Former USF president Betty Castor named vice chair of Fulbright board

Former University of South Florida president Betty Castor has been elected vice chair of the J. William Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board, according to officials at the U.S. Department of State.

Castor, who President Barack Obama appointed to the 12-member board in 2011, was elected to the position Monday at the board's 261st quarterly meeting at Pitzer College in California. Castor succeeds the last vice chair, Susan Ness, in a one-year term that begins Jan. 1. Current chairman Tom Healy, a poet, writer and New York University professor, was re-elected to serve a third term.

Castor was USF's president from 1994 until 1999 and served in the Florida Senate for three terms.

The Fulbright Program offers international exchange grants for Americans and non-citizens to study, teach and do research. The board, which selects the recipients, is made up of big names including Rye Barcott, the special adviser to the CEO of Duke Energy, and Gabrielle Giffords, the former U.S. Representative who survived a 2011 mass shooting in Arizona.