March 24 | 1:00 PM
Kim LearKim Lear is a writer, researcher, and the founder of Inlay Insights. She is known for skillfully weaving eyeopening statistics, insightful stories, and relevant case studies to make presentations come alive. Previously, Kim was the content director at BridgeWorks, a research firm dedicated to generational and millennial trends. Her undergrad research focused on baby boomers and longevity, and her post-grad work centered on millennials and social media trends. She is currently in her ninth year of a longitudinal study on leadership.
Kim was recently named one of today’s best speakers by Meetings and Conventions Magazine, and she appeared as keynote speaker before some of the most renowned companies in the world. She has received rave reviews from clients such as American Express, Cisco Systems, Deloitte, Disney, General Mills, LinkedIn, Mastercard, PricewaterhouseCoopers, Wells Fargo, and more.
In addition to speaking, Kim was head of research on the book Gen Z @ Work. She has written whitepapers on generational wealth transfer, retirement trends, and Gen Z’s impact on higher education. Kim is the writer of the popular Substack, Kids These Days. She has been featured on NPR and national publications such as The Wall Street Journal, The Huffington Post, USA Today, and TIME magazine.
She is a highly sought-after generational expert and serves as an advisor to FORE, an AI startup focused
on predictive analytics for attrition. She also volunteers for The 78 Cents Project, an organization
dedicated to helping young women develop strong presentation skills.
When not delving into the minutia of human behavior, Kim can be found spending time with her
husband and daughters in Minneapolis.
March 25 | 7:45 AM
UPCEA 2025 Institutional Representatives Annual Breakfast Briefing + Council for Chief Online Learning Officers and Council for Credential Innovation Convening
Open to all UPCEA Institutional Representatives (IRs), Chief Online Learning Officers (COLOs), and Council of Credential Innovation (CCI) representatives attending the UPCEA 2025 Annual Conference.
Separate registration for this session is required.
The 2025 UPCEA Institutional Representatives Annual Briefing, hosted in conjunction with the UPCEA Council for Chief Online Learning Officers and UPCEA Council for Credential Innovation, provides an opportunity for senior leaders in online and professional education to connect with peers, to be briefed on the most pressing topics of our field today, and to discuss together ways we can be best positioned for the future.
As college costs increase, accrediting bodies will be increasingly more willing to support pilot projects that explore undergraduate degrees in focused fields that are “less than 120 credit hours.” Specifically, growth in three-year degree models will increase in fields where elective courses often are not perceived to prepare learners with skills employers seek, such as IT, hospitality, and applied health care, permitting graduates to find meaningful work faster and with less debt.
Highlighting the impact sub-120 credit degrees may bring to the landscape, this year’s briefing will provide opportunities to consider the ways in which such pilots may impact member institutions directly. Following a “roundtable” format, our briefing will feature a panel discussion focused on emergent opportunities for “reduced-credit” undergraduate degree innovation, followed by ample time for table-based discussion and reporting-out.
March 25 | 11:00 AM
Cathy N. DavidsonCathy N. Davidson is an author, educator, and academic thought leader best known for her work on institutional change and innovation in higher education. She offers research-backed insights on redesigning college curricula and teaching methodologies to meet the demands of the modern era with a core mission of setting students up for success in the classroom and preparing them for the world beyond it. Cathy is the Senior Advisor on Transformation to the Chancellor of the City University of New York (CUNY) and the founding director of CUNY’s Futures Initiative, a program dedicated to advancing equity and innovation in higher education.
Davidson has authored and edited more than twenty books. Her most recent publications include the “How We Know” trilogy, concentrating on the science of learning: Now You See It: How the Brain Science of Attention Will Transform the Way We Live, Work, and Learn; The New Education: How to Revolutionize the University to Prepare Students for a World in Flux; and The New College Classroom. Both The New Education and The New College Classroom received the Frederic W. Ness Book Award, granting Cathy the distinction of being the first author in the history of the award to win it twice.
Throughout her career, Davidson has taught at a range of institutions, from community college to the Ivy League. At CUNY, she is a Distinguished Professor of English who also teaches in the Digital Humanities and Data Analysis and Visualization master’s programs at the Graduate Center. Over the course of her 25-year tenure at Duke University, she held two distinguished professorships and became the school’s (and the nation’s) first Vice Provost for Interdisciplinary Studies. She is co-founder and co-director of HASTAC (the Humanities, Arts, Sciences and Technology Alliance and Collaboratory — ”Haystack”), a worldwide coalition of innovators transforming how we think and learn that is recognized as the world’s first and oldest academic social network.
Cathy Davidson has won many awards and grants from institutions including the Guggenheim
Foundation, the MacArthur Foundation, the American Council of Learned Societies, the National
Endowment for the Humanities, and the National Science Foundation. She received the Ernest L. Boyer
Award for “significant contributions to higher education,” the Educator of the Year Award from the
World Technology Network, and the Arts and Sciences Advocacy Award from the Council of Colleges of
Arts and Sciences. She has served on the Board of Directors of Mozilla, was appointed by President Barack Obama to the National Council on the Humanities, and has twice keynoted the Nobel Prize
Committee’s Forum on the Future of Learning.
March 26 | 8:45 AM
Join this lively, informal conversation featuring recipients from individual award categories of the 2025 UPCEA Association Awards program. Recipients will be invited to share their ideas and experiences around career trajectories, leadership journeys, role challenges and insights, and thoughts about the future of our field.
March 26 | 11:15 AM
In this transformative keynote, Dr. Mordecai Brownlee explores how higher education institutions can embrace a business mindset to elevate access, equity, and economic mobility for all learners. By focusing on student transformation as the core mission, attendees will learn strategies to drive innovation, leverage partnerships, and align educational goals with workforce demands. This session will empower decision-makers to lead change, expand opportunity, and ensure that higher education becomes a true engine of social mobility in an evolving world.
Dr. Mordecai Ian BrownleeDr. Mordecai Ian Brownlee is the esteemed President of the Community College of Aurora, where his visionary leadership has significantly elevated the institution’s profile through strategic innovation and a steadfast commitment to excellence. Within the first four years of his presidency, CCA embarked on its first capital project in 24 years, achieved record-breaking fundraising, hired the largest and most diverse faculty ranks in the college’s history, developed a nursing school, increased student completions by more than 20%, and preparing to open the college's brand new third campus in the City of Centennial in fall 2025.
A sought-after speaker, writer, and consultant, Dr. Brownlee regularly presents his expertise at national and international forums. He discusses the evolving role of leadership in higher education, workforce development, and the critical need for accessible and equity-driven education. Most recently, Dr. Mordecai was named a “Pillar of the Profession” by NASPA and a “champion” by the U.S. Department of Education Unlocking Career Success Initiative.