This summer, we bid farewell to a good friend of the David M. Kennedy Center for International Studies and someone who has been an integral member of the Brigham Young University community: after thirty-one years at BYU, Renata Forste is retiring. Forste finishes her time at BYU as International Vice President, but has also served as Director of the Kennedy Center and as the faculty coordinator of our Latin American Studies program (as well as the coordinator of the Women’s Studies program before its move to the Kennedy Center).
A Career in Academia
Forste studied Sociology in college, earning her bachelor’s and master’s degrees from BYU and her PhD from the University of Chicago. She spent the first three years of her career at Western Washington University before being hired by BYU’s Department of Sociology in 1995. She served as Associate Dean of the College of Family, Home, and Social Sciences from 2002 to 2005, became a full professor in 2006, and served as Chair of the Department of Sociology from 2006 to 2012.
Her connection with the Kennedy Center started early in her time at BYU, when she became the Latin American Studies Faculty Coordinator in 1998. Latin America would be a recurring theme in her career in academia; much of her research, which focuses largely on maternal and child health, has been in Latin America.
Another important theme in her career has been Women’s Studies. The Women’s Studies minor had been housed from 1991 through 2009 at the Women’s Research Institute (WRI); when the WRI closed, Forste spent a year as the coordinator of the program, leading a committee to work on a plan for what would happen to the program next. University administration eventually approved the minor being housed between the College of Humanities and the College of Family, Home, and Social Sciences, but Forste would have another part to play in the program’s future.
Kennedy Center Director
In 2017, Forste was appointed Director of the David M. Kennedy Center for International Studies and Associate International Vice President of BYU. In her time here, she made what Stan Benfell, current Kennedy Center Director, calls “a substantial and positive impact.” In her four years in the role, she made important improvements to Kennedy Center programs and impactful contributions to student, staff, and faculty experiences alike.
Cory Leonard, Associate Director for External Relations at the Kennedy Center, says that through “transitions, a pandemic, and a national shift in support for international studies,” Forste was “an accomplished professor, effective administrator, and exceptional disciple scholar.”
When asked about the Kennedy Center, Forste says, “I tell people that the Kennedy Center is the best place on campus! It is a very happy place, with interesting people doing exceptional work. The interdisciplinary and international emphasis in the Kennedy Center only strengthens the research and academic pursuits of all students and faculty that participate. There are always so many interesting lectures, events, and opportunities that lift and broaden the perspectives of all faculty and students that engage with the Kennedy Center. I encourage EVERYONE on campus to visit the Kennedy Center.”
Women’s Studies Comes to the Kennedy Center
One of Forste’s first moves in her new position was to bring the Women’s Studies program over to the Kennedy Center. She reached out to Valerie Hegstrom, who was then serving as the program’s coordinator, and proposed moving the program and renaming it to Global Women’s Studies. The two created a proposal that was approved that year, and GWS officially joined the Kennedy Center, quickly becoming one of our most popular minors.
“I think this move greatly strengthened the program and increased awareness and enrollment in GWS classes,” Forste says. “It became a much stronger program under Valerie Hegstrom and the Kennedy Center.”
“I had no idea, when we were moving over, how great it would be for Global Women’s Studies to be in the Kennedy Center,” Hegstrom said when she retired in 2024. “It’s just the best place and we have so much support.”
More Support for International Study Programs
Another important change Forste made at the Kennedy Center had to do with International Study Programs (ISP). “When I started at the Kennedy Center, the ISP office was funded entirely by student fees through study abroad,” she explains. “We proposed at annual resource planning a plan that highlighted the importance of ISP to all of campus and requested a change in the funding model to have the ISP office appropriated. In other words, ISP became part of the annual university funding request, rather than self-funded through fees. This reduced the cost of study abroad to students overall, and was especially important later in keeping ISP funded during COVID when we had to shut down all travel for a period of time. This change shifted the focus from counting students going on study abroad to reach a financial goal to fund the office, to the current focus on quality programs and the student experience.”
She was also instrumental in the growth of the Global Opportunity Scholarship, which was established in 2015 to provide funding for students to have their first international education experience. “She directly supported striving students who pay their own way through school, as well as first-generation, married, and international students,” says Leonard. “Her vision led to significant growth: over 200 students were able to study or intern abroad who never could have afforded to go. Also, new alumni and donors joined in, allowing us to recently celebrate the 10th anniversary of this unique, cross-campus, global scholarship. This led to entirely new service opportunities for study abroad students around the world as part of BYU150.”
