Carl Hernandez III, Vice President, Office of Belonging
As a child of migrant farm workers, I labored in the olive vineyards of California’s agriculturally rich San Joaquin Valley. As a young man, I also worked in vineyards and a fruit packing house in proximity to where Cesar Chavez organized the United Farm Workers Association and about which John Steinbeck penned his Pulitzer Prize winning novel The Grapes of Wrath. I never imagined belonging to a university founded and established in the Wasatch Range of the Rocky Mountains-Provo, Utah to be exact. My experience at Brigham Young University (BYU) with students, faculty, and staff, was and has been transformative. We hope to assist the university in its great objective to help others achieve their greatest potential and to experience an elevated sense of belonging. We also hope our work can, in some measure, be of benefit to a world seeking greater connection and belonging.
Beginnings of Belonging
I attended BYU law school where former BYU President Kevin J Worthen, one of my professors, took an interest in my well-being and engaged me in his research about using the United States Constitution to empower educational institutions to create a better sense of belonging for America’s struggling underrepresented youth. I was captivated by the spiritual and intellectual foundations of his scholarship. I clearly did not have any vision then of how his mentoring would influence my future. He both inspired me and believed in me. His intentional and deliberate approach to mentoring helped me, a first-generation college student and child of migrant farm workers, to feel a sense of belonging at one of the largest private universities in the country.
In June 2020, in the aftermath of racial tensions precipitated by the death of George Floyd, officials at the highest levels of leadership of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and the NAACP issued a joint statement calling “on government, business, and educational leaders at every level to review processes, laws, and organizational attitudes regarding racism and root them out once and for all.”[1] In immediate response to this call to action, President Worthen formed the BYU Committee on Race, Equity, and Belonging (“CoREB”), and, he invited me, then a member of the BYU law faculty, to be one of its members.
The initial charge President Worthen gave to the newly formed committee was powerful. The committee was “to seek strategies for historic, transformative change at BYU in order to more fully realize the unity, love, equity, and belonging that should characterize our campus culture and permeate our interactions as disciples of Jesus Christ.”[2] Inspired by this charge, CoREB spent the remainder of 2020 studying and creating a 60-page report that contained 26 recommendations which was published in February of 2021.[3] The first two recommendations were to create a new Office of Belonging and a new position of Vice President of Belonging who would report directly to the president, be a member of the president’s executive council, and be charged with fostering a stronger sense of belonging within the BYU community.[4] In March 2022, after an extensive search process and thirty years after the transformational mentoring I had received from him as a law student, President Worthen appointed me to work in a new vineyard as BYU’s first vice president of the newly formed BYU Office of Belonging.
The BYU Statement on Belonging
Coinciding with the creation of the Office of Belonging, the BYU Board of Trustees approved the BYU Statement of Belonging,[5] which serves as the “constitution” for the new Office of Belonging.
The BYU Statement on Belonging provides the framework for undertaking a deliberate approach to fostering a community of belonging-one that captures the unique characteristics and mission of BYU. Relevant points of the statement include:
With this framework, the Office of Belonging embarked on a new journey to achieve the lofty aspirations of objectives of the Statement on Belonging.
BYU’s Belonging Strategic Plan
To further buttress belonging, the university added to its five-year strategic plan an objective to “promote a sense of belonging among all members of the campus community,”[6] which is an important part of resource planning for all university operations. All efforts have culminated in a centralized approach to university belonging that is approved, resourced, and supported at the highest levels of university leadership.
Fostering a stronger sense of belonging at BYU is enhanced by the Office of Belonging’s creation of a board-approved strategic plan. The Mayo Clinic has noted: “Nearly every aspect of our lives is organized around belonging to something…[and] [w]e cannot separate the importance of a sense of belonging from our physical and mental health”[7] and, “our spiritual health”[8] as well. Thus, there are a variety of ways an individual’s sense of belonging can be affected. The Office of Belonging’s strategic plan seeks to address each of these by focusing on the follow elements:
The Office of Belonging has already operationalized or is in the process of operationalizing the plan to assist with improving a sense of belonging on campus.
