About Us
The mission of the Fulbright Association is to advocate for the Fulbright Program and promote international education. Our vision is a world where international exchange is widely recognized as a force for peace.
Alabama Chapter of the Fulbright Association
The Alabama Chapter of the Fulbright Association is a statewide chapter serving Fulbright alumni and friends of international exchange. The chapter is focused on hosting engaging programs and events for Fulbright alumni and visiting Fulbright students and scholars throughout Alabama. The chapter primarily hosts events in Auburn and Montgomery.
PRESIDENT
VICE PRESIDENT
Leadership
PRESIDENT
Dr. Chippewa M. Thomas
Dr. Chippewa M. Thomas directs the Office of Faculty Engagement, a division of the Vice President’s Office for University Outreach at Auburn University. She is also a full professor of Counselor Education (Clinical Mental Health) programs in the Department of Special Education, Rehabilitation, Counseling/School Psychology in the College of Education. She conducts research, and is engaged in outreach activities locally and abroad that have allowed her to produce community engaged scholarship.
VICE PRESIDENT
Dr. Leslie Ann Cordie
SECRETARY
Dr. Ashley Brown
Dr. Brown holds a doctorate in Counselor Education and Supervision from Auburn University. She is an Associate Licensed Counselor and a Nationally Certified Counselor through the National Board for Certified Counselors. She is one of the Co-founders of the Lee County Remembrance Project in partnership with the Equal Justice Initiative. This project is a community driven initiative working to reconcile the racial terror, violence and trauma which occurred in Lee County, Alabama.
TREASURER
Dr. Chelsea L. Jones
Dr. Brown holds a doctorate in Counselor Education and Supervision from Auburn University. She is an Associate Licensed Counselor and a Nationally Certified Counselor through the National Board for Certified Counselors. She is one of the Co-founders of the Lee County Remembrance Project in partnership with the Equal Justice Initiative. This project is a community driven initiative working to reconcile the racial terror, violence and trauma which occurred in Lee County, Alabama.
BOARD MEMBER
Jilisa is an attorney and social worker in Birmingham who currently serves as Executive Director of GASP, an environmental justice and climate justice organization in Central Alabama. She completed a 2014 Fulbright ETA in Yogyakarta, a city in the Island of Java in Indonesia. After returning, Jilisa became a Fulbright Ambassador. She enjoys hiking, traveling, and learning about ways she can encourage dialogue about advocacy in the areas of racial justice and sustainability.
BOARD MEMBER
Dr. Stacye Fraser Thompson
Dr. Stacye Fraser Thompson is the Coordinator of International Student Services at Jefferson State Community College. She has worked in international education for more than 25 years in immigration advising, admissions, community outreach, and education abroad activities. She was a Fulbright to Germany in 2022 as part of the U.S.- Germany International Education Administrators Award with her project focused on refugee services within Germany. She serves at the Executive Director of Study Alabama, SIO At-Large for the Community Colleges for International Development.
BOARD MEMBER
Dr. Priya Menon
Dr. Priya Menon is a professor of English at Troy University, where she teaches Literary Theory, World Literature, and Global Anglophone Literature. Dr. Menon studies the literary history of migrants in the Arabian Gulf, primarily from South Asia in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. Her work has been funded by the U.S. Department of Educational and Cultural Affairs (Fulbright-Nehru Senior Fellow for Excellence in Research and Teaching 2018), the Alabama Humanities Foundation (Great Books Reading Initiative 2016), and the National Endowment for the Arts (Big Read 2015). During her Fulbright, she conducted research on Emigrant Literature in the state of Kerala, India, documenting stories of migrant workers who went to the Gulf Cooperation Council countries. She is a member of MLA, SAMLA, SALA, and Phi Kappa Phi, and she has received Troy University’s Ingalls Award for Excellence in Classroom Teaching (2009). Additionally, she serves as a Fulbright Scholar Alumni Ambassador for the U.S. Department of State.
BOARD MEMBER
Dr. Elizabeth Quansah
Dr. Quansah is the Founding Director of the Auburn University Office of Outreach Global, a unit under University Outreach. Outreach Global is to facilitate global engagement and establishment of collaborative relationships with universities, nonacademic institutions, and communities across the globe.She has developed several global service-learning programs in selected countries in Sub-Saharan Africa, Asia, and Europe. For the past three years, Elizabeth in collaboration with the AU College of Business has trained women and youth in Benin, West African through Success Through Entrepreneurship Training
(STEP). STEP is a going program partially funded by the U.S. Embassy in Cotonou, Benin.
BOARD MEMBER
Dr. Reggie Mitchell
Reggie Mitchell is an experienced international educator and professional. His career spans across the spectrum as a Special Education Teacher, Adult Education Instructor, International ESL Professional, and Psychometry. He completed a Fulbright Teaching Assignment in Northern Ireland and the English Language Fellowship (ELF) Program in South Africa. He was a pilot participant in the Taiwan Teacher Exchange Program via another US State Department Program and spent his last year abroad in Japan as an employee of the Department of Defense Education Activity. A proud graduate of Stillman College, he is the President of the newly activated Dallas Forth-Worth (DFW) Alumni Chapter. He’s a member of the Rotary International, Fulbright Alumni Association (lifetime member), Stillman’s National Alumni Association (lifetime member), and Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity, Inc. He successfully completed a three-year stint as a Global Ties Alabama board member. A School Psychologist by profession, Reggie owns and operates his own contracting and consulting business: Mitchell Education Services where he works closely with Test publishing companies as a data collector/field researcher in the DFW area. Reggie also holds graduate degrees from the University of West Alabama and the University of Alabama.