2017 Speakers

Jeff Buller has served in administrative positions ranging from department chair to vice president for academic affairs. He is currently Florida Atlantic University’s Director of Leadership and Professional Development, as well as the author of fifteen books on higher education administration, including The Essential Academic Dean or Provost, Change Leadership in Higher Education, and Positive Academic Leadership. Along with Robert E. Cipriano, Jeff is a senior partner of ATLAS: Academic Training, Leadership, & Assessment Services, through which he has presented numerous workshops on academic leadership, implementing change processes and promoting a positive approach to college administration.

Laura Burke, ScD, MPH, is the founding dean of the School of Health Sciences at Regis College.  Since joining Regis, she has served in many roles including associate professor, director of the Public Health Program and associate dean. She launched Regis’ public health program and has collaborated on the development of multiple other programs at both the undergraduate and graduate level. In her role as Dean, Dr. Burke has been instrumental in the growth of the School of Health Sciences at Regis.  She has also focused on expanding the research capabilities of the School of Health Sciences. Dr. Burke is the co-creator of the Regis Center for Interprofessional Education and has presented at national conferences on the implementation of interprofessional curricula in the health sciences.

Committed to transformative place-making, Andrew Broderick is a Senior Planner at Perkins+Will focusing on helping higher education, healthcare, and other institutional clients make important decisions that impact their future built environment. As a certified urban planner (AICP, LEED AP), he thinks comprehensively about issues such as demographics, capital investment, land/space use, sustainability, public open space, transportation, and infrastructure. His work includes long-range, large-scale campus master plan and urban district projects as well as individual building projects. He values his role as a “tip-of-the-spear” thinker when it comes to strategically advising clients on future space programs and place-making strategies. He embraces complex and multidisciplinary projects, an iterative and engaging process, and actionable project outcomes.

J. Warren Casey, a professor of music, has just completed four decades of full-time collegiate teaching and administrative experiences. Casey currently serves as the dean of the College of Arts and Humanities at Harding University and chairs the undergraduate Liberal Arts curriculum committee.

Bob Cipriano served as a department chair for 28 years and has conducted research and written extensively on such topics as civility and collegiality in higher education, managing conflict, and  the changing roles and responsibilities of academic leaders. He is the author of Facilitating a Collegial Department in Higher Education: Strategies for Success and co-author with Jeff Buller of A Toolkit For Department Chairs and A Toolkit for College Professors. Bob is a Senior Partner in ATLAS – Academic Training, Leadership & Assessment Services, an internationally acclaimed consulting firm specializing in academic leadership training, and has been invited to deliver more than 260 presentations in the US, Asia, and the Middle East.

Stephen Coulston, Principal at Perkins+Will, is an architect and planner (AIA) in the Austin office who has spent 25 years working with higher education, healthcare and institutional clients on projects ranging from complex, multi-million dollar building projects to long-range strategic master plans. His focus on strategic systems and approaches influences clients’ management processes, capital investments, and long term operations. With a personal mantra of “process matters,” Stephen cross leverages skill sets of institutional organizations, communities and businesses in a way that fosters creativity, dialogue and newfound opportunity for success through transformation and a focus on actionable outcomes.

Lisa (Elizabeth) Crandall has taught Life Sciences for 30 years at both 2-yr and 4-yr colleges in Florida and Arkansas. She has most recently served as Dean of Business, Math, & Sciences at New Mexico Jr. College since Fall of 2016.

Joe Golding is Chairman and CEO of Advancement Resources, the world leader in research-based professional education and breakthrough thinking in philanthropy. He led the team that conducted the initial research that forms the basis of Advancement Resources’ work in major-gift fundraising. Joe has personally delivered workshops for medical organizations and academic institutions throughout the United States, in Canada, Australia, and New Zealand, and has been honored to serve as a keynote and plenary speaker for many philanthropic conferences. He also provides individualized outcome-based coaching for academic and healthcare leadership. Joe is passionate about helping organizations build comprehensive programs that engage all associates in driving meaningful, transformational philanthropy.

Bruce King has lead campus diversity and multicultural efforts at several institutions and currently serves as Assistant to the President and Chief Diversity Officer at St. Olaf College. He attended Harvard University’s Graduate School of Education Institute on Educational Management (IEM) and Management Development Program (MDP) and served as a public policy fellow with the University of Minnesota’s Hubert H. Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs. Bruce chaired the Associated Colleges of the Midwest (ACM) Committee on Minority Concerns and earned a national reputation as a founding member and second vice president of the National Association for Diversity Officers in Higher Education (NADOHE). He is a current member of the advisory group for the ACM/Mellon funded Undergraduate and Faculty Fellows Program for a Diverse Professoriate.