Connect. Belong. Become.
Primary objectives of the Office of Belonging are to: Connect, Belong, and Become. We recognize the importance of connection and service to belonging, and ultimately, to becoming in achieving both our individual and collective potential.
Connect
The United States Surgeon General recently released an advisory stating that we are suffering an epidemic of isolation and loneliness in our country and “calling attention to the public health crisis of loneliness, isolation, and lack of connection in our country.”[9] BYU students are not immune from this epidemic.
The Office of Belonging serves as both a physical location and a resource to the BYU community to help students, staff, and faculty to connect with each other and with resources that help them to serve and grow in genuine concern and love for one another. Helping one another recognize our shared connection to God and to each other helps us to achieve BYU’s mission statement that “all relationships within the BYU community should reflect devout love of God and a loving, genuine concern for the welfare of our neighbor.” By helping the BYU community to connect with one another and to access belonging resources, the Office of Belonging hopes to create a greater and more collegial community of respect, understanding, compassion, friendship, and love.
There are significant belonging benefits where students who can interact and connect with faculty.[10] An example of how the Office of Belonging is engaged in creating better student connections at BYU is a newly created and required first-year Foundations for Student Success course. The Office of Belonging participated in the creation of this new curricular offering that will be taught by full-time tenure-track faculty and will engage students in understanding the unique mission of BYU, principles of belonging, and how to succeed academically. These courses will be taught in small sections to allow for close student-faculty interactions. The hope is that faculty will continue mentoring their students and that students will create a base of close relationships that can endure the remainder of their university experience.
Another example of improving student connections is the convening of university leadership in a Student Academic Success Executive Council that is creating strategic plan to ensure clear accountability and connection for academic advisement for students. The council seeks to help students more easily connect with academic success resources, to help faculty improve pedagogy in ways that improve connections with students, and to close existing equity achievement and graduation gaps.
Belong
The majority of those responding to the most recent Higher Education Data Sharing Consortium (HEDS) Diversity and Equity Campus Climate Survey (72%) reported being satisfied with the extent to which they experience a sense of belonging and community at BYU.[11] Overall, students and employees feel positive about the BYU climate. The study found that “there is room to improve the climate to be more welcoming for all students and employees, particularly for women and for people of different racial or ethnic backgrounds.”[12]
In the past year, the Office of Belonging has assisted several colleges and departments implement belonging principles in statements, curriculum, and events. Our staff is creating a belonging focused curriculum that advances the mission of the university, the Statement on Belonging, and Aims of a BYU Education.[13] Student research assistants have played a key role in creating the curriculum by convening focus groups, analyzing data, and writing the curriculum.
An example of collaborative belonging work with the academic colleges initiated from the Office of Belonging involves engaging students in service through credit-bearing belonging experiential learning courses. For example, the Office of Belonging partners with the BYU J. Reuben Clark Law School to hold a weekly clinic to provide legal representation for the immigrant community. BYU law students, BYU law faculty, and Office of Belonging undergraduate students do client intakes, prepare legal filings, and connect their clients with other local services that help to improve their sense of belonging in our community. Another collaborative experiential learning opportunity is planned for this fall with the College of Life Sciences. Our office and faculty will work with undergraduate students who will help underrepresented elementary age students in Title I schools participate in local science fairs. Another collaboration planned for the fall semester is with our History Department. Students will engage underrepresented populations in writing and preserving personal histories. Service is an important and critical part of creating a sense of belonging for our entire BYU community, as well as the local community that benefits from our students integrating substantive knowledge with experiential learning.
Become
A BYU education is intended to be a spiritually and intellectually transformative experience that “seeks to develop students of faith, intellect, and character who have the skills and the desire to continue learning and to serve others throughout their lives.”[14] Assisting our students to achieve their divine potential is central to all we do.[15] The acquisition of knowledge is incomplete without focusing on our unique mission to provide students with a transformative, character-building experience that helps them to also focus on who they are becoming.[16]
Every member of our BYU community plays an important role in helping our students to both see and achieve their full potential. The Office of Belonging is charged with assisting our entire university community to convene, collaborate, plan, and execute ways to help our students achieve this lofty objective, and to move the entire campus community towards becoming more of a community of belonging.
