It is with mixed emotions and great admiration for her leadership that I announce that Paula Hentz, Stetson’s Senior International Officer (SIO) and Director of Global Initiatives, will be departing her role on July 9, having accepted a leadership opportunity at another university.
Paula started her higher education career at Stetson 14 years ago and has been responsible for operationalizing the University’s efforts to make intercultural learning vital to the Stetson experience. A consummate professional, Paula has competently and innovatively led Stetson to the world and brought the world to Stetson.
What Paula has collaboratively established to transform our engagement with the broader global community is truly extraordinary! Equally impressive is her work in expanding Stetson’s global learning footprint on almost every continent through the cultivation of international partnerships and diplomacy. Her portfolio runs the gamut from risk assessment and mitigation to federal compliance to policy development.
Under Paula’s leadership of WORLD: the David and Leighan Rinker Center for International Learning, collaborative fundraising to support student and faculty professional development has occurred to the tune of over $8 million. More recently, a collaboration between Stetson and Bethune -Cookman University successfully resulted in a $250,000 CIEE 2024 Global Sustainability Challenge Grant Award to provide scholarships for students from both institutions to study abroad in order to more effectively communicate about global climate change to diverse communities around the world.
During her tenure, support for international students flourished. In fact, international student retention increased from 75% in 2013 to 88% in 2023, approximately 10 percentage points above domestic student retention. WORLD’s support of visiting international scholars also included inviting Fulbright Foreign Language Teaching Assistants each year to assist with the teaching of foreign languages such as Portuguese and Arabic.
Since her onboarding in 2012, study abroad participation has increased by 51%, and applications for study abroad scholarships have more than tripled. Then, in 2024, WORLD launched the Florida Lessons from Abroad Conference, a student-led event for both domestic and international students from across the state to present reflections on the impact of studying in a different country. Plus, during the COVID-19 pandemic, Paula’s troubleshooting skillset was particularly instrumental in ensuring study abroad student and faculty safety and in ensuring that international students continued to thrive (92% of international students returned in fall 2020).
In addition, WORLD has held responsibility for the Stetson’s Peace Corps Prep program, a nationally recognized certificate program that prepares students for careers in public service and federal employment through an intentional combination of academic coursework, leadership, volunteerism, intercultural competence and career readiness.
During Paula’s tenure, WORLD has brought national attention to Stetson through invited academic presentations and peer-reviewed publications, as well as innovative programs such as the Scotland Study Abroad Collaborative with Utah Valley University, Jacksonville University, and the University of the Highlands & Islands in Inverness, Scotland; Global Gateways, where first-year students spend a semester abroad in Dublin, Ireland; the Rinker Global Scholars Program, a sophomore level course where a student cohort is selected in their first semester to receive a competitive scholarship to participate the spring semester of their sophomore year in a four-credit interdisciplinary course that relates to the country where they will travel during Spring Break; and the International Faculty Development Seminar, a faculty study abroad program designed to help instructors learn best practices in developing and leading their own study abroad programs.
Each of these innovations reflects Paula’s deep commitment to inclusion with a strategic focus on ensuring global participation by students, faculty, and in disciplines and at locations where Stetson did not ordinarily engage.
I will miss her constant creativity, insatiable collaboration, optimism, intelligence, initiative, grace and inclusivity. As such, my respect and esteem for Paula has grown deeper and more substantive throughout the years.
Paula recently noted the following, “After 14 years at Stetson, this is a bittersweet transition. While I am excited for a new opportunity and the chance to continue growing professionally, I will miss the Stetson community so much. I have loved my time here, primarily because of how many wonderful people I’ve been able to work alongside. This has been an important chapter in both my professional and personal life, and one that I will always remember positively because of the people who made it so special. Moving forward, I know that WORLD will be in great hands … ”
We will soon communicate a transition plan.
In the meantime, please join the Office of Faculty Engagement in extending our best wishes to Paula at [email protected] as she embarks on this exciting next chapter of her career and spreads Stetson excellence elsewhere.
For questions about study abroad, please contact Melanie Smith at [email protected]. For questions related to international students and scholars or immigration policies, please contact Tristan Laner at [email protected]. If you are unsure of whom to contact, start with Liz Lew at [email protected], who will be happy to help direct your message to the appropriate individual at WORLD. General inquiries can also be sent to [email protected].
Rosalie Richards, Ph.D.
Associate Provost for Faculty Development, Professor of Chemistry and Education, Office of Faculty Engagement
