Northwestern Names Task Force to Plan Global Strategy

EVANSTON, Ill. --- Provost Daniel Linzer has announced the formation of a task force charged with defining a global engagement strategy for Northwestern University in the coming decade. With the recent transformative gift from Roberta Buffett Elliott to create the Buffett Institute for Global Studies, it is an important time to assess the University’s progress to date and to determine and affirm Northwestern’s strategic intentions going forward.

The task force is co-chaired by Sally Blount, dean and Michael L. Nemmers Professor of Management and Organizations at the Kellogg School of Management, and Nim Chinniah, executive vice president of the University.

In announcing the formation of the task force, Linzer noted that Northwestern has a distinctive collection of intellectual, human, physical and financial assets to leverage in the area of global engagement -- and has made strong progress in expanding and integrating them over the past decade.

The development of a global strategy will enhance the integration of the various initiatives currently underway and planned for the future, especially strengthening the University’s ability to recruit the most talented faculty and students from around the world and preparing its students to work in a global economy, aware of its unique environmental, political and socio-economic challenges.

It also will help Northwestern in its efforts to build a community that values and fully incorporates diversity and a broad variety of cultural perspectives as well as to equip and inspire its faculty to study the most pressing problems of the world.

The task force members are:

Sally Blount, dean and Michael L. Nemmers Professor of Management and Organizations, Kellogg School of Management

Nim Chinniah, executive vice president

Mary Baglivo, vice president for global marketing and chief marketing officer

Beth Bennett, assistant professor, director of Undergraduate Journalism Program, Medill School of Journalism, Media, Integrated Marketing Communications

Dr. Rowland W. (Bing) Chang, senior associate dean for public health; director, Institute for Public Health and Medicine; professor in preventive medicine, medicine-rheumatology and physical medicine and rehabilitation, Feinberg School of Medicine

Dilip Gaonkar, associate professor, rhetoric and public culture; director of the Center for Global Culture and Communication, School of Communication

Beth Shakman Hurd, associate professor of political science, Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences

Sanchita Kanthadai, Class of 2016, School of Education and Social Policy

Melih Keyman, member, Board of Trustees; president, CEO and founder of Keytrade AG

Robert Mills, doctoral candidate in the Rhetoric and Public Culture program, School of Communication

Julio M. Ottino, dean and Distinguished Robert R. McCormick Institute Professor and Walter P. Murphy Professor of Chemical and Biological Engineering, McCormick School of Engineering and Applied Science

Daniel B. Rodriguez, dean and Harold Washington Professor, School of Law

Staff support will be provided by Eileen McCarthy, director, Office of Change Management.