Achieving a Community of Belonging
Achieving a community of belonging begins with intentional and deliberate efforts at the highest levels of leadership to create and adopt a framework that is grounded in the mission of the organization. Additionally, strategic structuring of stewardship and accountability and adequate resourcing are also key to successfully launching belonging efforts.
The BYU Statement of Belonging guides us in prioritizing and building the relationships that we value most. It leads out with what we have in common, and then recognizes, respects, and values the variety of individual characteristics, life experiences and circumstances, perspectives, talents, and gifts that strengthen us as a community. We can find strength and unity in both what we share collectively, and what makes us unique individually.
Ultimately, the multiplicity of “[o]ur interactions create and support an environment of belonging,” as “we strive to create a community of belonging composed of students, faculty, and staff whose hearts are knit together in love.”[17]
[1] Locking Arms for Racial Harmony in America, June 8, 2020, https://medium.com/@Ch_JesusChrist/locking-arms-for-racial-harmony-in-america-2f62180abf37.
[2] See Report and Recommendations of the BYU Committee on Race, Equity, and Belonging (February 2021), https://race.byu.edu/00000177-d543-dfa9-a7ff-d5cfc1dc0000/race-equity-belonging-report-feb-25-2021
[3] Id.
[4] Id.
[5] BYU Statement on Belonging, Aug. 23, 2021, belonging.byu.edu/statement-on-belonging.
[6] BYU Strategic Objectives, June 6, 2022, https://www.byu.edu/about.
[7] Jennifer Wickham, “Is Having a Sense of Belonging Important?”, Speaking of Health (blog), Mayo Clinic Health System, Mar. 8, 2019, mayoclinichealthsystem.org.
[8] “Hope in Christ,” Liahona, May 2021.
[9] New Surgeon General Advisory Raises Alarm about the Devastating Impact of the Epidemic of Loneliness and Isolation in the United States, https://www.hhs.gov/about/news/2023/05/03/new-surgeon-general-advisory-raises-alarm-about-devastating-impact-epidemic-loneliness-isolation-united-states.html.
[10] Building bridges in higher education: student-faculty relationship quality, student engagement, and student loyalty Int. J. Educ. Res., 100 (2020).
[11]Diversity and Equity Campus Climate Survey Key Findings Report, February 2021, https://data.byu.edu/byu-diversity-and-equity-survey-report-feb-2021.
[12] Id.
[13] Aims of a BYU Education, https://aims.byu.edu/aims-of-a-byu-education.
[14] Id.
[15]BYU Mission Statement, https://aims.byu.edu/byu-mission-statement.
[16] Id., see also “The Challenge to Become,” Liahona, November 2000.
[17] BYU Statement on Belonging, Aug. 23, 2021, belonging.byu.edu/statement-on-belonging.
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Taking the approaches used yesterday to budget reduction in today’s volatile environment no longer works. Institutions need new strategies that are dynamic, comprehensive, and practical. This session will introduce participants to The Budget Reduction Tool designed to help budget decision-makers take a student-centered approach to implementing a consistent and effective budget reduction strategy that considers streamlining processes in addition to allocating resources effectively. The Budget Reduction Tool helps budget decision-makers assess and make decisions to invest in initiatives and programs that align with strategic initiatives, have the greatest positive impact on student success and creates the least amount of disruption to realizing operational efficiencies.
Session Date/Time: Friday, November 10, 10:00 a.m. – 10:50 a.m. PST
Link to Budget Reduction Tool.
