Dawn Michele Whitehead

Dr. Dawn Michele Whitehead is the Vice President of the Office of Global Citizenship for Campus, Community and Careers at the American Association of Colleges and Universities (AAC&U). Her office focuses on advancing practices and strategies to integrate and advance equitable participation in global learning, integrative learning, community-based learning, and experiential learning across curricular and co-curricular initiatives to prepare students for life, work, and citizenship. She also serves as the program director of AAC&U’s Annual Meeting and draws on the broader work of AAC&U members and contemporary issues in higher education to create a compelling and timely meeting.

At AAC&U, Whitehead's work centers on integrative global learning with an emphasis on thematic local and international experiences that provide students with a variety of global learning opportunities across their educational experiences. She also works on projects that integrate high-impact practices across general education and the majors to provide students with consistent, high-quality liberal learning, and engages and collaborates across offices at AAC&U on curricular transformation. Dr. Whitehead has presented and published nationally and internationally on global learning, community engaged learning, curricular change, and engaged learning. She was named an inaugural member of the Institute for International Education’s National Academy for International Education. Whitehead also serves as vice chair of the board of directors for The Forum on Education Abroad.

Prior to joining AAC&U, Whitehead served as the Director of Curriculum Internationalization with teaching responsibilities in the global and international studies program at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI). Whitehead was the faculty director for community based global learning programs in Costa Rica, Ghana, and Kenya, and her research evolved from a focus on education and educators in Ghana to the impact of community based global learning on students and community partners. Whitehead also instituted the use of interactive videoconferencing as a tool to infuse globalized experiences for students on campus. As a campus leader, Whitehead facilitated interdisciplinary campus initiatives and professional development around global learning, internationalizing the curriculum, and international service learning. Finally, she guided efforts to assess global learning for students engaged with both local and international communities and for students participating in classes on the IUPUI campus and abroad.

Dr. Whitehead earned a Ph.D. in Education Policy Studies with concentrations in African Studies and International and Comparative Education from Indiana University, Bloomington.

Areas of Expertise

• Civic Engagement
• Education Abroad
• Global Learning
• Global Service Learning
• International and Comparative Education
• Internationalization of the Curriculum