Contact Us
Contact:
Rebecca Coughlin
Director, SIS Inclusive Excellence Initiatives
SIS Voices
SIS Values at Work in the World
Inclusive Excellence is at the heart of our work at the School of International Service. Varied perspectives help generate better ideas to solve the complex challenges of today’s world. For the next generation of leaders, ensuring that different perspectives, experiences, and identities are valued and heard will be essential for achievingÌýgreater creativity, deeper self-learning, transnational cooperation, and enhanced capacity for collective impact. As a top-ten school of international affairs, we have both an opportunity and a responsibility to practice these values in everything we do. SIS embraces our responsibility to prepare students for these leadership roles in the service of the world.
Achieving our goals requires an unwavering commitment to challenge and dismantle ongoing obstacles embedded in our society that disproportionately impact historically underserved groups in higher education and the professional field of international affairs.
SIS commits to increasing fostering and promoting an inclusive excellenceÌýmindsetÌýthrough the following actions:
- fostering a climate of understanding and support to enable an SIS community that serves everyone well
- actively listening to, learning from, and reflecting on the range of contributions and experiences of our local and global communities
- recruiting students, staff, faculty, and administrators in communities that have often been left outÌýby creating strategic partnerships and pipelines
- enriching course curricula and scholarship to broaden representation of voices and viewpointsÌý
- increasing the use of inclusive pedagogical approaches in the classroom—which integrate scholars, methods, and topics that have often been left out—to better serve all students
- advancing knowledge that values marginalized methods and topics to broaden the field and its audience while creating space to amplify works of scholars that have not been recognized for their value in the field
- preparing students to practice respect and empathy across difference in their careers and lives
- ²¹²õ²õ¾±²õ³Ù¾±²Ô²µÌýall students, staff, faculty, and administrators in learning to engage with a wide variety of people, ideas, cultures, and traditions
- using our social capital to expand professional and educational pathways for students from underserved groups
- expanding financial and other resources designated for making student access to academic, experiential, and professional development opportunities more possible for all studentsÌý
- offering programs and events to highlight both topics that often have been excluded from discourse as well as structural barriers that inhibit the field of international affairs
Mission, Vision, and Values
The Advisory Council’s mission is to assist the school in building aÌýcommunity that affirms our similarities and differences as strengths that help us create aÌýcultureÌýand curriculum with educational and social benefits for all. We envision an SIS community where pedagogy takes into account a variety of perspectives--includingÌýhidden perceptions--acrossÌýall programs and student levels as well as an approachÌýto our planning and programming that will create an environment in which every member of the community to thrive.
We believe that the values of interculturalÌýcompetence and inclusiveÌýexcellence are critical not only to fulfilling our missionÌýof educating and preparing students to wage peaceÌýand serve humanity but alsoÌýto our collegial interactions that model navigating difference with respect andÌýempathy.
We will continue to work toward a community where students, faculty,Ìýand staff are empoweredÌýto risk honesty and express themselves freely in aÌýsupportive environment that fosters curiosity and self-awareness while valuingÌýdifference. With a commitment to equal opportunity, we will build a community whereÌýeveryone feels welcome and thrives.
Current Members of the Advisory Council
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Co-Chairs
- Rebecca Coughlin
- Mohammed Abu-Nimer
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Faculty
- Horace Bartilow
- Betsy Cohn
- Anders Hardig
- John King
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Staff
- Sola Adeleye
- Matt Kaulius
- Sara Jones
- Sandra Martinez
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Students
- Giulia Rozzo (graduate student)
- Mishti MishraÌý(undergraduate student)
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Balancing Lawyering and Graduate Studies

Jeffrey Jordan, SIS/MA ’25
Remember the joy that your passion brings you.
Working full-time in law while pursuing a master’s is challenging, but it’s what I’ve dreamed of since childhood. SIS keeps me focused on serving a greater cause, while my family and friends provide the support I need to manage stress. With just a few months until graduation, I remind myself this is everything I’ve ever wanted, and my support system couldn’t be prouder.