Institutional Speakers:
Dr. Ana Karaman is an accomplished higher education administrator with broad, deep, and diverse experience and expertise in institutional planning, finance, and operations at both public and private non-for-profit universities. Ana’s expertise and experience include developing multi-year financial plans to support implementation of strategic plans, overseeing annual operating budgets in access of $400M and endowments in access of $300M, working with various budgeting models including RCM, financing institutional needs via various vehicles including bond issuances, PPPs, and other financial facilities. Ana led successful legislative requests, developed and implemented master plans and oversaw delivering diverse major capital projects. In addition, Ana has overseen offices of human resources, public safety, procurement, enterprise risk management, facilities management, and others.
Ana serves as Vice President for Finance & Administration and CFO at Western Oregon University.
Tressa is passionate about helping institutions of higher education become more diverse, equitable, inclusive, and efficient deliverers of education. In addition to being a higher education strategist, Tressa is also a diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) thought partner and influencer. Tressa helps organizations create long lasting systems and policies that identify and remove barriers that impede student success and institutional effectiveness. Tressa currently serves as a Project Director with Sova helping build capacity for large-scale change in higher education and workforce development.
Tressa has more than 20 years of middle and senior level leadership experience at various types of higher education, private industry, and non-profit institutions. Prior to joining Sova, Tressa served in various capacities including, Senior Consultant at Anderson Blake Consulting; Vice Provost at Strayer University; Vice President for Administration and Director of Institutional Research at Arkansas Baptist College; Campus College Chair for Graduate Business Programs at the University of Phoenix, Vice President of CFA International, and President of Detroit BAEO.
Tressa earned a Bachelor of Arts (BA) in Political Theory & Constitutional Democracy and a Master of Arts (MA) in Higher Educational Administration from Michigan State University. She also earned a Master of Business Administration (MBA) and a Doctor of Management (DM) in Organizational Leadership from the University of Phoenix.
In 2020, Washington State University’s general education program launched Core to Career, a faculty development program that helps faculty recognize how a focus on career readiness can increase student engagement and equips faculty with the language and facilitation strategies to deliver a classroom and curricular experience that students see as intentionally focused on their career and self-development. However, with its focus on faculty, the program has often been less-than-intentional about its relationship with student-facing career professionals. Audience members will learn about and discuss the challenges to and steps for growing career readiness campus-wide in intentional, equitable, sustainable, and meaningful ways.
Session Date/Time: Friday, November 10, 10:00 a.m. – 10:50 a.m. PST
Institutional Speakers:
Thabiti Lewis is Associate Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs at WSU Vancouver and Professor of English whose books include Ballers of the New School: Race and Sports in America and Conversations with Toni Cade Bambara. Dr. Lewis earned his Ph.D. from Saint Louis University, in St. Louis, Missouri, where he is also from, and joined the faculty at WSU in 2007. At WSU Vancouver, Dr. Lewis leads campus-wide efforts to foster cultures of inclusion and equity for students, staff, and faculty alike. Dr. Lewis teaches courses in multi-cultural and Black American literature.
Amanda Morgan is Associate Director of the Academic Success and Career Center at Washington State University, where she leads the Career Services and Employer Relations team. Morgan is a first-generation college student who earned a master’s in education administration and has over fifteen years of student services experience.
Clif Stratton is Vice Chancellor for Academic Engagement at WSU Pullman and Associate Professor of History, whose books include Education for Empire: American Schools, Race, and the Paths of Good Citizenship and Power Politics: Carbon Energy in Historical Perspective. Dr. Stratton earned his Ph.D. from Georgia State University in Atlanta, Georgia, where he is also from, and joined the faculty at WSU in 2010. The former director of WSU’s University Common Requirements program, Dr. Stratton led efforts to design and implement Core to Career at WSU Pullman. Dr. Stratton teaches courses on modern American and global history with emphases on histories of race and empire.
Our project, the Course Learning Outcomes Worksheet tool, brings evidence together regarding student achievement of program and course learning outcomes. In addition, the worksheet asks the user to look at the student DFWI rates along with disaggregated class data all in the same class. The user looks for achievement gaps and is asked to make improvement decisions based on this data. Those improvement strategies are documented and implemented prior to the class being offered again.
