Sessions

LEADERSHIFT: Leading with Humanity in a High-Tech World

Presenter: Cindy Rowe

In an era where automation, AI, and digital tools dominate the workplace, the most essential leadership trait isn’t technological fluency—it’s humanity. In this high-energy and deeply relevant session, participants will explore how to “leadershift” their mindset and skillset to meet the demands of a fast-changing world, without losing the human connection that drives engagement, innovation, and trust.

Using real-world examples, research-backed insights, and interactive discussion, we’ll unpack how emotionally intelligent, values-driven leadership is not only still relevant—it’s a competitive advantage in a high-tech world.

Participants will leave inspired and equipped to lead with clarity, compassion, and confidence—no matter what changes come next.

Learning Objectives:

• Identify and apply emotionally intelligent communication strategies to foster trust, clarity, and collaboration across hybrid or tech-driven teams.
• Use a simple framework to lead with empathy and adaptability during times of change or uncertainty.
• Implement daily micro-behaviors that promote a culture of connection, well-being, and innovation, without needing a formal leadership title.

Audience: Emerging Leader

From Knowing to Growing: Unlocking Leadership Through Vertical Development

Presenter: Jen Frey, ICF-PCC

As the world becomes more volatile and complex, leaders are being asked to do more than just know more—they’re being asked to think differently. While technical skills are still essential, they’re no longer enough. Most leadership development focuses on what leaders need to do; this session shifts the focus to how leaders think. Using the framework of Vertical Development, we’ll explore how mindset flexibility and perspective-taking are key to navigating complexity and leading with impact. Through storytelling, reflection, and practical tools, participants will gain insight into their own leadership journey and identify clear opportunities for growth.

Learning Objectives:

• Differentiate between Horizontal and Vertical Development and understand why both are essential to leadership growth.
• Identify their own current mindset stage using the Vertical Development framework.
• Apply simple tools to increase self-awareness and facilitate the mindset shifts required for more adaptive leadership.

Audience: Emerging Leader, Advanced Leader

Meeting with Meaning: Recharging Staff Engagement One Conversation at a Time

Presenters: Cindy Sarkady and Jayna Hintz

In the dynamic and demanding landscape of higher education, our most driven and dedicated staff often shoulder the heaviest loads—quietly becoming the engines of excellence in our institutions. Yet without intentional support, even the highest performers can drift toward burnout and disconnection.

This session invites managers and leaders to reimagine a simple but powerful tool: the one-on-one meeting. Far from routine check-ins, structured 1:1s can be your most strategic leverage for retention, engagement, and growth. Join us to explore a practical, research-informed framework that turns conversations into catalysts—for clarity, feedback, and purpose-driven development. Let’s recharge the way we lead—one conversation at a time.

Learning Objectives:

• Articulate the strategic value of structured one-on-one meetings as a tool for engagement and retention.
• Define the key components of an effective 1:1 meeting for supporting high-performing staff in academic or administrative roles.
• Utilize a replicable agenda that integrates goals, wins, challenges professional development needs and action steps.
• Implement intentional meeting practices starting with new hires to seasoned employees.

Audience: Emerging Leader, Advanced Leader

Building Team Resiliency in Times of Crisis

Presenters: Whitney Sweeney and Chad Shorter

In today’s rapidly shifting environment, disruption is inevitable—but disorientation doesn’t have to be.  Drawing on applied strategies derived from the Science of Team Science this session will introduce targeted approaches to:

• Explore the art of sense-making in high-stakes moments by framing crises in ways that spark collective understanding and strategic thinking.
• Facilitate purposeful debriefs that foster cohesion and insight by turning emotional turbulence into constructive action.
• Identify processes and infrastructure that strengthens team confidence and long-term adaptability through which teams can convert disruption into opportunity.

Attendees will leave equipped to help their teams respond—rather than react—in times of disruption with skills to cultivate environments where clarity prevails, collaboration thrives, and forward momentum is sustained.

