Note: This interview in the Weekly Wisdom Series originally aired on May 20, 2024 as part of the University Innovation Alliance’s Innovating Together Podcast, appearing live on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. The transcript of this podcast episode is intended to serve as a guide to the entire conversation, and we encourage you to listen to this podcast episode. You can also access our summary, along with helpful links and audio from this episode.
Kevin Kruger:
I think about leadership as a craft, in the same way that an actor or a musician thinks about their craft, or an artist, and they work on it all the time. So, I think that it's a constant learning process. You make mistakes, you learn from those mistakes. It's a trite answer, but I've had some really good people I've worked with, and then some awful people. And you learn different things from different folks along the way. Some lessons, I think for me, that I think have been really helpful, one of the biggest is, there is an infinite amount of sunshine, and as the CEO and the leader, the best thing I can do is to provide opportunities for other people to have that sunshine.
Bridget Burns:
Welcome to Innovating Together, a podcast produced by the University Innovation Alliance. This is a podcast for busy people in higher education who are looking for the best ideas, inspiration, and leaders that will help you improve student success. I'm your host, Bridget Burns. Each week, I partner with a journalist to have a conversation with a sitting college president, chancellor, system leader, or someone in the broader ecosystem who's really an inspiring leader. And the goal is to have a conversation to distill their perspective and their insights gathered from their leadership journey. Our hope is that this is inspiring and gives you something to look forward to each week. This episode, my co-host is Inside Higher Ed co-founder and CEO, Doug Lederman.
Welcome. Our guest is going to be Kevin Kruger from NASPA, who has been at NASPA for, is it 30 years? I feel like it's 30 years.
Kevin Kruger:
On July 1st, 30 years, yes.
Bridget Burns:
And you are retiring, then, I gather?
Kevin Kruger:
I am.
Bridget Burns:
I feel like you're really perfectly timed. And this has obviously been planned out for a very long time.
Kevin Kruger:
It has.
Bridget Burns:
Well, Kevin, you've been a long-time friend to us, but also, just I think the field in general. Especially, right now, folks are very mindful of the importance of the national associations and their ability to convene, and to share ideas, and to help support the development of parts of the higher education sector. And boy, student affairs, student professionals, in the last few years, I'm sure have really appreciated NASPA. I just wanted to understand, for you, why would you give it up?
Kevin Kruger:
Well, two things. One is, it sounds selfless, I don't mean it to be that way, but it's how I think about it, I have a great job. I think I have one of the best jobs in higher ed, in my opinion. There's others. But it's a great job. And I really think it's time for someone else to have a shot at it. I didn't want to clog it up into my 70s.
Two, there's other things that I have interest in doing that are maybe a little more personal and self-fulfilling, and so I also wanted to carve some time out for that, as well. Third, these jobs take an enormous amount of attention, energy, and as you move into a later part of your life, it gets harder. Like travel, for example. I travel 120 to 140 days a year. That is a grind. And sometimes I'm in the middle of an airport, I'm like, "I'm too old for this." So, I think maybe it's time to think about it. So, I've been thinking about it for a couple years and wanted the timing to be right. It just so happened that the 30-year anniversary of my being at NASPA seemed like a good time to make this decision and to move in a direction.
My wife is in the sports broadcasting business. She also retired this year. She works at CBS Sports, so we both came into a soft landing, and a chance to move on, and do some other things.
Doug Lederman:
You and I are at quasi-similar stages of our professional lives. And I'm doing fair bit of thinking along those same lines. There's a lot of talk about people who fail retirement, as it were, and how fully are you going to be retiring?
Kevin Kruger:
One thing I'll tell you, Doug, is that I have, this is just my personality, I went to school in retirement. Every person that retired I interviewed, that I knew personally. I've read books, I've talked about, not the finance part of it, but the psychic part of it. How do you maintain who you are? And I've also talked to people who haven't just failed, but have struggled through retirement, or were depressed about not having that sense of meaning, or they felt like they didn't know what to do with themselves. So, I really gave a lot of thought to it.
