ISC 2026
Panel Discussion:
International Students in Higher Ed
We are thrilled to announce the following speakers will be featured on a panel during the opening ceremony of the International Student Conference 2026!
Dr. Xiaofeng Wan is a renowned leader in international college admissions in the United States, with more than 11 years of experience in highly selective college admissions.
From 2015-2024, he served as an Associate Dean of Admission and the Coordinator of International Recruitment at Amherst College, a prestigious, highly selective, liberal arts college in Amherst, Massachusetts. He was the first Chinese national to be hired for this position in Amherst's history and one of a rare few foreign nationals in highly selective college admissions in the United States.
Under his leadership, the international application pool at Amherst nearly tripled during his tenure to an unprecedented record of 6,000, representing 40% of the entire application pool. The admission rate for international students also dropped to a historic low of 2%.
He is one of the most visible and outspoken speakers at industry conferences. He has published extensively on international student mobility issues on mainstream industry platforms, including Inside Higher Ed and University World News. He has been interviewed by many mainstream media outlets, including The New York Times, BBC, The Wall Street Journal, The Economist, Nature, AFP, CGTN America, The Chronicle of Higher Education, The Straits Times, Inside Higher Ed, etc.
Yanjie (Ruby) Cheng is the inaugural Assistant Director of the Global Brown Center for International Students (GBC). In this role, she develops, implements, and assesses intersectional programming that fosters a strong sense of belonging for Brown's internationally identified community. Ruby also leads Brown's international orientation, oversees the International Mentoring Program (IMP), and supports the GBC director in advancing the university's mission of creating an inclusive community that promotes equity and empowers international students to thrive in all aspects of their lives at Brown.
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Ruby holds a doctorate degree in Leadership for Educational Equity from the University of Colorado Denver and brings over ten years of professional experience as a dedicated advocate for international students. Prior to joining Brown, she served as the Director of International Enrollment at the University of Colorado Colorado Springs. Ruby has presented at international conferences such as the EducationUSA Forum, NAFSA, International Association of College Admissions and Counseling (International ACAC), ChinaICAC, and Association of International Education Administrators (AIEA). Her research focuses on international students' acculturation and sense of belonging, and her advocacy articles have been published in professional and scholarly journals.
Kwame is from Jamaica and holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Anthropology with a concentration in African Studies from Macalester College, a master’s degree in International Training and Education from American University, a joint master’s degree in Sociology and Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies from Brandeis University and an education specialist (Ed.S.) degree in Secondary Education from Worcester State University.
Kwame is currently a 3rd year doctoral student in Education (Comparative and International Education) at Morgan State University and graduate research assistant at the National Center for the Elimination of Educational Disparities (NCEED). Previously, he was an assistant director of admissions at St. Mark’s School, a private boarding school in Massachusetts, for three years and Manager of Secondary School Admissions Counseling at Due West Education, an education consulting company based in Beijing, China for three years. He is also TEFL certified and has taught in Japan, South Africa, Botswana, Myanmar, Jamaica and the USA.
Kwame’s research interests (broadly construed) include migration, international student mobility, gender, sexuality and race. He’s particularly interested in global and transnational movements of identity, sexuality and the perpetuation of structural violence through social institutions. He has coined “JaQueer educational asylum”, i.e. exploring and analyzing Jamaican queer international students using international education as an escape from homophobic realities. Additionally, he aims to document the experiences of Jamaican queer students to analyze the causing factors and implications of queer brain drain.
Kwame has been described as a jovial and positive individual who brings a ray of light into any room he enters. He loves traveling, the performing arts, and eating good food.