Natalie Baez/ Contributing Writer
Hilarion Martinez, former U.S. diplomat and attorney, was appointed University’s first senior international officer in the hope that his international experiences and participation in U.S. foreign affairs would expand the University’s influence on a global scale.
The University created the position of SIO to improve the international connections within the University by coordinating deans and faculty across the campus.
It was also to make “a repository of web-based shared information and experience that informs the campus and the world about internationally related programs and activities underway at FIU,” according to Martinez.
The position was created from a collective professional review at the University, along with international stakeholders of the University.
“As the university expands its international portfolio, I needed someone who could coordinate all the international programmatic activities and be the interface between the university and our many international partners,” said Douglas Wartzok, provost and executive vice president. “Dr. Martinez has the right combination of academic and professional diplomatic experience to fulfill these important roles.”
The SIO will work with representatives from each college at the University to identify global initiatives while strengthening any projects each school has already begun developing.
He will also be meeting with potential international partners in order to expand the University’s multinational influence, representing both the University president and the provost in delegations when influential interlocutors visit.
“Thanks to my experiences abroad and my wide network of contacts, I have already been able to help grow the University’s international imprint and influence and launch new initiatives that have helped many of our students,” said Martinez, who served as a U.S. diplomat for 26 years.
The Office of International Student and Scholar Services, the Office of Study Abroad and the Assistant Provost for programs in China will now report to the SIO.
“I have been given a position where I will be able to do more to ‘pantherize’ the world,” Martinez said.
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