Colorado State Hires New Associate Vice Provost for International Programs

A longtime international affairs expert with substantial experience at Harvard University will join Colorado State as the new associate provost for international programs and director of the Office of International Programs.

James A. Cooney has spent the past seven years working as the executive director of the Weatherhead Center for International Affairs – the largest research center in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences at Harvard. Prior to that, he served as the dean of international programs and a lecturer in public policy for Harvard’s John F. Kennedy School of Government.

"Jim’s extensive background will be a tremendous asset at Colorado State," said Provost and Senior Vice President Tony Frank. "He has a vision for sustaining excellence in international programming on our campus. We are thrilled to have him on our team."

Cooney will begin his new job on Jan. 3.

Cooney has also served as an international trustee and chairman of the board of American Field Service Intercultural Programs, the largest youth exchange program in the world. He was a Fulbright Scholar at the Free University of Berlin in Germany, and he served as deputy director of the Aspen Institute Berlin from 1978 to 1982. Cooney received his doctoral degree in political science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1982 where his research focused on international nuclear energy policy.  He has taught at Harvard, MIT, Wellesley College, Hampshire College and Aichi Kenritsu University in Japan.  He has also published four books on German-American relations and U.S. foreign policy.

While at the Kennedy School at Harvard, Cooney directed the McCloy German Scholars Program, which is the German equivalent of the Rhodes Scholars program. The German government honored him in 2003 for his contributions to German-American relations with the Cross of Merit.  He also served on the White House Commission for the 50th Anniversary of the Fulbright Program in 1997.

"This is an exciting opportunity," Cooney said. "I was especially impressed with the search committee’s interest in an entrepreneurial approach to international programs and the commitment that President Larry Penley and the provost have toward those initiatives."

The Office of International Programs promotes internationalism through advising for international students, support to academic programs for enhancing international perspectives in the curriculum, and coordination of such programs as study abroad, Peace Corps, Fulbright programs and area studies programs. Colorado State hosts about 900 students from nearly 100 countries and about 300 visiting scholars and researchers. Approximately 600 students study abroad each year.

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