Session Date/Time: Friday, November 10, 11:00 a.m. – 11:50 a.m. PST
Institutional Speakers:
Dr. Afjeh’s research successes include increasing departmental external research funding to over $4 million annually; building an on-site research program with more than 20 researchers at the NASA Glenn Research Center; recruiting faculty and providing resources to enhance strength in advanced materials and biomedical engineering; and developing a master’s degree program in engineering with an energy engineering focus, with participation of faculty and industry partners; and developing professional master’s degree programs for industry, as well as a multi-disciplinary, collaborative energy engineering program in partnership with the colleges of Business and Law.
Dr. Afjeh’s research projects have been sponsored by industry as well as leading federal agencies such as NASA, Department of Energy and National Institutes of Health. His research focus areas include computational fluid dynamics in turbomachinery, propulsion systems, experimental investigation of bearings and rotating components, wind turbine design and analysis, and aerodynamics of phonation, a research project sponsored by the NIH.
Dr. Afjeh earned his Ph.D. and MS in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Toledo; and his B.S in Mechanical Engineering from Arya Mehr University of Technology (now Sharif University of Technology) in Iran. He is also a fellow of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME)
Dr. Janette Isaacson is a graduate of Seattle University, where she earned a doctorate in educational leadership plus a Masters in Counseling (2001), a graduate of the University of Phoenix, where she earned a Master’s in Education teaching diverse learners (1986), and a graduate of the University of Washington where she earned a Masters in Health Informatics and Health Information Management (2023).
20+ years Medical Imaging / Health Sciences, Online Program Director, OIT Teacher Excellence Nominee (2021-2023), Past Institutional Assessment Chair, Accreditation Committee Member, DEI Data Scorecard Committee, NWCCU Mission Fulfillment Fellow, NWCCU Data Equity Fellow, NWCCU Accreditation Site Visitor, spearheaded the development of on-campus faculty data dashboards to present disaggregated underrepresented student data for all programs to aid in the identification of institutional equity gaps in student retention, graduation, DFWI, and post-graduation success.
The Idaho State Board of Education recently adopted major amendments to its policy on academic freedom – the first substantive updates since the 1980s. The revised policy now defines the academic freedom and responsibility of students. Clear policy language provides a framework to institutional leaders for navigating the complex intersection of academic freedom and learning environments in politically fraught times. Students can boost their understanding of academic freedom to become successful in their endeavors, and to participate as engaged citizens in today’s world. How can we, as administrators, leaders, and instructors, facilitate student empowerment by increasing their literacy of academic freedom?
Session Date/Time: Thursday, November 9, 3:45 p.m. – 4:45 p.m. PST
Institutional Speakers:
TJ Bliss is a higher education administrator and educational researcher. He is the Chief Academic Officer for the Idaho State Board of Education and a member of the alumni board for Brigham Young University. Bliss was formerly the Chief Advancement Officer at the Wiki Education Foundation, an Education Program Officer at the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, and the Director of Assessment and Accountability at the Idaho State Department of Education. Bliss’ writing, research, and advocacy for Open Educational Resources has been reported on in various outlets, including the Washington Post, EdSurge, and Inside Higher Ed.
Torrey Lawrence is the Provost and Executive Vice President of the University of Idaho. In this role he serves as the university’s chief academic officer, directly responsible for the general direction of all academic programs, endeavors, and instructional services on the Moscow campus as well as the university’s statewide academic, outreach, and research initiatives. He has served in this role since 2020 but has been a faculty member at UI since 1998. He earned music degrees from Northwestern University and the University of Oregon.
Amy Vecchione is the Assistant Director of Research and Innovation at eCampus Center, Boise State University. As an educational leader, Amy works to improve student success through emering and high-impact practices. She recently co-authored the book From At-Risk to At-Promise: Academic Libraries Supporting Student Success.