First thing is I don't want another full-time gig. So, I've had people, of course, who know me over the years, lots of different sectors say, "Hey, would you like to do this? Take over my organization, do this?" I'm like, "No, I already have a job. I don't need another job." Having said that, I do want to do something that keeps me intellectually engaged, because I love this work and I love higher ed. So, I have a work habit that I don't know if I've ever shared with the two of you that I've had for a long time, but definitely since I've been president. I get up in the morning, I'm an early riser. And for the first two hours of the day, all I do is read. That's it. That's it. No email. And I read news aggregators, obviously, I read Inside Higher Ed, I read, sometimes it's a book, sometimes it's a new report.
And what I do then is think about two things. One is, how does this relate to the future and our work? So, it may be a larger higher ed issue, but how does student affairs connect to that? And two, if I was going to talk about it, what would I say about it? And I literally create a slide right there for the data point or the thing that I'm going to use. I park it in a deck, and then when I'm getting ready to do a speech, I had a speech last week at University of Albany. Every week I do a speech, it's a different speech because I'm drawing from material that I gather.
My point of that story is not, that's how I was successful as a CEO, but how do I stop that behavior, and do I want to stop that behavior? Or do I want to continue it? And I feel like I want to continue to have a voice and to have a place where I can express that, but not the responsibilities that come with being a CEO. Because what has worn me down is the supervision, and the budgeting, and the strategic planning, and the travel, and the pressure of keeping the ship running. And I'd like to step away from that, but still have a voice in some small ways.
Doug Lederman:
I think I can probably speak for the industry when I say, hoorah. And, hey, that's a really fascinating insight. I think all of us would probably benefit from some dedicated time like that, but also, it would be nice to still have you around in whatever ways work for you.
Kevin Kruger:
Well, just one addition to that. There are constraints about what I can say. Not really, but to some degree. I have a board, and I have members, and I have a profession. And yet, at the same time, after 45 years in higher ed, I also have a lot to say, some of which I can't say as the CEO. So, I also am looking for some lanes where I can be a little bit more provocative than I have been before.
Bridget Burns:
Well, that's great. I also was just thinking about, boy, to have been in your role during COVID. That took a decade off, right? For many people, I think it took five to years off their career life just because it was so difficult.
Kevin Kruger:
Imagine there's row of spigots. And these spigots are flow of things, resources that allow the engine to run for my organization. And then in one hour, we turned them all off. And then we had to somehow think about how we're going to continue as an organization, and still serve the profession, and keep people employed. Because more than anything else, wouldn't matter what I do, I'm responsible for 93 people, and their dogs, and their houses, and their spouses, and their cars, and – that's a huge responsibility that I think about every single day. So, when COVID hit, like, "What am I going to do?"
So that pressure, every day, that pressure, I was up almost every night at 2:00 in the morning trying to problem-solve, think how do we pivot? How do we do something different? How do we serve our members' needs? How do we do it and don't charge them anything? We were free for almost 18 months. How do we help our members? And I'm going to tell you, while there's no shortcut to that, there was obviously this psychic impact on all of us who went through that. But what's saved me, were colleagues. And I'm going to name two, if you don't mind. But John O'Brien from Educause. And Susan Johnson from NACUBO, which was such a loss, of course. Three of us would meet weekly and just talk about what the challenge was. And we got ourselves through COVID by having that support network, which is a leadership lesson I would have for anybody. You have to have people that you can trust and rely on. And sometimes it's not your staff, because they have self-interest that, of course, affects some of the judgment. And I can't have conversations about letting people go with the very people who are – it's just some places that you can't do that.
Ray Magliozzi:
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Doug Lederman:
Yeah, there are limits. We've talked about this a lot, but there are limits on how much an organizational leader can have friends with the people who work for them, and that's really challenging.
Kevin Kruger:
Yeah. I will tell you one last thing on COVID, just for me. I was really fortunate to have an extraordinary board chair, Denzel Sweet, who's the VP at University of Washington. So, he ended up also being a counselor for me as we – he was maneuvering his own stuff on campus but thinking about how to move through that crisis.
