SUPER 2019 Central & West Joint Regional Conference |
As the higher education industry continues to shift and change, leaders are challenged to keep up—and stay ahead—of the latest trends and developments. In this opening session, Dr. Katie Linder, Research Director for OSU Ecampus, will offer five questions that every higher education professional should be asking in order to effectively serve diverse audiences, create sustainable and nimble organizations, lead with purpose, and engage in meaningful and inspiring work.
Dr. Katie Linder is the director of the award-winning Oregon State University Ecampus Research Unit. Through conducting original research, often in collaboration with colleagues from other institutions across the U.S., the Ecampus Research Unit responds to and forecasts the needs and challenges in the field of online education. As part of her role at OSU Ecampus, Katie hosts a weekly interview-based podcast called “Research in Action.” Katie also recently edited two collections, High-Impact Practices in Online Education and The Business of Innovating Online.
Engage in a highly interactive session with a panel of senior leaders on where our dynamic field is headed. Alternative credentials, shifting demographics, and new models are already shaping how institutions serve students. This group of panelists will provide their unique perspectives on organizational and market forces that are emerging, how they are responding at their institutions, and how UPCEA members will lead us into the near-term future (2025!).
Dr. Nelson Baker, dean of Professional Education at the Georgia Institute of Technology and associate professor in the university’s School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, leads a multifaceted operation at Georgia Tech Professional Education. The division is comprised of the Global Learning Center, Georgia Tech-Savannah, the Language Institute, and an extensive program of professional education courses in science, technology, engineering, and math, with online professional master’s degrees, as well as an array of distance learning courses, both credit and noncredit.
Baker particularly seeks to create and assess ways in which technology impacts the learning of engineering students. His award-winning work has generated projects such as multi-lingual web-based intelligent simulations for problem solving; intelligent tutors; student models; an online faculty assistant tool for creating course objectives; and a variety of technology-based assessments and virtual reality interfaces for education.In addition to his role as dean, Baker serves as the U.S. principal investigator for a FIPSE Atlantis programme grant (P116J090074), an international activity exploring quality management and benchmarking of continuing engineering education programs; and also as a co-principal investigator on a five-year NASA project, Electronic Professional Development Network (ePDN), which develops and delivers STEM content to high school teachers.
In February 2012, Baker was appointed by Chancellor Huckaby to serve on the University System of Georgia's (USG) Distance Education Task Force to create a framework to better coordinate and guide the future use of distance education for the 35 colleges and universities within the USG system. He currently serves as the President of the International Association for Continuing Engineering Education, and is past-chair of the Georgia Board of Regents Administrative Committee on Public Service and Continuing Education. Baker is a board member for the University Professional and Continuing Education Association, and is an active member of ASEE and ASCE.
Bob Hansen,
UPCEA Dr. Robert J. Hansen was named Chief Executive Officer of the University Professional & Continuing Education Association in September 2010. Under Hansen’s leadership, UPCEA has grown by 125% in the past six years. He established a number of initiatives targeting the association’s unique role in online leadership and management under the umbrella of the National Council for Online Leadership: the Summit for Online Leadership and Administration, the Online Leadership Roundtable for chief online learning officers, and the UPCEA Hallmarks of Excellence in Online Leadership. He also established the UPCEA Hallmarks of Excellence in Professional and Continuing Education, advancing two frameworks to provide a set of standards that reflect the ambitions, potential, and importance of units that serve adult learners.
Hansen previously served as Associate Provost for University Outreach at the University of Southern Maine, a regional public university located in Portland, Maine. Prior to that position, he spent six years at Saint Xavier University of Chicago as Assistant to the President & Secretary of the Corporation, and then as founding Executive Director of Orland Park Campus & Off-Campus Programs. Hansen also previously served as Assistant to the Governor for Education in the administration of former Illinois governor, Jim Edgar. Hansen earned a B.S. in Psychology from the University of Illinois, an M.A. in English Language and Literature from the University of Michigan, and a Ph.D. in English from the University of Notre Dame.
Steve VandenAvond, Northern Michigan University Dr. Steve VandenAvond became NMU’s Vice President for Extended Learning and Community Engagement in April 2015. Dr. VandenAvond came to NMU from the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay where he had been serving as the Associate Provost and Dean for Outreach and Adult Access. He had been at UWGB since 2010. From 2000-2010 he was a faculty member and administrator at Silver Lake College (Manitowoc, Wis.). He was the director of the psychology program at Michigan Technological University from 1997-2000 where he also co-founded and was the director of the Center for Educational Technology Research and Assessment. He has a doctorate in developmental psychology from Loyola University (Chicago), a master’s in the same area from Illinois State University. His bachelor’s degree in psychology was earned at Marquette University.
