Gaskins to Travel Abroad on Fulbright Grant

VALDOSTA -- Valdosta State University Attorney Laverne Gaskins will spend two weeks this March at Eszterházy Károly College in Eger, Hungary, presenting a variety of lectures, many focused on the intersection of race, gender and law.

Gaskins, who also teaches political science courses at VSU, will travel on a 2010 Fulbright Grant, awarded through the J. William Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board, the Bureau of Education and Cultural Affairs of the Department of State and the Council for International Exchange of Scholars.
The law specialist is one of several faculty and professionals who will travel abroad this year through the Fulbright Specialists Program, which was created in 2000 to provide opportunities to prominent U.S. faculty and professionals to support curricular and faculty development and institutional planning at post secondary, academic institutions around the world.

As a representative of the Fulbright program, VSU and the United States, Gaskins will be called upon to demonstrate the qualities of excellence and leadership that have been the hallmarks of this respected international exchange program founded in 1946 by the U.S. Government.

The Fulbright Program, America’s flagship international educational exchange activity, is sponsored by the U.S. Department of State, Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs. During its 60 years of existence, thousands of U.S. faculty and professionals have taught, studied or conducted research abroad, and thousands of their counterparts from other countries have engaged in similar activities in the United States. More than 285,000 emerging leaders in their professional fields have received Fulbright awards, including individuals who later became heads of government, Nobel Prize winners, and leaders in education, business, journalism, the arts and other fields.

Recipients of Fulbright Scholar awards are selected on the basis of academic or professional achievement. Among thousands of prominent Fulbright Scholar alumni are Milton Friedman, Nobel Prize-winning economist; Alan Leshner, CEO of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS); and Craig Barrett, Chairman of the Board of Intel Corporation. Distinguished Fulbright Specialist participants include Heidi Hartmann, President and CEO, Institute for Women's Policy Research, Percy R. Luney, Jr., Dean and Professor, College of Law, Florida A&M University.

In addition to her duties as in-house counsel, Gaskins is actively involved in the State Bar of Georgia’s Board of Governors, the Valdosta Rotary and Florida State University’s College of Law Alumni Board. She serves on the Editorial Board of The Journal of College and University Law, and is a former president of Valdosta's branch of the American Association of University Women and a fellow of the American Bar Foundation. Gaskins has written several articles that have appeared in national and state publications and she was a 2008 Nominee for Woman of the Year sponsored by Valdosta Junior Woman's Club. In 2009, she received the State Bar of Georgia’s Justice Benham’s Award for Community Service.