Salisbury, MD – Two Salisbury University faculty will continue SU’s Fulbright Program success during the 2023-24 academic year.
Drs. Jill Caviglia-Harris, professor of economics and finance and environmental studies, and Arthur Lembo, professor of geography and geosciences, have been selected as Fulbright Scholars to Brazil and South Korea, respectively.
Sponsored by the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, the Fulbright is America’s flagship international exchange program.
“The Fulbright Scholar designation recognizes faculty who are at the top of their fields, providing them with the opportunity to share their knowledge and scholarship with students and colleagues around the globe while gaining valuable resources to advance their research,” said SU President Carolyn Ringer Lepre. “Drs. Caviglia-Harris and Lembo certainly meet those criteria and more. We are excited not only for the honor they have received, but the opportunities their connections and experiences will provide for our students here at Salisbury.”
Dr. Jill Caviglia-Harris
During her Fulbright Scholar experience, Caviglia-Harris will teach and continue her research in Rondônia, Brazil, in the heart of the Amazon rainforest.
As part of the teaching component, she will lead a professional development workshop to introduce Brazilian faculty and graduate students to new approaches for teaching statistics with a course developed in Portuguese. The seminar will draw on her experiences leading workshops and classes, as well as her research on leadership, mentoring, and engaging and motivating students.
Through the research component, Caviglia-Harris will further her nearly three decades of studies of the impacts of Amazonian deforestation on the climate and inhabitants of the region.
With her interdisciplinary team, comprised of faculty and students from seven U.S. and Brazilian universities including SU, she plans to continue modeling and estimating the impacts of changes in rainfall on agricultural production systems in the area. Her ultimate goal is to establish long-term collaborations for such research with Amazonian universities.
“Reducing tropical deforestation in Brazil requires public support, coordination across levels of government and the innovative thinking that is known to be more successful with the engagement of a diverse group of agents,” she said. “This Fulbright project will make an important contribution to these efforts by moving leadership of the long-term study to universities in Rondônia.”
Dr. Arthur Lembo
While in South Korea, Lembo will work with geography faculty at Chonnam National University (CNU), who are currently teaching with his textbook, An Introduction to Statistical Problem Solving in Geography, to integrate Korean data into its examples for laboratory exercises. He also will deliver workshops on geographic information systems (GIS) to the professional GIS community throughout Korea in coordination with the Korean Geographic Society and plans to work with researchers at Kyung Hee University on the use of gaming computers for performing parallel processing to solve large geographic data problems.
The opportunity provides added benefits for Lembo, who will be living near his oldest daughter, Emily (Lembo) Moon ’14, who resides in Korea with her husband, Moon Cheonji and their daughter, Joy.
“My family has been connected with Korea for over 70 years, beginning with my father’s service in the Korean War,” said Lembo. “It is overwhelming to think that I get to continue what my father started by returning and serving as a Fulbright Scholar.
“Before my father passed away, he got to meet Cheonji when he and Emily were dating. He said, ‘I always wondered what I was fighting for during that terrible war, and was it worth it?’ Pointing to the chair where Cheonji sat, he said, ‘I guess this is what I was fighting for.’”
To me, this Fulbright is not simply an academic exercise, but a continuation of a really special relationship my family has had with the people of South Korea.”
Lembo plans to follow his father’s declassified war records and visit the positions his tank division fought from in hopes of burying one of his war medals in his memory.
SU Fulbright Affiliations
SU has a long history with the Fulbright Program, counting more than 50 Fulbright Scholars and Students in the past two decades. The U.S. Department of State and Chronicle of Higher Education have spotlighted SU as the No. 1 master’s-level producer of Fulbright Students in the U.S. for 2022-23 and one of the nation’s top producers of Fulbright Students for the past six years.
In 2022, the U.S. Department of State named SU among the nation’s leading producers of both Fulbright Scholars and Students as one of only five institutions to make both lists. SU also has served as a host for Fulbright Scholars-in-Residence from other countries.
Learn more about SU and opportunities to Make Tomorrow Yours at www.salisbury.edu.
