Shelley Taylor, director of the Office for Global Engagement, is the recipient of the staff 2024 Outstanding Achievement Award from the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences at Iowa State University. For 24 years, Iowa State administrators, faculty, staff and students have benefited from her service as director of the CALS Study Abroad program, and now as director of the CALS Office for Global Engagement. In addition to providing oversight of high impact travel opportunities for students, Taylor directs donor engagement and stewardship of $250,000 in scholarships annually for undergraduate study abroad. She supports departments in global engagement efforts and coordinates global partnership development.
While director of CALS Study Abroad, Taylor oversaw study abroad programs for more than 400 students annually. These efforts required integrating CALS graduate and undergraduate curricula with international programs, developing new opportunities, and recruiting faculty and students to participate. In addition to providing effective educational experiences, Taylor and her team were responsible for evaluating the safety, health and security aspects of study abroad. She recently helped launch the Study USA program to complement the study abroad programs, recognizing that expanding the number of students who have the opportunity to engage in transformative “study away” experiences will help inspire and advance students’ curiosity, critical thinking, cultural awareness and citizenship competencies.
Taylor has co-directed the Dean’s Global Agriculture and Food Leadership program since 2009. The undergraduate program includes a study abroad component in Rome, where students work with clients in the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations to study policies and practices that impact food distribution and food security. Taylor also supports faculty and staff in the global resource systems interdisciplinary major. She helps develop teaching materials, instructs pre- and post-departure classes, and assists with the placement and mentorship of students in international internships (324 interns in 59 countries).
“Over the course of her career in CALS, she has built a study abroad program that is the envy of every college at Iowa State and every college of agriculture across the country,” states a colleague. “It is rare for a college of agriculture study abroad program to lead the university in the number of students it sends abroad, but that has been the case at Iowa State for years. This is directly attributable to Shelley’s outstanding leadership.”