This course is designed to prepare international educators to respond expeditiously and effectively to situations arising from a health crisis, a natural disaster, civil unrest, terrorism, mental and physical health issues, or a behavioral incident. The course is oriented from the practitioner’s perspective and students will be exposed to best practice for assessing risk and responding to a crisis in a cross-cultural setting.

Students will study the fundamentals of enterprise risk management and the impact of the U.S. legal landscape on the design of international education programs. They will learn to conduct risk audits, employ mitigation techniques, develop crisis management protocols, create training programs for faculty leaders and students, and communication strategies for dealing with the press and social media. Additional topics include cultivating a proactive risk management mindset, cultural values and assumptions that may cloud cross-cultural crisis management, and the importance of actively engaging with diversity to integrate social equity values into emergency management.