High Profile Speaker to Discuss International Ed

11/03/2015 

SUNY Cortland’s Clark Center for International Education will host two high profile visitors for International Celebration 2015, a series of College events during November.

Sally Crimmins Villela, SUNY assistant vice chancellor for global affairs, will discuss “SUNY and the World: Toward Comprehensive Internationalization of the SUNY System” Tuesday, Nov. 10.

Villela’s lecture will begin at 11:30 a.m. in Brockway Hall Jacobus Lounge.

	Sally Crimmins Villela

The presentation by Political scientist Paul Diehl, the president of the International Studies Association, on “The UN at 70: Constructing a Balance Sheet,” scheduled for Thursday, Nov. 12, was cancelled and will be rescheduled for the spring semester.

Villela's talk is free and open to the public. The presentation highlights seven activities of the International Celebration 2015 series of events. For more information on the series, visit the Clark Center for International Education website. 

The SUNY system is committed to nurturing a culturally fluent, cross-national mindset and putting it to work to improve New York’s global competitiveness. Villela’s presentation will showcase some of the comprehensive internationalization initiatives across the SUNY system and at specific SUNY universities and colleges.

During her visit, Villela also will be inducted as an honorary member of the College’s Phi Beta Delta International Honors Society at 4:30 p.m. on Wednesday, Nov. 11, in Brockway Hall Jacobus Lounge.

She will attend the Council meeting of the Clark Center for International Education and meet with administrators and faculty members who work to internationalize SUNY Cortland.

Villela oversees SUNY’s collaborative international academic programs and research, education abroad, exchange, international student and scholar services, and curricular internationalization. She supervises externally funded grant and scholarship programs that support joint research, professional development in international education and education abroad and is responsible for overseas offices in Mexico, Russia and Turkey.

Villela has studied, worked and resided in Brazil, Mexico, Spain and Portugal. She has taught Portuguese language in U.S. and English as a foreign language in Brazil. She received her Bachelor of Arts in Spanish Linguistics from the University at Albany, and conducted Master of Science studies in teaching English to speakers of other languages and advanced graduate studies in language acquisition and education.

“She is the highest ranking official in the SUNY System dealing with internationalization,” said organizer Alexandru Balas, SUNY Cortland assistant professor of international studies, coordinator of the International Studies Program and director of the Clark Center for International Education.

Villela’s presentation is sponsored by the Clark Center for International Education, the International Studies Program, the President’s Office, and International Programs.