Dr. Hobbs Awarded the 2020 Jackson Rigney International Service Award
The Jackson Rigney International Service Award is the highest honor for global engagement at NC State, and recognizes the distinguished contributions of a faculty or staff member in international service to the university and/or to the international community through scholarly activity in teaching, research, and public service over the course of their career.
2020 Jackson Rigney Recipient
Dr. Heidi Hobbs: Director of the Master of International Studies Program in the School of Public and International Affairs, and Associate Professor of Political Science in the College of Humanities and Social Sciences
Dr. Hobbs has had a long and distinguished career at NC State, serving in a variety of capacities that have all extended the global reach of our university. In her role directing the Master of International Studies Program since 2002, she launched and often directed multiple unique programs and new models which served both students and faculty, including a dual degree program with the University of Surrey, the MIS Prague Summer Study Abroad Program, and a Master’s of Development Practice with TERI University in Delhi, India.
Dr. Hobbs shared her administrative and leadership talents as Interim Director of the NC State European Center in Prague, and then as chair of its advisory board. Other vital roles have included service on the Study Abroad Advisory Board and Emergency Response Team, and as a core NC State team member for the American Council on Education’s “At Home in the World” initiative.
She was instrumental in coordinating NC State’s successful 2014 nomination for the Paul Simon Award for Comprehensive Internationalization, helping to significantly enhance NC State’s global reputation by gaining the highest institutional distinction offered in the field of international education.
Her extensive scholarly work has also achieved high recognition. Dr. Hobbs has served as a Fulbright Specialist at the University of Economics in Bratislava, Slovak Republic in 2016, and as a Fulbright Scholar to the University of Economics in Prague, Czech Republic in 2017. Her books include City Hall Goes Abroad: The Foreign Policy of Local Politics from Sage, 1994, Pondering Postinternationalism: A Paradigm for the 21st Century, from SUNY Press, 2000, and a textbook with Harry I. Chernotsky entitled, Crossing Borders: International Studies for the 21st Century,3rd. edition. CQ Press, 2016.
2020 Jackson Rigney Nominees
Dr. Gary Blank: Associate Professor in the Department of Forestry and Environmental Resources, College of Natural Resources
Dr. Blank has infused his teaching, research, and administrative work with globally related service, including in his roles as faculty member, director of undergraduate programs, and interim associate dean for academic affairs. In 2006 he was recognized as a Fulbright Teaching Fellow at Mendel and Masaryk Universities in Brno, Czech Republic, teaching environmental impact assessment & historical
Ecology.
For nearly 20 years, Dr. Blank has taught NR 350 Sustainable Use of Natural Resources, a study abroad course that focuses primarily on Europe and Scandinavia, serving faculty and over 350 students from NC State, Purdue University and the Swedish Agricultural University. Building on this and other partnerships, Dr. Blank launched a dual degree masters program, mentored graduate students, and sponsored visiting scholars and adjunct professors from multiple countries.
Dr. G. Keith Harris: Associate Professor and Undergraduate Coordinator of Food Science in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences
Dr. Harris has been actively engaged with students and faculty from multiple countries, including Mexico, Peru, Argentina, and Colombia. He has taught and mentored many international undergraduate and graduate students, helping to train future world leaders in the field. Partnering with the Global Training Initiative, Dr. Harris taught visiting Argentinian scholars on three separate occasions about the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning and about HPLC. During his five years with the Higher Education Review Board, he worked with universities in Mexico and Argentina to improve their Institute of Food Technologists (IFT) accreditation reports.