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Office of International and Global Engagements

Our Office #

We are committed to promoting education with a global focus where international collaborative learning, research, and service are an integral part of the academic community.  

A leader in global social work education actively promoting collective transformation and mutual wellbeing for all.

Through education, research, service and practice, our work is grounded in human rights, social justice, and anti-oppressive frameworks. We connect, we engage, we learn, we transform, and are transformed by our global communities.

  1. To prepare our graduates to effectively engage with a local-global and international context [Curricula].
  2. To increase recruitment, retention, mobility, career advancement, and a sense of belonging of international students, staff, and faculty [Outreach/Diversity]
  3. To enhance opportunities for international professional development, research, service, employment, and teaching to embrace the local-global context (Students, Faculty & Staff/Development]
  4. To promote engagement opportunities that are affordable and accessible for students, staff, and faculty to embrace global learning and involvement [Community-University Engagement]
  5. To strengthen existing local-global partnerships and foster new opportunities for mutual intercultural collaboration. [Partnerships]
  6. To foster the development of transformative and responsive global citizens guided by principles of anti-oppressive practice, human rights, cultural humility, and social justice.

Note: The local-global perspective goes beyond nation-state borders and encompasses our interdependence and interconnectivity with domestic and international engagements that enhance the quality of life for all.  

Meet Our Team #

  • Director of International and Global Engagements & Associate Professor

    Dr. Carmen Luca Sugawara

    Dr. Luca Sugawara brings more than 30 years of experience in international social work and social development, working and researching on issues such as civil society networking, civil society strengthening, social capital, community development, and global social work education. She has worked in Romania, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, and has traveled extensively throughout the world. Dr. Luca Sugawara has taught or supervised students in Croatia, Romania, Kosovo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Greece, Albania and Bulgaria. In her efforts to strengthen global social work education, Dr. Luca Sugawara supported the development of a Master of Social Work program in a postwar region of Croatia. Her commitment to decolonizing global social work education is evidenced through her book projects, service, and her most recent scholarship focusing on the role of community-university engagements in strengthening local capacity for development. She leads a community-based study abroad program in Croatia and, in her new role, works on increasing the capacity of the school to engage in international and global social work education and practice.

  • Chair of the International and Global Engagement Committee & Associate Professor

    Dr. Eric Kyere

    Dr. Kyere is the Chair of the International and Global Engagement Committee, an Associate Professor of Social Work, and an Adjunct Professor of Africana Studies. His work spans three continents, strengthening structural competence among social work students and practitioners in Croatia, Ghana and the USA. He leads a graduate study abroad program in Ghana, working on the mechanisms by which historically harmful practices and structures (such as the transatlantic slave trade) continue to shape our contemporary social realities. Also, as a visiting faculty at the University of Osijek, he teaches and engages in global social work education and practice. His latest work explores de-hierarchical ways of advancing diversity and inclusion in education abroad.

  • International Field Education Coordinator & Clinical Associate Professor

    Erika Galyean

    Ms. Galyean has over 20 years of experience in in-field education, coordinating 1000+ generalist and advanced practice internships, recruiting, developing, and assessing field placement sites, and advising students. She coordinates international field education for IUSSW and is the MSW Field Coordinator for graduate social work students in Health or Community & Organizational Leadership. She developed new practicum sites in Croatia and Kosovo and sustained the one in South Africa.. her work is recognized through multiple awards received from Indiana University

  • Administrative Assistant

    Kay Jeter

    Kay Jeter, as an administrative assistant, supports the IGE Office in planning, designing marketing materials, organizing events, and managing scholarship applications for international experiences.