From the CEO

Musings on trends and updates from UPCEA CEO Bob Hansen. 

2021 Regional Conferences to be Virtual, Free for Members

I’m pleased to share with you that UPCEA’s 2021 Regional Conferences this fall will again be completely virtual AND free of charge to our members! I invite you and your teams to connect, network, share and learn with us online in fall 2021.

Until then, session recordings, slides, and other materials from the 2020 Regional Conferences are available and free for members in UPCEA’s private member community, CORe. Visit the Library in the Open Forum, and expand the “2020 Regional Conference Presentation Recordings” folder to peruse more than 55 hours of session recordings plus other materials from all five regional events.

We heard clearly from UPCEA members like you that institutional budget and travel restrictions would severely limit access to in-person events for many of our members in 2021. UPCEA’s regional conferences are a cornerstone of the association’s access mission, and we were heartened to welcome more than 2,000 UPCEA members to the virtual regional conferences in 2020.

More information about the 2021 Regional Conferences will be available soon. The Regional Conference Planning Committees are hard at work putting together events with synchronous and asynchronous sessions, online networking events, and dynamic sessions responsive to our current landscape.

In the meantime, be sure to take advantage of other free resources for UPCEA members, including:

  • Free webinars and chats — UPCEA webinars and chats are always free for members. Learn more about upcoming events.
  • Research, benchmarking and blogs — Stay up-to-date with the latest trends, research and benchmarking with blogs from UPCEA Senior Fellow Ray Schroeder, and UPCEA Chief Research Officer Jim Fong. Explore UPCEA’s blogs.
  • Real-time engagement in CORe — Connect with your 9,000+ UPCEA peers to get answers to questions, discuss key topics or issues, and share and exchange knowledge in CORe (Collaborative Online Relationships), UPCEA’s members-only community and virtual discussion platform. Visit CORe.
  • Exclusive member content — CORe’s online library includes benchmarking studies, conference session slides and recordings, best practices, templates, lesson plans, and more. Visit CORe.
A man (Bob Hansen) is dressed in a blue suit smiling for a headshot.

Dr. Robert J. Hansen has served as Chief Executive Officer of UPCEA, the online and professional education association, since 2010. UPCEA has more than tripled in size during Hansen’s tenure by focusing on new initiatives that elevate the field, including industry-leading events for online leadership and credential innovation in higher educationonline leadership development programs, and a popular research and consulting service for members. He previously served in senior leadership roles in both public and private universities, and as an education policy aide in the administration of former Illinois governor, Jim Edgar. Hansen earned a Ph.D. in English from the University of Notre Dame, an M.A. in Literature from the University of Michigan, and a B.S. in Psychology from the University of Illinois.