SHREVEPORT, LA – Centenary College of Louisiana president Dr. Christopher L. Holoman is the lone American among seven new board members recently elected to serve the International Association of Methodist Schools, Colleges, and Universities (IAMSCU). Holoman and his colleagues will serve a three-year term on the board that leads IAMSCU, a global network representing more than 1,500,000 students at 1,000 Methodist institutions in 80 countries.

The new board members hail from Methodist institutions in Argentina, Australia, Germany, Japan, South Africa, and the United Kingdom in addition to Centenary in the United States.

“I am very honored to have been nominated and elected to serve on the IAMSCU Board,” said Holoman. “This organization does important work bringing Methodists in secondary and higher education from the entire world together to prepare leaders who will support and pursue the Wesleyan values of peace and justice in whatever their chosen pursuits are and in all parts of the world. Not only does this mission align with Centenary’s leading role in international education, I also hope I will be able to put my scholarly work on international cooperation to good use.”

IAMSCU organizes annual meetings, workshops, and conferences for organization members and supports special programs such as a Human Rights Network, the Methodist International Student Exchange Network (MISEN), and exchange programs for faculty and staff. The organization also provides institutional support, technical assistance, and fundraising and volunteer opportunities to Methodist educational institutions. IAMSCU is affiliated with several other Methodist organizations focused on global education and exchange, including the World Methodist Council, Methodist Global Education Fund, and the General Board of Higher Education and Ministry of the United Methodist Church.

“With a Centenary presence on a Board with members from all over the globe, I am excited to pursue new opportunities for our faculty and students to visit other countries and learn from their peers at overseas Methodist colleges, as well as to welcome new visitors to Shreveport. We are already looking forward to hosting a group of Japanese Methodist students in August,” said Holoman. “John Wesley famously said ‘all the world is my parish.’ At Centenary, we believe that all the world is our classroom. I am pleased to be able to open new opportunities to live out Centenary’s mission: to ‘prepare global citizens to live productive lives of vitality and purpose.’”