But Bridget, you're right. I think all of us who had responsibilities, senior responsibilities in that time, would say it took years off. I don't know if your life has certainly felt like it was extraordinarily different, and that probably accelerated my thinking about retirement, to be honest.
Bridget Burns:
Yeah. Well, so I guess I can turn this to both of you. You both have been seeking out conversations with people seeking recommendations and advice about retirement, as you lead up to this. What lessons did you hear that, for you, really resonated that you would say our audience should know? You don't have to say who said it, but I'm just curious if there was a couple pieces that really were like, "Ah, this is the good stuff."
Doug Lederman:
Yeah, Kevin, why don't you go, because I'm early in my journey. I'm probably going to come pick your brain, because you've done more studying than I have. I'm early on.
Kevin Kruger:
Well, I think, for me it's about passion. It's about what excites you, what gets you up in the morning, what brings you joy. And finding and imagining what that might be without the responsibilities that you currently have. And so, I think it's difficult for people to retire who don't have an active interest in doing other things. And whether that might be, for me, it's very personal. I have a beautiful Martin guitar sitting right over here that I haven't played in 15 years. I want to get back, want to play the guitar. I want to learn how to fly fish. I live in Western North Carolina with beautiful – Those are two things. More time with my kids and my grandkids. Things that get cut off when you're doing the things you do. More time with my wife.
People say, "Well, travel." And I remember the guy, I can't remember the guy who talked about your encore career. I can't remember the guy's name, but he wrote a book about the encore career, and Ellen Batty was involved at one point. And I remember going to a presentation. They said about people retiring, you ask people, "What do you want to do?" I'm like, "I want to travel." I'm like, “Okay, so 52 weeks of the year you're going to travel for what, two weeks, three weeks? What are you going to do with the other 48 weeks?" And so having that sense of purpose, giving back to whatever matters to you, whether it be family or whatever.
And then for me, I think I'm fortunate to have some avenues to stay connected professionally and to do that in a very nominal way, not a big way, but I think that kind of thing will keep me intellectually engaged and interested. I even thought about writing a book at one point. I'm like, "You know what? I don't [inaudible 00:11:23] want that kind of work." I'm like, "Eh, I don't want to write a book."
Bridget Burns:
Well, that's helpful. Thank you. And Doug, anything you would add onto that that you've heard?
Doug Lederman:
You know, it's fascinating. It's interesting because I think when you get to a certain age, you are allowed to be a little selfish and you can choose what to do. And probably for me, I'm thinking, and it sounds, you said something similar, Kevin, what not to do. The stuff that you want to stop doing.
Kevin Kruger:
Yeah, yeah.
Doug Lederman:
All our jobs have tons of stuff, hopefully, that we love. And plenty of crap that we really don't. And so, figuring out how to be able to do what you want to do. And again, I don't consider myself a selfish person, so I don't really think you talk like this very often, but being able to really focus on what brings you some joy, and some pleasure, and discarding the stuff we all know we have to do anyway. So that's how I [inaudible 00:12:21].
Kevin Kruger:
But let me just add another thing that I'm not sure about, because this is not all clear sailing, right? So, my wife actually has said to me as I was going to ready to retire, said, "How are you not going to be the man"? Now, if that's language for right now, I am the voice of Student Affairs. I run the largest professional student affairs association in the world, not by myself with a group of people, but I have that role. Every day, I make decisions, some of them small, some of them big. I get in front of a stage, sometimes it's 6,000 people, at my conference last week it was 200. There's a lot of buzz that comes with that. You try to keep some humility in all of it, but you get a lot of accolades. So, that switch gets turned off on July 1st. So, I don't know. And it's a good question that you could ask, "Without the buzz, what's your day going to be like?"
And right now, it seems joyful and glorious. I think it'd be worth, not with this interview, but ask me in six months or in a year, it's like, "How's that gone? How's that been, not being in charge," because that's what I am. I'm in charge. I make decisions. That's what I get paid to do. And not having want to decide when my dog is going to go out for a walk, it's very different. So, I just think that that's something that we should –
Doug Lederman:
It's important to your dog.
