Global Pomona Council
The Global Pomona Council is called together at an extraordinary moment in the life of the College. Building on more than six decades of global engagement, language study and cross-cultural learning, and guided by our Strategic Vision, this Council is entrusted to strengthen the College’s work stewarding one of our community’s highest priorities: preparing every student to engage meaningfully with—and lead in—an interconnected world.
The scope of this work has expanded significantly since the earliest stages of planning. Global learning today must equip our students and community to confront pressing, complex challenges—climate change, forced migration, artificial intelligence, public health crises, disinformation, geopolitical unrest and democratic erosion, to name only a few. These issues defy solutions from a single discipline, linear methodologies and solitary creativity. They cannot be confined to geographic or cultural borders. They require collaboration across boundaries of every kind, and they demand that we center equity and justice as guiding commitments.
This means carrying forward the 2023 Global Pomona Strategic Plan, realizing the promise of our new cross-disciplinary Center for Global Engagement and ensuring that these efforts embody the rigor, inclusivity and creativity that define a Pomona education.
We recognize that the members of this Council bring remarkable insight, creativity, and critical perspective. As stewards, you are asked to listen closely, question thoughtfully and act with the community’s best interests in mind. Your expertise will help shape policies and practices, identify connections worth pursuing, and guide the College as we build the Center for Global Engagement—not just a building, but as a catalyst for a new era of interdisciplinary inquiry, global learning and community connection.
This is serious and hopeful work. Together, we will ensure that every Pomona student is equipped not only to succeed but also to lead and to thrive in an interconnected world—that they are engaged, curious and prepared to act with courage and self-awareness. With your leadership, the Pomona College community will not only respond to the demands of a changing world; we will shape it.
Charge to the Global Pomona Council
The Global Pomona Council (GPC) provides guidance to the College on its global and interdisciplinary strategic priorities to advance Pomona's liberal arts mission. The GPC also provides insight on communications, coordination and planning during the development of the Center for Global Engagement as well as contributing to related College policies and working as appropriate with related offices and decision-making bodies on campus.
Guiding Principles
The Council's work is grounded in a commitment to:
- Global learning and research as defined by the 2023 Global Pomona Strategic;
- Experiential and immersive opportunities that transcend boundaries to focus on complex global interdisciplinary challenges; and
- Intentional, inclusive collaboration that brings together diverse perspectives from students, faculty and staff to ensure equitable access, productive dialogue and sustainable solutions.
Global Pomona Council Members
* faculty appointed by the Faculty Executive Committee
- Kara Godwin Assistant Vice President and Chief Global Officer (Chair)
- Heidi Haddad* Associate Professor of Politics; Coordinator of International Relations
- Marc Los Huertos* Stephen M. Pauley M.D. '62 Professor of Environmental Analysis; Coordinator of Environmental Analysis
- Daniel Martinez* Professor of Biology
- Pamela Prickett* Associate Professor of Sociology
- Victoria Sancho Lobis* Sarah Rempel and Herbert S. Rempel ’23 Director of the Benton Museum; Associate Professor of Art History
- Pierre Englebert H. Russell Smith Professor of International Relations; Professor of Politics; Oldenborg Faculty Fellow
- Feng Xiao Associate Professor of Asian Languages and Literatures; Oldenborg Faculty Fellow
- Anne Dwyer Associate Professor of German and Russian; Chair of German and Russian
- Senem Bakar Interim Director of Oldenborg
- Nicole Desjardins Gowdy Senior Director of International and Domestic Programs
- Josh Eisenberg Associate Dean of Students and Dean of Campus Life
- Pierangelo De Pace Associate Dean of the College; Professor of Economics
- Shannon Randolf Director of Global Social Impact at the HIVE
- Crystal Gammon Assistant Vice President, Advancement Communications