Keynote Speakers

Tia Brown McNair

Speaker, Author of Becoming a Student-Ready College

Tia McNair will be speaking at 4:30pm, on Wendesday, April 4, 2018

About Tia Brown McNair:

Dr. Tia Brown McNair is the Vice President in the Office of Diversity, Equity, and Student Success at Association of American 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 educational practices, and student success, including AAC&U’s Network for Academic Renewal series of yearly working conferences. McNair also directs AAC&U’s Summer Institute on High-Impact Educational Practices and Student Success. McNair serves as the project director for several AAC&U initiatives: "Truth, Racial Healing and Transformation," “Committing to Equity and Inclusive Excellence: Campus-Based Strategies for Student Success,” and Purposeful Pathways: Faculty Planning and Curricular Coherence.” She directed AAC&U's projects on "Advancing Underserved Student Success through Faculty Intentionality in Problem-Centered Learning,” "Advancing Roadmaps for Community College Leadership to Improve Student Learning and Success,” and "Developing a Community College Roadmap. McNair chaired AAC&U’s Equity Working Group that was part of the General Education Maps and Markers (GEMs) project that represented a large-scale, systematic effort to provide “design principles” for 21st-century learning and long-term student success.

She is the lead author of the book Becoming a Student-Ready College: A New Culture of Leadership for Student Success (July 2016). McNair is a co-author on the publication Assessing Underserved Students’ Engagement in High-Impact Practices.

Prior to joining AAC&U, McNair served as the Assistant Director of the National College Access Network (NCAN) in Washington, DC. McNair’s previous experience also includes serving as a Social Scientist/Assistant Program Director in the Directorate for Education and Human Resources at the National Science Foundation (NSF), Director of University Relations at the University of Charleston in Charleston, West Virginia; the Statewide Coordinator for the Educational Talent Search Project at the West Virginia Higher Education Policy Commission; and the Interim Associate Director of Admissions and Recruitment Services at West Virginia State University. She has served as an adjunct faculty member at several institutions where she taught first-year English courses.

McNair earned her bachelor’s degree in political science and English at James Madison University and holds an M.A. in English from Radford University and a doctorate in higher education administration from George Washington University.  

Barbara Trautlein

Speaker, Author of Change Intelligence

Barbara Trautlein will be speaking at 8:00am, on Thursday, April 5, 2018

About Barbara Trautlein:

Barbara A. Trautlein, PhD is author of the best-selling book Change Intelligence:  
Use the Power of CQ to Lead Change that Sticks, principal and founder of Change Catalysts, and originator of the CQ System for Developing Change Intelligent Leaders and Organizations. For over 25 years, Barbara has coached executives, trained leaders at all levels, certified change agents, and facilitated mission-critical change management initiatives - achieving bottom-line business and powerful leadership results for clients.  In 2015 she had the honor of being awarded Change Management Consultant of the Year by the Association of Change Management Professionals (ACMP) Midwest Chapter.  She is gifted at sharing strategies and tactics that are accessible, actionable, and immediately applicable.  Her blend of research and real-world expertise makes her an in-demand speaker at conferences in North America, South America, Europe, Asia, and Africa.  Barbara has a unique ability to connect with her audiences, from C-level executives in Fortune 50 organizations to front line employees, and across industries, from steel mills to sales teams, refineries to retail outlets, and healthcare to high tech.  Clients served include Abbot Laboratories, BP, Cisco, Ford, the NYPD, and Northwestern University.  Barbara holds a doctorate in Organizational Psychology from the University of Michigan. 

• https://www.linkedin.com/in/barbaratrautlein/

Tom Matson

Gallup Researcher, Executive Coach, Speaker, Author of Strengths for Students

Tom Matson will be speaking at 3:00pm, on Thursday, April 5, 2018

About Tom Matson:
Tom Matson, Senior Executive Leadership Strategist, is an executive coach, author and leadership expert. Tom is a TEDx speaker and presents to thousands of people each year about Gallup’s research on leadership, well-being and behavioral economics. He challenges his listeners to become authentic leaders who are committed to living their strengths each day and to creating a thriving, engaged life.Tom is the author of Unfrozen and Journey in the Present and is the strategist, architect and senior writer for CliftonStrengths for Students.

As a Senior Executive Leadership Strategist, Tom works with executives and leaders to implement organizational performance strategies that increase engagement and well-being through a strengths-based approach. As an executive coach, he provides performance coaching for senior leaders. Tom has worked with clients in the healthcare, financial services, retail, biotechnology and government sectors, as well as with universities, colleges and nonprofit organizations.

Tom is an NCAA letter winner in tennis, and he coached high school tennis for more than 20 years. He has served on the board of directors of the United States Tennis Association’s Northern Tennis Foundation, the National Advisory Board of Tennis and Life Camps, and the Sigma Chi Fraternity. In 2007, former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty appointed Tom to the Minnesota Academic Excellence Foundation. In 2017, the Sigma Chi Fraternity inducted Tom into their Order of Constantine, the highest honor that the fraternity bestows upon one of its members. 

Tom received a bachelor’s degree in communications, a master’s degree in organizational leadership and a graduate certificate in positive psychology. 
He lives in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

CliftonStrengths Top Five: 
Strategic - Individualization - Maximizer - Relator - Activator

Jeffrey Buller

Speaker, Educator, author of Positive Academic Leadership

Jeffrey Buller will be speaking at 3:00pm, on Tuesday, April 3, 2018, during the Conference Prelude and at 9:00am on Friday, April 6th, 2018 during the Conference Summit

About Jeffrey Buller:

Jeffrey L. Buller has served in administrative positions ranging from department chair to vice president for academic affairs at four very different institutions: Loras College, Georgia Southern University, Mary Baldwin College and Florida Atlantic University. He is the author of fourteen books on higher education administration, a textbook for first year college students, and a book of essays on the music dramas of Richard Wagner.

Dr. Buller has also written numerous articles on Greek and Latin literature, nineteenth- and twentieth-century opera and college administration. From 2003-2005, he served as the principal English-language lecturer at the International Wagner Festival in Bayreuth, Germany.

More recently, he has been active as a consultant to the Ministry of Education in Saudi Arabia, where he is assisting with the creation of a kingdom-wide Academic Leadership Center.

Along with Robert E. Cipriano, Dr. Buller is a senior partner in ATLAS: Academic Training, Leadership & Assessment Services, through which he has presented numerous workshops on positive academic leadership, dealing with change, and coping with the pressures of academic administration.