2021 UPCEA Annual Conference |
Ranked with the likes of Tim Cook and Bill and Melinda Gates on Fortune’s 2018 list of the world’s greatest leaders, Michael Sorrell transformed struggling Paul Quinn College in Dallas into one of the most innovative colleges in America. An attorney and former White House staffer, Sorrell brought a bold new vision to Paul Quinn, focusing on academic rigor, experiential learning and entrepreneurship. He also pioneered what he named the “urban work college model,” based on Paul Quinn’s dramatic success. Inspiring, straight-talking, and with a compelling and hopeful story to tell, Sorrell received a standing ovation at SXSW Education for his dynamic delivery and groundbreaking approaches to reinventing the future of American higher education.
When Sorrell took the helm of Paul Quinn in 2007, enrollment had been declining for more than five years and the college was on the verge of being shut down. Today, it is considered a shining model of urban education and most years, has a waiting list. As Fortune noted when naming him to their top 50, “Sorrell quickly set about challenging perceptions, both external and internal, by giving Paul Quinn a bigger vision of itself.” With a rallying cry of “WE Over Me,” and a mission to end poverty, Sorrell led both a movement and a total transformation. He bolstered admissions standards, stepped up recruitment, demolished abandoned campus buildings and, in partnership with PepsiCo, turned the football field into an organic farm that feeds the neighborhood and the Dallas Cowboys. The college was honored as HBCU of the Year, the HBCU Student Government Association of the Year and the HBCU Business Program of the Year and was named to the President’s Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll. It also became one of only a handful of federally recognized work colleges, a key component of the school’s reality-based educational approach.
Sorrell has received numerous awards and recognition for his civic and educational leadership. He is the only three-time recipient of the HBCU Male President of the Year award and was named one of America’s 10 Most Innovative College Presidents. He also received Rev. Jesse Jackson Sr. and PUSH/Excel’s Education Leadership Award, the Distinguished Alumni Award from the University of Pennsylvania’s Graduate School of Education and the A. Kenneth Pye Award for Excellence in Education from Duke University’s School of Law. Sorrell received a B.A. from Oberlin, a J.D. and M.A. in Public Policy from Duke University and an Ed.D from the University of Pennsylvania. He was the recipient of a Sloan Foundation Graduate Fellowship, studying as a graduate fellow at Harvard’s Kennedy School and Duke. Before taking leadership of Paul Quinn, Sorrell enjoyed a successful career representing professional basketball players, as a public affairs consultant, attorney and as a special assistant in the White House under Bill Clinton.
A talented and energizing presenter, Sorrell has inspired crowds at TEDx, SXSW EDU, The Aspen Institute and Duke University, and numerous other venues with his vision for education, uniting communities and leading through challenges. His memorable speeches often include his formula for success at Paul Quinn College: Preach hope, practice patience, instill resilience, be entrepreneurial in thought and action and, most of all, lead with love.
Dr. Michelle R. Weise is the author of Long-Life Learning: Preparing for Jobs that Don’t Even Exist Yet. Thinkers50 named her one of 30 management and leadership thinkers in the world to watch in 2021. She is a senior advisor at Imaginable Futures, a venture of The Omidyar Group. Dr. Weise's work over the last decade has concentrated on preparing working-age adults for the jobs of today and tomorrow. She was the chief innovation officer of Strada Education Network as well as Southern New Hampshire University. With Clayton Christensen, she coauthored Hire Education: Mastery, Modularization, and the Workforce Revolution (2014) while leading the higher education practice at Christensen’s Institute for Disruptive Innovation.
Dr. Weise also advises BrightHive, a data collaboration platform, the Institute for Higher Education Policy (IHEP), the SkillUp Coalition, Strategic Education Inc.’s HIRE board, Hitch, MIT SOLVE, Village Capital, Western Governors University Teachers College, Clayton Christensen Institute Social Capital R&D Project, and World Education’s Personal and Workplace Success Skills Library. She has also served as a commissioner for Massachusetts Governor Baker’s Commission on Digital Innovation and Lifelong Learning, Harvard University’s Task Force on Skills and Employability, and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences’ Commission on the Future of Undergraduate Education.
Her commentaries on redesigning higher education and developing more innovative workforce and talent pipeline strategies have been featured in The Economist, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, and Harvard Business Review and on PBSNewshour.
Michelle is a former Fulbright Scholar and graduate of Harvard and Stanford.
Special for UPCEA Annual Conference attendees: Download a complimentary copy of Michelle’s new book, Long-Life Learning, here. Quantities are limited – get yours today!
Francesca Gino
As an award-winning expert on the psychology of organizations, Francesca Gino helps leaders and employees alike lead productive, creative, and fulfilling lives. In her most recent book, Rebel Talent, the Harvard Business Professor explains why nonconformity is a benefit, not a detriment, to business—and how we can implement it across our teams. Her talks move beyond the status quo, to show us how to cultivate curiosity, encourage innovation, and solve creatively organizational problems.
Ranked as one of the Top Business Professors under 40, and named by Thinkers50 as one of the most influential management thinkers in the world, Francesca Gino helps organizations stay smart, innovative, and above all, happy. She is a professor of business administration in the Negotiation, Organizations & Markets Unit at Harvard Business School and the author of two books: Rebel Talent: Why It Pays to Break the Rules at Work and in Life and Sidetracked: Why Our Decisions Get Derailed, and How We Can Stick to the Plan. The former investigates how defying the status quo can lead to a more vital, engaging life (and a mastery of innovation), while the latter concentrates on the way simple, seemingly irrelevant factors can have a profound influence on our decision-making and behavior. In addition to teaching, Gino has delivered corporate training and advisory services to firms and non-profit organizations in over 40 states and 30 countries around the globe.
Gino’s research focuses on judgment and decision-making, negotiation, ethics, motivation, productivity, and creativity. Her work has been published in many academic journals and has been featured in The Economist, The New York Times, Newsweek, Scientific American, Psychology Today, The Wall Street Journal, NPR, and CBS Radio. She has received research awards from the National Science Foundation, the Academy of Management, and the faculty at Harvard Business School. Gino is also formally affiliated with the Program on Negotiation at Harvard Law School, the Mind, Brain, Behavior Initiative at Harvard, and the Behavioral Insight Group at Harvard Kennedy Group.