Community Engagement Coordinator
August 2024–present
We welcome Charish Bishop to the team where she will be serving as the Community Engagement Coordinator for AFS. Charish has a long history in community outreach, event planning, and volunteer engagement. She has lived abroad in the Middle East, Africa, and Latin America due to her spouse’s work with the Foreign Service. During this time, she worked closely with various non profits, artistic communities, schools, and cultural institutions – including the Community Liaison Office for the Foreign Service (2010-2020), spearheading and leading cultural exhibitions and charitable projects for expat families abroad where her work was awarded by the US Ambassador to Kenya. Charish also draws on her former experience with the National Council of Traditional Arts as the Folklife Specialist for their National Folk Festival in Salisbury, MD (2022), the Volunteer Assistant and Volunteer Coordinator for the Smithsonian Folklife Festival (2023-2024), as well as her Master’s in Folklore from George Mason University. Now, she will bring her talents to serve as the Communications Engagement Coordinator, with chief responsibility for the AFS Community Hub, membership communications, section and prize/award management, public outreach, and volunteer engagement for the annual conference.
Accompanying her roles and responsibilities, a new email has been created for all membership related questions. You can now direct inquiries regarding membership accounts, billing, AFS sections, prizes and awards, student educational inquiries, and volunteering at the Annual Meeting to the new AFS Membership phone number: 202-930-3096 and email: membership@afsnet.org.
