Refugee Resettlement Initiative

The NASH RRI promotes welcoming and inclusive experiences for refugees and forcibly displaced persons on university and college campuses.

About the NASH Refugee Resettlement Initiative

The NASH RRI supports refugee and forcibly displaced students, scholars, and families who have recently arrived in the United States (within the last five years). It leverages the scope and scale of NASH member systems helping to build a national movement to expand the number of welcoming campuses across America. We do this by mobilizing and supporting higher education systems, their institutions, and individual champions using a state-by-state approach. We convene institutions, systems, and state actors, working with volunteers and staff who may not otherwise have considered themselves as partners in the welcome and resettlement landscape.

The NASH RRI is guided by three goals:

Building capacity for higher education systems and their campuses to engage in welcome and refugee resettlement;
Elevating the leadership of faculty, staff, students and other ‘champions’ of this work, focusing on those with relevant lived experience and background; and
Scaling NASH RRI’s efforts through state and federal partnerships.

Leveraging the ‘Power of Systems’

At the request of NASH member systems, the NASH RRI is able to marshal the “power of systems”: the scope and scale of its membership to expand the number of welcoming campuses across the country by supporting institutions, systems, and state actors, working with volunteers and staff who may not otherwise consider themselves as partners in the welcome and resettlement landscape.

With record numbers of forcibly displaced persons globally, and a renewed national commitment to supporting the successful integration of refugees and other forcibly displaced persons in need of protection, NASH is committed to helping higher education systems and their institutions to seed, test, and scale new and existing innovations on welcoming campuses.

Our Programs

ECAR-NASH Training of Trainers

State Specific Work

RRI Champions

Welcome Corps on Campus

Kentucky Scholarship

Our Team

Dr. Colleen Thouez

Founder and Director, NASH RRI

Jane Roche

Program Manager, NASH RRI

Olivia Issa

Program Lead, NASH RRI

Rosie Hughes

Senior Advisor, NASH RRI

Dr. Hourie Tafech

Special Advisor, NASH RRI

Emmanuelle Dyer-Melhado

Communications Department Intern, NASH RRI

Maya Khachab

Welcome Work Intern, NASH RRI

Angelina Vertiz

RRI Champions Intern, NASH RRI

Gursimran Padda

Setting Up for Success Fellow, NASH RRI

NASH RRI Impact in Numbers

Since 2021, the NASH RRI has thus far:

Supported 1,200+ students from refugee backgrounds to receive scholarships, sponsorships, enrollments, workforce pathway development, language acquisition, temporary housing, fee waivers, and more;
Engaged 102 institutions of higher education at 39 systems;
Mobilized 650+ community members;
Engaged in advocacy efforts in 21 states that are working on RRI-related goals;
Signed 8 major national/global partnerships ranging from the U.S. Department of State, to the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine;
Trained 250 individuals representing 29 campuses through the NASH-ECAR training of trainers program;
Granted 6 RRI Catalyst Fund awards totaling over $125,000;
Forged 2 major statewide partnerships in the Commonwealth of Kentucky and in Rhode Island
Mobilized 20 institutions of higher education for the Welcome Corps on Campus inaugural 2024 cohort

NASH’s emphasis on transformation with and through systems also allows the RRI to work hyper-locally: within and between states, spotlighting and bolstering champions of support efforts for refugees and other forcibly displaced persons.

With record numbers of forcibly displaced globally, and a renewed commitment of the United States to support the successful admission and integration of refugees and other forcibly displaced persons in need of protection, NASH is committed to helping higher education systems and their institutions to seed, test, and scale new and existing innovations on welcoming campuses.