Until recently, Lea Sublett traveled the Middle East as a higher education ambassador of sorts, promoting Australia as a study-abroad destination. She returned to her homeland in 2007 to join the University of Queensland as a development and communications manager with the faculty of engineering, physical sciences and architecture. In December, she was promoted to deputy director of alumni and community relations at the university, which has about 150,000 alumni. Before her Middle East assignments, Sublett spent eight years in Australian higher education marketing, student recruitment and alumni relations, working at the universities of Melbourne, Wollongong and Southern Queensland. She earned a bachelor's degree and a diploma of business at the University of Southern Queensland. Sublett can be reached at l.sublett@uq.edu.au.

You have traveled widely to promote the field of higher education in Australia. What did your assignments in the Middle East entail?

I am actually one of only a handful of women to have served as a diplomat in the Middle East for the Australian government. I led the first Australian delegation on education and training into Libya. I negotiated with the Saudi Arabian minister of higher education to encourage the country to send more young Saudis on government scholarships to study in Australia. I also helped establish the Iraq Endeavour Fellowships through which Iraqi academics undertake research and study in Australia. I also spent time working in Syria, Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey.

It was while being shown the sights of Isfahan, Iran, by a dental alumnus of the University of Queensland that I became enthused about returning to advancement once my diplomatic posting in the Middle East ended.

The position of deputy director of alumni and community relations at the University of Queensland is brand new. What tasks come first in your new job?

The most immediate priority in this role is working with the director of advancement to establish the university's advancement strategy, which will be a new vision in alumni and community relations, communications and fundraising for the university. We also hope to strengthen advancement within the university, particularly in alumni programming, and focus on how to best manage strategic relationships within and outside of the university.

Building the case for support is an immediate, ongoing challenge. I am charged with ensuring that the advancement office is adequately resourced to support the advancement functions of a university with an international reputation. At the same time, the university is a very large organization-I will be working to ensure that all internal stakeholders and colleagues work together on advancement strategy and processes. I am also focused on coordinating all communications to our alumni, industry, government and the community. My job requires me to continuously demonstrate the value of advancement to the university's senior executives and manage the change process sensitively and diplomatically.

My efforts are aided by the fact that the University of Queensland is one of Australia's best universities. It is one of only five Australian universities ranked among the world's top 50 universities in the annual top 200 ranking produced by the U.K.'s Times Higher Education Supplement.

How did your earlier advancement work segue into higher education diplomacy for the Australian government?

My higher education experience equipped me with skills in relationship management and working across cultures. Indirectly, it gave me significant experience in diplomacy and representing Australia's universities to the outside world. This helped me advance the position of Australia to a broad range of stakeholders, including Middle Eastern government officials, benefactors, corporate and industry partners, current and prospective students and their parents.

What do you like most about working in advancement?

The career of advancement presents enormous opportunities to engage with a wide range of people of all ages, professions and cultures. It is very satisfying to represent an organization you strongly believe in and that is world-class, and to help build the case for support or engagement. Advancement and diplomacy have many similar characteristics with both professions requiring the critical abilities to think and act strategically and to manage relationships with people from all avenues of life.

Please describe your involvement with CASE.

I have been involved with CASE since 1998. I attended a CASE Summer Institute in 2001 in San Francisco, which provided an excellent opportunity to develop a network of international advancement contacts. The resources provided by CASE have played an important role in heightening my understanding of advancement. I'm thrilled that CASE Asia-Pacific has been established, and the appointment of Krista Slade as executive director is fantastic. Krista is highly regarded in Australia for her vision and leadership. The Asia-Pacific listserv is a welcome addition to the suite of resources provided by CASE.

This article is from the January 2008 issue of BriefCASE.
Please share your questions and comments with Pam Russell via e-mail at russell@case.org or by telephone at +1-202-478-5680.