As UNL’s Director of Global Partnerships and Initiatives, Blayne Sharpe provides strategic leadership in developing and managing international agreements, facilitating institutional partnerships, and overseeing initiatives that strengthen UNL’s global presence. His responsibilities include coordinating international delegations, supporting faculty-led global collaborations, and advancing the university’s internationalization agenda.

Previously, Sharpe served as Director of International Recruitment, where he led post-pandemic international enrollment strategies, establishing recruitment partnerships across Southeast Asia, Africa, and Central and South America. As UNL’s Director of Partnerships and Exchange – Africa, he played a key role in the development of the Rwanda Institute for Conservation Agriculture (RICA), where he contributed to the design of the academic framework, supervised accreditation, and developed faculty training programs. Sharpe also served as a principal investigator on two U.S. Department of State-funded initiatives: the Nebraska University Partnership & Exchange Program, which fostered U.S.-Rwanda academic partnerships, and the Fostering Pedagogical Best Practices in STEM program, which strengthened STEM faculty development in Senegal.

Prior to joining UNL in 2016, Sharpe spent six years in Rwanda supporting the Ministry of Education in strengthening academic collaborations with U.S. universities. He holds a Master’s in Community Development from UNL.