Overview
The fall of 2023 marks three and a half years since the pandemic began. Though daily routines have resumed for many, there are a core set of practices and assumptions that became characteristic of faculty life during pandemic times that have yet to dissipate. As academic leaders charged with supporting the success and well-being of faculty, we must find ways to help our faculty and institutions re-examine these assumptions by answering questions like:

• How can we help faculty, Chairs, and other academic leaders shift away from having to be in caretaking mode 24/7?
• How can we reestablish the importance of having a physical presence on campus and forming meaningful connections with colleagues?
• How can we support faculty in combating student disengagement and reluctance to participate in the classroom?

Join us for a free webinar session to discuss these and other related questions. You’ll hear from our panelists, Joanna Brooks, Associate Vice President for Faculty Advancement and Student Success at San Diego State University, and Colleen Ryan, Associate Vice Provost for Faculty & Academic Affairs, as well as your peers in similar positions across the country. You will leave with a better sense of how these conversations are unfolding at other institutions and equipped with new ideas you can use to begin to challenge these assumptions on your own campus.

Who Should Attend
This session will be of benefit to any academic leader who supports faculty as part of their role. Faculty affairs leaders, Deans, and Chairs will find particular benefit.

Speakers

Joanna Brooks

Associate Vice President for Faculty Advancement and Student Success at San Diego State University

Joanna Brooks is an award-winning writer and author/editor of ten books on race, religion, gender, social movements, and American culture. In her role as Associate Vice President for Faculty Advancement and Student Success at San Diego State University, she leads faculty development and student academic support efforts at a large, public, and research-intensive Hispanic-Serving Institution of higher education.

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Colleen Ryan

Associate Vice Provost for Faculty & Academic Affairs, Indiana University Bloomington

Colleen Ryan is Associate Vice Provost for Faculty and Academic Affairs at Indiana University, where she collaboratively oversees tenure and promotion procedures, faculty leadership development, and programming for faculty success. She is Director of the Initiative for the Advancement of Women and Liaison to the Institute for Advanced Study’s mid-career mentorship program. Her current interests include meditation and restorative practices.

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Overview
As higher education is rocked by repeated external challenges, including increased politicization heightening public skepticism about its value, Provosts—charged with upholding the academic mission—must take steps to ensure that their institutions stay nimble, relevant, and financially sound. But changing the existing system can be incredibly difficult, as governance structures are often designed to protect the status quo, and many organizational structures force zero-sum thinking. What are the implications for Provosts’ leadership in this situation? How can they effect the change that is necessary for their institutions to remain both viable and vibrant?

Join our panelists and other Provosts across North America for a discussion about leadership approaches that you can take to help your institution maintain relevance in a time of accelerating change. Together we’ll share beginning thinking around challenges for which there are no easy answers, such as:

• Creating effective partnerships within the governance structures above and below us to achieve a common purpose.
• Building capacity in our leadership teams for positive-sum thinking that encourages collaboration and discourages territorialism.
• Helping our constituents to adopt a systems view that allows them to see the bigger picture of where we are now and where we want to go.

You’ll leave with ideas, insights, and reflections from your peers about what it means to lead as a Provost in this unique moment in higher education.

Who Should Attend
This session has been designed specifically for Chief Academic Officers: Provosts, VPs for Academic Affairs, and similar.

Speakers

Chris Heavey

Provost, University of Nevada, Las Vegas

Dr. Chris L. Heavey is the Executive Vice President and Provost at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV). In this role, he serves as the university’s chief academic officer and works closely with the president in overseeing academic, administrative, and budgetary policies and priorities for the campus.

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James Mandigo

Interim President and Provost, University of the Fraser Valley (UFV)

Dr. James Mandigo is currently the Acting President and Vice-Chancellor at the University of the Fraser Valley (UFV) located in British Columbia, Canada. Prior to arriving at UFV in 2019, James spent close to 20 years at Brock University, where he assumed several roles including Vice-Provost for Enrolment Management and International, and Interim Dean, Associate Dean, and Co-Director for the Centre for Healthy Development.

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Overview
As the keepers of institutional knowledge and day-to-day know-how, academic staff have always been critical to the functioning of Academic Affairs. Yet today, many of us are currently struggling to hire and retain the academic staff we need, and without more intentional support, these challenges are likely to persist. As academic leaders, how can we be proactive about the experiences of our academic staff, and how can we build our skillsets around managing and developing them further?

Join us for a free webinar to exchange ideas and current practices around this issue with fellow academic leaders across the nation. In a panel-discussion setting, we’ll explore how you can:

• Put supportive onboarding and recognition structures in place to support staff retention from the outset.
• Engage staff in effective career growth and professional development conversations.
• Approach resourcing creatively to align unit-level needs with staff skills and aspirations.

