Dr. Susan Whealler Johnston is president and CEO of the National Association of College and University Business Officers (NACUBO), a position she has held since August 1, 2018. Prior to joining NACUBO, she was at the Association of Governing Boards of Universities and Colleges (AGB), and for 12 years she served as its executive vice president and chief operating officer, responsible for the day-to-day operations of the organization as well as strategic planning. While at AGB, she led national projects on a range of topics including college costs, shared governance, institutional risk, educational quality, and student success. She was also a regular contributor to Trusteeship magazine.  Prior to joining AGB, Susan was professor of English and dean of academic development at Rockford University. She also served as associate dean at Regent’s College, Rockford’s London campus. While at Rockford, she served as department chair, chaired the university’s strategic planning effort, and created grant-funded programs connecting the institution and the community on such topics as girls and STEM, women in the arts, and civic engagement.

Kenneth C. Green, Ph.D.,  is the founding director of  The Campus Computing Project, the largest continuing study of the role of computing, eLearning, and information technology in American higher education. Launched in 1990, Campus Computing is widely cited by both campus officials and corporate executives as a definitive source for data, information, and insight about eLearning and information technology planning and policy issues affecting U.S. colleges and universities.  Green also recently served as the director of the Digital Fellows Project, funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, (2017-2019), and as the moderator and co-producer of TO A DEGREE, the postsecondary success podcast of the Gates Foundation.      The author/co-author or editor of more than 20 books and published research reports and more than 100 articles and commentaries that have appeared in academic journals and professional publications Green is often quoted on higher education and information technology issues in The New York Times, The Chronicle of Higher Education, Inside Higher Education, and other print and broadcast media.       In October 2002 Green received the first EDUCAUSE Award for Leadership in Public Policy and Practice. The EDUCAUSE award cited his work in creating The Campus Computing Project and recognized his “prominence in the arena of national and international technology agendas, and the linking of higher education to those agendas.” And in February 2019, EdTech Digest cited Green among the “100 Top Influencers in EdTech", stating that he is a “definitive resource for the higher education transformation conversation.”

Dr. Koch is a child of immigrants who came to the United States in pursuit of a better life for their family. His first language was not English, and postsecondary education was valued by his family as a means for realizing the American Dream. He is a staunch advocate and leader of efforts that increase student access to and, ultimately, completion of postsecondary education. He has worked in and with higher education institutions for nearly 30 years. He has done so since 2010 at the Gardner Institute where he was currently named as Chief Executive Officer.

 Kurt Edward Ewen was born and raised in Orlando, Florida. He earned an Associate of Arts degree from Valencia Community College and a Bachelor of Arts degree in Philosophy from St. Meinrad College in St. Meinrad, Indiana. Graduate and post-graduate studies took him to the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, in Leuven, Belgium where he completed a Master’s degree in Religious Studies and a Licentiate in Sacred Theology (Sacrae Theologiae Licentiatus or S.T.L., a 2-year post-graduate degree) in Philosophical Theology. Kurt completed doctoral studies in Educational Leadership, with a specialization in Higher Education Administration, at Barry University in Miami Shores, Florida. His doctoral dissertation research extends his interest in collective sense-making to the role that data or evidence can play in creating the potential for collaborative decision-making and innovative practice in higher education. Kurt is currently serves as the Chief of Staff and Vice Chancellor of Strategy, Planning and Institutional Effectiveness and at Houston Community College (HCC). Prior to his move to Houston, Kurt worked at Valencia College in Orlando, Florida. In his 15+ years at Valencia, Kurt served as a Professor of Philosophy/Humanities, Director of Institutional Assessment, AVP for Institutional Effectiveness and Planning, and Presidential Fellow under Dr. Sanford “Sandy” Shugart. 

Peter Felten is executive director of the Center for Engaged Learning, assistant provost for teaching and learning, and professor of history at Elon University. He works with colleagues on institution-wide teaching and learning initiatives, and on the scholarship of teaching and learning. Peter has published six books about undergraduate education including (with Leo Lambert), Relationship-Rich Education: How Human Connections Drive Success in College (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2020). He has served as president of the International Society for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (2016-17) and also of the POD Network (2010-2011), the U.S. professional society for educational developers. He is on the advisory board of the National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE) and is a fellow of the John N. Gardner Institute for Excellence in Undergraduate Education, a foundation that works to advance equity in higher education.

Dr. Dan Friedman is the executive director of University 101 Programs at the University of South Carolina, where he provides leadership for six academic courses, including approximately 270 sections of the nationally renowned first-year seminar taught by over 240 instructors and 260 peer and graduate leaders. Friedman earned his Ph.D. in Higher Education from the University of Virginia and is an affiliate faculty member in the Higher Education and Student Affairs program at UofSC. Prior to coming to the University of South Carolina, he served as director of Freshman Seminar at Appalachian State University and assistant professor of Higher Education. His area of research has centered on the first-year experience, teaching and learning, and assessment. Friedman regularly serves as an invited faculty of the National Resource Center for The First-Year Experience and Students in Transition’s Institute on First-Year Assessment and Institute on First-Year Seminar Leadership. He is passionate about baseball, Bruce Springsteen, Legos, and spending time with his two daughters.

