GLOBAL

The U7+ Alliance of World Universities is the first coalition of university presidents aimed at defining concrete actions universities can take to collectively address global challenges in coordination with government leaders in G7 countries and beyond. Alliance members meet annually to establish a common agenda and identify key areas for coordinated action. Together, U7+ university presidents take stock of their universities’ unique civic and social responsibilities and pledge concrete action on behalf of their institutions to address the world’s most pressing challenges at local, regional and global levels. In 2021, Northwestern University was elected to serve as the first Secretariat of the U7+ Alliance for a three-year term.

Northwestern University’s Roberta Buffett Institute for Global Affairs brings together the brightest minds from across Northwestern University and around the world to address critical global challenges–such as inequality, poverty and environmental degradation–that cannot be solved from a singular disciplinary or geographical perspective. Northwestern Buffett serves as a hub of connectivity for fostering dialogue and collaboration across academic disciplines—the humanities, social sciences, business, law, medicine, the arts and more—to catalyze connections between researchers and experts from government, industry, nonprofit and nongovernmental organizations worldwide through transnational dialogue, transnational research and international education and cultural exchange.

Guided by a commitment to building safer, stronger communities, Feinberg’s Disaster Management and Community Emergency Preparedness Initiative (DMCEPI) was developed to address disasters at local and regional scales and their impacts on cities and their communities across entities of practice (i.e. neighborhoods, hospitals, city and state governments, etc). DMCEPI forms a cohesive network across private and public partners with the collective goal of preparing for and mitigating natural and human-caused disasters and emergencies, and their impacts, by leveraging the expertise of stakeholders.  DMCEPI provides education, training, community outreach, and “real-world” application to strengthen communities’ awareness and skills in disaster management and emergency preparedness. DMCEPI aims to be a leading resource for local, national, and global communities.

Michelle Shumate is the Delaney Family University Research Professor at the School of Communication.  Her work investigates the dynamics of interorganizational networks designed to impact large social issues, developing and testing theories to visualize, understand, and enable effective interorganizational networks in a variety of contexts including nongovernmental organization (NGO)-corporate partnerships, development and disease NGOs, expert-NGO partnerships in sustainable development, and interorganizational networks for healthy communities. Shumate also the founding director of Network for Nonprofit and Social Impact (NNSI), which is dedicated to answering the question: How can nonprofit networks be rewired for maximum social impact?