Keynote Speakers

Wednesday, September 30

1:30-2:30 p.m.
Dr. Nancy Zimpher, Chancellor
State University of New York (SUNY)

The Education Pipeline: What Supply-chain Management Can Teach Us About Education, Sustainability, and Workforce Development

Chancellor Zimpher will address the need for a robust education pipeline, the value of systemic partnerships and infrastructures at the local, state, and federal levels, and lessons that can be learned from supply-chain management. She'll draw on her experience with the Strive collaborative in Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky and the Milwaukee Partnership Academy. She will also address how a global approach will benefit workplace development, and the role the SUNY system can play in that process.

Thursday, October 1

9-10 a.m.
Dr. John Ebersole, President
Excelsior College

The Role of Continuing Higher Education and the Future of America

This address will focus on some of the most serious economic and societal challenges which face our nation in the decade ahead. In addition to “sounding the alarm” in regard to these challenges, the presentation will speak directly to the roles and responsibilities of continuing educators in developing a response. This call to action is intended to provoke further conversation regarding the resilience, resources and resolve needed to ensure future prosperity, equity and opportunity.

Friday, October 2

8:30-9:30 a.m.
Doug Neidich, Chief Executive Officer
GreenWorks Development

Mixing Higher Education and Green Technologies for Regional Economic Development

The newly-formed Green Center of Central Pennsylvania is a key addition to the redevelopment of the Midtown district in Pennsylvania’s state capital, Harrisburg. The Center is a partnership between Harrisburg Area Community College, GreenWorks and Central Pennsylvania green businesses. It will become a hub for green technology education and training, green-technology implementation, and green-technology information in the area. Doug Neidich, GreenWorks' CEO, will talk about the project, its current and anticipated impacts, its challenges, plans for the future, and how this initiative with higher education promotes regionalism and regional economic development.