Deepen your leadership skillset and build community with a powerful network of women leaders.
Program Highlights
- Skills and Strategies from Our Expert Panel: Learn from experienced leaders from across higher education who have served in senior leadership roles including Chief Student Affairs Officer, Vice-Chancellor for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, Chief of Staff, Associate Provost, President, and Chancellor. Speakers will share practical skills and strategies from their lived experience and invite attendees to do the same.
- One-on-One Time with Speakers: The program includes an individual consultation session with a program speaker of your choice to help you apply what you gain from the institute to your individual context. You can ask questions, workshop an idea, or brainstorm solutions to specific challenges you are facing.
- Community-Building and Networking: Gain access to a valuable affinity network of peers that can provide mentorship and guidance as you move toward your goals.
Overview
Join our intensive institute to co-create knowledge and deepen your leadership skillset. This institute will combine tangible takeaways with Academic Impressions’ leadership model, a holistic approach to leadership across four key dimensions: self-awareness and personal development, interpersonal leadership skills, team development, and leading at the organizational level.
Session Descriptions
More details about the timing of the days can be found by clicking Learn More and Register, but session descriptions of the three days are below:
Deepening Your Leadership Skillset Through the Five Paths to Leadership℠
In our opening session, you’ll have the opportunity to examine and analyze the results from your Five Paths to Leadership℠ Self-Assessment to identify your unique leadership strengths under normal circumstances, as well as under stress.
Leading with Purpose to Support Well-Being
As leaders, we often leave well-being to be addressed last, but now we’re flipping the agenda. Burnout today is not just pervasive but endemic. In the fourth iteration of the Academic Impressions survey of higher ed faculty and staff on job satisfaction and professional development, we found that 91% of higher ed employees are experiencing higher stress, while almost 50% are experiencing exhaustion or burnout—and these rates are even higher for women. During this session, we’ll explore the connection between your motivation and purpose to lead in higher education, and the ways in which you can support your own well-being, as well as that of your team.
Inclusive Leaders Can Challenge and Be Challenged
Effective leadership is inclusive and equitable leadership. This session will go beyond the basics of understanding identity and treating others respectfully to calling upon leaders to both challenge others when they are not leading equitably and to be open to being challenged in order to learn and grow. You’ll acquire tools for effective communication and active listening and work through a case study to practice the skills presented.
Leading Through Crisis
While some roles on campus are more likely than others to require crisis management, the last several years have shown that all leaders are impacted by turbulent times. Our expert will unpack how women—and especially women of color—are often tapped to lead organizations when institutions are at critical junctures. From there, we’ll dive into how responding to crisis can make or break successful leadership.
Navigating Conflict and Politics
We’ll engage in an interactive discussion to explore specific skills and strategies to navigate conflict and politics, paying particular attention to the intersectional impact of politics in the academy.
Bravely Leading Teams
Leading teams requires us to tap into a leadership skillset beyond self-awareness and interpersonal skills. Building an effective team requires intentionality, trust, and flexibility. To do all of this in a way that honors your own values, those of the organization, and the dignity of each team member requires a tremendous amount of bravery. During this session, we’ll explore the skills, strategies, and self-awareness it takes to bravely face the most difficult challenges.
Collaboratively Leading Organizational Initiatives
How do you get feedback from 6,000 faculty members and incorporate it into your initiatives in a meaningful way? During this interactive session, we’ll explore practical ways to lead at an organizational level that are collaborative, build trust, and lead to better results.
Successfully Managing Leadership Transitions
Whether you’re entering a new role, departing from an institution, or navigating the departures or arrivals of other leaders, transitions can put your leadership to the test. In this session, we’ll explore what it means to lead well through these key transitional periods.
Individual Speaker Connection Time
During this time, you will have the opportunity to meet with a speaker you identified with for a one-on-one meeting to ask questions, workshop an idea, or brainstorm solutions to specific challenges you are facing.
Leading as Your Most Authentic Self
To begin our final day, we will engage in reflection to identify your personal takeaways from the last two days—including opportunities for individual growth—and reflect upon how you can integrate these takeaways into your own authentic leadership approach.
