Joel Colony

Joel Colony is World Learning Inc.'s vice president of External Engagement & Advocacy, where he oversees global policy, strategic partnerships, and external affairs to promote and strengthen international education, sustainable development, and people-to-people exchanges. Prior to joining World Learning, Colony worked in the U.S. Senate in a variety of legislative roles, including as foreign policy adviser where he focused extensively on issues related to development, social inclusion, and diplomacy. Colony was awarded a Fulbright Scholarship to the European Union, which included an affiliation with the German Marshall Fund in Brussels. He also completed a master’s degree in global politics at the London School of Economics and Political Science. He has participated in fellowship programs in conflict mediation and foreign policy, including Harvard Law School’s Program on Negotiation, and the Woodrow Wilson Center’s Wilson Foreign Policy Fellowship Program. Colony graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Bates College. He is an SIT Study Abroad to China alumnus where he studied Mandarin Chinese and learned from and lived with ethnic minority populations in the country’s rural southwest.

Expertise: strategic planning, organizational change management, policymaking, advocacy