When WASC began the process of revising the Handbook of Accreditation and visit process, we commissioned six papers focusing on key elements of the environment for higher education - elements that are critical now and likely to become even more so in the coming decade. Read the papers posted online at wascarc.org, then attend this session and join the discussion with national experts about the future we face together.

Moderator:  Doug Lederman

Panelists:   

• Brice W. Harris
  
• Pat Hutchings
• Graham Leicester
• Arthur Levine
• Robert Shireman                    

Doug Lederman, editor, is one of the three founders of Inside Higher Ed. With Scott Jaschik, he leads the site's editorial operations, overseeing news content, opinion pieces, career advice, blogs and other features. Doug speaks widely about higher education, including on C-Span and National Public Radio and at meetings around the country, and his work has appeared in The New York Times, USA Today, the Nieman Foundation Journal, The Christian Science Monitor, and the Princeton Alumni Weekly. Doug was managing editor of The Chronicle of Higher Education from 1999 to 2003. Before that, Doug had worked at The Chronicle since 1986 in a variety of roles, first as an athletics reporter and editor. He has won three National Awards for Education Reporting from the Education Writers Association, including one in 2009 for a series of Inside Higher Ed articles on college rankings. He began his career as a news clerk at The New York Times. He grew up in Shaker Heights, Ohio, and graduated in 1984 from Princeton University.

Brice W. Harris serves as Chancellor of the Los Rios Community College District in Sacramento. Los Rios currently enrolls nearly 94,000 students and is one of the largest multi-college districts in America. Previously Harris was the President of Fresno City College and Vice Chancellor in the Kansas City, Missouri, community college system. He is an active member of the greater Sacramento business community and a dedicated supporter of local arts organizations. Harris serves on the Board of the American Council on Education in Washington, D.C.; is past chairman of the Board of the California Community College Chief Executive Officers; and is a former Commissioner of the Accrediting Commission of Community and Junior Colleges. He chaired the Task Force on Leadership in California Community Colleges, as well as the Community College Task Force on Global and International Education. He has also served on the Board of Directors of the American Association of Community Colleges. Harris did post doctoral work at the Harvard University Institute of Educational Management. He received his Doctorate in Education at Nova Southeastern University, his Master's in Communication from the University of Arkansas, and his Bachelor's in Communication from Southwestern Oklahoma State University.

Pat Hutchings, currently a senior associate, was vice president of The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching from 2001-2009. She began there in 1998 as senior scholar and inaugural director of the Carnegie Academy for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning. She has written, spoken, and consulted widely on student outcomes assessment, integrative learning, the investigation and documentation of teaching and learning, course and teaching portfolios, peer collaboration and review of teaching, and the scholarship of teaching and learning. Recent publications include The Advancement of Learning: Building the Teaching Commons, with Mary Taylor Huber (2005), Ethics of Inquiry: Issues in the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (2002), and Opening Lines: Approaches to the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (2000). Prior to joining Carnegie, she was a senior staff member at the American Association for Higher Education, 1987-1998, and chair of the English department at Alverno College from 1978-1987. She holds a doctorate in English from the University of Iowa.

Graham Leicester is Director of the International Futures Forum. IFF was established in 2001 through a generous grant from BP with a mission to restore effectiveness in action in a world of boundless complexity, radical interconnectedness and rapid change. The Forum responds to critical issues facing business, education, government, and communities. Its work covers, among other things, the areas of health, learning, enterprise, and governance. Graham previously ran Scotland's leading think tank, the Scottish Council Foundation, founded in 1997. From 1984 to1995 he served as a diplomat in HM Diplomatic Service, specialising in China (he speaks Mandarin Chinese) and the EU. Between 1995 and 1997 he was senior research fellow with the Constitution Unit at University College London. He has also worked as a freelance professional cellist, including with the BBC Concert Orchestra. He has a strong interest in governance, innovation, and education; is a senior adviser to both the Scottish Government and the British Council on those issues; and has previously worked with OECD, the World Bank Institute, and other agencies on the themes of governance in a knowledge society and governance for the long term.

Arthur Levine has been president of the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation since 2006. Previously president and professor of education at Teachers College, Columbia University, he has also been chair of the Institute for Educational Management at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, president of Bradford College, and a senior fellow at the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching and the Carnegie Council on Policy Studies in Higher Education. Levine has authored scores of articles and reviews, including a series of reports on the preparation of school leaders, teachers, and education researchers. His work has appeared in such publications as The New York Times; The Los Angeles Times; The Wall Street Journal; Education Week; Inside Higher Education; and The Chronicle of Higher Education. The most recent of his 11 books is Unequal Fortunes: Snapshots from the South Bronx (with Laura Scheiber). Levine's honors include a Guggenheim Fellowship, the American Council on Education's Book of the Year award, and 19 honorary degrees. A member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, he sits on the boards of DePaul University and Say Yes to Education. He received his bachelor's degree from Brandeis University and his Ph.D. from the State University of New York at Buffalo. 
DUE TO UNFORESEEN CIRCUMSTANCES, ART LEVINE WILL NOT BE ABLE TO JOIN US.

Robert Shireman served as deputy undersecretary of education in the initial 18 months of the Obama Administration, spearheading successful efforts to reform student lending, increase Pell Grants, simplify financial aid, strengthen consumer protections, and focus national attention on college completion. Now a consultant, he is leading California Competes, an independent, nonpartisan project to secure a stronger economy by building a talent pool whose creativity, innovation, entrepreneurship and industriousness matches the needs of the 21st century. Shireman's previous work on student debt prompted Congress to adopt income-based repayment for student loans, and loan forgiveness for public service. He has worked inside and outside of government on a wide range of issues including campus diversity, high school reform, community colleges, pre-college programs, tax credits, school construction, teacher preparation, and community service. He earned his Bachelor's degree in Economics from the University of California at Berkeley, a Master's in Education from Harvard, and a Master's in Public Administration from the University of San Francisco.

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