Thursday, July 22, 2021
Virtual Event hosted by The University of Michigan
The Institute on Best Practices for Health, Safety, Security and Risk Management, is education abroad’s signature annual event focusing on the risk management issues faced daily by organizations and institutions. Professionals in a variety of roles who are involved in managing international educational activities and associated risks gather each year at this Institute to debrief, train, improve and learn the latest in best practices in education abroad risk management, including regulatory compliance.
The practical, hands-on approach includes concurrent and plenary sessions that provide participants with a wealth of tools to review, strengthen, and improve institutional and organizational strategies for risk mitigation, incident management, and emergency response.
The goals of the Institute are to:
- Enhance the knowledge and skills necessary to meet the Standards by analyzing requirements and sharing examples of best practices;
- Explore approaches from within as well as outside the field of education abroad; and
- Enhance the overall safety and security of education abroad for the benefit of all participants.
The Institute Planning Committee designed this event to address the needs of practitioners responsible for risk management in education abroad. Particular themes of interest to this year’s Institute included:
- Re-examining risk management related to COVID-19 prevention and planning for post-COVID-19;
- Best practices in engaging students as partners in risk management;
- Best practices in engaging campus stakeholders in international risk management and legal compliance;
- Best practices in training and preparing faculty to lead experiences abroad;
- Issues of power and privilege in health and safety practices: ethical considerations when operating in under-resourced communities;
- How to empower and educate students with mental health issues who participate in education abroad and their program leaders and onsite staff to identify and support such students;
- Best practices and resources for supporting the health & safety of diverse and/or underrepresented populations in education abroad;
- Identifying technology that supports our health & safety efforts and practical applications of the use of that technology across institutional and organizational types; and,
- The increased role education abroad offices are being asked to take on concerning broader institutional travel and how to manage this in a landscape of limited resources and competing priorities.
Lunch Plenary: A Public Health Approach for Supporting the Mental Health and Well-Being of Students Engaging in Education Abroad Experiences
The Jed Foundation is leading the way for colleges and universities in implementing a comprehensive, public health and community-based model for protecting student emotional health and preventing suicide. JED helps to create campus-wide prevention and intervention strategies and advises on best-practice mental health policies, programs and services. This model can be very easily adapted to educational programs abroad and, if implemented strategically and comprehensively, is an investment in risk management practices. Dr. John Dunkle walked through seven overarching domain areas in the model and offered concrete examples of systems, policies, and programs for the application of the model from pre-departure through return to the home campus. He also spoke to the impact that the COVID pandemic has had on the emotional well-being of students in the last year and to factors that need to be weighed for the fall as campuses gradually consider resuming in-person instruction and programs.
Dr. John Dunkle is the Senior Clinical Director, Higher Education, at The Jed Foundation. He joined The Jed Foundation in June 2020 after a 25 year career at the Counseling and Psychological Services (CAPS at Northwestern University [NU]). John served as the Executive Director (CAPS) for 15 years. For 3 years, he also supervised the NU Center for Awareness, Response, and Education (CARE), which provides confidential advocacy and support services for students affected by sexual violence, relationship violence, and/or stalking. He received his B.A. degree in psychology, and his M.A. degree in experimental psychology from the State University of New York College at Cortland. He earned his Ph.D. degree in counseling psychology from the University at Albany, SUNY. He is a licensed psychologist in Illinois and New York and is credentialed by the National Register of Health Service Providers in Psychology. He is a member of the Association for University and College Counseling Center Directors, National Association of Student Personnel Administrators, and American College Health Association.
Thank you to the 2021 Institute Planning Committee:
Patrick Morgan, University of Michigan (co-chair)
Marisa Gray, Morgan State University (co-chair)
Brian Brubaker, The Pennsylvania State University
Christine Carroll, Florida State University
Morgan Inabinet, University of South Carolina
Leanne Johnson, University of Maryland
Aimee Jones, Colorado State University
Vinita Mehra, Kegler, Brown, Hill & Ritter
Natalie A. Mello, The Forum on Education Abroad
Wendy Pedersen, University of Southern California
Mathew Rader, IES Abroad
Seth Tucker, Syracuse University