Kevin Kruger:
It's important to my dog, but I think if you don't understand that and see the loss that's going to come with that, you may get blindsided.
Doug Lederman:
Totally.
Bridget Burns:
Yeah.
Doug Lederman:
Totally.
Bridget Burns:
That's great. I think that's helpful advice.
Well, so I wanted to also shift to just you as a leader, in general. You've had an opportunity; you think about professionally developing your team. You obviously think about the professional development of the entire student affairs profession. But I'm curious about how you learned to be a leader, because leadership is always infused in that professional development that you're working on. But is there a model of a person, or if there's someone who, for you, was the stereotype of this is, "Oh, that's how you lead." Who first gave you that vision? Or is there something that you experienced or did that helped teach you about the kind of leader you wanted to be?
Kevin Kruger:
Yeah, that's a good question. Let me just start by saying, I think about leadership as a craft, in the same way that an actor or a musician thinks about their craft, or an artist, and they work on it all the time. So, I think that you're never done being, it's a constant learning process. You make mistakes, you learn from those mistakes. It's a trite answer, but I've had some really good people I've worked with and then some awful people. And you learn different things from different folks along the way. But some lessons I think, for me, that I think have been really helpful. One of the biggest is there is an infinite amount of sunshine. And then as the CEO and the leader, the best thing I can do is to provide opportunities for other people to have that sunshine. I'm going to get my own no matter what. So, I see people hoarding that sunshine. Or that control, or the credit, or whatever it might be. And I've come to a place where I don't feel threatened by other people's success and visibility.
We all know Amelia Parnell, who's going to be the new CEO. But before she was the CEO, she was my VP for Research and Policy for the last nine years. And Amelia has her own contacts, her own research, her own visibility, her own speeches that enabled NASPA to be a better organization. Instead of looking at that as somehow taking away from me, I got taught that, because people did that for me in my career, I was allowed to have visibility and to develop my own voice. And I think that's probably the biggest thing that I have learned.
I think the other thing that just watching people, I understood that when I became the NASPA President, I didn't know it before the first day, but when I first took over, I suddenly understood that I was the voice of the Student Affairs Profession. I hadn't really thought that through very well, actually. And I had this metaphor about the megaphone. I got to my desk and there was a megaphone sitting on the desk. And I was going to have a choice about whether to exercise my voice and use that megaphone or just sit on the side. And I watched people and how really successful leaders, in higher ed and outside higher ed, use their voice for good, to represent a position or people that couldn't necessarily, didn't have a voice.
Or, sometimes in my field, there's things that I can say that can't be said on a college campus. Look at the DEI, anti-DEI world that we're in. I'm going to speak out about that. I'm going to decry that. It's some of the worst legislation I've ever seen in higher education. And I can say that. But a vice president of student affairs at University of Texas, Austin can't, no matter what their opinion might be. So, I think, I learned that that was a responsibility that came with the job. And I thought that for me was really important.
Freeman Hrabowski – I worked for Freeman back in the ‘90s. Two things I remember from Freeman when he was on campus. He would pick up pieces of trash when he was walking around campus, without any fanfare, he would just stuff in his pocket. See a wrapper. And the second thing he'd do is he would say hello to everybody. And he would engage a student and say, "What's your name? What's your major? What's your GPA?" He would ask them questions about their academic performance and try to get at how they were doing. And then provide support.
I learned so much from watching that. Two things, as a leader, you're never too important to do any job. So, I'll crawl under a table, hook up wires, whatever the job might be. Now, my staff don't want me to do that, but I think you have to be one to do anything. Second thing, my profession is filled with young people. Gen Z's, young Millennials, so I engage every one of them. They have my email, I'll answer a phone call, I answer my own emails. Never get too important, impressed with yourself that you don't connect with the people that actually are the most important and the people who are doing the work. And I learned that from watching folks, as well.
Doug Lederman:
How purposeful has your career arc been? And what's the biggest surprise or the biggest curveball that you couldn't have seen 40 years ago, maybe, when you were starting down a road?
