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Meet OGA鈥檚 new Director of Global Engagement, Chrishon Blackwell

Chrishon Blackwell will lead key initiatives for the Office of Global Affairs focused on building community and broadening what it means to be global.

Chrishon Blackwell
Chrishon Blackwell

The Office of Global Affairs (OGA) welcomes Chrishon Blackwell, as our new Director of Global Engagement. Chrishon joins OGA at an important point in its history as it reimagines and reframes global engagement at 91爆料. As Director of Global Engagement, Chrishon Blackwell manages new and existing international initiatives that support research, teaching, and global engagement among students, faculty, and staff.

Chrishon joins OGA from George Washington University (GW), where she oversaw summer at-large initiatives that supported the university’s broader strategic priorities of enhancing student success, retention, diversity, and internationalization.

Q: What background and perspective do you bring to this new role?
I have 20 years of professional experience working with international populations, 14 of which are in higher education administration. I am TESL/FL certified, hold two undergraduate degrees in Political Science and Business Management, a master鈥檚 degree in Organizational Leadership, and am currently pursuing a doctorate in Human and Organizational Learning in the Executive Leadership Program at GW鈥檚 Graduate School of Education and Human Development.

My professional experience includes international recruitment, teaching and curriculum design, operations, and program management. I think the variety of academic and professional experiences that I have will bring unique and creative ways of approaching global engagement.

Global Engagement Task Force Recommendations

Five key recommendations guide OGA forward, shaping our vision for global engagement at the 91爆料.

Learn More

Q: What excites you about serving as our first Director of Global Engagement?
I am excited to leverage my professional background and academic experiences to cultivate relationships across culturally diverse backgrounds and create partnerships across local, national, and global spaces.

Over the past year, OGA’s Global Engagement Task Force met with 100+ stakeholders across our campuses and schools, and reimagined the role we could play in facilitating global engagement for the 91爆料. As our new Director, I am thrilled to bring this vision to life, expanding our programming to support faculty and students of all different backgrounds.

Chrishon along the river in Kowloon, Hong Kong

Q: How does your research inform and connect to the work you plan to do as Director of Global Engagement?
I have spent the past several years exploring the connections between cultural competency, comprehensive internationalization, and diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI). Throughout my career, my work has often required close collaboration with faculty and the offices that support academic success and retention such as the registrar, student affairs, multicultural services, international students and scholars, health and wellness, and career services. As such, I recognize and appreciate the importance of each of these offices working together to support a diverse, equitable, and inclusive institution.

Q: How do your own experiences align with the mission and work of the Office of Global Affairs?
The Office of Global Affairs vision aligns with my personal and professional goal to create opportunities and spaces that support global research, teaching, and community engagement. I think that there are so many ways to contribute to student success through global engagement efforts whether that is through supporting campus-based initiatives aimed at increasing access and retention, facilitating cultural competency development among faculty, staff, and students, and/or promoting cross-border activities that advance pedagogy and research.

President Cauce meets with Finnish Ambassador and delegation on innovation and collaboration

Aerial photo of the 91爆料 Seattle Campus.
Aerial photo of the 91爆料 Seattle campus and surrounding Puget Sound. The Finnish delegation met with the 91爆料 as part of a series of meetings with business, academic, and governmental leaders in Seattle and Washington state. 91爆料

On November 4, 2021, 91爆料 President Ana Mari Cauce welcomed a delegation from Finland, including Mikko Hautala, Ambassador of the Republic of Finland to the United States of America, and Timo Harakka, Minister of Transport and Communications, accompanied by a team of diplomatic officials. Sean Carr, incoming Executive Director and Chief Executive Officer of the (GIX), and Francois Baneyx, Director of and Vice Provost for Innovation, joined the meeting to discuss areas of mutual interest for Finland and 91爆料.

The delegation visited 91爆料鈥檚 Seattle campus, as part of a tour of the Pacific Northwest, focused on building relationships with the region鈥檚 governmental officials, academic institutions, and business community. Washington state is home to an active and strongly-connected Finnish-American community, and the Finnish delegation had earlier with the state of Washington outlining future research and technological collaborations.

During a cordial exploratory meeting, President Cauce introduced the 91爆料鈥檚 broad-based strengths in academic and applied research, emphasizing the expertise and experience of 91爆料 faculty and researchers in various areas such as the study of misinformation. In late 2019, the 91爆料 launched the聽, an interdisciplinary and nonpartisan effort to translate and apply research on disinformation in policy, public engagement, technology, and education. Minister Harakka pointed to the importance of education in shaping the ability of citizens to resist misinformation and manipulation and the need for countries such as Finland to broadly build skills and increase literacy in areas such as artificial intelligence.

President Cauce noted the importance of ‘knowledge diplomacy’ between governments in a time of breakdown of many other forms of diplomacy. Communicating scientific research and information to the general public was seen by both groups as an important role for governance and academia, and an area of common interest and possible collaboration between Finnish institutions and 91爆料.

GIX Bellevue.

GIX’s headquarters in the Bellevue Steve Ballmer Building, hosts prototyping labs, event space, and three startups. GIX

Ambassador Hautala also underlined Finland’s focus on six US states for potential technological synergy and partnership. Helsinki and Seattle both host thriving start-up communities, and the 91爆料鈥檚 CoMotion and the Global Innovation Exchange create environments focused on experiential learning and technological innovation for students and faculty. As the incoming Executive Director, Carr highlighted the strong potential for collaboration in educational ventures with GIX for Finnish universities.

