Opening Panel

Showing Up: How Assessment Leaders Practice Relational Presence When Everything Is Shifting

In a BANI-VUCA landscape (brittle, anxious, nonlinear, and incomprehensible, yet also volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous) institutional change tests our capacity to remain present with our colleagues. This panel brings together four leaders navigating different dimensions of change: integrating AI into teaching and learning, building collaboration across a multi-college consortium, advancing equity work at a small institution, and stewarding accreditation and assessment through mergers and restructuring.  We'll draw on relational presence (Clucas Leaderman & Polychronopoulos, 2026, Chapter 3), a strategy grounded in interpersonal communication and self-awareness. The aim is to help colleagues feel seen, heard, and valued by attuning to the relational space between ourselves and those around us.  We'll explore what it means to show up with authenticity, vulnerability, and wisdom when budgets and institutional structures change.

Panelists:

Lance Eaton, Ph.D., Senior Associate Director - AI in Teaching & Learning; Center for Advancing Teaching & Learning Through Research,  Northeastern University

Mark Nicholas, Ph.D., Vice President; New England Commission of Higher Education

Sarah Pfatteicher, Ph.D., Executive Director; Five College Consortium

Joyya Smith, Ed.D., Vice President, Diversity, Access, and Inclusion; Suffolk University