Stop Fighting Your Data: A Wake-Up Call for Colleges

Higher education is facing a moment where moving slowly is no longer an option.
In this episode of Start the Week with Wisdom, Bridget Burns and Sarah Custer sit down with Karen Stout, outgoing president and CEO of Achieving the Dream, to reflect on decades of leadership in community college student success, institutional transformation, data-driven decision-making, and what it really takes to leave an organization stronger than you found it.

Karen shares lessons from leading Montgomery County Community College, transforming Achieving the Dream into a national student success network, and helping hundreds of community colleges rethink completion, transfer, mobility, workforce alignment, and community impact. This conversation is for higher ed leaders, community college presidents, faculty leaders, student success professionals, nonprofit executives, and anyone trying to drive meaningful change in education. You’ll hear why colleges must stop fighting their data, why innovation needs intention, why faculty must be centered in reform, and why the future of student success depends on moving faster from knowing to doing.

Highlights:

→ You’ll learn why community colleges have a unique power to shape the future of their local communities and why Karen Stout calls “leveraging your localness” their secret sauce.

→ You’ll hear how Achieving the Dream used a transformative unrestricted gift from MacKenzie Scott to build capacity, strengthen reserves, and reinvest in under-resourced colleges.

→ Karen explains why higher ed leaders must own their data, especially around completion, transfer, bachelor’s degree attainment, mobility, and workforce outcomes.

→ She also shares why institutions need to stop chasing shiny objects and instead pursue innovation with intention, clear priorities, and a deeper focus on teaching, learning, faculty engagement, and shared governance.