Dr. Tonija Hope is the Executive Director of the Ralph J. Bunche International Affairs Center at Howard University (HU).  In this capacity, Dr. Hope oversees the Center’s strategic vision, as well as its wide-ranging international engagements, including study abroad, international partnership development, global programming, and the management of the Patricia Roberts Harris Fellowship for HU students. She also supports several flagship fellowship programs for the US. Department of State and the US Department of Agriculture (USDA), which are aimed at cultivating pipelines for diverse talent in foreign affairs careers.  After receiving her BA in Latin American Studies/Spanish from Macalester College, Hope set out to pursue her passion for international exchange.  Beginning at the University of Cape Town in South Africa, she collaborated with scholars to develop mechanisms to increase interaction between international and South African students.  Upon her return from South Africa, Dr. Hope earned her master’s degree in Tourism Administration with a focus on International Education from George Washington University in Washington, DC.

After completing her master’s, Dr. Hope joined the DC-based international non-profit, Phelps Stokes Fund, where she began working on the US Department of State’s International Visitor Leadership Program and quickly became involved with other initiatives of the organization, like the Ralph Bunche Societies, and the creation of the Collaborative for Diversity in Education Abroad. Dr. Hope was later promoted to Director of Programs for Latin America and the Caribbean, where she oversaw a variety of projects focusing on youth leadership development in Afro-descendant communities, primarily in Colombia, with thematic lenses such as comparative legal frameworks and workforce development in the health sector. Domestically, she worked on college-readiness programs for high school students of color in the DC area and advocated for international education and study abroad opportunities for students of color throughout the US.  Dr. Hope’s doctoral research focused on internationalization at historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) and led to the development of her “Black Internationalization” framework, which guides her work at Howard University.  She has a keen interest in and passion for facilitating relationships between and among people of diverse cultures, and particularly for exposing young people from underserved communities, domestically and internationally, to opportunities for travel and education abroad.  Immediately prior to joining Howard University, Dr. Hope served as the founding Executive Director of the Baoba Fund for Racial Equity-North America, a Brazil-based non-profit, focused on supporting Afro-Brazilian civil society organizations through a $25 million challenge grant offered by the W.K. Kellogg Foundation.

Dr. Hope has been active in a variety of initiatives working to promote racial equity throughout the African Diaspora.  She is a member of the US Civil Society Committee for the U.S.-Brazil Joint Action Plan to Eliminate Racial and Ethnic Discrimination and Promote Equality (JAPER), a bi-lateral agreement between the US and Brazil.  She is also the Chair of the US Civil Society Committee of a similar initiative between the US and Colombia, the US-Colombia Action Plan to Promote Racial and Ethnic Equality (CAPREE). Recently, she cofounded the Global Futures Collaborative, a new initiative at the RBC that will work to reshape global policy engagement. Dr. Hope is a native Washingtonian, and the proud daughter of a Liberian mother and an African American father and has two children.  Dr. Hope is fluent in Spanish and Portuguese.