Academic Leadership Program Convocation: Leading Through Crisis in Higher Education

For current and former Academic Leadership Fellows

The Institute for the Arts and Humanities is delighted to invite all current and former ALP participants to attend an exciting convocation event:

“Leading Through Crisis in Higher Education: A Conversation with Lynn Wooten, President of Simmons University, and Erika James, Dean of Penn’s Wharton School of Business.”

Higher education is experiencing a myriad of crises. From the war on the arts and humanities, the battle for higher education’s relevance in the current US political climate, to community wellbeing, safety and security, to the ongoing re-emergence and response from multiple pandemics – higher education finds itself at a crucial crossroads.

In this engaging conversation, academic leaders Lynn Wooten and Erika James will share their experiences of leading through the multitude of higher education crises they have experienced the past few years at two very different institutions: an all women’s liberal arts college in Boston and an Ivy League business school in Philadelphia. Wooten and James will also draw from their new book, The Prepared Leader: Emerge from Any Crisis More Resilient Than Before (Wharton School Press, September 2022).

Following the conversation, IAH Director Patricia Parker and ALP co-facilitator Rob Kramer will lead a discussion on the takeaways and the possibilities for UNC.

Schedule:

9:30 a.m.- 10:00 a.m.: Mixer and refreshments

10:00 a.m. – 11:00 a.m.: Panel discussion and Q&A with Wooten and James (virtual)

11:00 a.m. – 11:30 a.m.: Debrief: Impacts at UNC, with Pat Parker, IAH Director, and Rob Kramer, IAH Senior Leadership Advisor

Registration:

Please register via Qualtrics here: https://unc.az1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_bDGJDPRuvGDuPTE. The IAH has a limited number of copies of The Prepared Leader: Emerge from Any Crisis More Resilient Than Before that will be given to those who register by Oct. 20, 2023.

The deadline to register is Oct. 30, 2023.

Dr. Lynn Perry Wooten is the ninth president of Simmons University and the first African American to lead the institution. A seasoned academic and an expert on organizational development, Lynn specializes in crisis leadership, diversity and inclusion, and positive leadership. She is an innovative leader and prolific author and presenter whose research has informed her work in the classroom and as an administrator. Dr. Wooten earned a BS in accounting in 1988 from North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University, a Historically Black College, where she graduated as valedictorian; an MBA from the Duke University Fuqua School of Business in 1990; and a PhD in business administration from the University of Michigan Ross School of Business in 1995. She received a Certificate in Advanced Educational Leadership from the Harvard University Graduate School of Education in 2018.

Dr. Erika H. James became the dean of the Wharton School on July 1, 2020. Trained as an organizational psychologist, James is an expert on crisis leadership, workplace diversity and management strategy. Prior to her appointment at Wharton, James was the John H. Harland Dean at Emory University’s Goizueta Business School from 2014 to 2020. An award-winning educator, accomplished consultant, and researcher, she is the first woman and first person of color to be appointed dean in Wharton’s 141-year history. As such she has paved the way for women in leadership both in education and corporate America. James has been instrumental in developing course material in crisis leadership and women’s leadership and in leading programs for executive audiences in these areas. She earned her B.A from Pomona College and her PhD from the University of Michigan.