Chester (Chet) Warzynski is currently senior advisor on strategic financial initiatives at Carnegie Mellon University. In addition to his work at CMU, he consults on leadership and organizational development at the University of Arizona, the State University of New York, and Pennsylvania State University. His previous positions included executive director of the Office of Organizational Development at the Georgia Institute of Technology and director of organizational development services at Cornell University. He has taught graduate and undergraduate courses in management, leadership, and organizational development at Cornell University, and leadership in the School of Public Policy at Georgia Tech. He completed his undergraduate and graduate studies in sociology at Southern Illinois University and the University of Western Ontario, and doctoral studies in educational planning and social science at the University of Toronto and Tilburg University in the Netherlands. He has published on leadership development, strategic planning, organization development, business process reengineering, project management, and sustainability. His current research is on leading innovation. He has served on boards of private and public organizations.
After serving 20 years in the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education, Steve joined Academic Impressions as the Head of Practice for Academic Innovation, before leaving to found his own company focused on innovation. What drives his examination of best practices in higher education is that his passion for teaching always embraces an emphasis on humanness during this time of great technology. Steve believes that the skills needed to be successful both today and in the future are creativity, curiosity, multi-disciplinary thinking, and empathy. Steve received his doctorate in Curriculum and Instruction from Indiana University of Pennsylvania. While he recognizes the value of formal education, his additional educational experiences, such as completing Seth Godin’s altMBA (cohort 7), it has been his emphasis on learning human-centered design techniques that has nourished his goal to model lifelong learning. As Alvin Toffler stated, “the illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn.” Human-centered design thinking and other creative approaches are Steve’s preferred techniques when facilitating conversations. He is an unapologetic optimist about the future of education, and he offers years of experience presenting in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics […]
Ale Sosa began working in the higher education industry at Tiffin University. Initially serving as the admissions representative for all the northwest, Ohio, and international students, she went on to become the online degree completion admissions director. In 2008, Ale joined Florida Southern College (FSC) as associate director of admissions. While at FSC, she was involved in the creation of financial aid training for admissions counselors, implemented their current CRM software, served on the senior strategic planning team, was responsible for the maintenance and creation of communication flows, and was responsible for admissions operations. During her tenure at Florida Southern College, the institution broke enrollment records. In 2012, Ale joined Mercer University as the director of undergraduate admissions. In her two and a half year tenure, her team implemented recruitment and financial aid strategies that resulted in the enrollment of the largest—25% growth in two years—and most academically talented freshman classes in Mercer’s history. Ale now serves as the Vice President of Enrollment Management at Walsh University
Sarah has worked in higher education fundraising for more than eleven years, initially at Baylor College of Medicine and now at the University of Denver. In her current role, she helped to tell the story of ASCEND’s impact when the $490M fundraising campaign came to a close last year. She worked on communications for the campaign from its beginning, including the comprehensive case statement, college case statements, campaign talking points, and launch speeches. Her passion for communicating the impact of philanthropy expresses itself through her work in internal communications, collateral for the campaign and other fundraising efforts, donor stories, and executive level communications, among other responsibilities.
Peter G. Land is a partner in the Higher Education and Labor & Employment Practice Groups at Franczek Radelet P.C. Pete represents private and public sector higher education, academic medical center, and business clients in a wide array of litigation and counseling matters. Pete regularly advocates on behalf of institutions in court and agency proceedings, mediations, and arbitrations, as well as counseling on employment and student disputes, policy drafting, and training. Pete also has extensive experience with sensitive internal investigations regarding senior administrators, preparing confidential and privileged reports, and assisting decision-makers in addressing investigative findings in a variety of contexts, including board-mandated, government, and athletic-department investigations. Pete has served as lead counsel in a variety of litigation, including employment discrimination and harassment cases, faculty terminations and tenure disputes, institutional governance issues, First Amendment disputes, student matters, school and program closings, non-compete agreement and trade secret disputes, and defamation and privacy issues. He has also counseled institutions on accommodation and leave requests pursuant to the ADA and FMLA, privacy issues and compliance with FERPA, academic program closures and institutional affiliations, reductions in force, compliance with Title IX student-discipline and gender-equity standards, accreditation issues, and investigations by the DOE’s Office for Civil […]
Dr. Ajay Nair is an accomplished scholar and student affairs leader whose interests include immigration, race, and ethnicity. As Emory’s chief student advocate for nearly 13,000 undergraduate and graduate students, Dr. Nair shoulders a broad portfolio of responsibilities ranging from intercollegiate athletics and the Greek experience to student health services and residence life. Dr. Nair provides leadership and strategic direction in cultivating an ethically engaged community consistent with Emory’s vision. Under his leadership, Campus Life has established a model fundraising operation that has significantly increased alumni, parent, and family engagement. Previously, Nair served as senior associate vice provost for student affairs at the University of Pennsylvania. He also has held positions at Columbia University, Penn State University, and the University of Virginia. During his tenure in higher education, he has served in a variety of capacities as faculty member, student affairs administrator, and academic administrator.
