About me

Eduardo Contreras Jr. is faculty co-chair for the Harvard Graduate School of Education Management Development Program with Francesca Purcell. He is also the Vice Provost for Global Engagement at Baylor University.

Eduardo Contreras also has served as the inaugural Associate Provost for International Education, Diversity, and Inclusion at the University of Portland (UP). This executive role combined the functions of the Chief Diversity Officer and Senior International Officer for the university. He has taught undergraduate and graduate courses at Harvard and University of Portland. With 20 years in public and private U.S. postsecondary education, Dr. Contreras has experience in supporting internationalization and belonging at many different levels. At UP he held seats on the President’s Leadership Cabinet and Provost’s Council, and co-chaired the last two university-wide strategic planning subcommittees on equity and internationalization. In 2013, at the Harvard Graduate School of Education (HGSE), he was invited by the dean (Jim Ryan) to serve on a Global Education Task Force to submit a white paper on ways to internationalize the school of education. At Harvard, he also taught a course titled “Internationalizing Higher Education: Possibilities, Perils, and Promises” that explored the challenges and opportunities of internationalization.

 

Dr. Contreras has presented his research extensively at national and international conferences. His writing appears in peer-reviewed journals, professional publications, and he has chapters in several books including, A House Where All Belong(2022) and Social Justice and International Education (2020). He is an editor for Frontiers: The Interdisciplinary Journal of Study Abroad, chairperson of the 2023 Global Inclusion Conference, and a member of the Forum on Education Abroad Board of Directors. In addition to an Ed.M. and Ed.D. from Harvard, he has a B.A. in history (Phi Beta Kappa) and an M.A. in Asian Cultures and Languages from the University of Texas at Austin, where he studied Hindi, Urdu, Sanskrit and the history and religions of India.

 

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About my teaching

At the University of Portland, I teach: “ED 520 History, Organization, and Student Personnel in Higher Education" in the MA program in Higher Education Administration. While at Harvard, I served in numerous teaching capacities, both as the lead instructor and as a teaching fellow. In the spring of 2014, I taught "A-710M Internationalizing Higher Education: Possibilities, Perils, and Promises." I designed this course for students to consider the impact of globalization on American colleges and universities and to understand the ways in which educators, policy makers and leaders in higher education can thoughtfully meet the demands of today's increasingly interconnected world. I taught this course again Spring 2015. I also serve as a Faculty member at the Harvard Institutes for Higher Education, Summer Management Development Program.

I also was a Teaching Fellow for many courses at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. As a Teaching Fellow I had the honor of working closely with faculty on course design, grading, case teaching, and lecturing. I have also had the pleasure of working with students by facilitating section discussions; advising on  research design; providing guidance on academic paper preparation; and consulting on future academic/career plans. Beyond the collaborative work I have done as a teaching fellow, I have also independently designed new aspects of the curriculum, taught cases, created new lectures, and led student workshops as part of my Teaching Fellow responsibilities.