Diana Chigas (F '88) has been appointed to the newly-created position of senior international officer as of Sept. 1 in an effort to continue increasing Tufts’ global presence and ensure that Tufts alumni and faculty can work successfully abroad.
“There was a sense that Tufts does a lot internationally, but both the visibility and impact is not as great as it could be, and that we could also do better at filling in gaps here, bringing global issues here and providing opportunities to students here,” Chigas said.
According to Provost David Harris, no one was previously responsible for developing and leading the university's global strategy.
Before the senior international officer position existed, Chigas said that it was not easy for Tufts-associated researchers, students and faculty to connect outside of the United States.
“There’s a lot to bring together, and part of my role is to help facilitate those connections,” she said.
International work and international relations are integral parts of Tufts, Harris said, and it is therefore important to facilitate easier access to grant proposal applications and funding for international programs.
“This is the part that people don’t get as excited about necessarily, but if it doesn’t work well, you notice,” Harris said. "If you want to do a project in country X or you get funding to do it in country Y, can you do that?"
Harris explained that under the previous system, it was unclear who should be coordinating the work done in other countries. The senior international officer will help reduce "friction" that has been caused by confusion over who the "point-person" was.
“This position will make it as easy as possible to achieve your goals,” Harris said.
Chigas graduated from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy with a Master of Arts in Law and Diplomacy and has been teaching there for about nine years. Now, her time is split between teaching and working as senior international officer.
She explained that her work entails two main ideas: consolidating information and forming a concrete global strategy.
“We're trying to pull together information about what Tufts does [internationally] and make it available to people … where are people working, what kinds of themes are they working in ... and also really working on the global strategy piece, asking questions around where are Tufts’ strengths and what is Tufts’ niche globally across the university," she said.
Chigas said that Tufts is a very decentralized university and that the goals of her new position are also decentralized in order to facilitate international projects without impeding the students and faculty carrying them out.
Dean of the Fletcher School James Stavridis said the goal of the position should be to help bring together the university's various schools.
“We think it is very sensible for the university to try and coordinate international efforts around campus,” he said.
He added that he is looking forward to hearing about what the Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine and the Tufts University School of Medicine, which tend to have less obvious international presences, are doing abroad.
He also noted that Chigas' reputation would help with the task of coordinating large-scale international efforts for Tufts in the future.
"[Chigas is] a very well-regarded professor here in international relations,” Stavridis said.
Going forward, Chigas wants to see increased awareness in Tufts’ international presence, along with a system that will make it easier to apply for work or research outside of the United States. Chigas also hopes to target areas where Tufts community members may be starting research but where Tufts is still not very well represented.
With the creation of this position, Tufts stands poised to coordinate its international goals while fostering increased connection with the world, Chigas explained.
“We are in the process of developing a global strategy, so we will start to think about how to increase Tufts’ visibility and how to increase our impact in some areas, hopefully by providing and being able to track some resources to be able to do that," Chigas said. "I’d love to have faculty come and say, ‘I’ve been working in East Africa, for example, and I feel I can do it, and there’s no hiccups.'"
Diana Chigas of Fletcher School appointed first Senior International Officer
