For the second year, the UAB Center for Teaching and Learning (CTL) is facilitating its signature Global Awareness Ambassadors program, a next-level training opportunity for faculty members interested in serving as international student academic success champions within their units across campus.
This academic year, 12 faculty members representing eight different schools are participating in this cohort-based training model. The group functions as a professional learning community, in which participants are exploring the literature on teaching multilingual and cross-cultural learners, growing their intercultural understanding of the shift that students undergo as they adjust to studying in a different academic culture, and engaging collaboratively on ideas to provide tailored support to their colleagues and students.
The Global Awareness Ambassadors program is a spin-off of the CTL’s Global Awareness workshop series, which supports faculty and advisors as they promote international student academic success across campus and seek to grow as intercultural liaisons. UAB has over 1,500 international students from over 90 countries studying across the campus this academic year, throughout undergraduate and graduate, clinical and classroom settings.
Ambassadors for the 2025-26 year include the following faculty: (front row, left to right, in photo) Diane Tanly, Collat School of Business; Molly Richardson, School of Public Health; Margaret Enslow, School of Public Health; Janelle Sventek, School of Optometry; Jon Bowie, School of Dentistry; (back row, left to right) Melissa Hawkins, CTL Associate Director; Robert Estes, School of Health Professions; Jonathan Roth, School of Medicine; Matthew Ward, School of Health Professions; Nuo Xu, Collat School of Business; Mahmut Unan, College of Arts and Sciences; Tatjana Coric, School of Medicine and Graduate School; Mingxiao Sui, College of Arts and Sciences.
Last year’s Global Awareness Ambassadors brought presented their ideas at the first annual International Student Academic Success Retreat at the CTL in May, which was attended by over 40 people representing nine UAB schools and six student-facing units. Ambassadors who completed the program in the 2024-25 year included Rachel Ashcraft, School of Health Professions; Yu-Yin Lin, School of Dentistry; Rush Neil, Collat School of Business; Sally Anne Perz, College of Arts and Sciences; Liang Shan, School of Nursing; and Amber Wagner, College of Arts and Sciences.
The CTL provides workshops both on site on the 4th floor of Lister Hill Library as well as in units throughout campus. Melissa Hawkins, Ph.D., a veteran international educator with over 25 years of experience in the field, facilities these workshops. For more information on the Global Awareness program, contact Dr. Melissa Hawkins at