Keith Edwards

YouTube video by myACPA Join the 2025 Institute on the Curricular Approach

Higher ed is facing major challenges. This is a time to move boldly and invest in your teams to better use resources and double down on student success. Join us for @myacpa.bsky.social Institute on the Curricular Approach in October. I will see you there.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=O8kA...

The Power of Mattering: How Leaders Can Create a Culture of Significance Dr. Zach Mercurio discusses his new book The Power of Mattering: How Leaders Can Create a Culture of Significance. Zach comes from student affairs roots and focuses now on significance, meaning, purpo...

Dr. Zach Mercurio discusses his book The Power of Mattering. He describes how mattering differs from belonging and inclusion and how much mattering matters and a practical framework for cultivating mattering: noticing, affirming, and needing.
studentaffairsnow.com/the-power-of...

Here's the Story: "It Can't Be About Me" While it is hard to think about the "dark place" that COVID holds in our collective heart, we are remiss if we do not acknowledge the great work that was done. Ardell Sanders tells a story about lesso...

While it is hard to think about the “dark place” that COVID holds in our collective heart, we are remiss if we do not acknowledge the great work that was done. Ardell Sanders tells a story about lessons learned and victories won during that tough time.
studentaffairsnow.com/heres-the-st...

Here's The Story: "Paid in Full" Paying it forward comes to life as Dr. McZee makes good on a commitment to pay forward care for the African American men he mentors until it was paid in full.

Paying it forward comes to life as Dr. McZee makes good on a commitment to pay forward care for the African American men he mentors until it was paid in full. studentaffairsnow.com/heres-the-st...

Are you struggling to engage men effectively without reifying troubling patterns? Here’s a resource grounded in research and proven in practice.
keithedwards.com/book/

Leading Toward Liberation: How to Build Cultures of Thriving in Higher Education Dr. Annmarie Caño discusses her book Leading Toward Liberation: How to Build Cultures of Thriving in Higher Education. This book offers a transformative approach to leadership in higher education that...

Dr. @annmarie-cano.bsky.social's Leading Toward Liberation offers an approach to HE leadership centering justice, healing, & systemic change. Drawing from liberation psychology & Latin American liberation theology, Caño advocates for acompañamiento leadership.
studentaffairsnow.com/leading-towa...

The Caring University: Reimagining the Workplace after the Great Resignation In his book The Caring University, Dr. Kevin McClure shares a transformative approach to higher education workplace culture. He argues that institutions must prioritize the well-being of faculty and s...

. @drkevinrmcclure.com shares a transformative approach to HE workplace culture. IHE must prioritize the well-being of faculty and staff to enhance student success. Kevin shares how leaders can re-imagine the workplace through a lens of organizational care.
studentaffairsnow.com/the-caring-u...

Strengths-Based Supervision in Student Affairs Anne Brackett and Alicia Wojciuch, two dynamic leaders who’ve helped hundreds of student affairs professionals, join Heather Shea to explore how strengths-based approaches can transform the way we sup...

Anne Brackett & Alicia Wojciuch explore how strengths-based approaches can transform how we supervise and lead. Whether you’re new to CliftonStrengths or know your top five by heart, you’ll leave with practical strategies, fresh insights, and ready to lead.
studentaffairsnow.com/strengths/

It's always amused me that the one guy in ZZ Top without a beard was the guy named Beard.

Remember those episodes of Andor where the group of rebels are fighting with each other over BS and personality conflicts while the Empire tries to provoke protesters into a reaction to justify gutting an entire planet?

Contemplative Practices and Acts of Resistance in Higher Education: Narratives Toward Wholeness The editors of this book join to discuss contemplative practices for transformation. The volume shares stories that offer life experience, powerful examples, and concrete practices to help bring being...

The editors of Contemplative Practices and Acts of Resistance in Higher Education share stories that offer life experience, powerful examples, and concrete practices to help bring being, embodiment, and inner work to becoming and social change.
studentaffairsnow.com/contemplativ...

Reciprocity Required: Relationships Between Black and White Women in Higher Education Authentic relationships between Black and white women in higher education are often difficult to cultivate—made more so by the persistent realities of misogynoir and the role white women can play in p...

Authentic relationships between Black & white women are can be difficult due to realities of misogynoir & the role of white women in perpetuating harm. Learn about building reciprocal & accountable relationships beyond performativity toward connection & change.
studentaffairsnow.com/reciprocity-...

What if this Father’s Day or graduation season, we offered more than cash or platitudes — we offered unmasking?

Unmasking: Toward Authentic Masculinity invites men to explore who they are beyond the scripts they’ve been handed.

That Towns story from the day after the trade is something I still think about.

Hope Circuits: Rewiring Universities and Other Organizations for Human Flourishing Dr. Jessica Riddell discusses mindsets and 10 tools to rethink, reimagine, and rebuild institutions of higher education from her research and book Hope Circuits. She offers a critique of the status qu...

