Message from Fulbright Association President Patricia Krebs

It is my great pleasure to announce that our board of directors has approved the selection of a new executive director for the Fulbright Association: Stephen Reilly. This announcement follows a year of transformative change in the Fulbright Association.

Steve was selected from a very strong field of 145 applicants. Our search committee consisted of seven board members who spent much of the spring and summer reviewing resumes, choosing the top candidates, and conducting a number of interviews by phone, videoconference, and in person. As the top candidate, Steve accepted our offer in the week before the London conference and joined us there, as he has done at many of the Association’s gatherings over the past few years.

Steve brings a strong background to the role of ED. During his Fulbright year in Sweden, he earned a master’s degree in peace and conflict studies at Uppsala University. After serving as lead project manager for Synergics, Inc., he founded Global Experiences, Inc., an international education organization that provides internships, foreign language training, and English language training abroad. He has been very active in the Fulbright Association, serving on the board of the National Capital Area Chapter since 2009. Steve officially begins on January 2, 2013, and I hope you’ll welcome and support him as he assumes this important leadership role.

The selection of a new executive director capped an unprecedented year of change in our organization. As you know, board member Mary Ellen Schmider graciously accepted the challenge of serving as our executive director this year. She and her strong staff have done an amazing job of planning and executing our traditional events, including the Fulbright Prize award ceremony and the annual conference. Along with the board, they also have played a role in some of the important changes that have taken place, which are outlined below.

· We have replaced our old and highly dysfunctional technology with a system that integrates office and website information. We are still migrating data onto the new system and, when that process is complete, we will have technology that gives the national office and the chapters access to better information about our members.

· We held a first-ever gathering of chapter leaders in Washington, DC, in the two days before the Prize event. Chapter leaders will meet again in 2013, and we hope to make this an annual gathering.

· An international selection committee, chaired by Dr. Craig Barrett, selected Doctors Without Borders/Medecins Sans Frontieres as the recipient of the 2012 J. William Fulbright Prize for International Understanding. MSF, the first organization ever to be chosen, gratefully accepted the award, which includes a $50,000 check from the Prize endowment, and they announced their plan to use the funding for drug-resistant TB efforts.

· We are now beginning an expansion of the FA office, which is located on Dupont Circle. We hope you will visit the office when you are in the D.C. area.

Our executive committee and board have worked hard to make the decisions and achieve these accomplishments that will move our organization forward. As volunteers, our executive committee and board members are not reimbursed for time or expenses. They have given unprecedented amounts of time this year, with the goal of developing the technology, staff, programs and policies that will make this a more vibrant organization.

It’s a pleasure to bring our new executive director on board at this time. With his passion for international exchanges and his experience we believe Steve will help us build on this transformation.

Current Executive Director Mary Ellen Schmider and Future Executive Director Stephen Reilly