GTAZ re-launches in 2021!
Global Ties Arizona (GTAZ), a nonprofit dedicated to international exchange and citizen diplomacy, officially re-launched this month under new executive leadership and an expanded board of directors. The virtual re-launch event, available for viewing here, introduced the organization’s leadership and future plans to the local community.
Over its seventy-year history, GTAZ has fostered engagement between Arizonans and thousands of visitors from nearly every continent through the U.S. State Department’s International Visitor Leadership Program (IVLP). These engagements enable participants to share ideas and best practices across a wide range of topics, building connective tissue between communities and countries that often develops into long-lasting partnerships, understanding, and empathy.
Carrying this legacy forward, GTAZ collaborated with a dozen organizations in May and June alone – including the Arizona Commerce Authority, Chicanos Por La Causa, and KJZZ – to foster discussions on women and entrepreneurship with citizens of the Kyrgyz Republic, minority participation in democratic processes with Venezuelans, and media and digital technologies with Indian journalists.
The re-launch featured remarks from GTAZ staff, including new Executive Director Kristin Allen, the nonprofit’s board of directors, a Vietnamese IVLP alum, and Dr. Katherine Brown, President and CEO of Global Ties U.S., the nonprofit’s national affiliate.
America’s “citizens have the right and the responsibility to be part of foreign affairs,” Dr. Brown stated at the event. Exchange programs like those hosted by GTAZ “help international visitors see and understand the United States, its complexity, and the strength and diversity of our cities, institutions, and our civil society.”
As GTAZ looks to its future – including upcoming programs that will tackle topics as varied as sustainability in the extractive industry, internationalizing classrooms, and countering religious-based violence – the nonprofit and its community partners remain ready to show the world the best Arizona has to offer.