Event Category: Workshop

Transformational Gifts: Attaining the Gift of a Lifetime

Transformational gifts are often the result of decades of strategic stewardship efforts that culminate in a gift that impacts the institution for generations to come. However, understanding what motivates and compels donors to make a transformational gift is a key aspect that is missing at many shops. To advance the vision of your institution, you must learn to successfully navigate both the internal and external complexities of high-level donors and gifts.  Join us to learn valuable strategies for cultivating and soliciting your top donors in ways that can alter the future of your institution. You will learn how to:  Included with your registration is a workbook with action-planning worksheets and stewardship tools that will be invaluable as you develop your transformational gift strategy. 

Essential Leadership Skills for Department Chairs

Leading as an academic department chair is difficult under the best of circumstances. You must balance the competing interests of faculty and administration and stretch limited resources, all while maintaining your own scholarship and teaching loads. Add to this the uncertainty and complexity of leading through an ever-changing higher ed landscape, and it becomes clear that the current environment can test even the most seasoned leaders.  Join us in person for this essential two-day conference designed specifically to help academic department chairs discover or reconnect with the most effective ways to lead in a variety of situations and circumstances. On day one, you’ll begin by reflecting on your approach to leadership, where you’ll explore ways to enhance your overall leadership effectiveness. You’ll also examine how your position of influence can support and enable the engagement, collaboration, and, ultimately, the success of your faculty and staff. The focus for day two will be to explore one of the trickiest topics a leader must face—conflict—and you’ll practice tools and strategies that will allow you to navigate that conflict with greater confidence and ease.  We’ve trained thousands of department chairs over the last 20 years, and our curriculum is designed by  former Chair […]

Leading Collaboratively: An In-Person Conference for Mid-Level Supervisors

As a mid-level supervisor, you have a unique opportunity to lean into your leadership strengths in order to lead in a more collaborative way to foster innovation and inclusion in your team. Through the Academic Impressions Five Paths to Leadership℠ Self-Assessment, you will discover how you show up as a leader in typical circumstances as well as during times of stress, and use this understanding to identify how to work more effectively with colleagues, your supervisor, and members of your team.    You will also have the opportunity to network with other mid-level supervisors from different institutions and share best practices as we model collaborative meeting design. This conference will focus on practical skillsets and practices that will enable you as the leader to navigate change and complexity while still leading collaboratively. You will then have the opportunity to reflect and identify next steps for envisioning your team.  The skillsets and practices that we will explore include:    

Executive-Level Leadership: An Institute for Advanced Women Leaders in Higher Education

While women make up nearly half of the higher education workforce, they continue to be underrepresented—and underpaid—in organizational leadership roles. The goal of this conference is to bring current and aspiring executive leaders in higher education together to co-create knowledge and deepen your leadership skillset. This program is intentionally built upon Academic Impressions’ leadership model, which takes a holistic approach to leadership across four key dimensions: self-awareness and personal development, interpersonal leadership skills, team development, and leading at the organizational level.    If you identify as a woman, are leading at a strategic level in higher education, are looking to deepen your leadership skillset in community with other women leaders, or you have already participated in our foundational Women’s Leadership Success in Higher Education Conference, this experience is for you.   Highlights of the conference include: 

Faculty Affairs Summit: Building Comprehensive Support for Mid-Career Faculty

Based on the findings of Academic Impressions’ 2022 Faculty Retention Survey, faculty at the mid-career stage, within the ages of 35–50, report both the lowest levels of satisfaction and the highest levels of burnout. Faculty at the mid-career stage are the keystones of the institution, yet they often end up stagnating, negatively impacting climate and productivity, and/or leaving the academy altogether. As a Faculty Affairs professional, you are charged with providing holistic support for mid-career faculty but must do so on what often feels like constantly shifting ground.    Join us for our second annual Faculty Affairs Summit to explore what comprehensive ecosystems of support for mid-career faculty can look like. In addition to the opportunity to network, hear best practices from your peers, and develop leadership skills that will aid you in your work, we will also collectively explore the following aspects of mid-career faculty development:  

Strategies for Campaign Planning and Public Launch

Due to popularity, this event has been moved to a larger venue 1 mile away from the original location. The event will now take place at the Denver Marriott Tech Center. Please see the Location header below for more details. The most critical phases of a successful campaign are the preparation leading up to the public launch, the launch itself, and the immediate road show that ensues. To pull off such a large-scale initiative, you want a cohesive culture of philanthropy thriving on your campus, a thoroughly thought-out marketing and communications strategy, committed volunteers, and significant progress on your fundraising goals. None of this comes easily, however. With challenges such as leadership and staff transitions, economic or societal uncertainty, or even negative publicity, you must be prepared to adjust and pivot where needed to continue down your planned path to campaign success. Join us to learn in-depth strategies and solutions covering:

Essential Leadership Skills for Deans

Leading as an academic Dean demands a specific and often diverse skillset that requires you to inspire those above, across, and below you in the organizational structure. If that’s not complex enough, you’re doing this work in the context of frequent leadership transitions, evolving student needs, increasing competitive pressures, scarce resources, and the highest levels of burnout seen in decades. It quickly becomes clear that being a leader in today’s current higher education environment can test even the most seasoned of leaders. Join us for this highly interactive in-person conference to learn new strategies and approaches for how to address some of the most common challenges you’re currently facing as a Dean. Special focus will be given to how to create a unit culture that makes for a great place to work, and with the help of our expert speaker panel and a network of other deans, you will have the time, space, and support to discuss how to: Through a variety of group activities and discussions, you’ll share your perspective on how to successfully navigate your role, and you’ll also walk away with useful insights from other academic deans, as well.

The Fundamentals of Leadership for New or Aspiring Leaders in Higher Education

New leaders often find themselves learning on the go—and often at the expense of intentional reflection of their leadership strengths, journey, or skill development. This leadership conference, facilitated by experienced higher education leaders, provides you with a set of tools for applying the key tenets of successful and equitable leadership. You’ll practice how to approach difficult and complex conversations through healthy and constructive dialogue so that you can increase trust, motivation, and engagement within your team. You will also gain the confidence and skills needed to become a more effective leader in higher education, rooted in both a deeper awareness of your core purpose as a leader and in your commitment to equity. Highlights of the program include:

Transitioning Leadership Annual Donors into Major Donors

To shift the mindset of a leadership annual donor into that of a major donor is a task that requires you to go beyond just knowing their capacity; you must also understand what the donor wants to see their gift accomplish, and how to align that specific desire with your institutional needs. This requires knowing the effectiveness of each component of your leadership giving program and how to best manage and develop your leadership annual donors. Join us at this in-person conference to learn portfolio management and stewardship techniques to successfully transition leadership annual donors into major gift prospects. You will learn how to:

Building an In-House Leadership Development Program in Higher Education

Leadership development has emerged as one of the most important priorities for institutions today. The pandemic revealed the strength or weakness of an institution’s leadership—at all levels—while the resulting Great Resignation starkly revealed the depth or shallowness of an institution’s leadership bench. Most institutions are now investing heavily in building leadership programs, but they are all approaching it differently. Academic Impressions has helped more institutions to develop in-house leadership programs than any other organization in higher education, and in this unique two-day event, we’ll share what we’ve learned over 15 years of developing leaders and supporting in-house programs. Whether you are simply dipping your toe in the leadership space for the first time, or you’ve run a successful cohort-based program for years, we’ll share a wealth of resources, methods, and approaches that you can implement right away to develop the next generation of leaders at your institution.