During his postsecondary career, Scott Newman has held faculty, mid- and senior-level leadership positions. From 2001 to 2013 he served as founding Dean of the School of Information Technologies at the Oklahoma State University (OSU) Institute of Technology. He currently serves as the University’s Vice President of Academic Affairs. Newman is a Peer Reviewer for The Higher Learning Commission, and a former Oklahoma State Regents for Higher Education Fellow and American Council on Education Fellow. Newman has been honored for his contributions to and through higher education—including identification as one of the nation’s top technology leaders by Computerworld, and selection to receive the American Association of University Administrators’ McInnis/Ryan Award for Mid-Career Higher Education Leadership. Newman’s diverse scholarly interests include postsecondary innovation and leadership. Recent publications include articles in Inside Higher Ed and The Chronicle of Higher Education, and a higher education leadership textbook.

Malcolm North grew up on the east coast of Australia and studied communication, cultural studies, philosophy and psychology. In Australia, he worked in news-media for 15 years. For ten years in Europe, he studied the judgment patterns of leaders as an organizational and development coach and consultant and worked alongside human rights advocates. His PhD in psychology tests associations among identity, personality, judgment and decision-making. Malcolm founded the Research Center of Applied Value Sciences in Munich and XQ Research, a research platform to further knowledge and applications in value judgment and how it predicts behavior.

Jeff Stebar (AIA, LEED AP), Principal at Perkins+Will, is a nationally recognized leader and specialist in the design and planning of campus center and student union facilities. For over 25 years, he has successfully led master planning, programming, and design efforts for university clients worldwide. His Student Union and Campus Center projects total over five million square feet and include projects at University of Arizona, Texas A&M University, Virginia Tech, University of Washington, University of Kentucky, University of Oxford and dozens more in North America and around the world. His “Form­ing a More Perfect Union Process” is widely recognized for its effectiveness in engaging students and building consensus with diverse and complex groups of stakeholders.

Marla Strecker is the Senior Associate Director for Academic Affairs as well as Research and Analytics at the Arkansas Department of Higher Education. She is responsible for academic policy development for the agency and also hold the role of chief data officer. Dr. Strecker serves as the Action Team Leader for Data and Predictive Analytics for the SREB Educational Technology Cooperative’s “Top 10 Educational Technology Issues”. She is recognized as an award winning researcher in college readiness and innovative college remediation design. In 2013, the Arkansas Senate issued a formal citation in recognition of Strecker’s work and contributions to improving education. Strecker serves on local and state K-16 academic improvement and strategic planning initiatives. She is a resilient advocate for streamlined and effective K-16 policy to promote success in post-secondary attainment for Arkansas.

Paula Vene Smith, a professor at Grinnell College, directs the Purposeful Risk Engagement Project (PREP) to help college and university leaders identify, evaluate, and address the primary risks on their campus. She previously served as Grinnell’s vice president for academic affairs and chief academic officer for five years. In addition to teaching on the Grinnell faculty, Paula writes and consults on risk in higher education. Her book, Engaging Risk: A Guide for College Leaders, received positive reviews and was listed among “Selected New Books” in The Chronicle of Higher Education.

Nicole McZeal Walters is a skilled educator with 20 years of professional educational experience holding teaching, administrative, consulting, and instructional design positions in school and non-profit organizations. Her public school career spanned 10 years as an early childhood, elementary teacher and principal in the Aldine Independent School District. Dr. Walters presently serves as the Associate Dean of Graduate Programs at the University of St. Thomas in the School of Education, and an Assistant Professor of Educational Leadership. Her research agenda includes developing culturally relevant leaders to embrace servant leadership, female leadership in higher education, social philanthropy, and integrating culture and language to support academic achievement in underserved, marginalized students.

Jenifer K. Ward is the Ed and Caroline Crawford Eminent Scholars Chair of Liberal Arts and serves, since 2014, as Provost and Dean of the College at Centenary College of Louisiana. She completed her Ph.D. in German at Vanderbilt University and taught language, literature, cinema, and cultural studies for many years at liberal arts colleges, before joining Cornish College of the Arts as Dean of the College. She is the former president of the Association of Departments of Foreign Languages, and a two-time Fulbright Scholar. In addition to numerous articles, essays, and book chapters, she published the co-edited volume Reworking the German Past: Adaptations in Film, the Arts, and Popular Culture (Rochester, NY: Camden House, 2010). She serves on the Executive Committee of the Council of Deans of the Associated Colleges of the South.

Diane Welsh is the Dean for the Regis College School of Nursing, and oversees eight (8) programs and 50 faculty members. She has been employed by Regis for ten years and has held roles as a Program Director and Associate Dean. She is the co-creator of the Regis Center for Interprofessional Education and has served as faculty in the Doctoral Program working with students on their Capstone Projects. She is the Co-Chair for the Massachusetts Nursing Core Competency Committee. Dr. Welsh has experience in new program development and established two new second degree bachelor of science in nursing programs for Regis College. She currently oversees the development of new on-line nursing programs.