Kevin Kruger:
Well, I wanted to be a vice president of student affairs. That was my career objective. My master's, Ph.D., I actually was very intentional about creating a career that would move in that direction with lots of advice from folks. Work for an association, but associations don't do anything. That never even occurred to me. And then, once I understood the scope of associations, I never thought that I would have the opportunity or the privilege to serve in this kind of role. This was a complete surprise to me.
In fact, when I took this job back in '94, Liz Nuss at that time was the executive director, and she interviewed me. She asked me to apply. And I said, "I'm not really that interested." And then she pushed, and she – anyway, we finally got around to the offer. And I said, "Look, two years. Two years, and I'm out," because I wanted to be back on a campus. Because I love the vibrancy of a campus, all the excitement and the energy. What I didn't understand that I would love so much is the way that associations can be entrepreneurial, and innovative, and almost like small for-profit companies in that way, without having to have shareholders or whatever.
And then two, and Bridget, I know you love this, too. I love the idea of tackling big issues and problems. And knowing that you can have some influence and guide an entire profession around that. And that motivates me every single day. What a unique opportunity in an industry that is one of the most important things that we do in our world, right, is provide an educational environment and change in the life trajectory of human beings. It's an enormously rewarding piece of work that I never would have thought. When you're a young person, you go to a conference, you don't think about the wheels and the opportunities that come around from some of that. Thirty years ago, I was 37. That 37-year-old Kevin had no idea that this could be something you could do and it would be this fulfilling.
Doug Lederman:
So, the arc would have just been –
Kevin Kruger:
I'd be VP for student affairs.
Doug Lederman:
But four of them or something? In other words or whatever, you would've gone –
Kevin Kruger:
Exactly. I would start off at a regional public, and then next thing you know, I'd be VP [inaudible 00:20:05] or something.
Doug Lederman:
Yeah, yeah.
Kevin Kruger:
Right. And you know what? I'd be exhausted.
Well, a good friend of mine is Pat Wiley, the VP at University of Miami. She's been the VP there for, I'm going to say, 28 years. And she and I had this conversation, I think it's a true statement. In 2024 now, you can't be a VP of Student Affairs for 28 years, maybe not even ten years anymore. The pressure, the demands, and this goes probably with the college president, we're seeing the ten-year shrinking, right? Where you can do it as association leaders, because no one's calling me at 2:00 AM on a Saturday night to talk to a parent whose child has died. So, we have a privilege of doing this heavy work, but we're not on the front lines, and that allows a longer continuity of career in some ways.
Bridget Burns:
We asked for the advice you've gotten about retirement. But just separately, I'm just thinking about your career, navigating that change, having the impact that you've had, who NASPA is now is a fundamentally different organization than it was when you first joined, right? And so, part of that is also shepherding higher ed through this really tumultuous last period. I'm just curious, what advice someone else gave you about your career or about leadership that has been something that you revisit most often?
Kevin Kruger:
Well, I think, actually, I alluded to this. I think, if you're going to work in this business, be intellectually curious. And understand that you don't know everything. Have some humility about it. I think every day, you can learn something about the business and about running the business that we do. I alluded to this before. You've got to have a team of people that you can trust and can be alongside you. So, building a strong team, whether you call it kitchen cabinet, or a bench, or whatever you want to call it. Hiring good people.
In some ways, what do I get paid to do? Make decisions. We talked about that already. And then, hire really good people and retain them. But you do those two things, you're pretty far along from being successful. I think those are important. And then, you have to understand the budget. What's the book, A CEO Only Does Three Things? It's the vision, the people, but the money's the third thing. You have to understand the way that the wheels run in these organizations and how to keep them solvent and afloat. My Ph.D. is not in association management and running complex organizations. You got to learn that. So, I read all the time. I'm constantly reading. I read all the McKenzie stuff. I read books on leadership, budgeting, and strategic budgeting. Because you have to have an understanding of that. And then learn from your colleagues, like I mentioned, some of the association colleagues I learned from. I think that's obviously important, as well.
