Joveline Pettus, a Slippery Rock University instructor of business, received the prestigious Fulbright U.S. Scholar Program award for the 2026-27 academic year from the U.S. Department of State and the Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board.
As part of the Fulbright international academic exchange program, Pettus will design and teach graduate-level coursework in digital ethics, leadership and strategic communication at Makerere University in Uganda. The goal of her project is to strengthen digital ethics and responsible leadership education in East Africa and equip students with frameworks for navigating online safety, misinformation, AI ethics and data governance. The project will also foster collaboration between U.S. and Ugandan faculty on interdisciplinary curriculum design.
“Digital harm doesn’t respect borders, and neither should the conversation about how we prevent it,” Pettus said. “I’m honored that Fulbright gave me a chance to do this work in Uganda, to learn as much as I teach, and to bring new perspectives back to my students and my field.”
A native of Pittsburgh, Pettus is a part-time faculty member within SRU’s Haverlack College of Business who is a candidate for a doctoral degree in information systems and communications at Robert Morris University.
“My research and teaching sit at the intersection of cybersecurity, digital harm, and AI ethics — fields where the questions are global but the conversation is often shaped by only a handful of voices,” Pettus said. “The Fulbright Scholar Program offered a way to widen that conversation. I hope to contribute to the dialogue around digital safety, responsible AI, and protecting vulnerable users in fast‑digitizing societies and to build collaborations and friendships that outlast the grant year. The best Fulbright outcomes aren’t one‑way; they’re the relationships and ideas that keep working long after you come home.”
Pettus’ doctoral dissertation examines cyberstalking, digital harassment and deepfakes. She teaches courses on ethics and AI, computer technology and database management at SRU through the University’s partnership with Quanzhou University of Information Engineering in China. She has more than 20 years of experience as a senior human resources executive.
Since 1946, the Fulbright Program has supported more than 500,000 award recipients, including 62 Nobel Laureates, 98 Pulitzer Prize winners, 82 MacArthur Fellows, 44 heads of state or government, and thousands of leaders across the private, public, and non-profit sectors. Participating governments and host institutions, corporations, and foundations around the world also provide direct and indirect support to the program, which operates in more than 160 countries.
More information about the Fulbright Program is available online.
