Award for Global Engagement

Dr. Christopher Johnstone has led comprehensive and transformational changes in the College of Education and Human Development’s international outreach and opportunities for international and intercultural engagement for faculty, staff, and students.

In the six years he has served as director of international initiatives, he has designed and delivered creative efforts to engage faculty and staff in developing initiatives that foster new international experiences and expand opportunities for a global experience for all undergraduate and graduate students in CEHD. Dr. Johnstone has dramatically increased the number of international partnerships with institutions from Brazil and China to South Africa and Malaysia. These efforts further the research and teaching of all the diverse departments across CEHD.

Dr. Johnstone is an accomplished scholar with a strong track record of research publications, conference presentations, and grant awards from agencies such as the U.S. Department of Education, USAID, and CARE. He has served as a consultant on UNICEF projects from Azerbaijan to Serbia among many others; served as a technical expert with universities in South Korea and Singapore around teacher training; and received both Fulbright and Government of Australia fellowships to engage the internationalization process with and in other countries. Among many research commitments, Dr. Johnstone serves as a key faculty member in a MasterCard Foundation-funded project to study the impact of entrepreneurial training programs on long-term livelihood of economically disadvantaged youth in East Africa.

A true scholar and practitioner of international education, Dr. Johnstone’s unique capacity to engage others from different disciplines and cultures is exemplified in the multitude of international initiatives he has developed for CEHD. As an educator, leader, and scholar in internationalization efforts, he continues to influence policies and practices at the international, national, and state levels in Minnesota, the U.S., and globally.

In August 2015, Dr. Johnstone assumed a faculty role in the Department of Organizational Leadership, Policy, and Development. In this role, he conducts research, teaches, and supports program development in the department's Comparative and International Development Education, and Leadership in International Education programs.