Bridget Burns:
Those are all very good pieces of advice to share.
Doug Lederman:
Speaking of advice, you, at a certain stage of our career, probably particularly, we probably get asked a lot for our advice by younger people. And you've described people you've mentored. What are the pieces of advice that you tend to pass on the most to those who are early-on, or earlier in the careers?
Kevin Kruger:
Well, I think the first is, the future of higher education, from my standpoint, is not one of specialists any longer. So, we have built an infrastructure at universities that some people call silos, but they're very vertical. And that's just not sustainable in the next vision of higher ed with the finances that we see. And so, what I tell people, young people is the future is being a generalist. And being a generalist means having a wide set of skills. So, use your early years to become as well-versed as possible in many aspects of student affairs or other aspects of the institution. That will make you a more competitive employee going forward. And I think the luxury of specialization is probably a phase of higher ed that's coming to an end. We're not there yet, but you can see the signs of it. And so, I think that's one piece.
I think the second thing is, this is really pragmatic, but look, if you choose higher ed as a career, you're choosing a value-centered career over making a ton of money. If money is your most important thing, then you should go work for Google, or Amazon, or IBM, or someplace else. You choose higher ed, there's a sacrifice that comes with this work. You can make money eventually, but you're going to probably make less than your peers that maybe chose a different pathway. But you're also going to choose something that means something to you. And again, very few opportunities in your life you get to change the trajectory of an individual, and their family, and their kids' kids. And think about the work that we do. Just think a first-generation student who you have an impact on getting to them to the finish line. That has multi-generational impact, right? So that should motivate you. You should get joy from that and meaning from that. And that's a sacrifice.
And know it going in. It's you go into this field and say, "Hey, I should be making $150,000 as a Hall Director." Well, you knew that wasn't the case. We told you upfront. Now, do we have issues around pay equity for young staff? CUPA-HR has certainly exposed a lot of that. And Doug, you have exposed many of that with stories about how burned out and unhappy some of my workforce is. Having said that, we have to repair the workforce a little bit. But the basic premise is there. This is value-centered work, and it's a privilege to have the opportunity to do that. If you don't feel that way, then maybe it's the wrong profession for you.
Bridget Burns:
Yeah, I think you're connecting that, and your point about being a generalist, and about the budget. To me, I don't think you should be able to work in higher education unless you can take a course first on the history of higher ed finance. If everyone took that, if everyone understood the history of it and exactly what those trade-offs look like, there would not be this fractioned, just really divisive sense that there are different factions. Instead, it would just be, same team. We are literally all on the same team. And it would reduce some of that. And also, we would be more thoughtful to our colleagues and this resource scarcity. And it also aligns with your idea that there's plenty of sunshine, right? We've got to get from a scarcity mindset to one of abundance.
Kevin Kruger:
Right? I completely agree. But no one says this, and I'm not saying I have the answer, but when I read Inside Higher Ed every day, and every other publication that's out there, what I conclude from that is that we are in the beginning of, or the early stages of a higher ed recession. Because you see it everywhere. And if you understand that, then you think differently about the next five years, because if you know that resources are going to be heavily constrained and already are, and we're going to be cutting program, if you know that's the environment, wouldn't you think differently about how you would go about your own strategic planning for institution the next five years as opposed to what I sometimes see, which is a little bit of, "What problem, what problem, what problem?" And it's clear. It's just sitting out there. So, I think that that scarcity, scarcity can be an opportunity, because it can provide the motivation to do some things that maybe you couldn't have done before.
Bridget Burns:
Yeah. So, our last question is about if there's a book about leadership that has been most useful for you that you find yourself recommending more and more –
Kevin Kruger:
Am I stuck on one?
Bridget Burns:
A couple. Bring them.
Kevin Kruger:
I just finished A Hidden Potential, Adam Grant's book. I think it's awesome. Just talks about how people achieve great things. I really have enjoyed that. Could have been inside baseball a little bit, but Marjorie Hass' book, Women in Higher Education was excellent. And I thought, as a white male leader who works in a very feminine profession, I think it's been really, really instructive for me to help understand how people view women's leadership, and particularly in higher ed. And that was just an awesome book, as well. So those are two that I read recently that have struck me.
