Faculty, Staff Win 2025-2026 Fulbright U.S. Scholar Awards 

A professor and two Texas Global staff members at The University of Texas at Austin have received Fulbright U.S. Scholar Program awards for the 2025-2026 academic year to teach, study or research in three countries.  

Professor Kelly Zamudio and Texas Global staff members Teri Albrecht and Thomas Ward will join more than 800 U.S. scholars, artists and professionals from all backgrounds who teach or conduct research annually in more than 135 countries across the world with support from the Fulbright program.     

Fulbright U.S. Scholars are faculty, researchers, administrators and established professionals teaching or conducting research in affiliation with institutes abroad. They lead cutting-edge explorations and expand their professional networks, often continuing collaborations previously started abroad and laying the groundwork to forge future partnerships between institutions.  

Fulbright Distinguished Scholar Award  
Fulbright-FAPESP Network  

Kelly Zamudio, Ph.D., is a professor in the Department of Integrative Biology and an Endowed Fellow of the Doherty Regents Chair in Molecular Biology. To execute her Fulbright Distinguished Scholar Award project, she will travel to Brazil for two months in fall 2025, then return for a second two-month stint in spring 2026.  

The Fulbright-FAPESP Network is a unique initiative that promotes innovative partnerships, expands educational ties and strengthens long-term U.S.-Brazil institutional linkages through a qualified dialogue about strategic U.S.-related topics within Brazilian society.  

For her research, Zamudio will partner with Brazilian collaborators in the Fulbright-FAPESP Network of six public universities in the state of São Paulo, including the Universidade Estadual de São Paulo, Rio Claro.  

“I am interested in how biodiversity will respond to human-induced disturbances, including habitat loss and climate change, that are profoundly altering our globe,” said Zamudio. “For my Fulbright Award, I will be studying frogs that live in high-elevation habitats in Brazil to understand their ability to adjust, cope with, or respond to shifting conditions, and how that contributes to their persistence or the extent of their decline.”    

Zamudio’s research focuses on the origin and maintenance of vertebrate biodiversity, especially in reptiles and amphibians. The outcomes of her Fulbright project will provide valuable information for extinction risk assessments and for implementing future conservation measures focused on these and other frog species. 

Fulbright International Education Administrators Awards  

Two administrators at Texas Global — Assistant Vice Provost for Operations and Chief of Staff Teri Albrecht, Ph.D., and Director of Education Abroad Thomas Ward — received Fulbright International Education Administrators (IEA) Awards for the 2025-2026 academic year.  

The awards earned each director a place in two-week, in-country funded seminars that afford administrators the opportunity to learn numerous aspects of the participating countries’ higher education systems. Albrecht will pursue the Fulbright IEA program in France; Ward recently completed a trip with his cohort in Taiwan.  

Each participating country arranges an itinerary of meetings and campus visits to a wide range of universities and colleges, allowing administrators/scholars to exchange information on best practices, explore the potential for partnerships with institutions of higher education in the host country and raise the profile of their home institutions within the host country and the U.S. participant cohort.  

Albrecht has advocated for international education for 26 years at Texas Global. She has served in leadership positions in NAFSA, the Association of International Educators, writing articles for NAFSA’s flagship publication as well as presenting and publishing on a wide range of topics affecting international education. 

“I am eager to deepen my understanding of the French higher education system and the changes it is undergoing to meet workforce demands and learn about the emphasis on entrepreneurship and ecosystem development between institutions and their local communities, as well as explore broader trends related to access to higher education,” said Albrecht. 

Ward has worked in international education for more than 18 years. He began at UT Austin’s International Office (now Texas Global), where he developed exchange, affiliated and faculty-led study abroad programs across five continents; then at the McCombs School of Business, where he expanded the school’s faculty-led offerings, sending more than 500 MBA students abroad annually to more than 30 countries.   

“The opportunity to participate in the IEA Fulbright program in Taiwan was a fantastic occasion to observe all the incredible programming run by the Fulbright Taiwan office, as well as visit a wide array of Taiwanese higher education institutions,” said Ward. “I left the program feeling very impressed by the Taiwanese education system and the support our students receive while studying abroad there.”   

Staff participation in a Fulbright IEA seminar can build an institution’s capacity for international education, expand cross-cultural perspectives, and open doors to collaboration with colleagues and students throughout the world. Both Texas Global leaders intend to explore potential partnerships with colleagues in their host countries to cultivate and expand opportunities between the institutions. 

UT Austin enjoys a longstanding history of alumni, faculty and staff receiving Fulbright awards to conduct research in a multitude of disciplines and attend specialized seminars across the world. As part of UT Austin’s ongoing global engagement efforts, Texas Global encourages university faculty, staff and alumni to learn more about the Fulbright U.S. Scholar program and consider applying.   

Find more information by visiting Texas Global’s Fulbright Opportunities for UT Faculty and Administrators webpage.  Faculty and staff members can also contact UT Fulbright liaison Holly Schneider at holly.schneider@austin.utexas.edu.