Session Date/Time: Thursday, November 9, 3:45 p.m. – 4:45 p.m. PST
Institutional Speakers:
Kate is an associate professor in the School of Biological Sciences. She received her PhD in Biochemistry from the University of South Carolina and completed postdoctoral fellowships at the University of Washington and the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory before joining the faculty at WSU. Dr. McAteer attended the HERS Leadership Institute in 2019 and in 2021 completed the first AASCU Student Success Institute for Provosts, a program designed for provosts ‘to lead and implement the type of transformational change necessary to meet the evolving needs of today’s increasingly diverse student body.
Rilie supports rpk’s clients in fulfilling mission and student success under a sustainable financial model. Her work with clients focuses particularly on optimizing academic portfolios and developing best practice academic and administrative business processes, along with applying a deep understanding of change management and support for capacity building.
The Oregon Transfer Pathways to the Liberal Arts grant has been exploring innovative ways to facilitate transfer from community colleges to private liberal arts institutions. As we talk with students and review data, we have come to understand that many community college students believe a private college education is out of their reach. This is particularly true for culturally diverse students who often rely on trusted friends and family members for information. Reaching the right audience with the right message at the right time is challenging. Doing this well is a goal of our grant. We will share our progress.
Session Date/Time: Thursday, November 9, 10:55 a.m. – 11:55 a.m. PST
Institutional Speakers:
Linda Samek is a former faculty member, dean, and provost at George Fox University. She is currently the project director for the Oregon Transfer Pathways to the Liberal Arts project. Samek has experience in PreK-12, community college, and public and private four-year post secondary education.
Gerardo Ochoa is vice president for enrollment management and student success at Linfield University. He has served Linfield in multiple capacities since 2004. Ochoa holds a formal appointment as an officer of the board and has served in various university-wide committees, including the President’s Diversity Advisory Committee (chair) and the university strategic planning and budget council.
In addition to being a college administrator, Ochoa is a co-author and independent consultant of Path to Scholarships®, a college readiness curriculum. Since 2006, he has worked with thousands of diverse students from urban and rural high schools, community colleges, private colleges and state universities on college access and affordability. He consults with higher education institutions on the inclusion of Latinx students, best practices to engage and serve undocumented students, and teaching strategies that draw on talents and address the needs of first-generation students. He believes in the power of personal stories to build empathy, create opportunities and influence change. As keynote speaker, his story of perseverance has reached audiences convened by organizations such as the Hispanic Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce, the Northwest Public Employees Diversity Conference, the Ford Family Foundation, Portland State University, including a TEDx Talk.
Ochoa holds an Education Master from Harvard University and a Bachelor of Arts in sociology and minor in Latin American history from the University of Oregon. He is an American Leadership Forum Fellow and an alumnus of the Senior Leadership Academy sponsored by the Council of Independent Colleges and the American Academic Leadership Institute. He is a contributing author for Latinx/a/os in Higher Education and a guest education writer for the Somos Timbers Magazine.
Erika Masaki is an instructor of political science at Lane Community College . Her teaching and research interests are political theory, international relations, and environmental politics.
Teamwork and collaboration are among employers’ highest-rated skills. However, the act of teaching and assessing these skills is often limited to courses explicitly addressing them. We envisioned creating a toolkit from a multifaceted team of faculty that can help ANY instructor understand some of the fundamentals of teaching and assessing student teamwork and collaboration in their courses. This toolkit has built-in ready-to-go components that can be deployed by any instructor that wants to more effectively teach and assess student teamwork and collaboration skills. Our group will share the toolkit we made as well as the process of creating it.
Session Date/Time: Friday, November 10, 11:00 a.m. – 11:50 a.m. PST
Institutional Speakers:
Elaine is a full-time instructor in the Basic and Transitional Studies Department and Co-Chair of Ensure Learning, Seattle Central’s program review and assessment committee.
Who defines “success” for students at any institution? Shouldn’t it be the students? Following Board-approved guidelines and well-defined outcomes, this session will discuss what can happen when students are allowed and expected to take charge of their educational experience. Results and evidence will be presented describing the significant learning and transformation that took place in a General Education College Success Course. Participants will be engaged in imagining the “what ifs” at their own institutions when control shifts from faculty to learners. Could that be what success in college is really all about?
