Keynote and Plenary Speakers

 

SSRC Plenary Session Title & Description Feb. 3, 2023

Title: Thriving, not just surviving this crazy period of transformation

Session Summary: The last 5 years have been filled with lots of transformations in terms of how we relate to each other, how and where we work, not to mention the numerous societal changes.  Often when change comes this fast, our default position is to "hunker down" and hope it blows over.  In my time with you, I will offer an alternative approach. Transformation is not something to be survived, you can thrive during transformation.  After providing some insights on why change is difficult, I will offer specific tools and tips that you can use to lean into this period of transformation and thrive!

 

Biography

Dr. Marvin Washington (Ph.D., Northwestern University / Kellogg Graduate School of Management), is most known as a Pracademic (practicing academic).   Dr. Washington has written three books focused on leadership, strategy, and organizational change. His most recent book is, Lead Self First Before Leading Others with Stephen Hacker at Business Expert Press.

Over the past 20 years, Dr. Washington has worked with a wide array of organizations. Most notably, Dr. Washington has worked with organizations such as AHS, Enbridge, Shaw Communications, AIMCo, Blue Cross, YMCA, Parkland Fuels, Syncrude, and SportChek, many ministries and departments in the Country of Botswana, the state of Oregon, Government of Alberta and the City of Edmonton on topics of leadership, organizational change, and diversity, equity, inclusion and social justice.

Currently he is a Professor of Management at Portland State University. Prior to that he spent 15 years at the University of Alberta and 5 years at Texas Tech University.

On a personal note, Dr. Washington is married and has 3 sons. When not at work, Dr. Washington is an avid basketball fan having coached boys’ and girls’ basketball teams for almost 20 years.

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Biography

Former Dean and Professor Laura Burney Nissen is with the Portland State University School of Social Work.  With a commitment to innovative and equity-centered systems change, Laura has worked with futures practice and lenses throughout her career in a variety of transdisciplinary settings.  She is in the a foresight practitioner and a Research Fellow with the Institute for the Future and has served as a Presidential Futures Fellow at PSU 2019-2022. She has been PI on a two-year grant to convene first of its kind national
Social Work Health Futures Lab from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.  This lab provides infrastructure and inspiration to further develop applications of a futures lens for the social work profession with an emphasis on practice in health and health justice.  Her commitment is to challenge social work and social workers to think beyond the traps of “short-termism” and participate in co-creating the world we want.

She lives in the Columbia River Gorge with her husband Don and puppy, Birdie.
For additional information about her work, please visit:  www.socialworkfutures.com, follow on Twitter @lauranissen

 

SSRC Keynote Session Title & Description

Feb. 2, 2023 from 9:00 – 10:15 am

Title: Higher Education in Post Normal Times:  A Foresight Lens on What Comes Next

Session Summary:  In this keynote, Dr. Nissen will share work developed in the PSU Futures Collaboratory - a 3-year project to explore how foresight and futures studies could help the university respond to and navigate a changing higher ed ecosystem.   Though not about "predicting" the future, foresight is a philosophy and a suite of tools to help people understand and make meaning of the velocity of multi-directional change and what the Collins Dictionary's word of the year deems "the permacrisis."   With a commitment to massive democratization of the future with particular attention to equity-centered futures - she'll make the case that the future is too important to be left to a few people to decide...both inside of higher ed as well as in the world at large.   She'll share a window on the global practice of foresight in ways that will energize the audience and make sure that participants leave with a few skills to "future proof" their work inside the evolving higher education ecosystem.

 

SSRC Workshop

Feb. 2, 2023 from 10:45 – 11:45 am

Title: Navigating the changing realities of teaching and learning in the new normal: A human-centered foresight lens

Session Summary:  This workshop is intended to provide a discussion/reflection framework for those involved directly in teaching roles.   Despite the enduring importance and centrality of teaching and learning in higher education, there is also great change (both wanted and unwanted) for those responsible for providing instruction across higher education.   New stresses, risks, learning, opportunities, discoveries, responsibilities and fears all coalesce in the topic of the "future of teaching and learning."  This will be a primarily discussion/reflection-based session and participants will leave with new navigation tools and ideas to uncover aspirations, unleash energy and share meaning making about what the future of higher education holds.