With the new school year starting, it’s a great time to (re)introduce ourselves! Please join us in welcoming our new Board member and staff team mates.
Nancy Ruther, Founder and Principal
Nancy L. Ruther, Ed.D., founded Gazelle International in 2016 to help innovative university leaders make their internationalization strategies work. Drawing on her experience at Yale University 's MacMillan Center managing curriculum development and international outreach to K-14 education communities, Nancy helped the Community Colleges of Connecticut launch their first-ever internationalization strategy. With faculty working at the heart of the curriculum, they are deploying a virtual exchange turnkey system, Gazelle International’s CLICK (Collaborative Learning for International Capabilities and Knowledge).
Nancy brings this same commitment to high-quality education to Gazelle International. With the CLICK system, she empowers educators to expand their own global engagement along with their students. She is known for developing simple, effective approaches to assessing the impact of international education. For expanding educational exchange and partnerships, the French government honored her with the Chevalier des Palmes Académiques.
JY Zhou, Board Member
We are especially pleased to welcome our newest board member, Dr. JY Zhou, the Director of Global Engagement and Senior International Officer at Stockton University. Her work focuses on internationalization of higher education, faculty engagement, global learning, and assessment. She teaches courses on global learning and pedagogy and collaborates with academic and student affairs on a variety of global initiatives. She keeps an active research agenda and has published a series of articles on introducing a new theoretical framework to define and assess comprehensive internationalization. Her research and practices also include defining and assessing global learning, digital approaches to international education, and internationalizing the campus through faculty. She designs curricular and co-curricular projects to integrate and enhance the roles of technology, languages and cultures, community engagement, and collaborative teaching in global learning initiatives. AAC&U has recognized her work at Stockton as a campus model for global learning. She is frequently invited to consult and to share her ideas at prominent conferences and a variety of campuses. As the Interim Chair of the Cultures and Languages Across the Curriculum (CLAC) Consortium, she coordinates conversations across 30+ higher education institutions dedicated to integrating CLAC approaches to transforming the curriculum to better prepare global citizenship. She also taught in several higher education institutions in China for a decade. She holds a doctorate in Educational Theory and Practices from Binghamton University-SUNY.
Dallas Tatman, Virtual Learning Liaison
Our new Virtual Learning Liaison, Dallas Tatman, succeeds Grace East in this important role. Dallas draws upon more than two decades of teaching experience to support and empower our teaching partners as they set and reach their goals. Currently a doctoral candidate in the History of African Religions at the University of Virginia, Dallas’ research and ethnographic fieldwork are focused on the intersections of sport and religion in West Africa. A former middle and high school teacher with undergraduate and graduate degrees in education, Dallas has an extensive background in designing curriculum and facilitating professional development seminars for teachers. Dallas has also created and taught courses in anthropology, sociology, and religious studies at the University of Tennessee. With two large dogs and two small cats occupying a great deal of his life, Dallas enjoys opportunities to work with humans.
Kathy O’Boyle, Operations
Kathy joined Gazelle International in late summer of 2021 as our Administrative Assistant, supporting the Team with Conference coordination, CLICK Certificates, invoicing and more. She received a BFA from the University of Connecticut and began her career in professional theatre immediately after college – working with stars of stage and screen as Company Manager. As she transitioned into the world of hospitality, she discovered a passion for food which provided opportunities to cater for Heads of State, University leaders, world-renowned musicians and others in venues as diverse as Carnegie Hall, Madison Square Garden and MetLife Stadium, to name a few. Her work has also included management and fundraising for numerous not-for-profit organizations including Share Our Strength/No Kid Hungry, Yale-New Haven Hospital and Columbus House (New Haven, CT), a support system for people who are homeless, among others. In her spare time, Kathy entertains friends, devours historical fiction and never met a beach that she didn’t like!
Doris Branford, Operations
Doris Brandford joined us in summer 2022 to streamline our tech-management systems. With an overall professional career of 16 years. She brings us her expertise with organizational processes, tech, social media and online systems. Having held positions in the legal, marketing, and business fields, Doris has increased efficiency in several of her freelance roles and communicates well across specialties. Doris graduated from New York University with an MBA in Business Administration and is bilingual in Spanish. During her college years, she served as a manager in multiple firms.
In addition to her duties, Doris is also a mom, Army Veteran’s wife, and is also active in many organizations in her community. She is also on a mission to help new Virtual Assistants to start and run a successful freelancing business from home or anywhere in the world so they can gain freedom and financial independence.