The Innovating Together Podcast

Background Today on the Innovating Together Podcast, we interview Dr. Harrison Keller.  Dr. Keller previously worked as Deputy to the president for Strategy and Policy and as a faculty member at UT Austin. Earlier in his career, he was heavily involved in the Legislature at the Texas Capitol. As Texas Commissioner of Higher Education, he leads the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board, th...

Jackson State University President Thomas Hudson, J.D., joined Bridget Burns and Doug Lederman in this week's episode of the Innovating Together Podcast. There have been 12 presidents in JSU’s 144-year history, and President Hudson is only the second alumnus president, which he believes is an advantage. President Hudson said, “It shortens the learning curve when it comes to alumni relations.” He h...

In this week’s episode of Weekly Wisdom, Bridget Burns and Doug Lederman announced that Virginia Commonwealth University has joined the University Innovation Alliance (UIA) as a new member. Bridget explained, “The University Innovation Alliance is a collection of institutions who are scaling innovation to eliminate their equity gaps and actually improve outcomes and produce more high-quality gradu...

California Competes is a policy research and advocacy organization focused on driving system-level change to improve the state's higher education and workforce outcomes. Dr. Su Jin Jez said, “Our work sits at the intersection between higher education, equity, and the economy. We spend a lot of time thinking about what are the problems in our state and then doing research to come up with evidence-b...

“Where does hope come from?” Paul Quinn College President,  Michael Sorrell pondered in today's interview. President Sorrell unpacked his optimistic and honest message in the midst of extended COVID-19 variants affecting higher education. “We don’t know when it’s going to be over. What I can tell you is if this is our new reality, we will create a way to fly.” We were told the pandemic might...

Today on ‘Weekly Wisdom’ Bridget Burns from University Innovation Alliance and Doug Lederman from Inside Higher Ed sit down with California Community College Chancellor, Eloy Oakley. Many educational leaders had to step up during 2020 because of the pandemic and all that it brought with it, and Chancellor Oakley is no different. He discusses the struggles of leading through not only a pandemic but...

Today we’re speaking with the Educational Administrator for higher, adult, and lifelong education, Kristen Renn from Michigan State University. How Do You Introduce The Work That You Do? Kristen states that she studies college student learning, development, and identities. Further, she says she specifically looks at how students of color, LGBTQ students, and low-income students experience higher e...

Most Popular Episode of 2020 Bridget Burns, Executive Director of the University Innovation Alliance, and Jeff Selingo, author, columnist, and special advisor at Arizona State University, are inviting insight and experiences from presidents and chancellors of universities navigating the challenge in real-time. The eleventh guest is Mark P. Becker, president of Georgia State University since 2009....

Michele Siqueiros, President of the Campaign for College Opportunity, was interviewed for University Innovation Alliance on December 13, 2021. Co-host, Doug Lederman introduced the Campaign for College Opportunity as, “a non-profit based in California that does advocacy and research focused on ensuring more students can go to college and succeed through them.” The interview progressed from Siqueir...

Chancellor of the California Committee of Colleges Eloy Oakley recently spent some time in November 2021 in Washington, D.C. with the U.S. Department of Education to help with the BBB - Build Back Better vision of the current administration. He discussed the bureaucracy in the Department of Education, how his visit impacted his leadership style, and policy perspectives. Oakley was most surprised b...

Today we are interviewing Lafayette College President, Nicole Hurd. President Hurd founded a non-profit organization called College Advising Corps. She spent fifteen years fundraising and collecting data to help bring college access to a variety of diverse students. She transitioned to Lafayette College as President, where she could have more depth and impact. President Hurd said, “I wanted to hav...

Today we are interviewing President David A. Thomas, President of Morehouse College, one of only three all male colleges in the United States.  President Thomas shared how Covid-19 impacted Morehouse College, how they adapted, his thoughts on digital learning, and qualities and character traits he believes are important to develop in his students. With nearly 2300 students on campus, 25% of s...

