IIGE Team
IIGE Faculty
The Institute for Innovation and Global Engagement (IIGE) draws on the expertise of faculty from different disciplines and academic programs throughout UW Tacoma.
Faculty who currently teach IIGE courses include:
Associate Vice Chancellor, Innovation & Global Engagement
Professor, School of Interdisciplinary Arts & Sciences
Specialties: Global Media Studies, Communication
Dr. Divya McMillin (Ph.D. 1998, Indiana University Bloomington) is Professor of Global Media Studies in the School of Interdisciplinary Arts and Sciences (SIAS) and Associate Vice Chancellor for Innovation and Global Engagement. McMillin has been featured as The Builder and Innovator for founding the SIAS Communication major (2000), the Institute for Global Engagement (2014) with its Minor and certificates in Global Engagement, the Global Innovation and Design (GID) Lab (2018) with its Minor in Innovation and Design, and the Institute for Innovation and Global Engagement (2020). She is Associate Faculty of the South Asia Center and Affiliate Faculty of the Center for Global Studies in the UW Seattle Henry M. Jackson School of International Studies. McMillin’s pivotal work on the impact of satellite television on audiences and the television format industry across the world have led to three critically acclaimed books: International Media Studies (Wiley, 2007), Mediated Identities: Youth, Agency, and Globalization (Peter Lang, 2009), and the anthology Place, Power, Media (Peter Lang, 2018). She is one of only three faculty at UW Tacoma to receive highest honors in both research and teaching, with a Distinguished Research Award (2012) and a Distinguished Teaching Award (2017). Her analyses of global cities and convergence technologies are widely published in top-tiered journals and anthologies, meriting her Top Paper Awards from the International Communication Association.
She has served as Cartus consultant for Russell Investments, Philips, and Siemens, as program consultant for the National Collegiate Honors Council and the American Association of Colleges and Universities, and is a member of various Tacoma community Boards. Trained at Stanford University’s Innovation Masters Series (2019), McMillin has led innovation and design thinking workshops for such corporate, non-profit, and government organizations as Titus Will Tacoma, Zenith West Gymnastics, United Way of Pierce County, the Tacoma Pierce County Chamber of Commerce, South Sound Together, and the City of Tacoma.
Community Partner in Residence
Collaboratively and independently, Janeil Engelstad has produced multiform projects, public art and exhibitions throughout the world. Her work has been exhibited and produced in partnership with Amon Carter Museum of American Art, ARTMargins/MIT, California Museum of Photography, City of Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs, Dallas Museum of Art, International Center of Photography, Łaźnia Centre for Contemporary Art Gdańsk, Museum of Arts and Design (MAD), The Nasher, New York City Department of Transportation’s Art Program, Oboro Montréal, Stanica Žilina-Záriečie, U.S. Department of State and others.
Engelstad is the Founding Director of Make Art with Purpose (MAP), an organization that produces collaborative artist led projects that address social and environmental concerns throughout the world. MAP projects include communities as partners in the production of work, directly engage the audience to participate beyond the role of passive observer and ignite creative collaboration across organizations and disciplines. She has contributed essays to numerous publications including, Exploring New Horizons (peer reviewed), Vernon Press, 2019; Urban Public Art: Community Involvement and Civic Engagement (peer reviewed), Rowan & Littlefield, 2016; ARTMargins; Dallas Morning News; On the Issues; and In These Times. Her podcast, MAP Radio Hour, conversations at the intersection of art, design, science, politics and justice is hosted by Creative Disturbance and ARTECA at MIT. Her work has been featured in numerous media outlets, including Art News, The Atlantic, Chicago Tribune, Communication Arts, Dallas Morning News, Flash Art, Glasstire, I.D. magazine, Interview, Los Angeles Times, Metropolis, NBC Nightly News, New York Times, NPR and Print Magazine.
