CHAMPAIGN, Ill. - Reitumetse Obakeng Mabokela has been named the vice provost for international affairs and global strategies at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, pending approval at the Nov. 13 Board of Trustees meeting.
Mabokela is the assistant dean for international studies in education at Michigan State University and co-director of its Global Center for Food Systems Innovation, and has worked on a host of projects addressing global food and education issues.
She earned her master's degree in labor and industrial relations in 1994 and a doctorate in educational policy studies in 1998 - both from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
She started teaching at MSU as a visiting professor in 1999 and was named a full professor with tenure in 2010.
Mabokela is expected to start in her new position at the U. of I. Jan. 16.
Named a Fulbright New Century Scholars Fellow in 2006, she currently is co-investigator on a $24 million research project sponsored by the United States Agency for International Development designed to address critical global food problems. The work focuses on the effects of climate change, population growth and rapid urbanization, and how to develop and train the next generation of global problem-solvers.
Illinois is among the most internationally active of the nation's public research universities, said Ilesanmi Adesida, the U. of I's provost and vice chancellor for academic affairs, and it is critical to the university's land-grant mission to expand and deepen those relationships.
"Professor Mabokela is a proven scholar with academic and administrative expertise in higher education and an incredible level of involvement in the global community," Adesida said. "She is exactly the right person at the right time to lead our strategic efforts forward."
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