This session explores the intersection of personal and professional brand in international education and why visibility, credibility, and narrative clarity have become career accelerators in today’s global landscape. Panelists will speak on how to strengthen professional presence, clarify what personal brand signals to others, and communicate how brand can build trust and open doors.
Participants will walk away with tips for how to articulate their value, build a professional digital footprint, and represent their organization with confidence and integrity across platforms.
Speakers:
Dr. Maureen Manning is the Founder and Principal of The Global Nexus Collective, a strategic advisory firm working at the intersection of public relations, strategic communications, and leadership in international education. With more than three decades of experience, she advises global organizations and senior leaders on narrative clarity, positioning, and influence during moments of growth and transition. By surfacing strengths, clarifying points of differentiation, and aligning internal vision with external voice, Maureen equips leaders to communicate with coherence and conviction in increasingly complex global environments. She serves in board and senior advisory capacities across the field and is a frequent keynote speaker, moderator, and presenter at international conferences. A trusted connector of people and ideas, she blends academic rigor with creative vision to help institutions and organizations strengthen credibility, deepen partnerships, and articulate their global impact with precision, authority, and purpose.
Shaun Morgan serves as the Executive Director of Global Programs and Senior International Officer at the University of Massachusetts Boston. In this role, he leads the university’s global engagement strategy, overseeing international partnerships, education abroad, and international student and scholar services. Shaun is dedicated to expanding equitable access to transformative global experiences, particularly for first-generation and underrepresented students.
He currently serves as the Massachusetts Representative for NAFSA Region XI, and has previously held the position of President for the Massachusetts Council for International Education. With over 15 years of experience in international education, Shaun has developed strategic collaborations across Europe, Asia, and Latin America that align with research, student success, and institutional mission. His leadership emphasizes inclusion, innovation, and the public impact of higher education on a global scale.
Sara Dart is Senior Vice President for Education in Ireland where she supports Irish higher education institutions in partnership, outreach, and recruitment efforts. She sits on the Access Partner Advisory Board for the Fund for Education Abroad and authored the chapter on student advising in the most recent edition of NAFSA’s Guide to Education Abroad. She has served on multiple working groups with the Forum on Education Abroad, as Co-Chair of the New England Lessons From Abroad Conference and Communications Representative for NAFSA Region XI. She has presented extensively on topics including personal branding, imposter syndrome, and burnout in international education. Sara holds a BA in History and an MA in Higher Education Administration, both from Boston College.
Moderator:
Dr. Kelly McGee is Senior Director of University Partnerships at EUSA – Academic Internship Experts, where she drives institutional engagement, partnership strategy, and development. She brings a cross-sector perspective to her leadership philosophy, shaped by roles across higher education, government and government-adjacent organizations, the nonprofit sector, immersive language programming, and academic research. She holds a PhD in Slavic Languages and Literatures from the University of Pittsburgh and is co-editor of the forthcoming STAR Scholars volume (with Dr. Maureen Manning), Work-Integrated Learning in Higher Education: Internships, Apprenticeships, Practicums, and Experiential Pathways to Employability, which brings together leading voices to examine the future of experiential and work-integrated learning.
