We are aware our members have been the subjects of a phishing scam from a false email purporting to be our president, Rod Kennett, seeking to discuss reimbursements. Please note we will never ask you for your personal banking details by email, and that we use secure payment systems such as PayPal to process financial transactions. Please ignore these emails.

The Fulbright community were deeply saddened by the passing of Fulbright Alumnus Susanita Dudley on September 28.  Susanita was an indefatigable supporter of Australian Fulbright Alumni Association, serving in many committee roles, and always active in welcoming new alumni and building networks and connections. She was particularly passionate in fundraising for the WG Walker Fund and hosted many fundraising events through the years.

Those of us that knew her well all were struck by her energy and joie de vivre. She was thoughtful and energetic and always embraced new friends. Through the years she was there for a call, a walk through a museum, and often a bouquet of native flowers or a special bottle of wine to celebrate life’s events. She was ever the friend and host and notably the perfect complement to Earl’s more sober demeanour.

Sadly, Susanita’s death was just 12months after the death of her husband Earl Dudley.  Susanita and Earl were always proud that they met through the Fulbright program, and together, actively promoted Fulbright values throughout their lives.  Despite her difficult illness, Susanita remained stoic and cheerful, working to her last days to ensure that her family, friends and the Fulbright community benefited from her and Earl’s estate. 

Susanita and Earl’s donation to AFAA will be used to support networking and professional support opportunities for Fulbright alumni, including supporting Fulbright Australia to increase First Nations Australian participation in Fulbright opportunities.

Vale, Susanita!

AFAA has launched its official LinkedIn and Twitter page and we invite you to follow and connect with us.

AFAA is enjoying a refresh this year with some new activities including:

We invite you to engage in our supportive network. With alumni and current scholars working across the globe, AFAA’s LinkedIn and Twitter page will enable you to interact with one another, share ideas and knowledge, inspire others, promote free thinking, and encourage debates and ideas. AFAA also has a Facebook page and, if you haven’t already, we also invite you to like us.  

We look forward to engaging with you online!

Dear Colleagues,

I am deeply honoured (and a little trepidatious) to step into the role of AFAA President. AFAA has been ably led for over 6 years by Dr Ian Butterworth and he is indeed a hard act to follow. Iain’s substantial legacy includes a revised governance structure including a national committee and policies such as our code of conduct (2015). He led AFAA migration to a new membership platform and an independent web presence (fulbrightalumni.org.au) in 2016. Iain hosted numerous conferences and annual salons including celebratory salons for Fulbright’s 70^th Anniversary.  Working with committee member Angela Heise, he led strategic reviews and program implementation to guide growth of the association in 2015 and 2019.  Before the close of his presidency, Iain helped initiate the scoping and resourcing of our recently launched mentorship program. 

Iain’s contribution to Fulbright has been substantial and I very grateful he has agreed to remain on the national committee and that I can continue to call on his experience and counsel. I am also ably supported by an experienced committee notably Dr Vanessa Adams who has been on the committee for some 6 years including 3 years as secretary and now Treasurer. Vanessa’s corporate knowledge and her highly competent and practical support for AFAA are invaluable. Angela Heise, who led our strategic review in 2019 has also remained on the committee and her strategic thinking will be invaluable as we emerge into a COVID-normal world. Dr Caroline Smith our secretary brings some 3 years AFAA committee experience and a background in policy and strategy, executive leadership and not for profit boards. Our committee has also been invigorated by several new members including Dr Aiden Warren, Professor Peter Jarvis, Dr Farrukh Mateen and Professor Jon Adams. I’m excited and honored to be working with such a talented and experienced group of people.

Recently, I enjoyed a highly productive meeting with Dr James Arvanatakis the new Executive Director of Fulbright Australia and with Alex MacLaurin (FA Communications Manager). I’m confident that AFAA and FA will enjoy a strong and productive relationship starting with co-hosting a leadership workshop in 2022. 

