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Report from the First Annual Leadership in Higher Education Conference

Leadership and Management

Report from the First Annual Leadership in Higher Education Conference

I’ve just returned from chairing the first Leadership in Higher Education Conference, held October 6-8 in Atlanta. This event grew out of some of the issues and concerns raised in the pages of Academic Leader, as we discovered a need for academic leaders to have a place to come to hear from experts, share ideas, solve problems, and prepare for their next steps in their leadership career.

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I’ve just returned from chairing the first Leadership in Higher Education Conference, held October 6-8 in Atlanta. This event grew out of some of the issues and concerns raised in the pages of Academic Leader, as we discovered a need for academic leaders to have a place to come to hear from experts, share ideas, solve problems, and prepare for their next steps in their leadership career.

I was so pleased at the turnout for our first conference! About 275 academic leaders from around the country were in attendance, a number that was just slightly dented by Hurricane Matthew making its way up the East Coast. Even more impressive than the stats, however, was the level of enthusiasm and participation evident in the meeting rooms, hallways, and other gathering spots. From 7:30 a.m. when breakfast began to the evening when the final session or dinner was finished, the venue was filled with academic leaders engaging in interesting, thoughtful conversations about the issues and trends on their own campuses and the challenges they face.

Some of the highlights

We also offered three optional preconference workshops for those who arrived on Thursday afternoon.

These were just the major sessions offered; over a two-day period, we had nearly 90 different sessions from attendees that ranged from highly theoretical to immediately applicable, and which showed a range of information gathered from research and from first-person experience.

A thank you to the board

This conference would not have been possible without the hard work of the Advisory Board, who gave me a great deal of information and perspective in tailoring the conference to the needs of the academic leader. They also made me laugh regularly, which is a tremendously important skill for a board member to possess! Thank you to our 2016 Advisory Board:

You will recognize many of these names as contributors to this newsletter, so please take some time to read their articles!

Moving forward

By the time you read this issue, you will have received a survey about your experiences if you attended the conference, and we will be in the process of compiling results and starting discussions about how to better tailor the conference to your needs. I welcome the opportunity to hear from readers of this newsletter, as well, about what your needs are as an academic leader and how we can help you succeed through our written publications or our conference.

I also hope you will consider developing a proposal for a session for our next conference. Our call for proposals will be out shortly, and I look forward to reading a lot of strong submissions. This year’s field of proposals was very strong, and I’m sure next year’s will raise the bar.

Our 2017 Leadership in Higher Education Conference will be October 19-21, 2017, in Baltimore. I am really looking forward to visiting this historic coastal city, but I am looking forward even more eagerly to reuniting with this year’s conference attendees and meeting new academic leaders from around the globe.

Jennifer Patterson Lorenzetti is the Chair of the Leadership in Higher Education Conference and managing editor of Academic Leader. She is the owner of Hilltop Communications (www.hilltopcommunications.net).