Bridget Burns:
Those are good recommendations. No one's recommended those. People are always writing and telling us how they use these recommendations for their…
Kevin Kruger:
That's great.
Bridget Burns:
... own [inaudible 00:27:32] journeys. Well, this has been wonderful. Thank you so much for your time to share with us, especially at this unique moment in your career, where you're probably soaking up a lot of lessons and reflecting back.
Kevin Kruger:
Great. It's a timely reflection. Yeah.
Bridget Burns:
You have definitely set NASPA on a course to be the best that it's been. And it's in, I think, a strong position. And Amelia's going to be a fantastic leader for the next chapter. And you've done great work preparing her for that. So, I hope it feels as good as we think it should. We wish you well, and thanks to our audience, we'll see you next week. Thanks a lot for tuning in.
Bios of Guest and Co-Hosts
Dr. Dr. Kevin Kruger draws on more than 40 years of experience in higher education. Since 2012, he has served as president and CEO for NASPA – Student Affairs Administrators in Higher Education, the organization’s first executive-level president. He has represented NASPA in national forums such as the Washington Higher Education Secretariat, which includes the leaders of approximately 50 higher education associations. Prior to his role as president, Dr. Kruger worked for 18 years as the associate executive director and served as the chief operating officer (COO) and chief financial officer (CFO) for NASPA. He has held a range of student affairs positions at Southern Methodist University and the University of Maryland. As NASPA president, Dr. Kruger represents student affairs at a variety of national forums and is a frequent contributor to higher education news stories on the college student experience. He has published and presented nationally and globally on using technology in student affairs administration, international education, trends in higher education, student success, degree-completion strategies for low-income/first-generation students, and change management and leadership in higher education. He is the proud father of two children, one a recent college graduate and the other a college sophomore. Dr. Kruger received his M.A. and Ph.D. in Counseling and Personnel Services from the University of Maryland.
Co-Host: Bridget Burns, Executive Director, University Innovation Alliance
Dr. Bridget Burns is the founding Executive Director of the University Innovation Alliance (UIA). For the past decade, she has advised university presidents, system chancellors, and state and federal policy leaders on strategies to expand access to higher education, address costs, and promote completion for students of all backgrounds. The UIA was developed during Bridget’s tenure as an American Council on Education (ACE) Fellowship at Arizona State University. She held multiple roles within the Oregon University System, including serving as Chief of Staff and Senior Policy Advisor, where she won the national award for innovation in higher education government relations. She was a National Associate for the National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education, and has served on several statewide governing boards including ones governing higher education institutions, financial aid policy, and policy areas impacting children and families.
Co-Host: Doug Lederman, Editor and Co-Founder, Inside Higher Ed
Doug Lederman is editor and co-founder of Inside Higher Ed. With Scott Jaschik, he leads the site's editorial operations, overseeing news content, opinion pieces, career advice, blogs and other features. Doug speaks widely about higher education, including on C-Span and National Public Radio and at meetings and on campuses around the country. His work has appeared in The New York Times and USA Today, among other publications. Doug was managing editor of The Chronicle of Higher Education from 1999 to 2003, after working at The Chronicle since 1986 in a variety of roles. He has won three National Awards for Education Reporting from the Education Writers Association, including one for a 2009 series of Inside Higher Ed articles on college rankings. He began his career as a news clerk at The New York Times. He grew up in Shaker Heights, Ohio, and graduated in 1984 from Princeton University. Doug and his wife, Kate Scharff, live in Bethesda, MD.
About Weekly Wisdom
Weekly Wisdom is an event series that happens live on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. It also becomes a podcast episode. Every week, we join forces with Inside Higher Ed and talk with a sitting college president or chancellor about how they're specifically navigating the challenges of this moment. These conversations will be filled with practicable things you can do right now by unpacking how and why college leaders are making decisions within higher education. Hopefully, these episodes will also leave you with a sense of optimism and a bit of inspiration.
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