Stop Fighting Your Data: A Wake-Up Call for Colleges
About this episode
The episode discusses the urgent need for colleges to embrace data-driven decision-making to enhance student success and institutional transformation.
Higher education is facing a moment where moving slowly is no longer an option. In this episode of Start the Week with Wisdom, Bridget Burns and Sarah Custer sit down with Karen Stout, outgoing president and CEO of Achieving the Dream, to reflect on decades of leadership in community college student success, institutional transformation, data-driven decision-making, and what it really takes to leave an organization stronger than you found it. Karen shares lessons from leading Montgomery County Community College, transforming Achieving the Dream into a national student success network, and helping hundreds of community colleges rethink completion, transfer, mobility, workforce alignment, and community impact. This conversation is for higher ed leaders, community college presidents, faculty leaders, student success professionals, nonprofit executives, and anyone trying to drive meaningful change in education. You’ll hear why colleges must stop fighting their data, why innovation needs intention, why faculty must be centered in reform, and why the future of student success depends on moving faster from knowing to doing. Highlights: → You’ll learn why community colleges have a unique…
People in this episode
Hosts: Bridget Burns, Sarah Custer
Guest: Karen Stout
Topics covered
- data-driven decision-making
- community college success
- institutional transformation
- student success
- higher education reform
Keywords
- higher education
- community colleges
- student success
- data
- innovation
- reform
- leadership
Mentioned in this episode
Organizations: Achieving the Dream, Montgomery County Community College, MacKenzie Scott
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