The Principal Global Citizenship Award was presented at the Global Citizen Forum on Thursday, March 3. The award recognizes Drake faculty or staff who have made outstanding contributions to global engagement and internationalization of the campus and curriculum.

Nomination letters had to articulate how the nominee has made outstanding contributions toward realizing the following:

• Support Drake University as a global institution by creating linkages to global partners in local, national, and international settings;
• Develop and/or actively support global and intercultural learning opportunities for Drake students;
• Develop infrastructure, resources, and partnerships to support internationalization and global engagement.

The 2022 recipient of the Principal Global Citizenship Award is Deb Bishop.  Deb is a professor of practice in management and international business in the College of Business and Public Administration.

Beginning in 2006, Deb, in partnership with several colleagues, developed a travel seminar to Uganda focused on sustainable development in partnership with Makerere University Business School (MUBS).  Since 2007, over 200 Drake students have traveled to Uganda as part of that class. The program model is unique in that it integrates Drake students with MUBS students, with intentional, intercultural learning. The MUBS students began traveling annually to Drake as part of the program model in 2012, which has created a “full circle” intercultural experience.  There is a significant service component to the travel seminar in Uganda, and that service element culminated into a health clinic being constructed in a rural village following student-led research and fundraising that began in 2012. Deb was a driving force behind the development, fundraising, and construction of the health clinic. As a member of Rotary, she leveraged key relationships within that organization to ensure sustainability and local, community-led commitment and management. The clinic serves anywhere between 10-100 patients each day and has created economic viability and health care support in the area.

Deb has played a key role in growing and sustaining the MUBS partnership.  She has published papers with Ugandan faculty colleagues, she has supervised MUBS PhD students, and has helped shape the Entrepreneurship Center at MUBS through time spent there on sabbatical in 2016, but also in hosting the MUBS Entrepreneurship Center Director on Drake’s campus, and co-teaching a seminar with her. Deb also helped bring a Fulbright Scholar from MUBS to Drake in 2013.

In addition to her significant achievements in relationship to Uganda, she has also played a key role since 2016 in bringing global perspective to Drake and the Des Moines community through the Mandela Washington Fellowship program.  The Mandela Washington Fellowship Program is the flagship program of the U.S. Department of State’s Young African Leadership Initiative. Drake has served as a host institute for the Fellowship since 2016, and since that time, Deb has served as the academic director of the program.  Together with Lance Noe, Deb has shaped the leadership journey of over 100 young African professionals who have participated in Drake’s business and entrepreneurship institute.  The program is six weeks in length, and each summer she gives her time and energy to ensuring the Fellows have experiences that not only are memorable but transformative. In 2020, when the in-person program was suspended due to the pandemic, Deb created virtual modules for over 700 Fellows across sub-Saharan Africa, which are still accessible to the over 4,000 alumni that have completed their fellowships in the U.S.

In addition to these significant contributions, Deb also helped design and teach a service-learning class at Drake focused on Uganda service projects for five years; serves as a host for the Drake Intercultural Community Exchange; regularly mentors international students; serves on the board of Iowa Communities of Compassion; and serves as a speaker for the US Dept of State Bureau of Cultural and Academic Affairs Speakers Bureau.

In the words of a colleague that submitted a letter of support for Deb’s nomination, Deb’s work “represents a true life-long commitment to serving others in the international community that brings together the Drake community of students, faculty and staff.” For decades, Deb has demonstrated a passion and a commitment to global learning, creating transformational experiences for students and modeling responsible global citizenship.

Please join me in celebrating Deb Bishop as the recipient of the 2022 Principal Financial Global Citizenship Award. 

— Annique Kiel, Global Engagement