About UCEA

President's Letters

Creating Our Future ... Together

It is truly an honor to be selected to represent and lead UCEA at this point in its history as it intersects my own career. I care deeply about this Association and about the future of higher education. Assuming leadership at this time, when UCEA's membership is strong and finances are sound, presents us a wonderful opportunity to focus on the future.

It has been 10 years since UCEA undertook an extensive planning process that resulted in the organizational structure we know today. Eight years from now, UCEA will be preparing to celebrate its 100th year. Without a clear vision of where we are headed as a profession, it makes it difficult to set priorities and consider thoughtful decisions about the future of the Association.

As a way of continuing the conversations begun this month at our 91st Annual Conference about what we expect higher education will look like 10 years from now, the UCEA Board of Directors will conduct a strategic visioning process in the coming year that will focus on the future of the profession. Unlike the last planning effort, this is not intended to focus on how UCEA should be organized. Instead, the expectation is to use the existing structures that are already in place to conduct meaningful discussions about our profession throughout the Association. To provide continuity a year from now, Richard Novak, UCEA President- Elect, has agreed to lead this effort.

I believe it is time for us to put a stake in the ground and clearly state what is important about the field of continuing higher education and how we add value to the students, universities, and communities we serve. We must continue to understand the challenges facing our institutions, align our missions, and provide evidence about affordable, and more effective in achieving student learning outcomes? How can we connect with all people's passion to learn throughout their lives-and not just with the ones who can afford to pay for it? How can we, as change agents in our own institutions, be more innovative and less routine in the work we do?

Who else can better answer these questions than the members of this Association? Once we clearly articulate what we expect will be important in this profession over the next 10 years, then we will turn our attention to setting priorities for the Association. Here are some of the questions to be addressed in the coming year:

• How well are our professional development activities aligned with the needs of the membership? o Are there any particular needs of new and younger members entering the profession that we should pay attention to?

• What sets of data should we be collecting that will help us tell a compelling story of the impact of continuing education on students, institutions, and communities?

• What partnerships should we seek out with other higher education organizations and associations to help UCEA advance its goals?

• How can UCEA more intentionally support international education and the impact of the global economy on our students, our campuses, and our communities?

If we conduct this process well in the coming year and involve diverse voices throughout the membership, I expect our efforts will go a long way to make sure UCEA remains vibrant, relevant and nimble as it approaches its 100th year.

Please join me and the Board of Directors in the coming year as we imagine together the future of our profession and then chart a course for our Association.