Jenni Murphy, California State University, Sacramento From farm to food service, and finally to career fulfillment, Dr. Jenni Murphy’s path to success did not follow a straight line. She was the first in her family to earn a college degree, and used her education and restaurant experience to climb the corporate ladder. Her talents in hospitality led her to become a corporate trainer, opening restaurants and entertainment centers across the nation and overseas.
During a career transition, she applied for a program manager position at CCE and fell in love with it. Over 15 years later, with several leadership positions and a doctorate from Sacramento State under her belt, Murphy went from associate dean to interim dean and on June 1 took the helm as dean - serving as a living, breathing CCE success story. She is passionate about the role of continuing education for our regional workforce, as well as across the nation.
Murphy graduated from Arizona State University magna cum laude with a bachelor’s degree in communications. She received her Master of Business Administration summa cum laude from University of Phoenix, and then earned her doctorate in educational leadership from Sacramento State. Her research focuses on the intersection of education, workforce and economic development.
October 24th | 3:00 PM - 4:00 PM
Companies like Walmart, Disney and Amazon are making significant investments in the education, training and development of their workers. This session will look at what they’re investing in, who they are partnering with and what it means to continuing education departments around the country. We’ll examine what employers are looking for in higher education partnerships and strategies for connecting with employers for meaningful partnerships.
Jaime S. Fall is Director of UpSkill America at the Aspen Institute, an employer-led movement to expand opportunity for America’s workers and to help our economy and communities thrive by promoting training and advancement practices to help workers progress in their careers and move into better-paying jobs.
Previously, Jaime served as Vice President for Workforce and Talent Sustainability for the HR Policy Foundation, a non-profit organization dedicated to getting America educated, qualified and hired through the development of research, services and resources to better inform students, jobseekers, workers, educators and policy makers about the skills needed by large employers in today's rapidly changing workplaces.
Jaime makes his home in Sacramento, California where he moved in 2004 to serve as Deputy Secretary, Employment and Workforce Development, for the California Labor and Workforce Development Agency. As a Senate-confirmed leader in the Schwarzenegger Administration, Jaime provided policy and guidance to California’s $11 billion workforce system and the nearly 9,000 employees that made up the entities within the agency. Previously, Jaime spent more than a decade in Washington, DC working at the U.S. Department of Labor’s Employment and Training Administration; the National Association of State Workforce Agencies; Fall Communications, a workforce development-focused marketing and website development company founded by him and his wife; and on Capitol Hill.
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October 25th | 8:00 AM - 9:30 AM
Change sneaks up on you. Ten years ago, just over two-thirds of adults in the U.S. had a cell phone and just five short years ago, half had smartphones, which ultimately built the infrastructure for our mobile economy. With more communications satellites being launched and the planned roll-out of 5G this year, more technology and automation will sneak into our society and ultimately form the smart city. With disruption comes opportunity or obsolescence. The UPCEA Center for Research and Strategy will share its compilation of secondary research, job analytics and labor forecasts from EMSI, and interviews with leaders and futurist and how it could impact the future of professional, continuing and online education.
Jim Fong, Chief Research OfficerJim Fong is the founding director of UPCEA’s Center for Research and Strategy. In his role, Jim has analyzed demographic, occupational, technological and societal trends and data to help the higher education community better serve the adult and corporate learner. As the Center’s director, he works closely with dozens of colleges and universities annually in new program development initiatives, enrollment management and marketing process analyses and the review of online and continuing education portfolios.
Prior to joining UPCEA, Jim worked as a higher education strategic marketing and CRM consultant and researcher for two firms and prior to that was the Director of Marketing, Research and Planning for Penn State Outreach. At Penn State Outreach, he was responsible for strategic marketing, marketing management, research, creative and database teams. Jim played a major role in the early launch of Penn State’s World Campus by assessing new program needs and the development of marketing strategies and systems.
Jim holds an M.B.A., an M.S. in Applied Statistics and a B.S. in Mathematics, all from The University of Vermont. In 2004, UPCEA awarded him the Adelle Robertson Award as its Continuing Professional Educator for the year. That year, he also received the Mid-Atlantic Region’s Distinguished Service Award.
October 25th | 11:00 AM - 12:00 PM
Professional and continuing educators are the entrepreneurs in a highly traditional education sphere. We balance the consideration for excellent educational experiences with financial viability. How do these seemingly contradictory concepts form the decision-making bases for leaders in the field? When 37% of all learner are now considered non-traditional learners, how are professional and continuing education departments stepping up to this challenge (Axios). In this highly acclaimed session, participants will rotate through three table talk sessions to ask senior leaders in the field questions on a number of key issues. It will be an opportunity to learn about the factors driving decisions in the current environment. It will also be an opportunity to meet and interact with senior leaders from institutions in the Central and West regions.
Participating senior leaders include: