As St. Francis College’s Vice President for Internationalization, Dr. Reza Fakhari provides strategic and collaborative leadership in Comprehensive Internationalization Strategy for the College. Inaugurated in 2019, the Strategy has taken St. Francis global by increasing and diversifying international student body and building and deepening numerous international linkages and partnerships across the world for study abroad, international exchanges, and study at SFC through various creative models of collaboration. The Strategy is also focused on Internationalization at Home by infusing global perspectives and competencies into curriculum and co-curriculum to better prepare all students for the 21st Century workforce and by preparing students as responsible, globally minded citizens.

SFC International, created under his leadership, has supported faculty to establish Institute for Global Engagement and Forum on Migration. It has also supported faculty in developing a signature interdisciplinary Human Rights Program and inaugurated SFC Human Rights Lecture Series and SFC Human Rights Fellows in Spring 2021, bringing leading external experts to teach courses and to speak on global citizenship, corporate responsibility, sustainability, extreme power and wealth inequality, and racial and social justice.

Promoting and defending human rights for everyone, anywhere has been a deep passion of Dr. Fakhari. He was elected to the Amnesty International USA Board of Directors in 2014 and served as Vice Chair and then Chair of the Board. He serves as the Secretary of the Board of Directors of Global Citizenship Alliance. He has also served on the Editorial Advisory Board of the Liberal Education journal of American Association of Colleges & Universities.

Prof. Fakhari also teaches at SFC. Courses taught have included Freshman Honors Seminar, Understanding Human Rights, Politics, and Diplomacy

Before joining SFC in 2018, Dr. Fakhari served for 30 years at two colleges of the City University of New York: first as professor and dean at LaGuardia Community College and then as dean, associate provost, and vice president at Kingsborough Community College. He has been an adjunct Research Manager for Ph.D. student fellows at the “Emerging Threats 21: Resilience and Sustainability of Global Institutions Program” at Rutgers University. He has also taught at Fordham University, Vassar College, International Pacific College in New Zealand, and has been a visiting faculty at Global Citizenship Alliance in Salzburg, Austria.

Dr. Fakhari earned a Ph.D., with Honors, in International Relations from the New School for Social Research in New York City. He received his B.A. in Chemistry (with a minor in Sociology) from Winona State University in Minnesota.