NAPAHE is pleased to offer four preconference sessions this year.

While each is geared to a certain job description, please don’t let that stop you from attending any of the sessions. Part of your conference experience should be exploring topics and issues with which you are not familiar.

So if, for example, if you are a chief of staff, or you are not but you wonder what exactly he/she does, or if you aspire to the position, attend Dan Nolan’s session on the role of Chief of Staff. Dan is the COS at Georgia Gwinnett College and his session will address the fact that today’s higher education environment is increasingly complex and chiefs of staff fill the need for extended expertise.

Three other engaging and experienced speakers will share their expertise in interactive sessions with plenty of time for questions:

• President Stephen Bahls of Augustana College (IL) will discuss “From Shared Governance to Shared Responsibility”
• Katie Herschede, Vice President for Strategic Initiatives and Chief of Staff at Widener University (PA) will return to the NAPAHE conference to discuss “Trustee Engagement and Communication”
• Michele Hughes, Executive Assistant to the President at Biola University (CA), will lead an interactive session exploring effective communication.

Preconference sessions are on Friday, March 8, from 3:45 to 5:15 pm. This will allow you to attend the First-Time Attendee/New Member Orientation session at 2:30 pm, which we highly recommend if this is your first NAPAHE conference or you are new to the organization.

The preconference sessions also end in plenty of time for you to attend the Networking Reception from 5:30 to 7:30 pm. All conference attendees are welcome (sorry, we are unable to accommodate guests). It is always a great time to catch up with old friends and meet new people, while enjoying appetizers and drinks.

We also encourage you to consider attending the ACE conference held immediately following NAPAHE’s conference. NAPAHE members who register for both conferences will receive a 20% discount off their ACE registration fee.

Registration for our preconference sessions is done outside of the conference registration process. Look for preconference registration information, along with other optional activity information in January. In the meantime, if you haven’t yet registered for the conference, why not take care of that before your holiday break? If you have any questions, please contact NAPAHE’s Executive Director, Brittny Daubenheyer at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..