CVHEC Summit 2025 topics announced

Complete College America representative will provide national perspective

 

BY TOM URIBES
CVHEC Communications Coordinator

As educators across the nation face an urgency to “reimagine higher education to meet the needs of today’s students and society,” the Central Valley Higher Education Consortium Summit 2025 this spring in Fresno is shaping up with topics that present voices from policy makers and practitioners nationally, statewide and from throughout the Central Valley’s 10-county region.

Registration is now open for the CVHEC summit set for Friday, May 9 from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel. The event is open to the higher education community who register in advance with breakfast and lunch included. Registration is free compliments of  the College Futures Foundation, event sponsor.

One of the panelists participating this year will be Dr. Brandon Protas, assistant vice president for Alliance Engagement at Complete College America, a national alliance of higher education institutions and organizations including CVHEC in California,  Dr. Benjamín Durán, CVHEC executive director, announced.

“Join us as we convene with national, state and regional colleagues, partners and friends for a full day of discussions and showcases related to higher education in the valley that lead to degree completion for our students,” Durán said.

The CVHEC 2025 Summit will bring together chancellors, presidents and campus directors of 28 Central Valley institutions of higher education — who make up the CVHEC Board of Directors – with other educators and policy makers including elected officials who develop litigation that affect the region.

Various board members will moderate the panels that are planned

Topics to date include an overview of CVHEC efforts such as the Central Valley Transfer Project;  the Master’s Upskilling Project, dual enrollment initiatives; and math alignment measures such as the CVHEC Math Task Force  and the Central Valley Math Bridge Program with College Bridge.

Also featured will be a “Legislative Update” with federal legislators providing the latest about higher education laws; and a student panel “What Does this Mean for Students?”  and a panel with the four segments of higher education in California.

Dr. Protus will be a panelist on the “The Central Valley Landscape: Honing in on the Data” panel.

The CCA vice president, who guides the planning and management of the CCA Alliance to support institutions, systems and states in their efforts to improve student success, will participate on the data panel providing insights to CCA’s nationwide data compilation efforts. CCA works with states, systems, institutions and partners to scale highly effective structural reforms and promote policies that improve student success.

Durán represents CVHEC as an alliance lead responsible for providing oversight and coordination for local initiatives as well as CCA-sponsored projects and in November, he led a consortium delegation to CCA’s three-day conference which drew 800 participants from throughout the country.  He said the CVHEC summit provides a regional and state version of CCA’s national gathering.

“The CVHEC annual summit always draws interest from our region’s higher education community, but this year brings a difference sense of urgency as we learned at the Complete College American national conference last fall,” said Durán, president-emeritus of Merced College, referring to the national conference’s keynote address delivered Nov. 19 by Dr. Jamie Merisotis, president of the Lumina Foundation, an independent, private foundation in Indianapolis committed to making opportunities for learning beyond high school available to all which also provides support to CVHEC.

“We both see the urgency of reimagining higher ed to meet the needs of today’s students and today’s society,” Dr. Merisotis’ said at the conference regarding the partnerships between Lumina and CCA. “And we both put special focus on reaching those who have too often been left out.”

CVHEC featured that keynote as the “What the CV-HEC is Happening Blog” in the consortium’s January newsletter and Durán said Merisotis’ message fuels the CVHEC summit as well as the CEOs of its member institutions from San Joaquin County in the North Valley to Kern County in the South Valley.

“I hope that this national education leader’s words generate some dialogue between you and your colleagues and we encourage you to share those conversations, as we will at our 2025 CVHEC Summit and on our various consortium social media platforms,” Durán said in setting the tone for the summit.

CVHEC’s Welcoming & Networking Reception will be the day before the summit, May 8 from 5:30 – 7:30 p.m., at the convention center’s Valdez Hall Breezeway to provide an opportunity to connect with other attendees and the CVHEC Board of Directors in an informal relaxed setting.

• Event questions:  contact Ángel Ramírez, operations and finance manager, at CVHECinfo@mail.fresnostate.edu or 559.278.0576.
• Media inquiries: Tom Uribes, CVHEC communications coordinator, text 559.348.3278 or cvheccommunications@mail.fresnostate.edu 
• For event updates: see the Summit event page, subscribe to the free CVHEC monthly e-newsletter or visit CVHEC social media platforms.

 

ABOUT CVHEC

The Central Valley Higher Education Consortium (CVHEC) is a California non-profit made up of 28-instutitions of higher education in the nine-county region from San Joaquin to Kern that is the size of some states. Through CVHEC, higher education professionals and academicians in the Central Valley address difficult and complex initiatives, scaling them up across the region for mutual effectiveness to serve our students and communities.