Today we are talking with University of Maryland Global Campus President Gregory Fowler.  With deep experience working with various online learning institutions throughout the years, President Fowler has a lot of personal experience with online learning, while many others are just learning the ins and outs of it.  With many students in hybrid environments, UMGC has had to develop and imp...

Today, we are talking to Oregon State University interim President, Becky Johnson.  After the last president stepped down after only nine months on the job, OSU needed someone to step up and restore confidence.  With 37 years of involvement at OSU, President Johnson was the ideal candidate to take up the reins.  She’s known for being humble and having the ability to project calm.&nb...

Today we are talking to Everett Community College President, Dr. Daria Willis.  Only 6 months into her presidency, COVID-19 hit, which she says made it a very interesting experience.  She says they are now up to about 30% face to face or hybrid and that number will trickle up as they get into the Spring quarter.  They’re currently focusing on their strategic plan and looking to the...

Today we have two guests, Dr. Bradley Custer from the Center For American Progress, and Jenna Sablan from the State Higher Education Executive Officers Association.  They’re here to talk about student success and college completion.  Right now, congress is trying to pass President Biden’s bill that would include a college completion fund worth $62 billion over 10 years.  The house c...

Today, we are talking with the Ohio State University President, Kristina Johnson.  Having just started at Ohio State last year, during the pandemic, President Johnson is happy to see things starting to get back to normal.  When she first started they were limiting gatherings to less than ten people, which President Johnson says made it hard to get to know members of the college.  By...

Today we are talking to Dr. Bryan Brayboy from Arizona State University.  Dr. Brayboy is known for his research on race and diversity in higher education, as well as experiences of indigenous students and staff in universities.  Today, he discusses the misunderstandings that exist regarding indigenous people in higher ed.  He says the first misconception is that those students don’t...

Today, we are talking with the Chancellor of California State University, Joseph Castro.  CSU announced last December that it would be mostly in person this year.  While it’s been challenging, they’re at about 80% in person this fall (with variability among the 23 campuses), and Chancellor Castro is extremely proud of the students and staff for making that happen.  One thing they’ve...

Today we’re talking with Dr. Don Pope-Davis, dean of the College of Education and Human Ecology at The Ohio State University.  Dr. Pope-Davis has led research focused on religious attitudes, multicultural competence and unintentional racism.  He shared about cultivating a diverse faculty and what his team has learned after a successful cycle of the Dean’s Diversity Postdoctoral Fellows P...

Today we’re talking with Amarillo College President, Russell Lowery-Hart.  He touches on the hardships caused by Covid, including experiencing depression for the first time.  He says there are no right answers when it comes to dealing with Covid, just a sea of wrong answers to choose from.  On the other hand, President Lowery-Hart says they’re doing better work than they ever have b...

Today we’re sitting down with Dr. TJ Stewart from Iowa State University.  Dr. Stewart’s research interests include college students with stigmatized identities, anti-Black racism and non-Black communities of color, identity based student activism, creative and critical qualitative methodologies, and more.  He says once we think we have our arms around major issues around gender, race, cl...

Today we’re talking to University of Central Florida president, Alexander Cartwright.  UCF is fully back in person and President Cartwright says it’s remarkable to see how much students and staff care about each other and what they’re trying to do this semester.  UCF was fortunate enough to receive a large boost this summer in the form of a $40 million gift from MacKenzie Scott and Dan J...

Today we’re talking with Achieving The Dream president and CEO, Karen Stout.  She’s been president and CEO since 2015 and was previously the president of Montgomery Community College for 14 years.  Being tuned into many community college presidents, President Stout has an understanding of where they’re at currently.  She says the perspective changes day to day with the shifting news...

Today we’re talking with WASC and WSCUC President, Jamienne S. Studley.  She’s worn many hats, from being a civil rights and education lawyer to a senior official in the Obama administration.  President Studley describes herself as mission-driven and says the job of education is excellence and humanity, with quality and equity being priorities as well.  She says the hardest position...