Mya Fisher

Mya is responsible for leading the administration and management of the Richard U. Light Fellowship. As a woman of color who has greatly benefited from international experiences and opportunities in East Asia, her 20-year career illustrates a passion and commitment to equity and inclusion, particularly as a leader in international program management, educational exchange, and cross-cultural training for U.S.-Japan relations. Although she began studying Japanese in high school, it wasn’t until grad school that she returned to complete her language training. She is keenly aware of the commitment and perseverance required to learn a foreign language, and is excited to support students who choose to do so intensively in-country. She is passionate about international exchange and brings extensive experience studying and working in Japan notably as founding administrator of the Watanabe Study Abroad Scholarship, and alum of the Japan Exchange and Teaching (JET) Program and the Inter-University Center for Japanese Language studies (IUC). She is an enthusiastic supporter of next-generation leadership development. Encouraging students to embrace their leadership potential, pursue interests in international opportunities, and discover their place and purpose in the world motivates and inspires her every day. Mya holds degrees from Williams College (B.A. Psychology and Sociology), New York University (M.A., International Education) and the University of Wisconsin-Madison (M.S. and PhD, Sociology). In her free time, she enjoys watching movies in the theater, spoiling her two pet guinea pigs, listening to audiobooks, traveling, practicing yoga and doing Zumba.