VANCOUVER - Sir John Daniel, President and CEO of the Commonwealth of Learning (COL), is pleased to announce the appointment of Professor Asha Singh Kanwar as COL's Vice President.
Professor Kanwar, who is currently serving on COL's staff as Education Specialist, Higher Education, will take up her new responsibilities on 1 April 2006.
"COL will be privileged to have Professor Asha Kanwar as Vice-President", said Sir John, "she combines senior experience at one of the world's largest distance-teaching universities with a highly successful track record of developing partnerships with governments and institutions across the Commonwealth. Her experience and background will be an important asset to COL as it develops and implements a new Three-Year Plan for the period 2006-2009."
A national of India, Professor Kanwar obtained her BA and two Master's degrees at Panjab University before completing her Ph.D. at the University of Sussex. In 1988 she joined the Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) as a Reader, becoming a Professor in 1992 and later serving as Director of the School of Humanities and Pro-Vice-Chancellor.
She has also been a Fulbright Scholar at the University of Iowa, a Visiting Fellow at the University of Leiden and an Indo-Canadian Shastri Fellow at the University of Toronto. Her extensive publications include "The Unforgetting Heart: An Anthology of Short Stories by African American Women (1859-1993)," which served as a textbook in several U.S. universities.
In 2002 she took up a joint UNESCO/COL appointment at UNESCO's Regional Office for Education in Africa--Bureau Régional pour l'Éducation en Afrique (BREDA) in Dakar, Senegal, before joining COL's staff in Vancouver in 2003 as Education Specialist, Higher Education. Since joining COL she has worked in over 15 Commonwealth countries and has been particularly active in developing partnerships with governments and institutions in West Africa.
COL conducted an extensive international search to select a successor to former Vice President, Mr. Brian Long, who had to step down in September 2005 because of ill health.
Further information:
www.col.org
www.col.org/akanwar (photo available here)
www.col.org/jdaniel
www.col.org/blong
Mr. Dave Wilson
Communications Manager
Commonwealth of Learning
www.col.org/dwilson