After attending the workshop, you will be better able to:

• Guide teams in framing and understanding crises to support effective sense-making
• Facilitate team debriefs that promote collaborative responses to disruption
• Establish team processes and infrastructure that foster clarity, confidence, and collective resilience

Audience: Emerging Leader, Advanced Leader

From Compliance to Confidence: Reclaiming Leadership Through Identity and Purpose

Presenters: Rachel Caesar

This session invites leaders to shift from performance-driven leadership to purpose-rooted leadership by examining how identity, lived experience, and voice shape how we lead and show up at work. Drawing from my work with emerging and experienced leaders—particularly women of color—this interactive session explores how reframing professional identity beyond job titles can foster stronger, more inclusive leadership. Participants will engage in reflective exercises, discuss systemic workplace challenges, and walk away with practical tools to reclaim their narrative, clarify their leadership “why,” and lead with authenticity and impact in evolving workplace cultures.

By the end of this session, participants will be able to:

• Identify how identity and narrative influence leadership style and decision-making.
• Reframe personal leadership purpose beyond positional authority.
• Apply inclusive leadership practices that foster authenticity and engagement in diverse teams.

Audience: Advanced Leader

Burnout Is a System, Not a Personal Failure: Reclaiming Leadership Through Well-being

Presenter: Takondwa Mwasi

In higher education, non-instructional academic leaders often serve as the steady core – managing change, supporting students, and holding teams together through complexity and crisis. But this invisible labor comes at a cost. As institutional pressures mount, burnout becomes a predictable outcome – not a personal shortcoming, but a systemic issue.

This interactive session challenges the myth of burnout as individual weakness and introduces evidence-based frameworks – PERMA, SAMHSA’s Eight Dimensions of Wellness, and the Kern National Network’s Framework for Flourishing – to help leaders sustain their own well-being while fostering inclusive, thriving teams.

By the end of this session, participants will be able to:

• Identify systemic contributors to burnout in higher education leadership and distinguish them from personal or performance-based narratives.
• Apply at least one well-being framework (PERMA, SAMHSA, or KNN) to assess and enhance their own leadership practices and team culture.
• Develop a personalized Well-being Integration Plan using the WOOP model to implement sustainable strategies in their daily leadership.

Audience: Emerging Leader, Advanced Leader

Developing Your Team, One Conversation at a Time

Presenters: Kristi Milbourn and Marci Birkes-Geffert

If check-ins tend to be fly-by updates or the first thing to be triaged out of a busy schedule, you’re missing out on a powerful leadership tool. Top managers know check-ins are one of the fastest ways to build strong teams, keep top talent, and spend less time managing performance issues. This session shows you how to have more effective and meaningful check-ins. Come prepared to engage with fellow participants as we practice having check-in conversations that foster your team’s growth and performance.

Learning Outcomes

• Understand how check-ins boost engagement, retention, and performance
• Review skills for building connections with your team
• Gain tools to make check-ins more effective and meaningful
• Build confidence by practicing check-in conversations 

Audience: Emerging Leader, Advanced Leader

Note: This session is also offered during Session 3.

Building Interpersonal Resilience and Finding Joy in Daily Work Interactions

Presenters: Dr. Ruthanne Chun and Dr. Laura Garrett

See Session 1 for full description and learning outcomes. Note: This session is a half day workshop during Sessions 1 and 2.

Audience: Emerging Leader, Advanced Leader

Resiliency in Uncertain Times

Presenter: John Graves and Ben Williams

In a rapidly changing landscape, higher ed institutions are navigating unpredictable currents—from demographic shifts and policy changes to technological disruption and climate uncertainty.

This interactive session explores how foresight, agility, and resilience form a connected system that enables individuals, teams, and organizations to adapt and thrive in a disruptive and uncertain environment. Participants will learn and apply scenario planning and agile tools for building institutional resilience, and case studies will ground the conversations in reality and practice space will allow participants to apply to their current context.

