Leadership in a Time of Crisis: University Leaders Speak

9 AM New York l 3 PM Vienna

Universities as Frontline Responders, an initiative supported by OSUN and the Talloires Network of Engaged Universities, will host an important panel discussion focused on the leadership strategies that university presidents have employed to respond to various crises and discuss the lessons that can be drawn from this moment, as universities face wide ranging challenges.  OSUN faculty, staff and students, are welcome.

Moderator:
Jonathan Becker, Executive Vice President of Bard College

Speakers:

Margee Ensign, President of American University of Bulgaria
Fadlo R. Khuri, President of American University of Beirut
Dmytro Sherengovsky, Vice-Rector for Outreach and Social Engagement, Ukrainian Catholic University
Kyaw Moe Tun, President of Parami University (Myanmar)

Jonathan Becker is the Executive Vice President and Vice President for Academic Affairs; Director, Center for Civic Engagement; and Professor of Political Studies at Bard College. He has a B.A., McGill University; D. Phil., St. Antony’s College, Oxford University with a specialization in Soviet, Russian, and Eastern European politics; media and politics. Becker taught at Central European University, University of Kiev Mohyla Academy, Wesleyan University, and Yale University. He is the author of Soviet and Russian Press Coverage of the United States: Press, Politics and Identity in Transition (1999; new edition, 2002) with articles in European Journal of Communication, Journalism and Mass Communications Quarterly, Slovo, among others. He is also the Director, Global and International Studies Program; Academic Director, Bard Globalization and International Affairs Program and has been at Bard since 2001.

Margee Ensign is the president of the American University of Bulgaria (AUBG), whose mission  is to educate democratic and ethical leaders. During her presidency, Ensign has  strengthened the Center for Information, Democracy and Citizenship (CIDC) through innovative  and impactful funded grants and projects. Under her leadership, AUBG welcomed its largest admitted class in history and also attracted outstanding faculty members from diverse disciplines. Ensign has also actively engaged the alumni  community and spearheaded fundraising efforts, culminating in the successful completion of the  $1M America for Bulgaria Foundation matching challenge. She previously served as president at the US International University in Kenya, Dickinson College in the United States, and the American University of Nigeria (AUN) in Adamawa State. Ensign is a long-time advocate for connecting learning to community engagement and democratic citizenship. For eight years, she was the president of AUN, Africa’s development university, and founder of the Adamawa Peace Initiative (API). Ensign is a well-respected scholar on development, on Africa, and—growing out of her experience in Rwanda—on genocide, governance, and democracy.  She is the author and editor of six books, including Rwanda: History and Hope and Confronting Genocide: Dehumanization, Denial and Strategies for Prevention. Ensign earned her BA from New College in Florida and her Ph.D. in International Political Economy from the University of Maryland, with a dissertation in Artificial Intelligence and Economics.

Fadlo R. Khuri is the 16th president of the American University of Beirut (AUB). Under his leadership, AUB has forged strong  partnerships with leading foundations and universities around the world and enhanced its global reputation  as a mission-driven university. In March 2024, the Board of Trustees voted to extend President Khuri’s five-year appointment as president through 2030. President Khuri led the BOLDLY AUB fundraising campaign that raised more than $805 million for university  priorities and attracted the single largest gift in AUB history; the adoption of VITAL 2030, a new campus  master plan and strategic plan for the university (2019); the launch of AUB Online (renamed AUB Global in  2024); established the American University of Beirut – Mediterraneo in Pafos, Cyprus, AUB’s first twin campus outside Lebanon; and secured the Keserwan Medical Center, AUB’s first community hospital, in Jounieh, Lebanon.  Khuri is the author of over 750 publications and has received numerous awards including the 2006 Nagi Sahyoun Award of the Middle  East Medical Assembly; the 2013 Richard and Hinda Rosenthal Memorial Award by the American  Association for Cancer Research; TAKREEM’s Scientific and Technological Achievement Award in 2015;  and the 2018 Ben Qurrah Award.

Dmytro Sherengovsky, is Ukrainian Catholic University's Vice-Rector for Outreach and Social Engagement. He is a specialist in educational expertise, international relations, management, and administration. His responsibilities now are development and implementation of university internationalization strategy, international and national networking, university social engagement projects, representation of the university on the national and international level, and development and lobbying of educational reforms. In September 2023, Dmytro Sherengovsky became Head of the Steering Committee of the Alliance of Ukrainian Universities. In this position, he is responsible for strategic development, international and national networking, and research and social engagement projects for the alliance. Previously, Dmytro Sherengovsky served at UCU as Deputy Vice-Rector for Academic and International Affairs, Director of the Academic Department, and Director of the International Academic Relations Department. He received his higher education at Ivan Franko National University in Lviv, specializing in the field of International Relations, Diplomatic and Consular Service. 

Kyaw Moe Tun completed his undergraduate education at Bard College at Simon’s Rock and  Oxford University and received his PhD in Organic Chemistry at Yale University. The transformative  liberal arts and sciences education that he received abroad challenged him to find deeper meaning  behind his actions. He returned to Myanmar  in 2014 to dedicate his life to the development of his native country. He believes that a liberal arts and sciences education  has the transformative power to develop the types of innovative, adaptable leaders to address fast changing sociopolitical trends and industrial disruptions seen worldwide.  Kyaw Moe Tun established a well-regarded school known as Parami Institute in early 2017, which has been providing high quality liberal education programs to young Myanmar college graduates who want to take on challenges facing  Myanmar. He raised millions of dollars from local and international philanthropists to transform  the institute into a private non-profit residential degree-granting university that would create next generation leaders for Myanmar. That plan was curtailed by the military coup on February  1, 2021 so he pivoted to incorporate Parami University as a licensed private non-profit online synchronous university offering associate and bachelor’s degree programs in the fall of 2022 to displaced students in Myanmar  and other areas under authoritarian control as well as students living in refugee camps. 


Register to join via Zoom

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For more information, call 845-758-6822.

Time: 9:00 am – 10:30 am EDT/GMT-4

Location: Online Event

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