Kathleen Fairfax is the Vice Provost for International Affairs at Colorado State University. She oversees a staff of more than 50 professionals within the Office of International Programs, and collaborates with colleges and units across campus to implement the University’s internationalization initiatives. She serves on the President’s Executive Leadership Team and the Council of Deans.
Fairfax has worked in the field of international education for 32 years, at both public and private universities and in the public sector. During her career, Fairfax has focused on improving access to international education opportunities at colleges and universities, developing streamlined and efficient operational models for service delivery, and aligning strategic priorities with concrete action items to deliver results. Fairfax has considerable experience in assessing international education organizational challenges within university structures, and creating new operational models by merging units, building high-functioning teams, and developing/re-allocating resources needed for program operation and growth.
Prior to CSU, Fairfax served as the Assistant Vice President for International Affairs at South Dakota State University. Her career also included serving as Vice Provost for Global Education Services at Arizona State University, Director of the Office of Study Abroad at Michigan State University and at Purdue University, as well as similar roles at Southwestern University in Georgetown, Texas, and DePauw University in Greencastle, Indiana.
In the late 1980s and early 1990s, she was a tenured Foreign Service officer with the U.S. Information Agency, serving in Washington, D.C. as a Fulbright Program Officer, and at the U.S. Embassy in Mexico City as Assistant Cultural Attaché for exchange programs.
Fairfax holds a master’s degree in political science/international relations from Indiana University Bloomington and a bachelor’s degree in political science and Spanish from DePauw University in Greencastle, Indiana. She has also pursued numerous continuing education opportunities focusing on human resource management, team building, strategic planning, and leadership.
Fairfax is a member of NAFSA: The Association of International Educators, the Council on International Educational Exchange (CIEE), the Forum on Education Abroad, and the Association of International Education Administrators (AIEA). She also represents CSU on the Commission of International Initiatives at the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities (APLU).