Dan serves as engagement director in University Advancement, he leads alumni career development initiatives by engaging Marquette students with alumni as well as providing alumni access to valuable job and industry-related resources and programs. These include creating and developing a nationally-recognized mentor program, job shadowing initiatives, and sustaining outreach such as job postings and alumni career expert communication. He also is responsible for the university’s alumni programs in Chicago. Prior to Marquette, his career included award-winning marketing and public relations for clients such as McDonald’s, Coca-Cola and the Wisconsin Department of Tourism, and leading communications for one of the nation’s largest united performing arts funds.
Shawn Nason believes that, “Innovation isn’t work, it’s a lifestyle.” At Xavier University, Shawn leads the strategy and implementation of the innovation process within Xavier, while developing a portfolio of innovation clients and partners, which will drive non-tuition based revenue within the university through the Center for Innovation. Prior to Xavier, Shawn worked for three years at Humana leading strategic and consumer innovation with a focus on design. Additionally, Shawn spent six years at The Walt Disney Company in various capacities within Disney Cruise Line and Walt Disney Imagineering. An inspirational leader, Shawn has a proven record of gaining confidence from key executives, stakeholders, peers, and employees at all levels. Shawn has a BS in business management and finance and an MBA in international business and finance. Shawn is currently working on his DBA in organizational leadership and change. Shawn states, “I have the amazing honor to ignite teams, organizations, and individuals to tap into their creative mind and spark ideas and solutions they never dreamed of!”
Dr. Marlo Rencher is an entrepreneur, anthropologist, and educator with over two decades of experience in startup and small business development. She is TechTown Detroit’s Diversity and Inclusion Entrepreneur-in-Residence, working to ensure that their tech programs are as diverse, inclusive, and equitable as possible. She has founded or co-founded three tech startups and is also a co-founder of Detroit Regional Angels, an angel investment group developed for entrepreneurs, by entrepreneurs. Dr. Rencher was the co-author of digitalundivided’s 2016 #ProjectDiane report, which provided groundbreaking insight into the funding gap for Black women tech founders. She previously served as vice president of innovation, entrepreneurship and diversity at Cleary University. Her responsibilities at Cleary included entrepreneurial programming, mentorship of student-run businesses, and operations at the on-campus entrepreneurial community and coworking space. She also served as the faculty chair of the entrepreneurship department at the business-focused university. Dr. Rencher earned an undergraduate degree in marketing from Michigan State University, an MBA from the Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan, and a PhD in business and organizational anthropology from Wayne State University. She frequently speaks on technology entrepreneurship and inclusion and has been a presenter at TedxDetroit and SXSW.
In 2007, Gary Brahm became the founding chancellor of Brandman University and today, oversees a network of twenty-nine campuses, more than 2,500 faculty and staff, 12,000 students, and an annual budget of $100 million. Prior to his present position, Brahm served as the executive vice president for finance and administration and chief operating officer of Chapman University for over thirteen years. Brahm was responsible for enrollment management, financial aid, registrar, student life, investments, budgeting, information systems, human resources, facilities management and campus planning, and business services. He has periodically served as chair or a member of numerous WASC accreditation visiting teams. He has presented on non-traditional education, online, and competency-based education at the American Council for Higher Education annual meeting, the Association of Governing Boards National Conference on Trusteeship, the Credit Suisse global conference, the WASC Academic Resource Conference and many others.
