International Relations Professional Learning Community (IR-PLC)

Andrea Delgado Morrow is the director, international relations for the University of Calgary’s international office where she and the team are responsible for institutional partnerships and agreements. She holds an MA in intercultural and international communication from Royal Roads University. Andrea has over 15 years of experience working in post-secondary education.

This includes University of Calgary, regional manager (Asia Pacific) and associate faculty member at Royal Roads University and Mount Royal University (Faculty of Communication). Throughout her career Andrea has been active in the international education realm sitting on various committees and currently sits on the steering committee for the Canadian Bureau for International Education’s international relations professional learning community.

Janine Denis Gonzalez is the Partnership Development Specialist at the University of Ottawa. She is responsible for managing international partnerships that support institutional internationalization objectives. She also advises faculties on their international engagement initiatives and manages programs in strategic spheres.

Janine has diverse experience in the field of international education, having held roles in international relations, student mobility, recruitment, external relations and marketing.

She holds an MA in Multilingual Communication from the Université catholique de Louvain, Belgium and a BSocSc (Hons) in International Studies and Modern Languages from the University of Ottawa, Canada.

She currently serves as a steering committee member of CBIE’s International Relations Professional Learning Committee.

Yukino has more than 8 years’ experience working in higher education in British Columbia, Canada. She has previously worked in; student affairs and enrollment services; international student development; student mobility; international partnership development and presently as a Manager, Global Engagement at SFU International.

In her current role, she is responsible for partnership management and initiatives in Europe, the Americas, and the South Pacific regions. She is also a Committee member of the International Relations Professional Learning Community of CBIE.

Yukino is fluent in both English and Japanese, and received her BA Honors in Sociology from the University of British Columbia.

Miyuki Arai manages international mobility programs and partnerships as well as promotes pan-campus processes and initiatives which support the strategic priority of Intercultural Learning for the University community. She has been engaged in various aspects of international education since 2004 at her alma mater, Saint Mary’s University. She holds a Master of Arts degree in Intercultural Relations from Lesley University in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Dan Fredrick has more than 20 years of experience in international relations, education, research, and client services.

Since 2008, Dan has held leadership positions in the International Office at the University of Alberta. In his current role as Director, International Projects, he seeks to create training and education partnerships to share the University of Alberta’s expertise worldwide. Dan’s leadership role in this unit includes responsibility for international business development, proposal development, and the cultivation of strong relationships with public and private sector partners within Canada and around the world, and coordination and sourcing of expertise within the University and beyond.

Dan has also developed the Sponsored Student Program at the University of Alberta, which is Canada’s first dedicated program to provide service and support to international university students who are financially sponsored through scholarships from their home countries. Under his direction, the Sponsored Student Program has tripled the enrollment of international sponsored students at the University of Alberta, and has become one of the largest such programs in North America.

Prior to joining the University of Alberta, Dan taught History, Geography, and Governance to secondary students in Ottawa; served in the Canadian Parliament as a Foreign Policy Advisor to one of Canada’s national political parties; and worked in Canada and the Middle East as an Immigration Consultant. He holds Master’s degrees in International Affairs and Religious Studies.

Stéphanie Dion holds a Master degree in International Management (M.B.A.) from Université Laval (Quebec), that she partly realized at Tecnológico de Monterrey (Mexico). She counts on more than fifteen years in the field of internationalization of higher education, working in Mexico, Brazil (Universidade de Sao Paulo), Costa Rica (Universidad Nacional) and Quebec (Bureau de coopération interuniversitaire, Université de Montréal, Polytechnique Montréal).

Through different roles in international affairs, she has conducted large projects to encourage universities’ international expansion, fostered collaboration with organizations from Quebec, Canada and abroad and gained an in-depth understanding of the issues and challenges related to universities’ international development.

Stéphanie is an agent of change at Polytechnique Montréal operating with a transversal and collaborative approach in order to engage the university’s stakeholders in the internationalization process. She thrives at mobilizing stakeholders on structuring consensus, supporting the development of strategic actions and coordinating the execution of multilateral initiatives.

Stéphanie speaks French, English, Spanish and Portuguese.

Helen has 20 years of experience in the field of international education championing programs and partnerships in Africa, Asia, Europe, and the Americas through her work with UNESCO, the Asia-Europe Foundation and the university sector in Canada. As Associate Director International Partnerships and Programs at York University, Helen facilitates and shepherds York’s global engagement and partnerships and supports York students’ participation in global learning opportunities. Helen has a BA Philosophy, Cum Laude, at University of the Philippines (UP), a Post Graduate Diploma on Cultural Projects for Development from the University of Turin and International Labour Organization (Italy), and an MA Public Administration from the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy at the National University of Singapore (NUS). Helen was NAFSA’s International Outreach Coordinator (2017-2020) and is active in the UP and NUS alumni associations in Toronto.

Rooted in nearly a decade of international education experience across both the private and public sectors, Natasha recently joined the University of Guelph as the Internationalization Officer, within the newly established Office of International Strategy and Partnerships. This new role was a homecoming in multiple senses – returning to her native province of Ontario after living abroad and then in British Columbia for the last six years. She was also coming home to her alma mater, as a proud alumni of International Development Studies at U of G.

In her current role, Natasha works closely and collaboratively with other offices and units that serve international students and the university’s internationalization goals. Her work is focused on partnership development with institutions and organizations abroad as well as integrating the university’s vision for global engagement across multiple campuses.

Natasha holds a Certificate in Adult Education from George Brown College. Fluent in Spanish, she has lived in Cuba, Ecuador, and Uruguay.

Emily MacDougall is the Director of Global Partnerships in the Office of the Vice-Provost International at the University of British Columbia (UBC), responsible for institutional partnerships, agreements and international relations, and more broadly for fostering strategic partnership engagement that supports long-term institutional goals. Prior to joining UBC in 2019, Emily worked in the non-profit sector for over 10 years, focused on partnership management and global development programs, working extensively in East Africa in particular.  Emily holds a MA in International Studies from SFU and BComm from Queen’s University.

Mahvish Wesley is the Director of Learning and Safety Abroad team within the Centre for International Experience at the University of Toronto. In collaboration with the tri campus university partners, she manages the portfolio for study, research, and practical experiences abroad for students.

This involves leading the work on outbound student awards, student mobility university partnership agreements, student safety and risk management of international experiences, and inbound and outbound mobility for coursework, research, and experiential learning opportunities

The student mobility portfolio also works closely with research, industry, and innovation international partnerships withing the University, via the offices of Vice President International and Vice Provost Students.

Mahvish has worked at the University of Toronto since 2005 in various divisions and faculties.

Throughout her university career, she has worked in the fields of student recruitment and admissions, student careers’ development, and student global mobility. In working with students of varying and diverse backgrounds, the goal of high quality, student-centric experiences as well as strong stakeholder relationships have always been and remain to be of paramount importance.