Session Date/Time: Thursday, November 9, 2:35 p.m. – 3:35 p.m. PST
Institutional Speakers:
Alynda Kusch currently serves as the First Lady of Ensign College. At Ensign College since 2016, Alynda has led a variety of studies focused on improving the student experience. In addition she has taught courses in Culinary Arts, Religious Education, and Student Success. Alynda holds a bachelor’s degree from BYU-Idaho and served there as an adjunct faculty member in the Culinary Arts program.
Bruce C. Kusch, Ensign CollegeThis presentation discusses the challenges small, non-profit colleges and universities face in developing processes aimed at closing student achievement gaps and systematic inequities in learning outcomes. Overworked faculty, weak assessment data, lack of technological infrastructure, conflicting priorities, and strategic confusion all conspire to keep institutions entrenched and student achievement inequitable. Yet despite this landscape, Bastyr University devised and embarked on an ambitious one year plan to identify and begin closing equity gaps for BIPOC (Black, Indigenous and People of Color) students in recruitment, retention, completion and learning related to information literacy, critical thinking, communication, collaboration, and professional behavior.
Session Date/Time: Friday, November 10, 11:00 a.m. – 11:50 a.m. PST
Institutional Speakers:
Erika Del Villar, Bastyr University Dr. Erika Lorenzana Del Villar (she/her/siya) is the Associate Vice President for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion at Bastyr University. She is a DEI practitioner, educator, and sociologist specializing in human rights, international relations, social movements, and building inclusive climates in higher education. Erika earned her Ph.D. and M.A. in Sociology with a Certificate in Human Rights from the University of Connecticut, her M.A. in International Relations from New York University, and her B.A. in Political Science, minor in French Studies from the Ateneo de Manila University, Philippines. She is a proud Filipino-American, wife, and mother of two beautiful daughters.
Wendy Gordon is an associate professor and Chair of the Department of Midwifery at Bastyr University in Kenmore, WA. Dr. Gordon’s teaching and research interests include the provision of midwifery care in home and birth center settings; the role of racism in perinatal health disparities; and the ability to translate and evaluate research. Dr. Gordon holds a BS in Chemical Engineering, an MPH from Oregon Health & Sciences University with a focus in health disparities, and a Doctorate in Midwifery from Jefferson University in Philadelphia.
Based in Kenmore, WA, Ann Kenady is Senior Instructional Designer for Bastyr University. Ann holds a certificate in instructional design and a certificate in online teaching and is an active member of Quality Matters. Ann works collaboratively across divisions to establish metrics and mileposts for creating equitable, accessible, and inclusive online learning experiences, while assisting faculty with online and hybrid course design and instructional best practices.
Susan Seymour is the Director of Institutional Effectiveness at Bastyr University. Her entire career has been focused on learning assessment and she is particularly interested in measuring learning that is “difficult”. Her dissertation investigated learning related to social consciousness and her current interests are in ensuring diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives are tied to observable and measurable outcomes rather than performative activities and aspirational statements that lack accountability and impact. She earned her B.S. in Construction Management and M.S. in Technology Education from Colorado State University and her Ph.D. in Education – Curriculum and Instruction from Utah State University.
As a way to combat the college completion crisis, particularly among the most underserved student populations, BYU-Idaho and Ensign College have taken a certificate-first approach to help students stay on track and complete their degrees. Learn how placing the focus on skills first has yielded increased retention & persistence rates.
Session Date/Time: Thursday, November 9, 10:55 a.m. – 11:55 a.m. PST
Institutional Speakers:
Boyd Baggett serves as the Accreditation Liason Officer. He came to BYU-Idaho in 2008 to teach Religious Education and received the Exemplary Faculty Award in 2017. Boyd earned a Bachelor of Science from Brigham Young University and a Juris Doctorate degree from the J. Reuben Clark Law School, graduating Cum Laude.