I believe that one of the great strengths of Fulbright is the huge diversity of disciplines, interests, experience, and culture that the scholars and alumni represent. I look forward to working with all to promote the values and goals of the Fulbright and to ensure that membership of AFAA is a rewarding and supportive experience.

I wish you all the best for the remainder of this challenging year and for the approaching, and doubtless very welcome, holiday season.  I look forward to the rewards and challenges that 2022 will bring.

Rod Kennett

AFAA President

We recently invited AFAA members to share their news. Listed alphabetically, here's a snapshot of member activity! 

• Prof James Arvanitakis has taken on the role of Executive Director of Fulbright Australia. "I started on 1 June and though working remotely, am  loving the role" https://www.fulbright.org.au/fulbright-team/

• During the bleak depths of this year's Victorian COVID lockdowns, Dr Iain Butterworth decided to set himself a challenge to write and self-publish a series of articles on one of his favourite topics, "sense of place". Recently, a colleague at Vanderbilt University, who edits a book series for The Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues, invited Iain to turn this series into a book proposal.  

• Dr Jane Hardie is a musicologist with an expertise in Spanish liturgical music and manuscripts from the Medieval and Early Modern period. Jane is currently Honorary Associate of the Medieval and Early Modern Centre at the University of Sydney. She is also a member of an interdisciplinary and international research team (musicology, art history, history, archivists) on a four-year Spanish Grant (Corpus Processionarium Hispanarum, CPH) led by Dr David Andrés Fernández at the Complutense University, Madrid. You can read more about Jane here. 

• Eliza Howard has established her own consultancy. "Working with academics, academic and university teams, postgraduates, and some corporate clients, I run interactive and entertaining workshops which gather qualitative data for use in organisational goal setting and strategic planning. I also run research training workshops for academics and HDRs."

• Dr Rod Kennett, Senior Manager for STEM Content at Questacon (and incoming AFAA National President) writes: "Way back in pre-history (2019) I hosted Professor Robert De Salle at Questacon - The National Science and Technology Centre in his role as the 70th Anniversary Distinguished Chair. Rob is an extraordinarily clever and generous genius and his 6 months at Questacon has left a lasting impact." You can read more here about Rob De Salle's collaboration with Rod. 

• In May this year, after three years of working in the NSW Government as Principal Energy Advisor and Executive Director in Energy Policy (DPIE), Cameron O'Reilly joined Marsden Jacob Associates as an Associate Director. It is an economics and public policy firm specialising in water, energy, recycling and climate change. "I am doing an energy project for the Asian Development Bank (ADB) on the Central Asian Region Economic Community (CAREC) – which takes in 11 countries in Central Asia running from China through to Georgia. If there are any Alumni with a knowledge of the region I’d be delighted to hear from them."

• Professor Kim Rubenstein (postgradraduate Fulbrighter 1991-1992 and Senior Fulbright Scholar 2002-2003) has recently announced her intention to run as an Independent to represent the ACT in the Senate in the next Federal election. In order to be above the line on the Senate ballot paper she formed the Kim For Canberra party. Her application, containing over 1500 members, is currently being processed by the Australian Electoral Commission. 

• Professor Mark Tompkins is Professor of Infectious Diseases and Director at the Center for Influenza Disease and Emergence Research at the University of Georgia in the United States. Mark writes: "  It has been a busy couple of years for me, with working on the pandemic and with the award of a new center". The University of Georgia and five other institutions has received funding through the National Institutes of Health to establish Center of Excellence for Influenza Research and Response. As part of this, in April 2021 Mark estavblished the Center for Influenza Disease and Emergence Research (CIDER), based at UGA. CIDER has investigators at several instituitons, including the University of Melbourne. You can read more from Mark about CIDER here. 

We will invite further member updates soon. 

This week we mourn the passing of Dr Earl Dudley, AFAA's Public Officer since 2012. Earl passed away on 1st September following a long illness.

