Kent State’s Vice President for University Relations Selected for Fulbright Award

Kent State University’s Vice President for University Relations Iris E. Harvey has been selected for a U.S.-France International Education Administrators Seminar award by the J. William Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board. The board is made up of 12 members appointed by the president of the United States. With this award, Harvey joins the ranks of other distinguished Fulbright alumni who have participated in the program since its inception more than 60 years ago.

The Fulbright International Education Administrators seminars provide selected senior administrators with the opportunity to gain in-depth knowledge about the host country’s higher education system as well as to establish networks of U.S. and international colleagues. Grantees return home with new relationships, deeper understanding of other higher education systems, and the enhanced ability to serve international students and encourage prospective study-abroad students.

Harvey oversees Kent State’s global branding initiatives and directs university communications, marketing and media relations, regional engagement and corporate affairs. She, along with 11 other selected administrators from across the United States, will spend three weeks in October in France with stops in Bordeaux, Paris and Strasbourg where they will visit with 12 universities, meet with French and European Union officials and attend events with industry and U.S. Embassy representatives.

“It’s a great honor to receive a Fulbright grant, and I am appreciative of Kent State’s support of this recognition,” Harvey said. “In addition to the incredible opportunity to dialogue with officials from a dozen universities in France, I am also excited about meeting and learning about how my counterparts at these institutions are developing public-private partnerships and helping to transform their regional economies. That’s something extra I can bring back to Northeast Ohio.”  

A resident of Stow, Ohio, Harvey has been with Kent State since 2008. She earned her bachelor’s degree in marketing and Master of Business Administration in international marketing from the University of Southern California, as well as an education specialist degree from George Washington University. Before joining Kent State, Harvey held senior marketing positions in higher education at Wright State University and the University of Maryland University College; was the CEO of an international consulting firm she founded and operated in Japan for nearly a decade;  and held a vice presidency positions at Citigroup Global Consumer Bank Group.

For more information about Kent State’s Division of University Relations, visit www.kent.edu/about/administration/ur.

For more information about the Fulbright International Education Administrators Program, visit www.cies.org/iea.

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Media Contacts:
Eric Mansfield, emansfie@kent.edu, 330-672-2797
Emily Vincent, evincen2@kent.edu, 330-672-8595