The Innovating Together Podcast

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

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. Gaye Theresa Johnson, associate professor at University of California, Los Angeles. She discusses community-engaged scholarship, an area of study focusing on the sensitive interface between an institution of higher learning and the real-world, non-academic community that exists just outside the gate – and why proactive leadership is critical in how they engage. Topics include:

• What community-engaged scholarship is
• How academic leaders should (and shouldn't) engage with communities
• Spatial entitlement and representation for BIPOC members of academia
• The beloved community vs. the culture of incarceration
• A starting point for proactive leadership in community engagement