Learning Objectives:

• Describe how scenario thinking, agility, and resilience interact to support organizational adaptability in uncertain contexts.
• Apply a scenario thinking framework to anticipate divergent futures and explore strategic responses using agile tools.
• Identify concrete actions individuals, teams, and/or institutions can take to strengthen resilience and adaptive capacity.

Audience: Emerging Leader, Advanced Leader

The Adaptive Leader: Exploring Tendencies, Flexibility, and Impact

Presenters: Contesta Odum

Leadership in today’s dynamic environments requires more than a fixed set of skills—it demands adaptability, self-awareness, and the ability to respond effectively across diverse contexts. This interactive session offers a guided exploration of leadership awareness and adaptability, emphasizing the importance of understanding and flexing one’s natural leadership tendencies. Through guided reflection, scenario-based exercises, and facilitated group discussions, attendees will identify their natural leadership tendencies and practice adjusting their approach to meet varied challenges. Designed for individuals at all levels from emerging professionals to seasoned managers, this session supports the development of versatile leadership strategies applicable across teams, departments, and organizational settings.

Learning Objectives:

• Describe key leadership styles commonly observed across organizational contexts.
• Assess personal leadership tendencies through guided reflection.
• Analyze the impact of intentional leadership style application by engaging with real-world scenarios.

Audience: Emerging Leader, Advanced Leader

Fire Starters: Igniting Connection and Energy in Team Environments

Presenter: Tricia A. Gorby

In today’s dynamic work environments—whether in-person, hybrid, or fully remote—leaders play a critical role in shaping the tone, energy, and cohesion of their teams. This interactive workshop explores the psychology and principles behind effective team dynamics, with a focus on cultivating environments that foster connection, ease tension, and spark engagement. Participants will learn how to intentionally set the tone for meetings and group interactions, using humor, empathy, and well-chosen and purposeful icebreakers—what we like to call “fire starters”—to warm up the room and energize participants.

We’ll dive into strategies for selecting the right icebreaker for different team contexts and outcomes, including hybrid and virtual settings, and discuss how these small moments can have a big impact on trust, creativity, and collaboration. Whether you’re leading a strategic planning session or a weekly check-in, this workshop will equip you with tools to build connection, break down barriers, and create a more vibrant team culture.

Learning Objectives:

• Distinguish between different types of icebreakers and their intended outcomes. In this workshop, we will evaluate the appropriateness of icebreakers based on group size, team familiarity, meeting purpose, and format.
• Recognize common pitfalls, including potential risks of poorly chosen icebreakers (e.g., discomfort or feelings of exclusion). Participants will learn strategies to mitigate these risks through thoughtful design and facilitation.
• Practice and reflect. Participants will experience a variety of icebreaker activities and tools, and reflect on their impact. They will develop a personal toolkit of resources and “fire starters” tailored to their different leadership scenarios.

Audience: Emerging Leader

Restorative Justice Practice in Academia: Can We Talk? Employing Restorative Practices through Community Building Circles to Foster Inclusive Excellence

Presenter: Tiajuana Rice

This session introduces the origins and core principles of Restorative Justice (RJ), a community-based approach to addressing harm and conflict that has been implemented on college campuses since the 1990s. Participants will engage in an RJ circle practice and explore its adaptability across diverse workplace settings.

RJ brings together individuals from both sides who were impacted by a harmful or disruptive incident to promote understanding, accountability, and healing. It emphasizes recognizing both personal and collective harm and encourages responsible parties to take meaningful action towards community restoration. Through structured practices such as community-building circles—including healing circles and circles of support—RJ fosters open dialogue, respectful listening, and collaborative decision-making. These practices are foundational to cultivating inclusive, healthy, and engaging workplace environments.

Learning Objectives:

• Understand the Foundations of Restorative Justice
  • Define restorative justice and its relevance in academic and various workplace settings.
  • Recognize the values of healing, accountability, and community restoration.
• Identify and Acknowledge Harm
  • Understand the impact of harm on individuals and communities.
  • Reflect on personal and institutional roles in perpetuating or addressing harm.
• Engage in Restorative Practices
  • Participate in a circle practice and identify its structural elements.
  • Practice active listening, empathy, and respectful dialogue.

