This interdisciplinary presentation will highlight the recent Fulbright-Hays experience of Salem Academy and College faculty and staff who traveled to Morocco to examine critical issues related to women’s health, leadership, and community-based care within a global context. Through site visits and conversations with local practitioners, educators, and community leaders, the team explored how cultural, social, and structural factors shape women’s access to health resources, education, and leadership opportunities. The presentation will describe where they traveled, the organizations and communities they engaged with, and the focus of their inquiry, including women’s health practices, leadership development, and models of community-centered support.
The presentation will also demonstrate how the Fulbright-Hays experience has been intentionally integrated back into the Salem community to strengthen the College’s distinctive focus on health leadership. Faculty and staff translated their learning into action through community symposiums hosted on both the Bennett College and Salem College campuses, fostering dialogue and shared learning across institutions. Insights from the experience have also been incorporated in the curriculum with the development of new courses and new units in classes and labs, enriching curricular discussions with lived examples. New research projects are in development as part of the month-long experience, contributing to a range of academic disciplines as well. Finally, co-curricular programming has included integrated communication practices learned through the Fulbright-Hays experience in Morocco.
JaNae Joyner, Vice President of Mission and Strategy and Chief of Staff
JaNae Joyner, PhD, MHA, serves as Vice President of Mission and Strategy and Chief of Staff in the President’s Office at Salem Academy and College, Director of the RISE Leadership Program, and Director of the Salem Scholars Program. Prior to joining Salem, Dr. Joyner held multiple leadership roles, including Associate Vice President and Assistant Dean for the Wake Forest University School of Medicine (WFUSOM) and Atrium Health where she focused on curriculum experience and support. In addition to her position at Salem, Dr. Joyner currently serves on the Board of Directors for the REACH Women’s Network and co-chair of the 2026 REACH Women’s Network Annual Conference.
Dr. Joyner received her PhD in Molecular Medicine in 2007 from Wake Forest University where her research focused on translational basic science, community programming, and continuing medical education (CME) for primary care physicians related to hypertension, dyslipidemia, and diabetes. She has two post-graduate certificates from the Kenan Flagler School of Business at the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill in Management and Business Acumen and has completed Lean Six Sigma Green Belt training.
Savitha Krishna, Associate Professor of Biology
Dr. Savitha Krishna, has over 20 years of undergraduate teaching and research experience in Biology. She enjoys teaching and interacting with students inside and outside of the classroom where she integrates her broad research interests in biological concepts focused on anatomy, physiology, microbiology and health related topics. Her own research focuses on a range of public health topics like supplementary medicines and their effect on human health. Her past research focused on vector borne diseases, physiology of e-cigarettes, and antimicrobial activities of herbal medicines. Her most recent research expedition included the Fulbright-Hayes trip to Morocco, where she learned about women’s role in public health (formal and informal roles) and how they are contributing to community health. She wants to use those experiences in classroom teaching when she interacts with many international students by expanding her own global knowledge about public health practices in one of the African sub- continents. She immersed herself in experiential learning experiencing different culture, language and women empowerment perspectives by travelling with a team of academicians.
Katie Manthey, Associate Professor of English and Writing Studies
Katie Manthey is an associate professor of English and director of the writing center at Salem College. Her research and teaching bring together professional writing, cultural rhetorics, dress studies, and fat studies to see how the visible self, with attention to size, is constructed rhetorically. Her work has appeared in Peitho, The Journal of Multimodal Rhetorics, and The Routledge Handbook of Contemporary Feminist Rhetoric.
Edyta Oczkowicz, Professor of English
Dr. Edyta Oczkowicz is Professor of English and Co-Director of the Honors Program at Salem College. Her research interests include ethnic American women writers, Anglophone Caribbean women writers, and contemporary women writers of the non-western world. Women’s issues, storytelling traditions, and women’s ways of using writing for social change, community building, and resilience have been central to her teaching. She is also a Thornton Wilder scholar and co-editor of Thornton Wilder Journal. When participating in the Fulbright-Hays Program in Morocco, she engaged directly with Moroccan women, artists and scholars to learn about their lives, struggles, health related issues and rights. She studied Moroccan literature and storytelling traditions and how for centuries women have been using both not only to tell their stories but to help their communities heal.
Charlotte Vail, Assistant Professor of Leadership
Charlotte Maheu Vail, PhD is an Assistant Professor of Leadership and Leadership Program Director at Salem College. For over 20 years, Dr. Vail has worked under Academic Affairs and always in partnership with Student Affairs at Tulane University, the University of New Orleans, and currently, at Salem College. Using an interdisciplinary lens and firmly grounded in the liberal arts, her teaching and research interests include gender, leadership, campus cultures, epistemology, the history of American higher education, and health equity. At Salem, she teaches courses on leadership and gender in relation to health where she challenges students to examine relevant questions and problems through a range of disciplinary lenses. Before coming to Salem College, Dr. Vail served as Associate Dean and Honors Program Director at Tulane University. In that role, she taught epistemology and research methods courses, oversaw a robust fellowships advising program, facilitated undergraduate research programs, and coordinated with Residence Life on the Honors living-learning experience. Previous to that appointment, Dr. Vail was the founding director of the Newcomb Scholars Program for academically ambitious undergraduate women leaders at Tulane. She also worked with faculty and administration at Tulane to design and develop the Newcomb Institute, the erstwhile women’s coordinate college, after Hurricane Katrina. Dr. Vail earned her PhD in Higher Education Administration from the University of New Orleans.
Jamila Young, Assistant Professor Health Law and Policy
Professor Jamila Young serves as Assistant Professor of Health Law and Policy at Salem College and the Executive Director of Campus Culture and Care. A native of Albany, Georgia, she earned her B.A. in English from Kennesaw State University, her J.D. from Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University, and her M.A. in Health Law and Policy from Hofstra University. Her expertise spans health policy and advocacy, bioethics, practicing law, and health leadership, which she integrates into her dynamic teaching style. Professor Young is passionate about mentoring, guiding students to connect their academic experiences with future goals while balancing accountability and support. She values Salem’s close-knit community and the opportunity to know her students personally.