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Featured Panelists

Michael H. Gavin, Ph.D.
President of Delta College

Dr. Michael H. Gavin became Delta College’s fifth president in 2021, bringing 20+ years of experience at large community colleges and national recognition for advancing academic excellence and equity. Previously, he was the vice president of learning at Anne Arundel Community College, a tenured English professor and then the senior academic administrator at Prince George’s Community College, where he led efforts to align courses, general education and programs with a variety of high-impact practices focused on student success and completion. Dr. Gavin holds a doctorate in American studies from the University of Maryland, a master’s in literature from American University and a bachelor’s in literature from Dickinson College. Whether he’s serving on national or local boards or giving a keynote address on navigating attacks on diversity, equity and inclusion in higher ed, Dr. Gavin reminds us that community colleges have the capacity to reshape the inequities in society. He is the author of two books; the most recent, The New White Nationalism in Politics and Higher Education was released in 2020 and is in paperback as of spring 2023. He leads a national coalition of college presidents and higher education leaders in resisting anti-DEI legislation called Education for All.  

Trey Conatser, Ph.D.
Assistant Provost for Teaching and Learning and Director of the Center for the Enhancement of Learning and Teaching (CELT) at the University of Kentucky

Dr. Trey Conatser is assistant provost for teaching and learning, and director of CELT at UK, where he heads CELT operations in pursuit of innovative, effective and engaging teaching and learning. Trey has led initiatives addressing AI, transdisciplinary education, durable career skills, scholarship of teaching and learning, and learners' changing needs. Over the past few years, he has overseen a significant growth of CELT's reach and impact as well as a diversification of strategy for supporting instructors and students. Now serving UK's education mission for fifteen years, CELT actively collaborates with all 19 colleges and a wide range of academic and administrative support units. Trey holds a Ph.D. in English from The Ohio State University, specializing in rhetoric and writing, digital humanities, and teaching and learning. His research examines technology-enhanced learning, methods of teaching writing and communication skills, and the role of humanities education, with work published in the Palgrave Handbook of Digital and Public Humanities, College Teaching, the Journal of Digital Humanities and Computers and Composition Online. Trey has presented on a range of issues in educational development, teaching and learning, and the future of higher education. At UK, Trey teaches courses for the Department of Writing, Rhetoric and Digital Studies, where he is a formal affiliate; the Lewis Honors College; and the Graduate Certificate for College Teaching and Learning. He is a 2025-26 Gaines Center for the Humanities Teaching Fellow.  

Colleen Flaherty
Senior Editor for Special Content at Inside Higher Ed

Colleen Flaherty, Senior Editor for Special Content, previously served as Student Voice Editor for Inside Higher Ed. Prior to joining the publication in 2012, Colleen was military editor at the Killeen Daily Herald, outside Fort Hood, Texas. Before that, she covered government and land use issues for the Greenwich Time and Hersam Acorn Newspapers in her home state of Connecticut. After graduating from McGill University in Montreal with a degree in English literature, Colleen taught English and English as a second language in public schools in the Bronx, New York. She earned her M.S.Ed. from City University of New York Lehman College as part of the New York City Teaching Fellows program.

Lynn Pasquerella, Ph.D.
President of the American Association of Colleges and Universities (AAC&U)

Dr. Lynn Pasquerella was appointed president of the American Association of Colleges and Universities in 2016, after serving as the eighteenth president of Mount Holyoke College. Dr. Pasquerella has held positions as provost at the University of Hartford and vice provost for academic affairs and dean of the graduate school at the University of Rhode Island, where she taught for more than two decades. A philosopher whose work has combined teaching and scholarship with local and global engagement, Pasquerella has written extensively on medical ethics, metaphysics, public policy and the philosophy of law. Her most recent book, What We Value: Public Health, Social Justice, and Educating for Democracy, examines the role of higher education in addressing some of the most pressing contemporary issues at the intersection of ethics, law and public policy. Pasquerella is immediate past president of the Phi Beta Kappa Society and the host of Northeast Public Radio’s The Academic Minute. She is a graduate of Quinebaug Valley Community College, Mount Holyoke College and Brown University. Her honors include the President’s Award and Judith Krug Medal from Phi Beta Kappa, the William Rogers Award and the Horace Mann Medal from Brown, the STAR Scholars Network North Star Lifetime Achievement Award and Mary Baldwin University’s Algernon Sydney Sullivan Service to Humanity Award. She has received additional recognition from the Council of Colleges of Arts and Sciences, QVCC and Mount Holyoke. Pasquerella holds honorary degrees from nine institutions, including Elizabethtown College, the University of Rhode Island and the University of South Florida, and was named one of America’s top 35 women leaders by Diverse: Issues in Higher Education. She serves on the boards of the Lingnan Foundation, the National Trust for the Humanities, the Coalition for the Common Good and Handshake.