“This has been a phenomenal opportunity to gain insight on the many opportunities to collaborate with higher educational institutions from this region of the world,” commented Dr. Wims in correspondence from Israel. “This visit could definitely lead to meaningful collaborations in the future.”

The AJC Project Interchange in which Wims is participating helps university leaders, presidents, chancellors, provosts and deans interact on academic and research opportunities, as well as campus issues.  Previous participants in the interchange have included some of the most prominent leaders in American higher education.

Wims will visit leading Israeli universities, including Tel Aviv University, Technion and Hebrew University, which are leading centers for medical and technology research.  The HBCU delegation will also meet with leaders at the BIRD and BARD foundations, which promote U.S.-Israeli cooperation in such areas as water science, energy, cybersecurity and agriculture, an important topic given that many HBCUs are land-grant universities and have well-regarded agriculture programs, according to AJC Project Interchange.

Although the AJC Project Interchange has coordinated the visits of more than 6,000 participants, the visit by Wims and fellow HBCU leaders marks the first such delegation designed exclusively for HBCU leaders and has been set up for yearly implementation.  In addition to Alabama A&M University, other 1890 land-grant institutions represented on the Israeli visit include (alphabetically) Florida A&M University, Fort Valley State University, Langston University, Tuskegee University and Virginia State University.

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