Audience: Emerging Leader, Advanced Leader

Unlocking Career Growth with Generative AI: Strategies for You and Your Team

Presenter: Christopher East and Danielle Marriner

Generative artificial intelligence (AI) is transforming the landscape of career development—redefining how professionals reflect, plan, and progress in their roles. In this dynamic session designed with managers in mind, you’ll discover how to harness AI prompts to support your own growth and empower your team’s development.

•  Learn actionable strategies for integrating AI into career conversations, goal-setting, and continuous learning
•  Explore real-world applications tailored to both individual contributors and leadership roles
•  Recall how  prompt engineering can become a creative partner in navigating next steps at UW–Madison

Whether you’re looking to deepen your leadership toolkit or champion innovative approaches to development, this session offers practical insights and future-forward thinking to enhance your impact.

Learning Objectives:

•  Learn actionable strategies for integrating AI into career conversations, goal-setting, and continuous learning
•  Explore real-world applications tailored to both individual contributors and leadership roles
• Recall how  prompt engineering can become a creative partner in navigating next steps at UW–Madison

Audience: Emerging Leader, Advanced Leader

Time Management for Teams: The Leadership Strategy That Drives Performance, Retention, and Innovation

Presenter: Jenna Piché

The best leaders know that individual productivity training doesn’t scale. When your team is constantly interrupted, pulled into reactive mode, and struggling to align on priorities, even your most talented people can’t deliver the innovative, strategic work your organization needs.

This interactive workshop provides practical tools for leaders to develop their team’s collective time management capabilities through strategic systems and protocols. Participants will learn to diagnose what’s preventing their team from peak performance and implement frameworks that empower each team member to contribute their best work while maintaining healthy work-life integration.

Learning Objectives:

• Team Focus Protocol Implementation: Participants will learn to create and implement a “Team Focus Agreement” that includes specific communication windows, meeting-free focus blocks, and interruption protocols that they can introduce to their team within one week of the conference.
• Priority Alignment System: Participants will master a weekly team alignment process that ensures all team members understand the top 3 priorities and can make autonomous decisions about task importance, reducing decision fatigue and increasing ownership.
• Work-Life Integration Framework: Participants will design sustainable team practices that protect both productivity and personal boundaries, including strategies for managing after-hours communication and creating buffer time for strategic thinking.

Audience: Emerging Leader, Advanced Leader

Developing Your Team, One Conversation at a Time

Presenters: Kristi Milbourn and Marci Birkes-Geffert

If check-ins tend to be fly-by updates or the first thing to be triaged out of a busy schedule, you’re missing out on a powerful leadership tool. Top managers know check-ins are one of the fastest ways to build strong teams, keep top talent, and spend less time managing performance issues. This session shows you how to have more effective and meaningful check-ins. Come prepared to engage with fellow participants as we practice having check-in conversations that foster your team’s growth and performance.

Learning Outcomes

• Understand how check-ins boost engagement, retention, and performance
• Review skills for building connections with your team
• Gain tools to make check-ins more effective and meaningful
• Build confidence by practicing check-in conversations 

Audience: Emerging Leader, Advanced Leader

Note: This session is also offered during Session 2.

Choose Your Own Leadership Adventure: Insight from Unlikely Sources

Presenter: Robert Merrill and Lindsay Bolan

This session invites participants to rethink what it means to manage by drawing on skills and interests they’ve developed outside the workplace. Through candid storytelling and interactive discussion, Lindsay and Robert will share how their unconventional backgrounds have shaped their approach to leadership. From cognitive-behavioral therapy frameworks for process improvement, to the snowflake plot structure for customer journey mapping, to Dungeons & Dragons for project management, their experiences transcend the sometimes brittle and unapproachable norms of traditional management.

