MUNCIE, Ind. - Ball State President Blaine Brownell recently met with a respected Brazilian environmental educator regarding potential academic exchanges between the United States and Brazil.

J. Francisco B. Milanez was on campus July 8-10 in his capacity as president of the Rio Grande do Sul/Indiana Partners of the Americas. Milanez is senior advisor for environmental affairs to the mayor of Porto Alegre, the capital city of Rio Grande do Sul.

Brownell is quite familiar with academic exchange with Brazil, having directed two university affiliations exchanges with Brazilian universities while a faculty member at the University of Alabama, Birmingham.

Milanez briefed Brownell on the extensive contact since 1965 that current and former Ball State faculty have had with universities in Rio Grande do Sul in the cities of Santa Maria, Porto Alegre and San Leopoldo through the Partners of the Americas program.