To highlight the variety of career paths for leadership in international education, the IEL KC team has invited current and past volunteer leaders to share some reflections.
Featured here is Balaji Krishnan, Professor and Vice-Provost International Affairs at the University of Memphis. Balaji is also a volunteer leader with the International Education Leadership Resources and Networking Subcommittee.
I did not grow up dreaming of a career in international education or imagining myself someday advocating for international student mobility. In fact, growing up in a middle-class family in South India, the most “international” thing in my childhood was probably watching global news on television and waiting for relatives visiting from abroad to arrive with chocolates, electronics, and stories about life in distant countries.
If you had told my younger self that I would eventually become a Vice Provost for International Affairs, I would have probably asked what a “Provost” was.
My path into international education has been anything but traditional. Unlike many colleagues in the field who always knew this was their calling, my journey has involved several unexpected turns—engineering, consulting, academia, administration, and eventually global engagement. Looking back, it feels less like a carefully designed strategic plan and more like one of those GPS routes that keeps “re-routing” but somehow still gets you where you need to go.
Like many Indian students of my generation, I started out in engineering. Not necessarily because I had spent my childhood passionately dreaming about equations, but because becoming an engineer in India is often viewed as a perfectly reasonable life plan by parents, neighbors, distant relatives, and occasionally complete strangers.
After engineering, I completed an MBA and moved into management consulting, where I learned many important business skills, including strategic thinking, problem solving, and how to survive meetings.
Eventually, I found my way into academia and pursued a Ph.D. in Marketing. I joined a business school as a tenure-track faculty member and genuinely loved academic life—teaching students, conducting research, publishing papers, and attending conferences where people use phrases like “conceptual framework” before breakfast. Over time, I earned tenure and was promoted to Full Professor of Marketing.
At that point, I thought I had my career pretty well figured out and enjoyed the stability that the life of an academic provides.
Naturally, that is exactly when everything changed.
My Dean asked if I would consider becoming Director of the MBA programs. I initially assumed this would be a short administrative assignment—something I would do briefly before returning to the comfortable world of teaching and research. Instead, I discovered that I actually enjoyed administration, strategy, and institutional problem-solving. Apparently, I was one of those unusual academics who voluntarily opened Excel spreadsheets without feeling resentment.
Over the next several years, I worked on redesigning the MBA curriculum, building interdisciplinary collaborations, and growing enrollment. Somehow, this caught the attention of senior university leadership. I still suspect they may have simply noticed that I answered emails unusually quickly!
Then, in 2020, I was offered the role of Vice Provost for International Affairs.
Overnight, my world shifted from marketing journals and curriculum discussions to visas, global partnerships, recruitment strategies, immigration regulations, geopolitical developments, and learning acronyms at an alarming pace. International education may be one of the only fields where your day can involve student wellness, exchange agreements, enrollment forecasting, diplomacy, and a conversation about whether someone’s I-20 was mailed to the wrong continent.
What surprised me most was how much I loved it.
International education sits at the intersection of strategy and humanity. Yes, there are enrollment targets, operational systems, and institutional goals. But at the center of it all are students—young people who leave home, family, language, and familiarity behind in pursuit of opportunity and transformation. Helping them navigate that journey is incredibly rewarding and meaningful work.
I also realized that many parts of my unconventional background actually prepared me well for this role. Engineering taught me structured thinking. Consulting taught me strategy and operations. Academia taught me patience—especially committee meetings. And my own personal journey helped me understand what it feels like to navigate unfamiliar environments and cultures.
One of the biggest surprises, though, has been the people in international education. Academia is not always famous for being warm and collaborative. Let’s just say universities occasionally have enough internal politics to qualify as small nation-states. But international education professionals are different. Through organizations like NAFSA, I found a community of colleagues who genuinely want to help one another succeed. People openly share ideas, best practices, and advice without acting like they are protecting state secrets.
That spirit of collaboration has been both refreshing and inspiring.
Looking back, I am grateful my career did not follow a perfectly predictable path. None of this was part of some grand master plan. If anything, my professional life has been a series of unexpected turns, accidental opportunities, and moments where I said “yes” before fully understanding what I was getting myself into.
Which, now that I think about it, may also be the perfect description of international education itself.
Here is waiting for my career GPS to flash “re-routing.”