Navitas Appoints Livia Castellanos to Director General, Americas
Navitas announces the appointment of Livia Castellanos to Director General, Americas, effective September 1, 2022. In this newly created position, Ms. Castellanos will have oversight of student recruitment and support across the Americas and the Caribbean on behalf of Navitas’ global network of more than 30 university partners.
This strategic addition to Navitas’ global recruitment leadership team reinforces the company’s commitment to and plans for significant growth in the region.
A skilled and nationally respected leader with more than 20 years of experience in international education, Ms. Castellanos is currently Executive Lead for International Education and Jurisdictional Initiatives for the Government of Saskatchewan’s Ministry of Advanced Education. In this role, Ms. Castellanos developed the province’s current five-year international education strategy and successfully positioned Saskatchewan as a destination for international students, research partnerships, and innovation.
Prior to her secondment to the provincial government, Ms. Castellanos led all international initiatives and activities for the University of Regina (UR), including establishing UR International and developing a comprehensive international student enrolment and retention strategy that encompasses transition programming and academic and social support. As UR’s Associate Vice President International and Chief International Officer, she drove 94% growth in international student enrolment and increased the number of UR students studying abroad from 30 students to more than 500 annually.
Ms. Castellanos has also held several senior positions in international education at other universities across Canada, including Director of Enrolment and Institutional Relations at the University of Winnipeg, and International Relations Officer Americas at University of Alberta International.
Ms. Castellanos has provided external executive reviews for academic institutions in Canada and Mexico in the areas of international student enrolment, international student retention and partnership development; served as a consultant for public school boards in Canada to increase their global presence; and supported the international education agenda for governments including Brazil, Canada, China, Colombia, Ecuador, Kuwait, Libya, Malaysia, Mexico, Nigeria, Peru, and Saudi Arabia.
Throughout her career, Ms. Castellanos has served as a member of multiple boards and committees provincially, nationally, and internationally, including the Council of Minister of Education, Canada, the Canadian Bureau for International Education, and the Executive Secretariat for Canada in the Inter-American Organization of Higher Education (IOHE) providing the Canada-Latin America international education joint strategy.
Ms. Castellanos joins Navitas’ global recruitment team which is comprised of more than 190 recruitment staff across 28 regional offices, managing relationships with 4,000+ recruitment partners.
“I am excited to join the Navitas global team,” remarked Ms. Castellanos. “I’m very much looking forward to creating new business and dynamic networks to attract more students from the Americas and the Caribbean to our university partners around the globe.”
Born and raised in Mexico, Ms. Castellanos came to Canada as an international student. She earned her law degree with honours from Universidad Olmeca in Mexico.