REGISTER
Captioning for the deaf and hard of hearing is provided by Ai-Media for all Inside Higher Ed webcasts. Transcripts available upon request.
Higher education isn't facing just one disruption. It’s dealing with demographic shifts, affordability pressures, rapid advances in technology and a volatile policy landscape—among other pressures—all at the same time. So the question for institutional leaders is no longer whether change is coming: It’s how to redesign their institutions to succeed in this emerging operating environment.
Join Inside Higher Ed for a discussion inspired by our special report, “Higher Ed's Big Restructuring: Adapting to the Era of the Modern Learner.” The live discussion will explore how colleges and universities are moving beyond incremental change to rethink academic programs, learner pathways, technology, workforce partnerships and the student experience.
A panel of higher education leaders and experts will discuss questions including:
- How should institutions respond to growing demand for flexible, career-connected learning?
- What does artificial intelligence require leaders to rethink beyond classroom policy?
- How can colleges better serve learners across multiple generations and stages of life?
- What organizational, technological and cultural changes will position institutions for long-term success?
Can't attend the webcast? You should still register -- all registrants will receive a recording of the webcast and a copy of the presentation slides.
Tuesday, August 25, 2026 | 2 p.m. E.T.
Higher Ed's Big Restructuring: Adapting to the Era of the Modern Learner
SPEAKERS
MODERATOR
Colleen Flaherty
Senior Editor of Special Content at Inside Higher Ed
Colleen Flaherty, senior editor of 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.
Ben Upton
Freelance Journalist and Report Author
Ben Upton is a freelance journalist based in Washington. He served as Times Higher Education’s Europe reporter between November 2021 and October 2023 and previously covered European research policy for Research Professional News. Before graduating from City, University of London’s journalism school in 2017, he worked in academic publishing and taught at a private university in Wuhan, China.
To get the most out of the webcast, download and explore the special report.
Kathleen deLaski
Founder & Board Chair at Education Design Lab
Kathleen deLaski is the founder and board chair of the Education Design Lab, which works with colleges, states and employers to design shorter, more targeted forms of higher education. She is the author of the new best-selling book, Who Needs College Anymore? Imagining a Future Where Degrees Won't Matter, by Harvard Education Press. Kathleen serves as a senior advisor for Harvard's Project on the Workforce and teaches about higher ed redesign and AI adoption in the workforce at George Mason University. She also manages the deLaski Family Foundation, a national grant-maker in education reform and economic mobility. Kathleen has been named to Washingtonian Magazine’s list of top policy influencers each year from 2022-2025. Earlier in her career, Kathleen was a television correspondent for ABC News, covering the White House and foreign affairs, a consumer product developer in the early days of AOL, and, in the Clinton administration, the first woman to serve as chief Pentagon spokesperson.
Quinn Koller
Director of Academic Strategy at Utah Valley University
Quinn Koller is director of academic strategy at Utah Valley University and co-founder and principal at QR Strategic Foresight, a consultancy that helps presidents and provosts at tuition-dependent regional universities navigate program viability and institutional restructuring. At UVU, he led a portfolio-wide viability analysis spanning hundreds of academic programs and designed the university's B.S. in strategic foresight in business, believed to be the first program of its kind in the U.S. He also teaches in the Woodbury School of Business and writes Uncharted Institutions, a newsletter on the structural forces reshaping higher education.
Irma Becerra, Ph.D.
President of Marymount University
Dr. Irma Becerra took office as the seventh president of Marymount University on July 1, 2018. In her eight-plus years as president, she has elevated Marymount's national prominence, expanded market-driven academic programs, strengthened the university’s infrastructure and guided the institution through the COVID-19 pandemic. Under her leadership, Marymount earned national recognition in U.S. News & World Report’s Best Colleges rankings, became Virginia’s first Hispanic-serving institution, and attained rare dual Carnegie Classifications as both a Research College and University and an Opportunity College and University — one of just 33 institutions nationwide with this distinction. She is a nationally recognized educator known for innovation, entrepreneurship and transformational education. Before Marymount, she served as provost and chief academic officer at St. Thomas University. She also spent three decades at Florida International University (FIU) in various positions, including vice president, vice provost, entrepreneurship center director and tenured professor. She became the first woman to earn a Ph.D. in electrical engineering at FIU.
John D. Skrentny, Ph.D.
Professor of Sociology at UC San Diego
John D. Skrentny is professor of sociology at UC San Diego and a scholar of higher education, work, innovation and public policy. He is the author of Wasted Education: How We Fail Our Graduates in Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (University of Chicago Press). His current research with Mary Walshok, based on more than 70 interviews across eight U.S. metropolitan regions, argues that universities must expand beyond “career launching” to also embrace “career sustaining”: helping college graduates repeatedly renew their skills as artificial intelligence, technological change and economic disruption reshape work. They call the organizational model for doing this the “dual-speed university.” Skrentny’s research has appeared in Science and the Yale Law Journal, and his public writing in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal and Los Angeles Times.