3 faculty members receive global excellence awards
UNC Global Affairs recognized Navin Bapat, Ji-Yeon Jo and Lisa Woodley for contributions to the University’s mission.
Three UNC-Chapel Hill faculty members received this year’s Faculty Awards for Global Excellence. The awards recognize their exceptional contributions to the University’s mission of “leading change to improve society and to help solve the world’s greatest problems.”
- Navin Bapat is chair of the curriculum in peace, war and defense and professor in the political science department in the UNC College of Arts and Sciences.
- Ji-Yeon Jo is associate professor in the Asian and Middle Eastern studies department in the UNC College of Arts and Sciences; former director of the Carolina Asia Center; and affiliate faculty in the curriculum in global studies.
- Lisa Woodley is professor and global education coordinator at the UNC School of Nursing.
Barbara Stephenson, vice provost for global affairs and chief global officer, lauded the honorees as exemplars of UNC-Chapel Hill’s pursuit of global excellence in education, research, and service. “You are the stewards of the curriculum, and you have a tremendous influence on students,” she said. “You are exceptional ambassadors of the University, making Carolina more widely known and admired around the world.”
Meet the winners:
Navin Bapat
Known for his research and teaching on peace and conflict, Bapat has helped to diversify and enrich perspectives in the curriculum in peace, war and defense, while increasing opportunities for PWAD students to study abroad. In 2023, Bapat received a Global Partnership Award to deepen scholarly connections with King’s College London and Queen’s University Belfast.
“It’s important to contextualize difficult or controversial events by discussing why they happened and the implications through a scientific perspective,” Bapat said. “It’s hard to put perspective into context when talking about difficult global issues, but that’s when we as faculty are really needed.”
An early supporter of the Diplomacy Initiative, Bapat is a member of the Diplomacy Initiative’s Faculty Roundtable. He was also among the first faculty to receive a Diplomacy Initiative Curriculum Development Award to integrate a global problem-solving simulation into one of his courses.
Ji-Yeon Jo
As director, Jo’s persistence was critical to the Carolina Asia Center’s successful application for a Luce Foundation grant for the expansion of Southeast Asian studies at Carolina. She led the development of a new major in Korean studies, and built a successful visiting scholar program for academics, professionals and government officials from Korea. She also advocated for ways to better support international students and scholars from Asia.
“Not knowing about Asia means you don’t know about more than half of the world,” Jo said. “I can’t emphasize enough the importance of learning about Asia for our students who aspire to be global leaders.”
In 2024, she received a Summer International Collaborative Research Grant from the Institute for the Arts and Humanities to build and strengthen relationships with researchers at the National University of Singapore.
Lisa Woodley
With more than three decades of experience in nursing education and 35 years as a practicing pediatric and adult care nurse, Woodley is dedicated to mentoring the next generation of nurses — from North Carolina to Norway and beyond.
As the UNC School of Nursing’s first global education coordinator, Woodley is passionate about teaching nursing students the importance of understanding different cultures as a health care professional.
“Even if a nurse decides to stay in Chapel Hill their whole career, it doesn’t mean they won’t be working with patients and families who come from other areas of the world,” Woodley said. “Patients generally have better outcomes when they can trust that their caretakers understand their culture.”
Read more about the Faculty Awards for Global Excellence winners.
