Event Category: Workshop

Fostering Collaboration and Building Strong Teams in Advancement 

To meet the evolving demands of advancement, shops must intentionally develop staff into connected, strategic partners who understand their role in the institution’s mission. Fostering Collaboration and Building Strong Teams in Advancement offers a deep dive into leadership growth and career development using the Five Paths to Leadership® Self-Assessment. You’ll gain a toolbox of proven practices and a peer network to build high-performing, unified teams. Through this Academic Impressions program, you will learn to empower leaders at every level to act as strategic collaborators rather than siloed managers. To help preserve a practical and interactive environment, attendance for this program is capped at 30 participants.  

Fostering a Student-Centered Campus

Across higher education, institutions are being called to demonstrate—not just state—a commitment to student success and belonging. While “student-centered” is a widely used phrase, it often lacks shared meaning or operational clarity at the senior leadership level. Too frequently, structures, policies, and services reflect institutional convenience rather than the lived needs and experiences of students. This two-day workshop is designed for senior leaders who shape campus culture, strategy, and systems. You’ll examine what it truly means to lead a student-centered institution, probe assumptions embedded in existing practices, and explore how leadership decisions—intended or not—affect student access, persistence, and retention. Rather than focusing on programmatic fixes, the workshop will introduce a framework that will lead to true structural change. Through case studies, facilitated dialogue, and applied learning, you’ll leave with an implementation plan for student-centeredness along with concrete next steps to advance this work within your own institutional context.

Supervision in Advancement: Focused Strategies for Effective Leadership

Advancement supervisors are more critical than ever for building high-performing, collaborative teams that drive robust donor and constituent relationships. Join us for this workshop, where you’ll learn to adapt your leadership style using the Five Paths to Leadership® framework, empowering you to navigate both every day and high-pressure supervisory situations with greater clarity and purpose. We’ll emphasize the critical role of intentional supervision in shaping internal culture and enhancing external impact. Through advancement-specific scenarios and practical tools, you’ll explore how to lead effective meetings, conduct purposeful one-on-ones, and provide meaningful feedback that fosters team growth. Overall, you’ll leave with a deep understanding of a relationship-centered approach to supervision that strengthens both team dynamics and advancement outcomes.

Leading from the Middle: Essential Skills to Drive Success

Leading from the middle is a complex task. You must understand, communicate, and operationalize strategy while also being staying attuned to the needs and expectations of your supervisor, your team, and other partners with whom you collaborate.     Join other experienced middle and senior managers to explore such critical topics as leveraging your scope of influence, deepening your self-awareness, building effective relationships, and the intersection of agency and followership. We’ll use our leadership framework to guide you from personal mastery to interpersonal and team mastery, helping you to:   

From Vision to Action: Strategic Planning for a Lasting Impact

This 2-day strategic planning workshop equips higher ed leaders with the tools to create actionable, sustainable strategies aligned with institutional goals. Using design thinking and collaboration, participants will turn broad visions into practical steps for lasting success. You’ll learn to build strategies that inspire buy-in, ensure alignment, and anticipate future challenges.    By the end of the workshop, participants will be equipped to translate their institutional visions into clear, actionable strategies that position them for lasting success.  To preserve an intimate and productive environment, this workshop is limited to 30 people.

Building and Leading a Healthy Academic Department Culture

Trust is fragile in academia, and culture is always forming. For academic leaders, the question is not whether a culture exists, but whether it is being shaped with intention.  This workshop equips department Chairs, Deans, and academic leaders with a clear framework for building and sustaining healthy unit cultures rooted in transparency, accountability, and psychological safety. You’ll model a culture-building exercise you can bring back to your departments while exploring the leadership behaviors that most powerfully influence team norms.  By identifying the common enemies of trust—such as inconsistency, avoidance, and perceived favoritism—you’ll also develop practical strategies to strengthen credibility and fairness. The result: Teams that are more resilient, collaborative, and capable of navigating change together.  To preserve an intimate and productive experience, this workshop is capped at 30 attendees.

Optimizing Your Fundraising Strategy: A Summit for Presidents and Advancement Vice Presidents

As a President or Advancement Vice President, you play a critical role in shaping the environment that attracts significant and sustained philanthropic investments. You’re also likely aware of the value of a lifelong donor and the importance of attracting entrepreneurial-minded donors, both of whom want to make a difference to society through your institution.   Join us in Denver for this two-day summit with fellow executive leaders, to learn how a strategic fundraising approach, paired with strong institutional leadership, can cultivate a thriving culture of philanthropy. Specifically, you will:   Bring your Board Chair to create alignment around shared priorities and decision-making! Institutions who register their President and Vice President of Advancement can bring their Board Chair for free. Contact our Operations Team to take advantage of this offer.   To preserve an intimate and productive experience, this workshop is capped at 30 attendees.

Leading Into the Future: A Strategy Summit for Provosts

Join us for this summit, which equips Provosts and Chief Academic Officers to lead strategic, culture-shaping change in an increasingly complex higher education landscape. You’ll explore a practical framework for diagnosing barriers to change, deepen your self-awareness of your leadership approach, and learn strategies for aligning senior teams around shared institutional purpose. Through applied tools, peer reflection, and case studies from our partners, you’ll examine how trust, collaboration, and innovation can be intentionally cultivated. The workshop culminates in concrete action planning to help you mobilize your teams and lead proactively toward a more sustainable and future-ready institution.  To preserve an intimate and productive experience, this workshop is capped at 30 attendees. Save by registering your Provost and an aspiring Provost. Registering as a pair is $2000 a seat. To take advantage of this deal, please email our Operations Team.

Fundraising for Deans and Academic Leaders in Partnership with Development

As a Dean or other academic leader, you hold numerous responsibilities, and fundraising is likely a critical part of your portfolio. You’re probably also finding the philanthropic landscape more competitive than ever, as donors are becoming more selective with their giving. To be a successful fundraiser, it is therefore more important than ever to understand how to align your interests with those of donors seeking to make significant societal differences.   Academic leaders and their development counterparts will benefit from this workshop as you:    To preserve an intimate and productive experience, this workshop is capped at 30 attendees. Attend as a Dean and development officer pair and save! Register two people to get a special price of $2000 a seat. Please email operations@academicimpressions.com to take advantage of this offer.

Elevate Your Facilitation Skills to Make Your Leadership Development Programs Soar

This two-day facilitation workshop will help you move beyond scripted delivery and step into facilitation that is adaptive, engaging, and deeply learner-centered. You’ll explore what effective facilitation truly entails: preparing participants, managing energy and group dynamics, and creating experiential moments that make leadership concepts memorable. Through hands-on practice, you’ll build the confidence to read the room, pivot when needed, and create an environment where every participant feels connected and supported. By the end, you’ll be equipped to deliver high-impact leadership development sessions using Academic Impressions’ specialized approach and resources as your guide.  To preserve an intimate and productive experience, this workshop is capped at 30 attendees. 

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