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 curricular and cocurricular initiatives and practices that advance equitable participation in global learning, integrative learning, and community-based learning for all students for preparation 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 experience. 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. She has published several articles and book chapters on these topics.

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 global service-learning programs in Costa Rica, Ghana, Kenya, and the Kingdom of Swaziland, and her research evolved from a focus on education and educators in Ghana to the impact of service 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, Whitehead 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.

Whitehead earned her BA in History and Afro-American Studies, her MS in International and Comparative Education, and her PhD in Education Policy Studies with a concentration in African Studies and a minor in International and Comparative Education, all from Indiana University Bloomington.

Areas of Expertise

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