Coalition-Building and Sharing Your Expertise
Capitalizing on the unique opportunity to convene women leaders from across higher education, we’ll turn the agenda over to you. During this time, you will identify the topics and challenges you most want to discuss. We invite those interested to lead the conversation and collaborate with the phenomenal women in the space to share their knowledge and strategies for success. We’ll explore topics such as:
- Managing Up
- Negotiation
- Pay Equity
- Mentorship and Sponsorship
- Budgeting
Words of Wisdom
In this final session, you’ll have the opportunity to connect with the speaker team and your colleagues to discuss how you will maintain this momentum moving forward.
Build on Your Learning with Executive Coaching
Supplement what you’ve learned at the conference and help yourself stay accountable to your plan with an Academic Impressions coach. We’ve worked with hundreds of women in leadership to help them advance their careers, develop new leadership skills, and achieve their goals. If you’re interested, select the option to add in 6 sessions of executive coaching for $3,600 when you register.
Who Should Attend
If you identify as a woman, are leading at a strategic level in higher education, and you are looking to deepen your leadership skillset in community with other women leaders, this experience is for you. Those who will benefit most from this program include:
- Women leaders in higher education who are already leading at strategic levels (especially AVPs, VPs, and those leading at the Dean or Director level and above).
- Women leaders at any level of the institution who have already participated in Women’s Leadership Success in Higher Education and are looking to deepen their leadership skillset in community with other women leaders.
Are you interested in women’s leadership workshops but unsure if this is the right program for you? Check out our other women’s leadership success programs to see if another is the right fit. Contact Jess Landis with any questions.
Bring a team! Register 3 or more people and save more than $1,000! Discounts will be automatically applied at checkout.
Past Attendee Breakdown
Speakers
Karen L. Dace, Ph.D.
Vice Chancellor for Diversity, Equity & Inclusion, Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis
Jess Landis
Senior Learning and Development Manager, Academic Impressions
Kyra Lobbins, Ph.D.
Chief of Staff, Adler University
Sandra Miles, Ph.D.
Head of Practice for Team Development, Academic Impressions
Lori Rice-Spearman, Ph.D.
President, Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center
Andrea Romero
Vice Provost for Faculty Affairs, University of Arizona
Karen M. Whitney, Ph.D
President Emerita, Clarion University, Executive Coach
What makes our events different?
Academic Impressions conferences provide the opportunity for quality conversations and relationship-building through both formal and informal networking opportunities in an intimate setting. Our in-depth and hands-on approach to learning provides you with actionable takeaways.
Learn More About the Academic Impressions Conference Experience ➞
Location
Academic Impressions’ Denver-based office
5299 DTC Blvd, Suite 1400
Greenwood Village, CO 80111
What Our Attendees Are Saying
“When I returned to campus and was asked about the conference my reply was that it was the best professional development opportunity I experienced in over a decade. Having a space for women in executive roles to learn with and from each other was extraordinarily valued.”
- Amanda Ingram, Executive Director for Online and Continuing Education, The University of Alabama
“This was the ideal combination of high level critical thinking, top notch professionalism, and profound humanity. We learned an amazing amount in a short time but in an easily digestible and, hence, impactful fashion.”
- Colleen Ryan, Associate Vice Provost for Faculty & Academic Affairs, Indiana University
“The Executive-Level Leadership Institute not only helped to develop my skills and capabilities as a woman leader in academia, but also (and maybe more importantly), gave me more confidence in my abilities as a leader.”
- Marika Seigel, Associate Provost and Dean, Michigan Technological University
Pricing
July 14-16, 2025
Denver, CO
Starting at:
- Member Price: $2,345/person
- Non-Member Price: $2,595/person
- Team Discount: $2,000/person (for 3 or more)
Questions About the Event?
Jess Landis
Senior Learning and Development Manager, Academic Impressions
As a Senior Learning and Development Manager at Academic Impressions, Jess leads AI’s strategy and content development for our inclusive leadership and women’s leadership programs, creating engaging learning experiences for faculty and staff to expand their self-awareness, work effectively and mindfully with others, build high-performing teams, and collaboratively lead strategic initiatives....Read Full Bio.
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