How can higher ed institutions teach students the value of persistence? In the latest installment of our MindMaxing podcast series, “Adolescence to Adulthood,” Lynn University President Dr. Kevin Ross addresses the importance of making colleges and universities safe spaces for students to try, fail, and try again. Dr. Ross discusses how Lynn’s impl…

What is the goal of higher education? According to Will Patch, a Senior Enrollment Insights Leader at Niche.com, colleges and universities should prepare students to step into jobs that fulfill them as individuals and benefit their communities. But it’s not such a straightforward path for all students. In the latest episode of our MindMaxing Podcas…

The pandemic presented many barriers to higher education. But it also catalyzed demand for more accessible education. In the latest episode of our MindMaxing Podcast series, “Adolescence to Adulthood,” Lee Maxey speaks with Dr. Mariana Amatullo, Vice Provost for Global Executive Education and Online Strategic Initiatives at Parsons School of Design…

What skills do graduates need to be able to go out into the world? While some education leaders focus solely on getting students to graduate high school, Mike Flanagan, CEO of the Mastery Transcript Consortium, is focused on creating educational pathways that empower graduates even after they’ve collected their diplomas. In the latest episode of ou…

As Associate Vice Provost for the Division of Professional and Continuing Studies at the University of Delaware, George Irvine, PhD, is keenly aware that students today ask themselves, "Why do I need to go to college?" Traditional pathways to higher education are expensive and time-consuming, and even employers are beginning to question the value o…

As Research Professor and Director of the Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce, Dr. Anthony Carnevale knows the journey adolescents take to adulthood has changed drastically over the last 40 years. Decades ago, a high school education was enough to help a young adult land a job with a living wage. Today, college—if not a seco…

Rick Dalton, CEO and President of CFES Brilliant Pathways, is committed to helping students overcome obstacles, access educational opportunities, and achieve success in their lives. While today’s higher education landscape is complex and changing rapidly, Rick notes that students can still take control of their academic destinies. In the second epi…

Andy Chan, VP of Innovation and Career Development at Wake Forest University, knows that being a student in 2022 is a uniquely complicated experience. There are more educational and professional options than ever before. There's also immense societal and cultural pressure to pick the perfect path and flawlessly transition from high school to colleg…

Harvard Kennedy School Senior Associate Dean for Executive Education Debra Iles believes that the pandemic has “created the opportunity for us to think differently, to embrace some things that we were perhaps postponing.” Debra and I met virtually for episode 18 of MindMaxing, the final episode in the podcast’s first season, where she reflected on …

Harvard University Dean of Division of Continuing Education and University Extension Nancy Coleman, Ed.D., believes creating space for reflection is important, especially in higher education. “If we're truly going to figure out ‘how do we create value for our students?’ … there needs to be some thinking in that. And I found one of the best ways to …

Excelsior College Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs John Caron can see a difference in how colleges and universities are networking since the start of the pandemic. One of the things that Excelsior is doing that John finds interesting is exploring partnership opportunities with other schools, exploring pathways from their non-credit c…

Southern Methodist University Managing Director of Global, Online, and Continuing Education Kim Rutigliano is hopeful that the positive shifts colleges and universities went through to make classes accessible due to the pandemic will continue to bring about positive change in the future. “I think, at its best, if we continue on this trajectory, the…

Stony Brook University Associate Vice President for Professional Education and Assistant Provost for Engaged Learning Patricia Malone joined us for an episode of MindMaxing where she discussed the ways Stony Brook adjusted to COVID-19. From pulling together an army of experts who, virtually overnight, launched dozens of workshops for K-12 teachers …

Before her retirement earlier this year, former Brown University Vice President for Strategic Initiatives and Dean of the School of Professional Studies Karen Sibley joined MindMax CEO Lee Maxey for episode 13 of MindMaxing. Karen dove into topics like the “crash course” that faculty had to go through to learn the pedagogy for teaching online cours…

Unity College President Melik Peter Khoury, D.B.A., expects to see significant changes in higher education post-pandemic in the forms of more closures, more mergers, and more overall transformations. “We at Unity College are trying to transform our model to be one that does not talk about innovation, but one that innovates, to design pedagogy and c…

After examining the way Southern Methodist University adapted to the pandemic, Assistant Provost for Global, Online, and Continuing Education Michael Robertson believes a willingness to do two tough things will ensure continued growth in higher education in the long run. “We have to be willing to fail and we have to be willing to be uncomfortable a…

In the new, post-COVID-19 world, Brandeis University Rabb School of Continuing Studies Vice President Lynne Rosansky, Ph.D., believes innovation will continue to take shape on and beyond Brandeis University’s campus in terms of its tools and its people. In episode 10 of MindMaxing, Lynne chats with MindMax CEO Lee Maxey and discusses how she envisi…

For Excelsior College President David Schejbal, Ph.D., the COVID-19 pandemic reminded him just how important the academic experience is and helped him reflect on how it has changed over the years. “I think in many ways, higher education in this country has lost its way over the past couple of decades,” Schejbal said, “because we've gone from talkin…

Fisher College Vice President of Enrollment Management Robert “Bob” Melaragni and MindMax CEO Lee Maxey got together (on Zoom) to discuss how COVID-19 has impacted Fisher students, faculty, and staff. As a pioneer in the online learning space, Fisher was well poised to pivot to an online-only model during the pandemic. It also utilized social media…

San José State University Associate Dean for the College of Professional and Global Education Namrata Shukla calls the past year in academia “transformational.” In episode seven of MindMaxing, MindMax CEO Lee Maxey and Namrata, who also goes by Nami, discuss how pivots at SJSU due to COVID-19 have paved the way for positive outcomes, such as the po…

Looking ahead after a tumultuous year in higher education, Michigan State University Director of Academic Entrepreneurship Gerald “Jerry” Rhead tries to keep a balanced perspective. “A lot of stuff got done in the last year. Some of it great, some of it maybe not so great, but you have an opportunity to look at that from a balanced perspective and …

By Sarah Caggiano, Rhode Island School of Design

An unintended bonus outcome of the pandemic for the University of Central Missouri (UCM) was the re-examination of virtually every area on campus, from grading and admission criteria, to commencement ceremonies (of which they had 10 to accommodate students and families last year). In this episode of MindMaxing, Dr. Laurel Hogue, Vice Provost of Ext…

Kathleen Ehlers, Fisher College's Vice President for Online, Graduate and Professional Studies, said 2020 was the hardest year in higher education “to help students in the way they truly need to be helped because of the pandemic.” How did Fisher navigate the challenges presented by COVID-19? Hear more from Kathleen in our third episode of MindMaxin…

For Clark University Dean of School of Professional Studies and Associate Provost for Professional Education, John LaBrie, Ed.D., the most striking thing across the board when he reflects on the last year in higher education, is that no matter a student’s background, the pandemic has been difficult for them on a very personal and heartfelt level. I…

In our first episode we hear from J. Kim McNutt, Dean of the College of Extended and International Education at California State University, Dominguez Hills (CSUDH). When COVID-19 reached the U.S. in 2020, Kim wasn’t too worried. But when the gravity of the situation became clear, he and his team adapted quickly to meet the needs of students at CSU…