Participants will then explore how their own outside experiences can be powerful tools for building teams, navigating difficult projects, motivating staff, and releasing rigidity from work. They will leave with a fresh perspective on how to be a great manager and a practical strategy they can immediately apply to support their team’s growth and success.

Learning Objectives:

• Find leadership tools you already have from your own outside experiences and interests.
• Learn how simple frameworks seen in storytelling, gaming, and therapy can help you understand processes, make decisions, and connect with others.
• Leave with a recipe you can use to help others let life inform work.

Audience: Emerging Leader, Advanced Leader

From Checked-Out to All-In: Human-Centered Strategies to Fuel Engagement

Presenter: Laneice Runnels

What happens when people stop showing up with energy, passion, or ideas? Disengagement doesn’t just drain morale—it stalls progress. In this dynamic and interactive session, Laneice Runnels draws on her experience in employee engagement and workforce development to explore how to reignite commitment and connection among teams and volunteers.

Whether you’re leading in hybrid, remote, or in-person settings, you’ll learn how to reconnect your people to purpose, rekindle trust, and build a culture of belonging where people feel seen, heard, and motivated. This session will leave participants equipped and inspired to move from managing tasks to truly leading people—fueling engagement from the inside out.

Learning Objectives:

• Apply human-centered strategies to re-engage disengaged employees or volunteers in both virtual and in-person environments.
• Identify simple yet impactful recognition practices that build morale and reinforce purpose.
• Cultivate authentic relationships that enhance trust, improve retention, and create a positive workplace culture.

Audience: Emerging Leader

Think Twice: Outsmarting Your Brain’s First Instinct

Presenter: Kolleen C Dougherty, MD, FASA

We all like to believe we’re fair-minded, rational people. But beneath that conscious belief, our brains are making decisions in milliseconds—using mental shortcuts built for survival, not equity. Malcolm Gladwell coined the term ” thinslicing” in his 2005 non-fiction book Blink, which means making very quick decisions with small amounts of information, or “thinking without thinking.”

In this session, I’ll explore the hidden world of unconscious bias—those snap judgments we make every day without even realizing it. Rooted in what psychologists call System 1 thinking, these quick-fire assessments help us navigate a complex world efficiently. But they also lead us to misjudge, exclude, and overlook others—especially in the workplace.

As a physician and leader who has worked in high-stakes, male-dominated environments for over two decades, I’ve witnessed—and experienced—how these biases quietly shape who is heard, who is trusted, and who gets opportunities. For example:

• A female doctor introduced as a nurse despite her credentials.
• A qualified candidate passed over because he “didn’t quite fit the mold.”
• A mother sidelined for leadership because of assumptions about her availability.

These aren’t acts of overt discrimination—they’re invisible barriers that hold back individuals and entire organizations. When unchecked, everyday bias leads to disengagement, attrition, and lost innovation.

But here’s the powerful truth: bias is not a moral failing. It’s a human one. And once we understand how it works, we can interrupt it.

This talk doesn’t shame—it illuminates. It empowers audiences to spot their own fast thinking, challenge it, and choose differently. With real stories, science, and practical strategies, I invite the audience to slow down just enough to build better workplaces—and a better world.

Because in a world that moves fast, it’s those who learn to think twice who create the biggest impact.

Learning Objectives:

• Recognize Hidden Bias in Real Time: Participants will learn how to identify common forms of unconscious bias—such as affinity bias, confirmation bias, and gender bias—as they arise in everyday decisions, from hiring to team dynamics.
• Pause Automatic Thinking to Make Better Decisions: Attendees will walk away with simple, science-backed techniques to slow down fast thinking, question assumptions, and create space for more thoughtful, inclusive choices.
• Apply Practical Strategies to Build Inclusive Workplaces: Viewers will gain tools to foster equity in their own environments—such as structured interviews, bias interrupters, and inclusive feedback methods—leading to better collaboration, innovation, and retention.

