CIGE’s Barbara Hill Recognized for Lifetime Service to International Higher Education
February 27, 2017

ACE’s Barbara Hill received the AIEA Charles Klasek Award at the Association of International Education Administrators (AIEA) Annual Conference on Tuesday, Feb. 21. Presented each year, the award celebrates an individual who has given long-term and exceptional service to the field of international education.

The award was presented by Gil Latz, associate vice chancellor for international affairs at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis and president of AIEA. Latz called Hill a “fountain of knowledge, mentor, and wise guide.”

After a distinguished career spanning nearly five decades, Hill will retire in October from full-time employment at ACE, where she has played an integral role in leading internationalization activities since 2004. Since earning her Ph.D. in English in 1975, she has held a wide variety of positions in higher education, including faculty member, associate dean, provost, college president, and, as she puts it, “one terrifying year as an interim admissions director.” In 1979, Hill was selected to become an ACE Fellow. Hill also has served as a senior fellow at the Association of American Colleges and Universities.

As a faculty member in the 1970s and 1980s Hill designed the syllabus for her Shakespeare courses to reflect his contributions to world literature. Her commitment to internationalization continued as she rose through the administrative ranks, expanding beyond the classroom to encompass faculty policies and practices, the co-curriculum, and student mobility, among other areas. In short, Hill began implementing “comprehensive internationalization” well before the term itself was coined.

In 2004, Hill took over the administration of ACE’s Internationalization Laboratory midway through the first cohort’s term. Over the past 12 years, she has built, expanded and refined the program—now one of ACE’s flagship offerings—through her diligent, thoughtful hard work. To date, she has led over 100 participating colleges and universities through a strategic planning process for internationalization that is customized to the needs of the institution and engages the full campus community.

While the Lab has generated significant results for individual institutions, the ripple effect of her work has increased its impact exponentially. The materials and case examples Hill has gathered from Lab institutions over the years form the cornerstone of ACE resources such as the Internationalization Toolkit and the Internationalization in Action web series that are used by countless practitioners and leaders in the field.

“Barbara's impact on the internationalization of U.S. higher education cannot be overstated,” said one long-time associate and senior international officer who attended the awards luncheon.

For more information about the programs and resources mentioned above, see ACE’s Center for Internationalization and Global Engagement.