A Fulbright Scholar (Academy of Fine Arts and Design, Bratislava, Slovakia, 2006-7), Engelstad is a member of the Social Practice Art Research Center at University of California, Santa Cruz. She has an MFA in Photography from a joint program between New York University and International Center of Photography and BAs in Political Science and English from University of Washington, Seattle.
Specialty: International Education, Social Movements, Violence Against Women in Latin America (especially Brazil)
Margaret Griesse, PhD is Senior Lecturer at the UW Tacoma School of Interdisciplinary Arts & Sciences. Her main areas of research include social movements in Latin America, with a focus on Brazil; transversal and transnational studies on gender; and social responsibility within emerging nations. During the summer, she takes students on a Brazil study abroad program.
Specialty: Public Policy, Environmental Policy, Community-Based Natural Resources Management, Integration of Social and Environmental Sciences
Tom Koontz, PhD grew up in Kitsap county and completed his bachelor's degree at the University of Puget Sound, before heading east to pursue graduate work at Indiana University in Public Policy. His interdisciplinary graduate studies focused on environmental policy as it relates to human systems including institutions, stakeholder participation and community-based natural resource management, as well as natural systems such as forests, watersheds and the global climate. As a research assistant with the International Forestry Resources and Institutions program, he collaborated with international scholars examining the ecological and sociopolitical aspects of community-based natural resource management and coupled human and natural systems.
In 1998 Dr. Koontz joined the faculty at Ohio State University in the interdisciplinary School of Environment and Natural Resources. Working with colleagues and students, he conducted research on collaborative environmental management, forest policy, watershed management and related environmental and natural resources policy topics. As one of the few social scientists in an environmental science program, he enjoyed helping students to integrate across disciplines and see the critical role of social science in solving environmental challenges.
In 2011 Dr. Koontz spent a half-year sabbatical at Leuphana University in Germany, where he taught and researched in the sustainability program. This provided an opportunity to compare collaboration and water policy between the European Union and the U.S. In 2014 he returned to his home state of Washington to join UW Tacoma in its environmental science, environmental studies, and sustainability efforts.
Specialty: Political Science, International Law, Armed Conflict and Genocide, Rhetorical Strategy
Benjamin Meiches, PhD's research and teaching focus on global politics. He is particularly interested in armed conflict, genocide, and the development of international law. He teach classes about political violence, human rights, and international theory.
Dr. Meiches' research focuses on armed conflict, genocide, and international law. I am particularly interested in how the categories, concepts and practices of contemporary violence evolved and developed over time. I am also invested in debates about contemporary political theory. I am currently working on a history of the emergence of international law and political discourse surrounding genocide.
Associate Professor, School of Interdisciplinary Arts & Sciences
Huatong Sun, PhD explores the relationship and interaction between technology, culture and design in a globalization age across multiple disciplines; a teacher who strives to nurture communication majors into competent professionals and socially responsible citizens with a sharp vision of critical media studies; and a designer who aims to articulate local voices with a culture-sensitive design approach.
Associate Professor, School of Interdisciplinary Arts & Sciences
My research is motivated by a commitment to design for digital inclusion. Designing for information and communication technologies (ICTs) in developing countries and for poor communities in developed countries presents unique challenges. In these settings, people have limited access to a variety of resources which result in challenges in daily life. Constraints in these settings include infrastructure, technology and economics. I investigate how existing methodologies and design approaches can and should be expanded to accommodate the growing diversity of people using technology. Specifically, I have focused on understanding peoples needs and practices using methodologies that are contextual and participatory.
Within the field of technical communication, my area of expertise is in usability and user-centered design. Prior to my academic career, I worked as a user experience consultant and web designer where I spent over a decade designing, researching and adapting designs to meet the needs of a variety of users. This experience in industry gives my research and teaching an applied and practical approach. I choose research projects that have the potential to make an impact. I also bring this sensibility to the classroom. I enjoy teaching and getting students excited about writing, design and research.
