Prof. Reitumetse Obakeng Mabokela is the Vice-Provost for International Affairs and Global Strategy and Professor of Higher Education at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. She received her BA in Economics from Ohio Wesleyan University, magna cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa.  She received a Master’s in Labor & Industrial Relations and a Ph.D in Educational Policy Studies, both from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

A former Fulbright New Century Scholar and Fulbright International Education Administrators program participant in France, Prof. Mabokela's research seeks to understand experiences of marginalized populations and aims to inform and influence institutional policies that affect these groups within institutions of higher education. Her research centers or has centered on the examination of three interrelated themes: 1) organizational change and organizational culture in higher education; 2) gender in higher education; and 3) higher education in transitional societies. She is the author, co-author, editor or co-editor of seven books and has published extensively in academic journals including Comparative Education Review, American Educational Research Journal, the Africa Education Review, and The Review of Higher Education, Comparative Education, Higher Education, among others.