Dear Members of the Brown Community,

I am pleased to announce the appointment of Asabe W. Poloma as the assistant provost for global engagement and director of the Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellows program. Currently the associate dean of the College for international students, Asabe will begin in her new role effective immediately. She will assume the responsibilities related to global engagement that have been managed by Deputy Provost Shankar Prasad, who has done exceptional work over the last five years in the area of global engagement at and for Brown, and who will continue in the broader role of deputy provost.

Reporting directly to the provost, the assistant provost for global engagement is the University’s senior officer for international engagement, representing the University locally and globally with a range of member associations. In this role, Asabe will be responsible for cultivating a vibrant and well-supported international community of students, staff, faculty and visitors, and ensuring effective and efficient operations that advance the University’s global reach and impact. Working with a team of colleagues in the Office of Global Engagement and across the University, she will coordinate and support Brown’s international strategy, both on campus and around the world, harnessing resources, streamlining processes and developing strategic approaches to facilitate and optimize overall University efforts.

Asabe Poloma is especially well-positioned for this critical appointment. She joined the Brown community in October 2017, and has worked closely with international students in her position as associate dean of the College, where she has also been responsible for academic advising, curriculum development and academic support for the international undergraduate community. She has been instrumental in supporting the College’s strategic and inclusive focus on the distinctive needs of Brown’s international students and students from historically underrepresented groups. She has overseen the Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellowship Program -- a pipeline program with the goal of increasing the number of students from historically underrepresented groups who pursue careers in the professoriate -- which she will continue to direct as assistant provost. She also brings a depth of knowledge of the work of the Office of Global Engagement, having served as the liaison for the College to the Office, and co-chair of  the Global Brown Diversity and Inclusion Action Plan Committee and International Student Advisory Board.

Prior to joining the Brown community, Asabe was executive director of the Institute for Recruitment of Teachers at Phillips Academy Andover. She also worked at The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, and the Hampton Roads Refugee and Immigration Services. She serves on the boards of Diversity Abroad Network and The Steppingstone Foundation’s National Partnership for Educational Access. 

She earned a BA in Political Science from Hampton University, an MA in International Relations from Old Dominion University, an MS in Non-Profit Management from Columbia University, and her PhD in Higher Education from the University of Massachusetts, Boston. As a researcher, her scholarship focuses on critical internationalization studies, and race, equity and education in the U.S. and transnational contexts. She has taught secondary school, undergraduate and graduate-level courses on globalization and higher education, gender and leadership studies, and global inclusion and social development. 

I am delighted that Asabe will be joining the Office of the Provost in this important leadership role, particularly at this juncture when it is so vitally important.

Sincerely,

Richard M. Locke, Provost