The Innovating Together Podcast

Bridget Burns, Executive Director of the University Innovation Alliance, and Jeff Selingo, higher education author and journalist, speak with Michael Crow, President of Arizona State University. President Crow was our first Weekly Wisdom guest last year, and he returns to share his wisdom about reimagining higher ed institutions, giving our institutional leaders new incentives, and recommending some books to focus and inspire us. Topics include:

• Creating a more flexible, scalable model of higher ed to meet current needs
• Freeing ed leaders from the limitations of administrative and academic bureaucracy
• A few words of professional advice for presidents and chancellors
• Further reading about leadership, educational mission, and future readiness
• Driving transformation

Bridget Burns, Executive Director of the University Innovation Alliance, and Derrick Tillman-Kelly, Director of UIA's Fellows Program and Network Engagement, speak with Dr. Kristen Renn, Professor and Associate Dean at Michigan State University's Department of Educational Administration. As a specialist in college student learning, development, and identities, Professor Renn studies how students with minoritized identities – LGBTQ, students of color, low-income, or first-gen students – experience higher education and how that impacts their success. She shares her thoughts on how these students are weathering remote learning during the COVID-19 pandemic. Topics include:

• Navigating the climate of the virtual campus
• How students' personal data can hinder their expression of identity
• How administrators and faculty can view the student experience through students' eyes
• The power of micro and macro affirmations
• Decoding the "alphabet soup" of minoritized identity groups

Bridget Burns, Executive Director of the University Innovation Alliance, and Doug Lederman, Editor and Co-Founder of Inside Higher Ed, speak with Dr. Gabrielle Starr, President of Pomona College in Claremont, California. As a national voice on college access for students of all backgrounds, the future of higher education, women in leadership, and the importance of the arts, she shares her wisdom about setting practical expectations, collaboration between institutions, the realities of leadership, and the power of human  connection. Topics include:

• COVID-19's positive changes to higher ed
• How colleges can transcend their traditional adversarial relationships
• Building the best possible leadership team
• Improving institutional culture through an embrace of creativity and art