Leading with Integrity: JMU Welcomes Humphrey Fellows to Washington

At the JMU Washington Center this past March, a powerful intersection of good governance and ethical leadership took shape. From March 9-12, 2026, James Madison University hosted the “Global Integrity in Practice” workshop, an intensive program designed to equip international leaders with the tools to defend institutional transparency and national security.  

Led by Dr. JY Zhou, Associate Provost for International Initiatives at the Center for Global Engagement, and Dr. Bernie Kaussler, Director of the Diplomacy & Defense Lab and Professor of Political Science, the initiative was made possible through a prestigious grant from the U.S. Department of State implemented through the Institute of International Education (IIE). Andrea Nutter, Assistant Director of GLP, plays a vital role in supporting the grant’s administration and the coordination of the program’s implementation.  

The Hubert H. Humphrey Fellowship Program, a Fulbright exchange, advances American interests by bringing influential professionals from priority countries to the United States to build strategic partnerships that advance shared interests and support U.S. foreign policy goals. Through an academic year at U.S. host universities, Fellows develop expertise in fields critical to U.S. foreign policy and gain direct experience with American institutions, standards, and perspectives.  Fellows are drawn from across the globe and represent a wide range of sectors and are selected for their demonstrated leadership potential and commitment to driving meaningful change in their home countries. Humphrey fellows that completed the JMU workshop represented 20 countries around the world.  

The four-day enhancement workshop was designed to deepen fellows' understanding of the interconnected threats facing government worldwide, drawing on expertise from JMU faculty and alumni in Political Science, Marketing and Management, former government officials, and practitioners across the fields of sanctions compliance, financial crime, cybersecurity, economic espionage, supply chain integrity, anti-corruption, and public financial management. The curriculum moved fellows through four thematic areas, global integrity and governance, accountability in public service, countering conventional and cyber threats, and combating international criminal networks, with sessions delivered by faculty drawn from JMU, King's College London, Goldsmiths University, Valid8, PwC, McKinsey and Citigroup. A midweek field visit to the Port of Baltimore provided fellows with an on-the-ground perspective on supply chain dynamics, cargo flows, and the realities of border security and trade integrity in action. 

The experience culminated in "Shadows of the Global Economy," a high-stakes capstone simulation that forced Fellows to navigate a rapidly unfolding transnational crisis. The scenario presented a hybrid economic warfare ecosystem in which cryptocurrency fraud, human trafficking, shell company networks, data exfiltration, and organized crime converged to quietly undermine national security from within. The simulation challenged fellows to apply their newly acquired analytical frameworks under pressure, drawing on the full breadth of what they had learned across the four days, a fitting test for professionals who will carry these skills back to institutions and governments around the world. 

As the workshop concluded, the JMU team was left inspired by the caliber of this year’s cohort. The substantive contributions and reflections shared by the Fellows throughout the week served as a reminder of the program's ultimate goal: to send these leaders back to their institutions and governments around the world with the analytical frameworks and integrity necessary to build a more secure and just global future.