Crumb receives 2024 Mandela Washington Fellowship Reciprocal Exchange
East Carolina University faculty member Dr. Loni Crumb has been selected as an awardee for the 2024 Mandela Washington Fellowship Reciprocal Exchange.
“It was remarkable to get the notification that I was selected for this prestigious award, honoring Nelson Mandela’s legacy of activism,” said Crumb, as associate professor in the College of Education’s counselor education program. “I get the opportunity to expand my advocacy for mental health to rural areas of Nigeria and broaden my perspectives on global mental healthcare. I am fortunate to have the opportunity to engage in a multitude of life-changing reciprocal learning experiences which buttresses my journey as a counselor-scholar-advocate. I am looking forward to seeing the impact this has on my teaching and research and look forward to involving my students as well!”
Crumb, along with Dr. Janeé Avent Harris, ECU College of Education assistant dean of community engagement and wellness, and Dorcas Barde, an alumna collaborator of the Nigerian fellowship, co-designed an in-person project that will form lasting partnerships, expand markets and networks and increase mutual understanding between the United States and Africa.
The project, titled “International Collaborative Action for Rural Education, Mental Wellness and Safety,” aims to improve mental health literacy for Nigerian and U.S. residents living in under resourced, remote, rural areas by leveraging knowledge and mental healthcare resources via sustainable international school-university-community collaborations. The goal of I-CARE is to increase access to care by equipping rural teachers, parents and community members with strategies to identify and respond to mental health concerns through activities such as lectures, community learning exchanges and sharing psychoeducational resources.
The Mandela Washington Fellowship is the flagship program of the Young African Leaders Initiative (YALI). Launched in 2014, the program empowers young African leaders through academic coursework, leadership training, mentoring, networking, professional opportunities and local community engagement. The reciprocal exchange component provides U.S. citizens with the opportunity to build upon strategic partnerships developed with young African leaders during the fellowship, enabling them to implement in-person or hybrid collaborations on critical issues, such as promoting peace, stability and economic prosperity.
The Mandela Washington Fellowship for Young African Leaders is a program of the U.S. Department of State with funding provided by the U.S. government and administered by IREX.