Dr. Tristan Denley currently serves as Deputy Commissioner for Academic Affairs and Innovation at the Louisiana Board of Regents. Before moving to Louisiana in January 2022, he served as Executive Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs and Chief Academic Officer at the University System of Georgia, Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs at the Tennessee Board of Regents and Vice President for Academic Affairs at Austin Peay State. Originally from Penzance, England, Dr. Denley earned his PhD in Mathematics from Trinity College Cambridge, and has held positions in Sweden, Canada, and the University of Mississippi. At Ole Miss he served as Chair of Mathematics, and Senior Fellow of the Residential College program.Throughout his career, he has taken a hands-on approach in a variety of initiatives impacting student success. In 2007, he was chosen as a Redesign Scholar by the National Center for Academic Transformation for his work in rethinking the teaching of freshmen mathematics classes.  At Austin Peay he created Degree Compass, a course recommendation system that successfully pairs current students with the courses that best fit their talents and program of study for upcoming semesters. This system, which combines hundreds of thousands of past students’ grades with each particular student’s transcript, to make individualized recommendations for current students has received recognition from Educause, Complete College America, Lumina Foundation, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and President Obama and won a platinum IMS Global Learning Impact Award in 2014. In 2016 he was selected as one of the Washington Monthly’s sixteen most innovative people in Higher Education, one of the Center for Digital Education’s Top 30 Technologists, Transformers and Trailblazers and was invited to the White House to address recipients of President Obama’s First in the World grants as a model of what could be achieved by a higher education system. He was the recipient of the 2016 Newel Perry Award from the National Federation of the Blind for his leadership of a systemic approach to the accessibility of educational content. In 2017 he was recognized as one of five higher education leaders to watch in 2017 (and beyond) by Education Dive, and was named as a Complete College America Fellow. Amongst his most recent work has been the development and implementation of a comprehensive system-scale student success strategy, the Momentum Year, that transforms developmental education and advising. Implementation of the Momentum Year strategies in Georgia increased system-wide 4yr graduation rates by 20%, and by 30% for African American students. He also developed and launched the nexus degree, the first new degree structure in the United States in more than 100 years.His work continues in using a data informed approach to implement a wide variety of state-wide initiatives surrounding college completion, stretching from education redesign in a variety of disciplines, to the role of predictive analytics and data mining, cognitive psychology and behavioral economics in higher education. 

Susan Winslow is President of Macmillan Learning. She has more than 30 years of educational publishing and technology experience. In her career at Macmillan Learning, Ms. Winslow was most recently General Manager, where she championed learning science and the transition to digital learning. Under her leadership, Macmillan Learning gained market share for four consecutive years and developed, tested, and launched its new digital learning platform Achieve. The Bedford Freeman Worth High School team also saw five years of exceptional growth, nearly doubling in size.As a senior leader in the organization, Ms. Winslow also led the teams through the reorganization and unification of multiple edtech and publishing companies, including Sapling, iClicker, WriterKey, Bedford, Freeman, Worth to one higher education division and championed diversity and inclusion. Her other roles at the company include Managing Director, Vice President of Marketing, and Publisher in the STEM disciplines.Ms. Winslow has been a significant champion of STEM education as evidenced by her sponsorship of Macmillan Learning’s annual STEM Executive Summit, offered in partnership with Scientific American, which unites leaders across business, policy, and education with a goal of addressing the challenges and opportunities in STEM education.Her career in publishing has included working with some of the brightest minds in the sciences, social sciences, and humanities as well as calling on classrooms in the U.S., Canada, Europe, and the Middle East.

Charlie Nelms, President-in-Residence, United Negro College FundDr. Charlie Nelms is a transformational servant-leader, a motivational speaker, and a consultant with expertise in higher education. He has more than 40 years of experience and leadership in student access, retention, and graduation; institutional effectiveness; and strategic planning.The former chancellor of universities in North Carolina, Indiana, and Michigan, Nelms serves as a board member for leading educational associations and foundations across the U.S., including the C.S. Mott Foundation. He is currently a senior scholar at the American Association of State Colleges and Universities, specializing in providing assistance to minority-serving institutions (MSIs) and Senior Advisor to the United Negro College Fund. In addition to serving as an executive coach, he has been a consultant to nearly 100 colleges and universities and education-related organizations.Nelms is the recipient of numerous awards for his accomplishments in higher education, including two honorary doctorates and fellowships from the American Council on Education and the Ford Foundation. In 2012, President Obama honored him with the MLK Drum Major for Service Award for helping to address the most pressing needs in our communities and nation. He is a founding member of the Millennium Leadership Initiative, and vice president and professor emeritus at Indiana University. Nelms founded the Destination Graduation Initiative, which aims to increase retention and graduation rates at HBCUs, and in 2011, he published A Call to Action, a policy directive intended to spur a national dialogue concerning the revitalization of HBCUs.Nelms earned a B.S. degree and a master’s of education degree from the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff and an Ed.D. from Indiana University. He is a blogger for the Huffington Post and HBCU Lifestyle, he tweets, and is a frequent guest on podcasts and radio talk shows around the nation.