Heather Ward, M.I.A.

Heather Ward has served as director of international programs at Mary Baldwin College since 2007, where she coordinates international student and scholar services, study and volunteer opportunities abroad, and co-curricular programs to advance international understanding, including the college's unique international Artists-in-Residence program. Ward holds a Bachelor of Arts in Latin American Studies and Spanish Language from Vanderbilt University and a Master of International Affairs with emphasis in Human Rights and Humanitarian Affairs from Columbia University. She is the former deputy director of international programs at the Vera Institute of Justice in New York City, where she planned demonstration projects and research to advance more effective and humane criminal justice practices in developing democracies, including a Ford Foundation-sponsored initiative to identify best practices in law enforcement and police accountability.

As a program specialist for the U.S. Justice Department, Ward led the resettlement of Cuban migrants from temporary camps at Guantanamo Bay Naval Base to the United States. She is a former grant writer for the Woodrow Wilson Presidential Library and manager of the South American Explorers Club in Quito, Ecuador; previous work experience includes the Americas Society in New York City and the U.S. Senate Committee on Foreign Relations in Washington, D.C. Ward is the author of various articles on police reform processes in Latin America and the United States and has presented at numerous international conferences on that topic. Ward is a member of the Fulbright Association, NAFSA International Educators, and the advisory board of Walls of Hope community art school in El Salvador. She speaks fluent Spanish and conversational Portuguese.