Dr. Tia Brown McNair & Dr. C. Edward Watson - Plenary Speakers

How are institutions building diverse and equity-centered opportunities for the future of online and blended education? What are existing and emerging evidence-based practices and opportunities that promote innovation and student success? This session will focus on topics related to using data to inform pedagogical and institutional changes related to equity, inclusive excellence, high-impact practices, and student success.

Dr. Tia Brown McNair is the Vice President in the Office of Diversity, Equity, and Student Success and Executive Director for the Truth, Racial Healing, and Transformation (TRHT) Campus Centers at the American Association of Colleges and Universities (AAC&U) in Washington, DC. She oversees both funded projects and AAC&U’s continuing programs on equity, inclusive excellence, high-impact practices, and student success. McNair directs AAC&U’s Summer Institutes on High-Impact Practices and Student Success, and TRHT Campus Centers and serves as the project director for several AAC&U initiatives, including the development of a TRHT-focused campus climate toolkit. She is the lead author of From Equity Talk to Equity Walk: Expanding Practitioner Knowledge for Racial Justice in Higher Education (January 2020) and Becoming a Student-Ready College: A New Culture of Leadership for Student Success (July 2016 and August 2022 Second edition).

Edward Watson is Associate Vice President for Curricular and Pedagogical Innovation at the American Association of Colleges and Universities (AAC&U).  He joined AAC&U in 2017 after serving as the director for the Center for Teaching and Learning at the University of Georgia (UGA).  In 2013, while at UGA, he launched their OER initiative, which, when Watson joined AAC&U, was ranked 2nd by OpenStax on their list of schools that had saved their students the most money through OER adoption.  Also at UGA, he obtained grants supporting OER adoption and engaged in and published groundbreaking research in the domain.  Since joining AAC&U, Watson launched AAC&U’s Institute on Open Education Resources, which has supported the OER work of 140 campuses teams between 2021 and the date of this publication.  In addition to OER leadership at AAC&U, Watson also directs the yearly Forum on Open Learning and ePortfolios, AAC&U’s Institute on ePortfolios, and is the executive editor of the International Journal of ePortfolio.  He also co-directs AAC&U’s Conference on General Education, Pedagogy, and Assessment and the Institute on General Education and Assessment.  He is the author of two recent books, Teaching Naked Techniques:  A Practical Guide to Designing Better Classes (Jossey-Bass) and Playing to Learn with Reacting to the Past – Research on High Impact, Active Learning Practices (Palgrave MacMillan).