The Future of Education

Yaprak Dalat Ward, an Associate Professor, works at Fort Hays State University (FHSU), College of Education, Department of Advanced Education Programs. Her department offers online graduate degree programs. Yaprak currently teaches two graduate-level courses, Cultural Diversity and Educational Research. Previously, she taught other graduate courses ranging from Educational Leadership, Data Analysis and Assessment to Research Design and Analysis. During her tenure she also served as the Interim Associate Provost for Internationalization and Global Partnerships implementing the comprehensive internationalization process at FHSU. She was instrumental in initiating and establishing transnational partnerships, in restructuring the international unit ranging from internationalization of the curriculum to education abroad. She also served as a virtual guest lecturer at ITMO University in St. Petersburg, Russia from 2021 to 2023 holding seminars/workshops on topics such as intercultural competencies, research methods, leadership skills, designing careers, resume/CV strategies as part of a graduate course, International Research Management Essentials. During the Pandemic, she initiated and founded FHSU College of Education Diversity, Equity, Inclusion (DEI) Research Institute which resulted in receiving a service award. She has been leading the activities of the institute which include conducting research, holding workshops and book studies. Additionally, Yaprak continues to peer-review, co-edit manuscripts for conferences and journals. Her two most recent work include a textbook chapter, The Digital (In)equity Crisis During the Covid-19 Pandemic: Narratives from the Field, published by Routledge; and a manuscript, A Pragmatic Approach to Investigating the Digital Existence of Food Bank Users, published in Information Systems Education Journal (ISEDJ).

Yaprak lived and worked in many countries. Prior to joining FHSU, Yaprak worked at the Fulbright Commission as the Deputy Executive Director in Turkey. She also worked as the Director Career Services and Student Services at the School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) at Johns Hopkins University in Bologna, Italy. In Berlin, Germany, she managed a career center and acted as a senior career counsellor. She later became a senior global consultant working out of Berlin, Budapest, Salzburg, Washington DC, Cairo completing numerous projects/training sessions at worldwide locations due to reduction-in-force operations implemented by US and international public/private organizations. Given her Applied Linguistics MA degree, she also acted as one of the three teacher trainers and the English Literature Officer at the British Council in Turkey. She trained teachers in Royal Society of Arts (RSA) Diploma for Overseas Teachers of English (DOTE) through Cambridge University and organized the annual British Council English Literature conferences. Yaprak also served as the academic director of a bi-national language and cultural center in Turkey. She entered the workforce as teaching English as a Foreign Language at an English-medium university, the Middle East Technical University in Turkey.

Yaprak received her doctoral degree in Executive Leadership in Higher Education from Sam Houston State University in Texas. Her MA degree is in Applied Linguistics from University of Reading in England, and her BA + MA degrees are in English Language and Literature and German from Hacettepe University in Turkey. She also studied languages including Italian at Siena University, French Language and Literature at the French Institute, and German at Goethe Institute in Germany.

Area of Expertise: Educational Leadership, Research Methodology, Comprehensive Internationalization, Online Course Design, Superior Performance Competencies, DEI and Synchronization Across Borders, Experiential Learning, Service Learning, Digital Inequity, Cultural Diversity, High Impact Practices, Transformational Learning.