole Pascetta, TESL, MA, PhD, Languaging Experience / Le Corps Poetique

Professor Communications

Lambton College in Toronto

Tram-Anh Bui

PhD Candidate, Faculty of Education

Brock University

Dr. Darla Deardorff

Executive Director, Association of International Education Administrators (AIEA) /Research Scholar

Duke University

Dr. Darla K. Deardorff is Executive Director of the Association of International Education Administrators, a leadership organization. She is also a research fellow at Duke University. She has worked in the international education field for over twenty-five years & previously held positions at North Carolina State University & the University of North Carolina–Chapel Hill, where she has had experience in study abroad, international student services, cultural programming, & ESL teaching/teacher training. Founder of ICC Global, a global research network on intercultural competence, and the World Council on Intercultural and Global Competence, she has lived, taught & worked in Germany, Japan, & Switzerland. In addition, she has had 2 Fulbrights- one to South Africa and one to Japan. Dr. Deardorff’s faculty experience includes Harvard University’s Future of Learning Institute, Harvard’s Global Education Think Tank, the Summer Institute of Intercultural Communication, Shanghai International Studies University (China), Nelson Mandela University (S. Africa) & Meiji University (Japan) as well as Middlebury Institute of International Studies. Regularly invited to speak worldwide, Dr. Deardorff consults for universities, businesses, & non-profit organizations. Recent projects include advising the OECD’s PISA Global Competence Project & a UNESCO Intercultural Competence Project. She has published over 60 articles, book chapters, and 11 books, starting with The SAGE Handbook of Intercultural Competence (Sage, 2009). Other books include lead editor of The Sage Handbook of International Higher Education (Sage, 2012 and 2nd edition, 2021), co-author of Building Cultural Competence (Stylus, 2012), author of Demystifying Outcomes Assessment for International Educators (Stylus, 2015), co-editor of Intercultural Competence in Higher Education (Routledge, 2017) and lead editor of Leading Internationalization (Stylus, 2018). Her latest book, Manual for Developing Intercultural Competencies: Story Circles (Routledge/UNESCO, 2020), is open to access in 5+ languages: https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000370336. She is currently working on two more books. For more detailed bio info, see https://sites.duke.edu/darladeardorff/

Specialties: Intercultural Competence, Assessment and Evaluation, Global Leadership, Cross-Cultural Training, Intercultural Research, Internationalization, International Higher Education

Lisa Brunner

Ph.D. Candidate, Department of Educational Studies, Faculty of Education, International Student Advisor (RCIC), International Student Development

The University of British Columbia

Lisa Brunner is a Ph.D. candidate in Educational Studies, a Liu Institute for Global Issues Scholar, and a Centre for Migration Studies Executive Committee Member at the University of British Columbia. She is also a Regulated Canadian Immigration Consultant with 15+ years of professional experience in international education, including 10+ years as an international student advisor. Her doctoral dissertation focuses on the ethical paradoxes of ‘edugration,’ or education-migration, in Canada. Previously, Lisa participated in multiple research projects mapping and assessing the settlement experiences of government-assisted refugees in Metro Vancouver (with Immigrant Services Society of BC) and the USA (with the Center for Applied Linguistics). She serves on Canada’s national Pathways to Prosperity Standing Committee of Students and Junior Scholar Engagement. She holds an MA in Geography and a BA in English Literature and Political Science.

Laura Crane

Director of Academic Affairs & Operations

York University

Laura Crane is currently the Director of Academic Affairs & Operations in the Faculty of Education at York University. She has worked in the private and public sectors in education and recruitment for over 25 years. She has worked in local and international education with partners in Germany, China, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Hong Kong, Switzerland, Norway, and others. She has worked behind the scenes to operationalize the Borderless Higher Education for Refugees (BHER) program at York University, which offers certificate and degree programs to practicing teachers in the Dadaab refugee camp in Kenya and other vital projects that can change people’s lives. She is also a Ph.D. candidate at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (OISE), University of Toronto. She has been looking at the perceived impact of tools used in the institutional assessment of internationalization strategies in European universities. She has also researched how international experience impacts local teacher hiring. When she is not working, Laura engages in environmental activities: fighting invasive plants and growing (and eating) organic fruits and vegetables.

Dr. Sonja Knutson

Director, Internationalization Office Memorial University of Newfoundland

Memorial University of Newfoundland

Dr. Sonja Knutson is the Director of Internationalization Office at the Memorial University of Newfoundland and an adjunct professor with the Faculty of Education. She is responsible for leading, partnering and supporting the Internationalization Office to implement the actions of the Strategic Internationalization Plan 2020 at Memorial. She oversees a team whose responsibilities range from international student support, mobility and partnerships, an overseas campus, federal and provincial government relations, and capacity-building projects and consultancies.

Sonja is committed to supporting the professional field of internationalization through her teaching, research and service. She has contributed chapters to several recent publications and is a frequent presenter at international conferences. She teaches graduate courses in the internationalization of higher education, participates in doctoral supervisory committees in the Faculty of Education, and mentors international students completing doctorates in the field. She served six years on the Canadian Bureau for International Education Board of Directors. She also held the role of chair of NAFSA’s International Education Leadership Knowledge Community and worked with that group for four years.

Lyn Trudeau

Faculty member of Women and Gender Studies and Sociology, PhD Candidate

Brock University

Lyn Trudeau is an Anishinaabe’Kwe from Sagamok Anishnawbek First Nation, belonging to Eagle Clan. She is a faculty member cross-appointed with Women and Gender Studies and Sociology at Brock University, alongside being a Ph.D. Candidate in Social/Cultural/Political Contexts of Education. Lyn feels it is important to honour her cultural background; therefore, embeds Indigenous knowledge and ways of being in her classrooms and research endeavours. Lyn is also an artistic scholar who engages the visual presence and representation within her works to support cultural survivance.