5 international faculty join inaugural cohort of ASU Global Partner Affiliate Faculty

This fall, Arizona State University welcomed five international faculty members into the inaugural cohort of Global Partner Affiliate Faculty for the 2023–24 academic year. The yearlong designation, created in partnership with Cintana Education, recognizes outstanding faculty from ASU’s network of 20 global partner universities.

“Through this initiative, we are building a global community of exceptional faculty from within the ASU Cintana Alliance network who are dedicated to shaping the future of educational excellence, research and innovation worldwide,” said Rick Shangraw Jr., president of Cintana Education.

The Global Partner Affiliate Faculty affiliation gives partner faculty the chance to engage exclusively with ASU teaching resources, the ASU Library and events, and opportunities to collaborate and network with key university leadership, such as their recent meet-and-greet with Nancy Gonzales, executive vice president and ASU provost, during a visit to the Tempe campus earlier this month.

“Global Partner Affiliate faculty are recognized for their outstanding scholarship, teaching and commitment to advancing a quality higher education for the students in their home regions," Gonzales said. "We are excited to welcome these faculty into the inaugural cohort of ambassadors. They will be advocates for the ASU Charter and will advance impactful academic collaborations between ASU and their home universities, as well as throughout the overall ASU Cintana Alliance network."

The Global Partner Affiliate Faculty affiliation not only recognizes the skills and achievements of these select faculty, but creates new opportunities to engage with ASU thought leaders on research of value, and allows the faculty to innovate their own contributions in the classroom and inspire their fellow faculty through ambassadorship in their own universities.  

“This affiliation is just one more way that Arizona State University is advancing activity and connectivity around the world through our unique partnership with Cintana Education,” said Lois Malone, head of student and faculty engagement for the ASU Office of Global Academic Initiatives. “Being affiliated with ASU will provide these international faculty with access to a diverse and vibrant academic community. Access to an environment that is conducive to innovative thinking can empower the affiliate faculty to infuse their research with fresh perspectives and implement impactful changes in their home institution.”

“The Global Partner Affiliate Faculty designation provides us with a unique opportunity to have access to extremely valuable resources. ... Additionally, it allows us to expand our international professional network and be able to collaborate with top researchers at ASU and the ASU Cintana Alliance Institutions,” Karkashian said. “I believe it will serve as a catalyst for the development of top-level, innovative, international research that can benefit us all: researchers, students, our academic institutions and our societies at large.”

Meeting of the inaugural cohort of Global Partner Affiliated Faculty. Pictured from left: Julia Rosen, vice president of Global Academic Initiatives; Christine Karkashian; ASU Provost Nancy Gonzales; Beatriz Corona-Figueroa; Alberto Figerio; and Rick Shangraw Jr., president of Cintana Education. Photo courtesy ASU Global Academic Initiatives

 The faculty named into the inaugural cohort are:

• Beatriz Corona-Figueroa, Universidad Autónoma de Guadalajara, Mexico
  Corona-Figueroa is a professor and researcher in the Department of Human Development, dean of social sciences and coordinator of the research committee of the academic unit of social, economic and administrative sciences at Universidad Autónoma de Guadalajara in Jalisco, Mexico.
  

• Christine Karkashian, Universidad Latina de Costa Rica (ULatina), Costa Rica
  Karkashian is a clinical and health psychologist with more than 20 years of experience in the field. She is a full-time research professor at the School of Psychology and an active collaborator at the Office of Research and Extension at ULatina in San Pedro de Montes de Oca, Costa Rica.
  

• Alberto Frigerio, Almaty Management University, Kazakhstan
  Frigerio is currently serving as a professor of international relations at Almaty Management University in Almaty, Kazakhstan.
  

• Jonathan Macayan, Mapúa University, the Philippines
  Macayan specializes in educational psychology and quantitative analysis. He is a registered psychologist, and has served as a full-time professor of social sciences and professional psychology courses for more than 20 years. He is currently a professor of psychology at Mapúa University in Metro Manila, Philippines.
  

• Idil Işıl Gül, Istanbul Bilgi University, Turkey
  Gül is a member of the law faculty, specializing in international law, human rights law and humanitarian law at Istanbul Bilgi University in Eyüpsultan, Turkey.

For more information or to collaborate with the ASU Cintana partnership, visit the Global Academic Initiatives website.