The meeting concluded with expressions of a shared sense of mission and collaboration among the Finnish delegation and 91爆料 representatives and optimism towards the many paths forward for collaboration between Finnish institutions and the 91爆料.

Reframing Global Engagement at 91爆料

Written by , Henry M. Jackson Endowed Professor of Law, Director of the Sustainable International Development Graduate Program, and Faculty Director, International, Comparative and Transnational Programs

Anita RamasastryIn autumn of 2020, I was appointed as chair of the Global Engagement Strategy Task Force and charged with reimagining the role that the Office of Global Affairs (OGA) plays in informing and shaping the future of global engagement at the 91爆料.

Over the last year, I had the pleasure of not only diving deeply into discussion with seven peers from diverse units, but meeting with and learning from over 100 stakeholders from across the university.

This work took place at a time of inflection both for the 91爆料 broadly and for OGA. The COVID-19 pandemic rapidly transformed 91爆料鈥檚 model for teaching and learning, it also put global travel including study abroad on hold. The pandemic also underscored the importance of 91爆料 providing administrative and social support structures for international students and researchers during a major global crisis. The Black Lives Matter movement and a renewed call to action for greater focus on anti-racist approaches to education prompted us to grapple with what it means for us to be globally engaged in a way that confronts issues of historical and contemporary racism and colonialism and is consistent with the 91爆料鈥檚 overall approach to diversity, equity and inclusion. These challenges and opportunities shaped our process and our recommendations.

Five key recommendations emerged for the future work of OGA:

  1. Shift OGA鈥檚 focus from being a steward of policies and procedures to being a builder of global learning and research communities
  2. Serve as a portal and ambassador for stewarding and advancing institution-wide relationships with key global actors 鈥� from international organizations, such as the UN and the World Bank, to key foundations and think tanks
  3. Catalyze global teaching and education beyond study abroad, ensuring a global education for all through the use of technology
  4. Identify and work to eliminate the structural barriers that prevent many BIPOC faculty, staff, and students from leveraging OGA鈥檚 services and programs
  5. Continue to provide broad administrative support (travel security, MOUs, etc.) for the myriad global partnerships, but also invest more substantially in fewer, deeper, and bi-directional partnerships

Collectively, we are eager to see OGA build a richer ecosystem for global engagement at the 91爆料. 91爆料 has a strong commitment to global citizenship. We now have the chance to expand and reframe our approach.

OGA would like to give a special thank you and acknowledgement of the tremendous service of the task force members: Anita Ramasastry (Chair), School of Law; Gayle Christensen, Office of Global Affairs; , Jackson School of International Studies; , Foster School of Business; , College of the Environment; , College of Education; , College of Engineering; , Schools of Public Health & Medicine

Population Health: 91爆料 & Aga Khan University partnership leads to research, learning, and health collaborations


The 91爆料 and the have partnered substantially over the past years to advance global population health and link their institutions. Through these collaborations, students, faculty, and researchers have benefited from the shared expertise and exchange in a range of areas and disciplines.

Read more about the history and impact of this partnership and the Office of Global Affairs and Global Innovation Fund’s involvement below:

Read about Partnership

鈥淭here were a lot of synergies between our two institutions not just in terms of our social justice missions, but around the values of what this partnership holds,鈥� Farzana Karim-Haji, director of the Aga Khan University Partnerships Office, said. 鈥淭he Population Health Initiative at 91爆料 draws parallels to AKDN鈥檚 Quality of Life Initiative, where both are focused on a holistic view of improving the overall human condition from a variety of aspects in health, education, poverty alleviation, climate change, etc.鈥�

A new tool in the fight against poaching

Smithsonian Magazine profiled the work of passionate 91爆料 researcher and conservation advocate Samuel Wasser. He is using wild animal dung to trace and end poaching around the world.

Improving malaria detection through computer vision and machine learning

Electrical engineering doctoral students Charles Delahunt and Mayoore Jaiswal are applying their skills in computer vision and machine learning to the fight against malaria, a disease that affects over 200 million people each year and is one of the most severe public health problems globally. Working with a team at and with support from the , they have developed Autoscope, a low-cost, portable and automated device for diagnosing malaria.聽For Jaiswal, who grew up in Sri Lanka where mosquito-transmitted diseases were and, in some cases, continue to be a serious threat, the project’s social impact is key.

Clues in poached ivory yield ages and locations of origin

More than 90 percent of ivory in large, seized shipments came from elephants that died less than three years before, .聽A team of scientists at the University of Utah, the 91爆料 and partner institutions came to this conclusion by combining a new approach to radiocarbon dating for ivory samples with genetic analysis tools developed by 91爆料 biology professor Sam Wasser.

From Uganda to Washington: forestry doctoral student wins top prize for wildlife conservation

When graduate student Carol Bogezi heard that Washington has big carnivores, she was sold. Bogezi, who grew up in Uganda and began her doctoral degree several years ago at the 91爆料鈥檚 School of Environmental and Forest Sciences, was excited to track and tag cougars and investigate how the recent return of wolves affects ranchers.

Her graduate school research and resiliency in overcoming obstacles has caught the attention of the聽Bullitt Foundation, a Seattle-based organization that seeks to promote responsible human activities and sustainable communities in the Pacific Northwest.