Previous to Brigham Young University-Idaho, Boyd practiced law in Idaho and Utah. He also taught seminary for the Church Education System.
Jon Nichols serves as the Assistant to the President for Strategy, Planning, & Assessment at Ensign College. He received his bachelor’s in Marketing and his Executive MBA from the University of Utah.
Jon spent over ten years at the University of Utah overseeing their Professional, Online, and Executive MBA programs. He led the design, development, and launch of the Online MBA program, the first fully online program at the University of Utah. He would go on to become a senior product manager for WGU Labs, where he worked closely with early-stage ed-tech companies and community colleges around the country.
Drs. Aman and Barber will explore the critical role of both futuring and strategic planning in improving institutional effectiveness. Attendees will be presented with insights into the differences between futuring and strategic planning approaches and how they complement each other. Futuring allows colleges and universities to anticipate potential changes and disruptions, fostering creativity and adaptability. Strategic planning provides a structured framework for implementing specific goals and ensuring efficient allocation of resources toward mission fulfillment. The presentation will emphasize the importance of prioritizing futuring before strategic planning in higher education institutions to develop comprehensive and achievable strategies toward fulfill of Standards 1.B.3 and 1.B.4.
Session Date/Time: Thursday, November 9, 2:35 p.m. – 3:35 p.m. PST
Institutional Speakers:
Lori Barber is Vice President of Academic & Student Affairs at College of Eastern Idaho (CEI). Prior to this position, she served in various leadership roles at the College. She led the creation of the General Education transfer degrees at CEI, first as Dean of General Education. She holds a doctorate in Educational Leadership and Innovation from Arizona State University. Lori completed her Master’s Degree in Interdisciplinary Studies where she researched the history and anthropology of food. She serves on numerous state level education committees in Idaho, including the Idaho Workforce Development Council and Council on Academic Affairs and Programs (CAAP).
In 2017, a delegation of community members from Cottage Grove, Oregon came to see the president at Lane Community College to explore how the college could help southern Lane County create a FQHC to address a lack of affordable, accessible healthcare. Data showed there was a decline in students coming from that area as well as a shortage of healthcare workers. The college brought together stakeholders to discuss the idea and by 2022, plans were established to create a FQHC/Allied Health Training Facility. This presentation will demonstrate how the power of collaboration can help colleges solve even the most insurmountable problems.
Session Date/Time: Thursday, November 9, 2:35 p.m. – 4:35 p.m. PST
Institutional Speakers:
Dr. Margaret Hamilton retired from Lane Community College in Oregon in 2022 as President Emeritus after a 40 year career in higher education. While at Lane, Dr. Hamilton led the college through a new Strategic Plan, a seven-year Self-Study leading to full accreditation, and a successful $121.5M bond campaign-all during a pandemic. Dr. Hamilton holds a Ph.D from Widener University, a MSN from University of Delaware, and a BSN from SUNY, Plattsburgh. Her collaborative work with the community led to the development of a Federally Qualified Health Center in southern Lane County. Dr. Hamilton now serves as an independent consultant.
Metrics of institutional success have been based on student completions, and completions are based on finishing prescribed degree programs. What if there were a category for helping students complete exactly what they needed in the first place? Shouldn’t that be a “success”? This session describes a new way of thinking about 1.C and redefining success for the future of higher education.
Session Date/Time: Thursday, November 9, 10:55 a.m. – 11:55 a.m. PST
Institutional Speakers:
As VP of Compliance & Accreditation at Western Governors University (or “WGU”—America’s leading competency-based, online, non-profit university with 140,000+ students and 305,000+ graduates in each of the USA’s states and territories), Lucas Kavlie’s team of compliance professionals maintains trust through engagement between the university and external agencies (i.e., accrediting bodies, state authorization bodies, professional licensing/certification agencies, and other quality frameworks) in all American jurisdictions (states, commonwealths, territories, and the District of Columbia). In his career, Lucas has overseen the submission of hundreds of compliance or regulatory affairs applications—without rejection. He is a member of CHEA’s Committee on Recognition.