Earl was awarded a 1970 Travel Scholarship to undertake doctoral studies in mathematics at the University of Washington in Seattle. Following this, Earl pursued a career in academia and the Australian Public Service.

Earl had a long history of making important contributions to AFAA, the most recent of which were treasurer and public officer. Earl had detailed knowledge of procedural matters for volunteer Associations, which he shared as a patient mentor to less experienced committee members.

For many years, Earl and his partner, fellow Fulbright alum Susanita Dudley, contributed actively to alumni enrichment and offering support to both incoming US scholars and returning Australian alumni.  Their home base in Canberra ensured that Earl and Susanita were able to link AFAA closely to the team at Fulbright Australia.

We will be forever grateful for Earl's outstanding service to AFAA and the Fulbright community. We pass our sincere condolences to Susanita. 

We are delighted to advise that Dr Aiden Warren has joined AFAA's national Committee, and has also taken over the reins as Victoria's network. 

Associate Professor Aiden Warren is a Fulbright Scholar in Australia-United States Alliance Studies, sponsored by the Australian Government's Department of Foreign Affairs & Trade (DFAT).

Aiden completed his Fulbright at the Arms Control Association in Washington DC investigating the United States’ nuclear modernization plans and the impact this will have on global security. He is an Associate Professor in RMIT University's School of Global, Urban and Social Studies. Aiden’s teaching and research interests are in the areas of International Security, US national security and foreign policy, US Politics (ideas, institutions, contemporary and historical), International Relations (especially great power politics), issues associated with Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) proliferation, non-proliferation and arms control and emerging technologies.

Aiden is the sole author of The Obama Administration’s Nuclear Weapon Strategy: The Promises of Prague and Prevention; Pre-emption and the Nuclear Option: From Bush to Obama; and co-author of Governing the Use-Of-Force in International Relations, Presidential Doctrines, and Weapons of Mass Destruction: The Search for Global Security, and US Foreign Policy and China. Dr Warren is Editor of Rethinking Humanitarian Intervention in the 21st Century (Edinburgh University Press), Nuclear Modernization in the 21^st Century (Routledge), and is also the Series Editor of the Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) book series with Rowman and Littlefield, New York, NY.

Welcome, Aiden! 

We held our 2021 AGM via Zoom on Wednesday 14^th April. At this meeting, Iain Butterworth reminded attendees that his term as President was due to expire in 2021 and that the time had come to recruit a new President. (A purpose of the Leadership Summit is to help engage alumni in preparing for AFAA leadership roles.)

We also discussed the Leadership Development Program proposal and voted to invest $5000 of AFAA’s funds to kick-start the Mentoring program (see below for more information). Soon we will be forming the Leadership Steering Committee to support Peter Jarvis to lead this initiative.

The following people accepted the following roles:

●       Iain Butterworth- President (for 6 months)

●       Vanessa Adams - Treasurer

●       Caroline Smith - Secretary

●       Angela Heise - General member

●       Peter Jarvis - General member

●       Rod Kennett - General member

●       Jon Adams - General member

Committee members were sad to learn of Tom’s impending departure. At our meeting with Tom on 10^th June, we had an opportunity to thank Tom for his significant contribution to the Australian Fulbright program during the last five years. And we say it again here - Thank you Tom for your leadership to the Fulbright community. It has been a pleasure working with you.

AFAA has been developing a leadership program including a mentorship scheme and leadership summit. Our survey to members last year indicate wide support for both. At the 2021 AGM the membership voted to approve piloting the mentorship scheme.

Steps for starting our AFAA Fulbright Mentoring Scheme are currently underway, with the design of new links and information for our AFAA web pages, and its subsequent expansion to build or adapt our member database. Members will be advised as soon as these functions are implemented, and invitations for the matching process can commence.

At the 2021 AGM the membership also voted to support further development of the summit proposal by seeking funding. We continue to develop our business proposition for these events and seek funding to support them.