Morning Breakout Sessions (10:45 - 11:30 a.m.)
From Learning Outcomes to Durable Skills
Asha Gordon, Senior Education Designer, Education Design Lab
Dr. Jessica Lauritsen, Senior Impact Director, Education Design Lab
Dr. Jimmy LeDuc, Senior Education Designer, Education Design Lab
Faculty already help students build communication, collaboration, critical thinking, adaptability, and other durable skills, but those connections are not always visible to students or employers. In this interactive session, faculty will connect existing course learning outcomes and assignments to the durable skills students are developing. Participants will practice translating academic language into clear, employer-relevant descriptions of what students know and can do and explore practical ways to make these skills more visible to learners. Faculty should bring a syllabus, assignment, assessment, or set of course learning outcomes to work with during the session.
Finding the Courage to Lead With Love
Courtney Clarke, Ed.D., Associate Dean, Social Sciences
This workshop will offer a practical vision for leading with empathy and honesty and challenge conventional ideas about leadership. In a landscape that requires data-driven metrics, how can we keep people at the center of our work? Designed for leaders at every level, this presentation will show how leading with humanity strengthens accountability and trust and builds a sense of belonging. Through compelling stories, reflective questions and role-playing, attendees will find the courage to tell the truth, navigate difficult conversations, build inclusive cultures and create environments where people feel valued and empowered.
The Power of Appreciative Inquiry: Envisioning Our Ideal 2030
Adam Diiulio, Dean, School of Business, Legal Professions and Hospitality
Imagine waking up tomorrow and it's the first day of class, Aug. 19, 2030. What do you see? In this hands-on session, you'll explore Appreciative Inquiry, the strengths-based approach behind turnarounds for the U.S. Navy, Roadway Express and British Airways. It's used to reimagine change in organizations facing the "fix what's broken" fatigue many of us feel. Through participant storytelling and a live 4D cycle (Discover, Dream, Design and Destiny), you'll surface what's already working across our College, picture our shared ideal for 2030 and leave with concrete ideas you're ready to act on.
Partners in Student Success: How You Can Collaborate With the Foundation to Advance Your Goals and Dreams for Tri-C's Learners
Cat Ciha, Director, Proposal Development and Strategic Communications
Kari Elsila, Executive Director, Development
Grants from external funders can help bring your innovative ideas to life and directly impact student learning and engagement. However, developing a winning grant proposal can be challenging, especially in today's high-stakes, quick-turnaround environment. In this interactive session, Tri-C Foundation team members will share insights on how to shape your concept into a competitive application. Topics will include working with your leadership to gain buy-in, ensuring alignment with Vision 2030, maintaining student-centered objectives, speaking the funder's language, and learning how the Tri-C Foundation can be your partner in grant seeking.
One College, Many Doors: Creating Connected Employer Experiences
Jason Abbott, Associate Vice President, Workforce Operations
Angela Finding, Executive Director, Workforce Partnerships
Shana Marbury, Executive Vice President, Workforce Innovation
Kate McDade, Associate Vice President, Development
Geraldine Weiser, Executive Director, Client Solutions and Program Management
Employers engage with Tri-C through many doors, including academic programs, workforce training, career services, apprenticeships, events and community partnerships — but they experience us as one College. In this interactive workshop, participants will examine the employer journey from the outside in and explore what it takes to create a connected, responsive experience across organizational boundaries. Through realistic employer scenarios, participants will map how a business might navigate Tri-C, identify opportunities to improve coordination and handoffs and redesign the experience around shared outcomes. They will leave with a practical framework for strengthening collaboration and advancing employer engagement across the College.
Lead From Where You Are: Accessibility, AI and Everyday Leadership
Crystal Hester, Digital Instructional Accessibility Specialist
You don't need a leadership title to lead. Every day, employees make decisions that shape how students and colleagues access information, navigate services and experience the College. This interactive session will explore leadership through the lens of digital accessibility and AI. Participants will challenge assumptions, respond to real-world scenarios, and discover how small choices can remove barriers and create more inclusive experiences. We'll also explore where AI can help and where human judgment, awareness and accountability still matter most. Participants will leave with a new perspective on accessibility, practical ideas they can use immediately and one challenge: "Lead From Where You Are."
Podcast Listening Session — Say More: The soft skills nobody taught us, but everybody expects us to have
Erika Hill, Executive Director, Goldman Sachs 10K Small Businesses
Nache Jones, Director, Student Life
Say More is a new podcast created to help Tri-C students strengthen the soft skills that support success in college and the workplace. While students may leave college with the technical knowledge and credentials needed to secure employment, employers and supervisors continue to identify gaps in the interpersonal and professional skills students need for continued success, including communication, reliability, teamwork, initiative, self-awareness, receptiveness to feedback and difficult-conversation skills.
Toward a Practice of Cozy Leadership: Exploring Vibe Facilitation in Small Groups and Teams
James Jarc, Ed.D., Director, Faculty Professional Development
Some of the most productive collaborative moments happen when groups feel cozy and the vibe signals "You're safe here, and we're going to get real work done together." This workshop explores Cozy Leadership as an emergent practice of strategic communication and small-group leadership. Grounded in lived experience and scholarship on relational leadership, psychological safety and nonverbal immediacy, this session demonstrates why "how the space feels" can be as important as the agenda itself. Participants will conduct a Vibe Audit to assess the affective climate of their meetings or classes and learn strategies they can use on Monday.
Building Lifelong Learning Skills: Evaluating Student Data on the Essential Learning Outcomes
Anne Distler, Executive Director, Curriculum, Assessment and Transfer
Meagan Fowler, Associate Professor, Learning Commons
Amanda Nolan, Project Manager, Learning Outcomes Assessment Systems
The College's seven Essential Learning Outcomes (ELOs) measure student learning in lifelong skills, from communication to quantitative reasoning to civic literacy. The ELOs are also the program outcomes for the Associate of Arts transfer degree. Every semester, the Committee on Learning Outcomes Assessment and the Office of Learning Outcomes Assessment collect data from faculty on how well students demonstrate proficiency in the ELOs. We must then assess that data every semester for both student success and accreditation. In this session, we will ask Tri-C stakeholders to assess our latest ELO data and discuss how the data might inform changes to courses, curricula or practices.
Finding Student-Centered Solutions to Challenging Educational Barriers
Andy Sokolich, Associate Dean, Mathematics
During this highly interactive session, participants will work through possible solutions to complex and challenging issues that present barriers to students' education. The presenter will use polling software to collect responses in real time and then facilitate small- and large-group discussions on those issues. These challenging situations are real examples of obstacles students face. Participants will be better equipped to facilitate a warm handoff or referral to appropriate student services to connect students with the support they require.