Khadijat Rashid, Gallaudet University dean of faculties, passionately detailed the urgent need for agile leadership in higher education in her opening remarks at ACE’s Agile Administrators Summit. Nearly 50 of ACE’s Agile Administrators explored how to meet this need at the hybrid summit held April 22 on the Gallaudet campus in Washington, DC.
After Jane Hilberry, professor of creativity and innovation at Colorado College, led a lyrical question icebreaker, Derrick Anderson, ACE’s senior vice president of learning and engagement, and Rashid welcomed attendees, Darren Cambridge, ACE’s director of content strategy, then shared key themes of the program and highlighted the full release of 67 modules that comprise the Agile Leadership curriculum.
Bonita Brown, Northern Kentucky University’s vice president and chief strategy officer, provided an early highlight of the day when she called for higher education leaders to act together to meet complex challenges through agile innovation. Attendees praised the presentation for its candor, which helped spark lively small-group workshops on leading change narratives at colleges and universities.
The afternoon programing kicked off with collaborative clinics in which participants collaborated to address specific challenges on their campuses. Picking up on the energy from these clinics, ACE leaders Robin Helms, Sherri Hughes, and Cambridge engaged with these smaller groups on how ACE could help administrators drive innovative work forward. These discussions led into the final workshops of the day, which centered on capacity building. The event closed with group reflections on how they can create agile transformation at their institutions before attendees celebrated the day’s accomplishments at the summit reception.
As the summit exemplified, the Agile Administrators program brings together senior leaders across the higher education landscape to develop innovative leadership skills and build a network of peers seeking to support their campuses through original problem solving. The program supports the professional growth in three distinct ways: providing learning pathways comprised of multimedia learning content; facilitating learning circles that offer peer-to-peer learning; and assisting with the development of individualized microcredential portfolios.
To learn more or experience a sample module, visit the Agile Administrators webpage.