Audience: Emerging Leader

Building Connection: Designing Events That Combat Loneliness and Foster Social Health

Presenters: Traci Wedekind, MFA, CMP

In today’s fast-paced, digitally-driven world, loneliness has become a growing public health crisis, impacting both personal well-being and organizational culture. This session will explore how leaders can design and facilitate events, meetings, and conferences that foster meaningful social connections, enhance collaboration, and promote social health. Attendees will leave with actionable strategies for effective meeting management, inclusive facilitation techniques, and methods to structure gatherings that address loneliness while cultivating a sense of belonging and community. Participants will also have the opportunity to share their own strategies for creating spaces where people feel heard, valued, and supported.

Learning Objectives:

• Effective Meeting Management: Learn practical tips and best practices for organizing and leading meetings that foster engagement, participation, and social connection.
• Inclusive Facilitation Skills: Gain insight into how to design events that prioritize inclusivity and ensure all voices are heard, creating a welcoming environment for diverse participants.
• Structuring for Social Health: Understand how to structure events, meetings, and conferences to intentionally address the public health crisis of loneliness by promoting social interactions and building supportive networks.

Audience: Emerging Leader, Advanced Leader

Finding Your Flow So You Can Help Your Team Find Theirs

Presenters: Cori Splain

In a world of constant pivots and competing priorities, there’s no one-size-fits-all solution to staying organized and leading effectively. This session invites participants to explore and develop their own flow formula to stay grounded, focused, and supportive of their teams. Drawing from real-world examples and practical tools, we’ll explore how to build routines, use calendars creatively, and prioritize with intention. Whether you strive on structure or flexibility, you’ll leave with strategies to help you and your team stay aligned, even when everything feels urgent.

Learning Objectives:

• Identify and articulate a personal organizational approach that supports your leadership style.
• Implement strategies to help your team develop routines, reduce stress, and increase productivity.
• Apply prioritization frameworks (e.g., Eisenhower Matrix, Ivy Lee Method) to manage competing demands.

Audience: Emerging Leader

Role Transitions – Task to Task Management

Presenter: Rachel Filipiak, MHA and Liana Nash, MBA

Career transitions can be challenging—especially the shift from a task-oriented role to one focused on leading teams, managing projects, and driving outcomes. This informative session, co-led by a seasoned manager and a new leader currently navigating this transition, explores the real-world challenges, common pitfalls, and key skills required to succeed in a management role. Through shared experiences, practical insights, and open discussion, participants will gain actionable strategies, best practices, and a deeper understanding of what it takes to thrive in this pivotal career shift.

Learning Objectives:

• Understanding the shift in role and responsibility – Define a definition of “successful” role change
• Identify core competencies of effective managers – New skill muscles need to be developed in a new role and new responsibilities expected of you by the team need to be established
• Identify potential strategies to address common challenges in a role transition – Letting go of control and balancing priorities

Audience: Emerging Leader, Advanced Leader

EI, AI, OH! Finding Laughter, Levity, and Leadership with AI

Presenter: Margaret Murphy

In today’s world of burnout and information overload, what if AI could do more than streamline tasks—what if it could make you laugh? This session explores how AI can add humor, creativity, and levity to the workplace while strengthening emotional intelligence and leadership presence.

Participants will discover how humor and play—when used intentionally—can foster trust, reduce tension, and enhance team connection. From writing meeting agendas and training content to energizing team emails and lightening the tone of presentations, AI tools can help teams communicate with more empathy, approachability, and engagement.

Through live demos, real-world examples, and prompt-based exercises, this interactive session shows how AI can be your partner in creating a workplace that’s not only more productive—but also more human, connected, and joyful.

Learning Objectives:

• Discover how AI can bring levity and creativity to workplace communication, training, and team building.
• Learn how humor and play support emotional intelligence, leadership, and connection.
• Walk away with practical ideas to use AI in more human, engaging, and uplifting ways at work.

Audience: Emerging Leader