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.

Bridget Burns, CEO of the University Innovation Alliance, speaks with Chancellor Jennifer Sobanet of University of Colorado Colorado Springs on the Innovating Together Podcast. Chancellor Sobanet talks about accepting the emotional weight of leadership, the need for ongoing executive coaching, her own nontraditional path to leadership, and how a foundation in the humanities will prepare students for the future. Topics include:

• Supportive leadership in a time of campus crisis
• How higher ed leaders can benefit from continual coaching
• Aligning both head and heart with the mission
• A new type of leader to meet new expectations
• Putting the human in humanities

Tune in to learn more about how a private-sector business background combines with human self-awareness in support of an institution whose mission is preparing capable, innovative students for careers that are still emerging.
 

Bridget Burns, CEO of the University Innovation Alliance, and Sara Custer, Editor-in-Chief of Inside Higher Ed, speak with President Harrison Keller of University of North Texas on the Innovating Together Podcast. President Keller talks about the value of soft skills, the smart use of actionable intelligence, the practical reality of universities adopting AI, and giving people something to be for rather than against. Topics include:
 

• Measuring the ROI of higher ed experiences
• Aligning what students are learning with regional economic development
• How onboarding new tech will require institutions to work differently
• The importance of maintaining a positive focus in higher ed leadership

 
Tune in to learn more about how traditional higher ed institutions can move past the limitations of the ivory tower by integrating practices and attitudes from other sectors.