Expanding the Reach of our Moon Shot: Leveraging Change Management to Sustain Equity-Minded Institutional Culture

Whereas many institutions are working to close equity gaps in student success, the true challenge is often in sustaining equity-minded change over time. Short-term changes in equity gaps often rebound after an initiative ends or administrative attention shifts (Dowd & Bensimon, 2015). Change in campus culture is needed to accomplish transformation that supports the closing of equity gaps in student success over time. In this webinar Dr. Vanessa Kahen will introduce an application of Kotter’s theory of change management (Kotter, Akhtar, & Gupta, 2021) for the higher education context. Using the Moon Shot for Equity approach at West Chester University’s (WCU), Dr. Kahen will provide participants with examples to assist in developing strategy for equity-minded campus culture change.

Dr. Vanessa Kahen is the Director of West Chester University’s (WCU) Moon Shot for Equity Mission. Drawing on more than 20-years of experience in higher education, Dr. Kahen believes in the need to develop student-centered universities. Her background includes co-chairing the WCU’s Equity Scorecard team from 2011-2014, leading her university’s effort to find effective pathways to closing racial equity gaps in student access, retention, and completion rates by identifying and remediating unintended obstacles contributing to racial disproportions in student success. She studies risk and protective factors for social and emotional wellbeing during the transition to college. She earned her Ph.D. in Psychology from the University of California, Berkeley.

Session

• Thursday, October 19 | 1:00 p.m. – 2:00 p.m. ET