. @drjessicariddell.bsky.social discusses mindsets & 10 tools to rethink, reimagine, and rebuild institutions of higher ed from Hope Circuits. She offers a critique of the status quo and a call to “challenge the actual in the name of the possible."
studentaffairsnow.com/hope-circuits/

YouTube video by Keith Edwards Practicing Trauma Stewardship

How do we care for those who care for others?

In this week's video, I differentiate between trauma-informed care and trauma stewardship and discuss how to practice trauma stewardship for yourself and those you lead.

youtu.be/OYPUvAGC-QM

Manufactured Urgency - Keith Edwards PhD - Speaker Author Coach Manufactured urgency can be internally and externally imposed. Unbraiding this can help us lead more effectively.

Learn about the 4 different kinds of urgency and how to navigate...
keithedwards.com/2025/05/06/m...

YouTube video by Keith Edwards The Leadership Superpower of Slowing Down

Friday is the deadline to register for our next Evolve cohort.

You can get a good sample of Evolve from this edited video of our webinar on The Leadership Superpower of Slowing Down, which emerged from our first year of working with senior leaders in Evolve.

youtu.be/nPwZtvefQto

YouTube video by Keith Edwards Leading through and with Uncertainty: Evolve Summer 2025

It's time to invest in your leadership, so your leaders aren't waiting or arguing with uncertainty but leading through and with it. This summer, @drbrianarao.bsky.social, Dawn Lee, and I are offering Evolve for senior leaders and Evolve for Teams.
youtube.com/shorts/UcKeY...

YouTube video by Keith Edwards The Four Frames of Cultural Intelligence (CQ)

Dr. Rahn Fanklin is Vice President for Inclusive Excellence at Bethel Univeristy. He is also a CQ Fellow. In this video snippet from an Evolve webinar on Leading with CQ, Dr. Franklin succinctly summarizes the four frames of the CQ model.

youtu.be/Z4iH4N79VOc

Leading with Emotions - Keith Edwards PhD - Speaker Author Coach The work of leadership is not to avoid emotions, but to navigate emotions with literacy, fluency, and skillful processing.

Unprocessed emotions can leave us triggered and lead to disengagement, broken trust, toxic environments, and burnout. But when we process emotions skillfully, they can bring resonance, vitality, and a sense of aliveness to our teams, movements, and communities.
keithedwards.com/2025/04/29/e...

4 Approaches to Culturally Intelligent Leadership - Keith Edwards PhD - Speaker Author Coach Below are four distinct approaches to culturally intelligent leadership I’ve observed in myself and others.

Leading with cultural intelligence (CQ) has never been more needed or more complex. Below are four distinct approaches to culturally intelligent leadership I’ve observed in myself and others.
keithedwards.com/2025/04/22/c...

Student Success and Well-Being: Conversation with Dr. Paul Dosal Dr. Paul Dosal reflects on his 15 years as an innovator, champion, and leader of student success and well-being. He shares lessons from creating institutional transformations for student persistence a...

Dr. Paul Dosal is an innovative champion of student success & well-being. He shares lessons on breaking down silos, predictive analytics, & creating cultures of care - blending technological tools and personal connections for holistic & systematic approaches.
studentaffairsnow.com/student-succ...

Are you curious, unsure, or even worried about what a curricular approach could look like in your student affairs functional area?

For this Overview session, I'm joined by two extraordinary leaders, Dr. Erin Simpson, Ph.D. and Mikal Kenfield.

I work(ed) at the Department of Education. - Student Affairs NOW In this episode of Student Affairs NOW, host Heather Shea is joined by Dr. Jason Cottrell, a longtime career employee at the U.S. Department of Education who was among the 1,300 staff members recently...

Dr. @jasoncottrell.bsky.social, a former employee at Dept of Ed shares agencies navigate transitions between admins, what these layoffs mean for higher ed, & reflects on his journey from higher ed to federal service—and what’s next as he returns to campus.
studentaffairsnow.com/i-worked-at-...

Who Defines Poverty? Harvard Rejects Demands, & the Promise of American Higher Ed - Student Affairs NOW In this episode, Dr. OiYan Poon and Dr. Demetri Morgan join Heather Shea to unpack three pressing developments shaping the current landscape of higher education.

We discuss the elimination of fed team that defines the poverty line—and what it means for Pell Grants and student access; Harvard’s public rejection of Trump’s demands, and the fight to reassert the public good of higher education in a time of deep skepticism.

studentaffairsnow.com/current-camp...

Thanks to ACPA's Senior-Level Community of Practice (SLCOP) and Florida College Personnel Association (FCPA) for offering my session "Who Are We Becoming?: Identity Development Approach to Organizational Transformation" for attendees who could not attend the February convention.

YouTube video by Keith Edwards Curricular Approach Results

Are you curious about the benefits of introducing a curricular approach to your student affairs division?

Each approach differs in aims and plans, so comparisons are difficult. However, patterns have emerged over the past 15+ years at the Institute and work with 100+ campuses.
youtu.be/oxuq_A4PmGQ

What shifts in you,if you shift your focusfrom what you are against to what you are for?