To: OSU Faculty and Staff
From: Edward Feser, Provost and Executive Vice President
December 4, 2018
Dear University colleagues:
It is my pleasure to inform you of the appointment of Dr. Kendra Sharp as Senior Advisor to the Provost for International Affairs on Dec. 31.
Kendra is a professor of mechanical engineering and the Richard and Gretchen Evans Professor in Humanitarian Engineering in the School of Mechanical, Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering.
She has extensive international research and teaching experience, including as a visiting researcher at the Delft University of Technology, an Erskine Fellow at the University of Canterbury in New Zealand, and as part of the organizing and instructional teams at three multi-week international development design summits in India, Pakistan and Thailand. She is the founder and director of OSU’s Humanitarian Engineering Program, one of less than a dozen such academic programs in the U.S. She leads OSU’s participation in a USAID-funded Partner Center of Advanced Studies in Energy along with Arizona State University and two universities in Pakistan, and recently offered a workshop in Islamabad on hydropower. She received OSU’s International Service Award in 2016 and the American Society of Mechanical Engineering’s (ASME’s) Edwin F. Church Medal in 2018.
As Senior Advisor, Kendra will serve as the University’s senior international officer, charged with working closely with the faculty, administrators, and INTO OSU leadership to develop and implement a comprehensive internationalization strategy consistent with the goals of the University’s strategic plan. Her commitment to collaboration and shared governance will serve that effort very well, while her intercultural communication and engagement experience will help OSU strengthen its global connections and overseas partnerships.
Please join me in congratulating Dr. Sharp on this appointment and thanking Dr. Susan Capalbo for her service as the University’s senior international officer over the past year.
Edward Feser
Provost and Executive Vice President