Who Should Attend
This session has been designed to benefit academic leaders at all levels, including:

• Provosts seeking to better understand the experiences that academic staff are having across the division.
• Faculty affairs leaders looking to build capacity in deans and chairs who supervise academic staff.
• Deans, chairs, and other department heads who would like to manage and develop their leadership teams more effectively.

Speakers

Dr. Susan Hildebrandt

Special Assistant to the Provost and Professor of Applied Linguistics and Spanish, Illinois State University

Susan (Sue) Hildebrandt has held positions in three different colleges at Illinois State University since her 2009 arrival: as a professor of Spanish and applied linguistics and teacher education program coordinator in the College of Arts and Sciences for 10 years, as an interim chairperson in the College of Education for three years, and as an interim associate dean in the Mennonite College of Nursing for one year.

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Yojanna Cuenca-Carlino, Ph.D.

Chairperson of the Department of Special Education and Professor of Special Education, Illinois State University

Dr. Cuenca-Carlino is a professor who serves as the Special Education Department (SED) Chairperson at Illinois State University. The Department serves over 850 students and offers three undergraduate teacher preparation programs in special education, leading to licensure and various graduate programs.

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Overview
The quickly shifting landscape of higher education in recent years, as well as its potential future in years to come, requires that our institutions develop strong and capable leadership at all levels. Identifying and cultivating leaders with the requisite experience and skills that embody effective and inclusive leadership remains one of the most difficult but crucial challenges for today’s leaders to navigate.

In a climate where it’s all too easy to fall back on what’s comfortable and risk tolerance is low, it’s more important than ever to think critically about how leaders in higher education are developed—and who is developing them. Among these challenges and considerations, are how to:

• Approach succession planning in a way that both creates a pipeline for future Chair and Dean positions, and that also enables faculty to build skills to “lead from where they are.”
• Engage in succession planning in ways that motivate and retain, but don’t overpromise.
• Ensure you are preparing future leaders well by leveraging tools like training and sponsorship.
• Identify future leaders in an inclusive manner, without “comfortable cloning,” (automatically choosing leaders who look and sound like you).

Join us for this free session, where you’ll hear from our panelists: Neva Specht, Senior Vice Provost for Academic Affairs at Appalachian State University, and Sarah Zehr Gantz, Senior Assistant Vice President for Academic Initiatives and Policies at the University of Illinois System, as well as your peers in similar positions across the country. You will have a chance to learn and share with fellow attendees and will leave with an enhanced understanding of how leaders are thinking about these challenges at other institutions.

Who Should Attend
This session will be particularly valuable for academic leaders who support faculty leadership, formal or informal, as part of their role. Faculty affairs leaders, Deans, and Chairs especially will benefit.

Follow Through With Success Coaching
Have you ever gone to a training only to find that you came back with great ideas but no time, support, or skills needed to make the changes? At Academic Impressions, we not only offer trainings on topics that matter to you, we also offer a way for you to integrate what you learned into your on-the-ground work with Success Coaching.

Success Coaching is available to purchase and provides you with the guidance and accountability you need to bridge the training with your day-to-day work. You’ll receive:

Individualized matching with a coach, based on the training and your goals.
Three hour-long, individual success coaching sessions.

• A partnership with a coach with extensive experience in higher ed.
• Individualized support so you implement what you’ve learned.
• Provide accountability to bridge the gap between the training and on-the-ground work.
• A confidential space to debrief what you learned and think through next steps.

This program is suitable for and customizable to all experience levels.

Learn more about Success Coaching

Overview

Neva Specht

Senior Vice Provost, Academic Affairs, Faculty Policies & Development, Appalachian State University

Neva J. Specht [Spake] currently serves as the Senior Vice Provost for Academic Policies and Development and Professor of History at Appalachian State University. In her position, she works on leadership development with department chairs, aspiring leaders, and deans; works as the liaison with the faculty senate; and serves as a point person for faculty personnel issues. Prior to her current position, she served as Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, as well as Senior Associate Dean, Associate Dean, and Assistant Chair in the Department of History.

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Sarah M. Zehr Gantz

Senior Assistant Vice President for Academic Initiatives & Policies, Office of the Executive Vice President/Vice President for Academic Affairs, University of Illinois System

Sarah brings more than 20 years of experience in industry and academia, and in her current role, she works with the three universities in the University of Illinois system on common academic issues. Her success depends on relationship-building, collaboration, negotiation, and (occasionally) a gift for managing conflict. Sarah also serves as an Adjunct Assistant Professor in the College of Education at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, where she teaches the introductory course on higher education for graduate students as well as a graduate course on student affairs administration.

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