Engagements for leaders navigating change

You Can Be Excellent and Still Lose

Presidents · Chancellors · General sessions

Institutions can teach academically sound content, hire people who are good at their jobs, run operations the way they always have, and still watch students choose something else. The failure isn't quality — it never was. Built on three and a half years of on-the-record conversations with sitting presidents, this keynote argues that relevance is the one thing no institution gets to define for itself, and shows what the leaders gaining ground did differently.

• — Relevance is the one thing no institution gets to define for itself
• — Quality alone no longer protects an institution from decline
• — Lessons from 240 on-the-record interviews with sitting presidents

Higher Ed's Blockbuster Moment: Why Relevance Outranks Reputation

Cabinet leaders · Trustees · Strategy audiences

A 150-year legacy is no longer a shield against irrelevance. Power has shifted decisively from the institution to the student, creating consumer-investors who expect the speed, flexibility and transparency they get everywhere else. Covers the five fronts institutions now compete on — Program, Skills, Credential, Institutional and Public Trust — the working adults rigid structures pushed out, and the three-click and 24-hour standards that decide whether a prospective student ever reaches an application.

• — The five fronts institutions compete on: Program, Skills, Credential, Institutional and Public Trust
• — Power has shifted from the institution to the student
• — The three-click and 24-hour standards that decide whether a prospect applies

Modern Leadership for Modern Learners

System offices · Consortia · Online and continuing ed leaders

How leaders meet learner needs while navigating constrained resources. The argument turns on a shift in mindset: effectiveness measured not by doing more, but by concentrating on what matters most — and on dismantling the institutional slowness that makes every decision cost more than it should.

• — Effectiveness is about concentration, not volume
• — Dismantling the institutional slowness that inflates the cost of every decision
• — Meeting learner needs within constrained resources

Serving the Modern Student: Driving Change & Staying Relevant in the Age of AI

Campus-wide · All-staff development days · Summit plenaries

Relevance is the defining question facing higher education right now. Students, employers and the public are all asking the same thing in different ways: does what happens on your campus still matter? Makes the case for relevance as a leadership mandate rather than a marketing line — and what it takes to lead change inside institutions built to resist it. Built for mixed audiences where faculty, staff and administration are in the room together.

• — Relevance as a leadership mandate, not a marketing line
• — Leading change inside institutions built to resist it
• — Built for mixed faculty, staff and administration audiences

Beyond the Hype: Operationalizing AI from Classroom Assessment to Campus Operations

Provosts · Chief academic officers · CIOs · Faculty

The AI revolution is not an academic integrity threat to be policed — it is an operational and pedagogical imperative. Covers why evaluating finished student outputs is obsolete and how to shift assessment toward student inputs: prompts, critiques, source verification and methodology. Also how AI-driven skill mapping turns transfer credit evaluation into a rapid enrollment engine, and what it means to teach judgment rather than pre-AI technical execution.

• — Shift assessment from finished outputs to student inputs
• — AI-driven skill mapping turns transfer evaluation into an enrollment engine
• — Teach judgment rather than pre-AI technical execution

From Oversight to Insight: Digital Transformation as a Fiduciary Duty

Governing boards · Board chairs · Presidents · CFOs

Digital transformation is not an IT department project. It is a fundamental reimagining of the institution's business model, and therefore a core fiduciary responsibility. Frames deferred technology maintenance as digital debt — a compound risk equivalent to deferred physical infrastructure — and equips trustees with the specific questions and metrics needed to evaluate total cost of ownership, risk exposure and AI readiness.

• — Digital transformation is a fiduciary duty, not an IT project
• — Deferred technology maintenance is digital debt
• — Questions and metrics trustees need to evaluate AI readiness

From Curious to Capable

— An AI Tools Bootcamp

Boards · Cabinets · Staff and faculty

Sixty minutes to three hours, hands-on. General-purpose tools only — no product pitch and no Ellucian software. Everyone leaves with at least five tools they can use the next day. 20+ delivered.

• — Hands-on, general-purpose AI tools
• — No product pitch, no vendor software
• — Leave with at least five tools you can use tomorrow