Another area she focused on within ISP was BYU’s beloved London Centre, where thousands of students have had the opportunity over the past decades to live in the heart of one of the world’s greatest cities. Under Forste, the Kennedy Center elevated the importance of the London Centre Board (The Charity) and increased compliance with UK charity laws. “We also were able to purchase 31 Palace Court,” she says, “which provides housing for faculty and student interns in the London area, in addition to the study abroad programs in 27 and 29 Palace Court.”
Improved Lecture Series
Other initiatives that Forste undertook at the Kennedy Center involved improving programs that already existed. For instance, the center had long held a lecture series, but it had no particular focus. Forste had the idea to introduce a theme for each semester—a practice that continues to this day—and to give the series more priority by assigning it to the Associate Director for Academics and Research. She says, “I think this greatly increased the quality and visibility of these lectures and involved more faculty from across campus.”
Benfell agrees: “I think that now the lecture series is one of the jewels of the Kennedy Center, and she was able to see its potential and refine it to what it is today.”
International Vice President
After four years as Director of the Kennedy Center, Forste’s career path took another turn. Sandra Rogers, who had served as International Vice President (IVP) of BYU since 2001, retired, and Forste was named as her replacement. In her role as BYU’s second-ever IVP, she oversaw Continuing Education and Performing Arts Management, as well as the Kennedy Center.
In this new position, she has continued to support the mission and aims of the Kennedy Center, but has also been able to implement and support initiatives that touch more of campus. For instance, Benfell explains, “In the IVP office, she saw how many different faculty across campus work on Latin America, and she organized the Latin American Initiative, which gave a place and some seed money for these faculty from different disciplines to talk to each other and collaborate on important projects.”
Another important initiative she became involved in is International Education Week, originally an initiative from the US Departments of State and Education. Though the Kennedy Center has celebrated in small ways for many years, in recent years it has grown to a campus-wide collaboration between a number of different groups, and in this it has been supported by Forste. “Across campus, Renata guided the expansion of International Education Week that added support from many new colleges and academic programs along with Student Life, International Student Office, Athletics, and University Communications,” says Leonard. “If you picked up a free European Halloren chocolate, attended the Scandinavian Winter Market, danced at Diwali, learned from an international lecture, or considered a minor to strengthen your mission language (or an entirely new one)—you benefitted from her work.”
Through all of this, Forste has remained a close friend and supporter of the Kennedy Center. In the last year alone, she spoke at the GWS Colloquium about the history of Women’s Studies at BYU, delivered our Disciple-Scholar Lecture, and spoke at our April 2026 convocation.
Extraordinary Service
In his introduction to that convocation address, Benfell said of Forste, “When I was asked to think of some words or phrases that characterize Renata and her leadership, some came very quickly to mind: ‘intelligent,’ as anyone who knows her can attest, and ‘caring,’ since I have, more times than I can count, witnessed her care for the students, faculty, and staff under her charge. But another that came to mind was ‘unsentimental’ . . . in that she has little care for any acknowledgement or praise that may come her way (in fact, I’m guessing that she’s annoyed by this introduction), and so she will not wait around looking for someone to notice how extraordinary her service to the Kennedy Center and to BYU has been. But as someone who has worked with her closely for the last eight years, I can attest that it has indeed been extraordinary.”
When asked for this article, Benfell elaborated on the idea of being unsentimental: “She doesn’t care about credit or about continuing traditions that are less helpful. She focuses above all on the student experience.” He also adds, “Renata is an ideal colleague. She is supportive and encouraging, and yet she is quick to see to the heart of an issue and will give direct advice if asked.”
Leonard adds, “Renata is an extraordinary leader for BYU international, connecting everything we do to support becoming the university of prophecy, and helping us recognize how it all connects to the global church. In many unseen yet widely significant ways, Renata made BYU more internationally engaged academically and more connected to the gospel of Jesus Christ by blessing the lives of students, administrators, and faculty. Renata's example directed, inspired, and resulted in a BYU at its best—improving student experiences, fostering scholarship and faith, demonstrating courage in our beliefs, and deepening our covenant community in a complex, connected world.”
After her retirement in August, Forste and her husband Michael leave to serve as missionaries for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in New Zealand. “We will be supporting the senior missionaries providing teacher development in Church schools in the Pacific Islands,” she says. “I am very excited to be able to build the kingdom full-time and with Mike! I’m ready to spend this next chapter doing all I can to serve the Lord and His children.”
As she reflects on her time at BYU as International Vice President and as Director of the Kennedy Center, she says, “We live in a complex world. There is always more that we can explore and learn, but I think BYU is on the right track. I’m very excited for the future of BYU and the Kennedy Center.”