CFP open through October 20
Wednesday, January 6, 2027 | Plenary Session and Reception Thursday, January 7, 2027 | Breakout Sessions and Lunch
Breakout session submission criteria:
- Sessions will be 50 minutes long in face-to-face format on Tulane's Uptown Campus.
- Proposals should be no more than 500 words in length, not including bibliography.
- Include 3 learning objectives for participants and an agenda for the 50-minute session.
- Note: All breakout sessions will take place on Thursday, January 7, 2027
Poster Presentation submission criteria: Clearly describe the focus of the poster and how the visual format will effectively communicate the work (e.g., teaching innovation, research findings, or program development).
- Poster presentations should be designed to foster informal, interactive discussion
- Proposals should be no more than 300 words in length, not including bibliography.
- Include 2–3 learning objectives or key takeaways for viewers.
AY 26 -27 Conference Chair
Lauren E. Futrell Dunaway, PhD, MPH, RD, LDN | Assistant Professor, Undergraduate Public Health Studies Program, Social, Behavioral, and Population Sciences (SBPS) Department, Tulane University Celia Scott Weatherhead School of Public Health & Tropical Medicine | Contact Lauren at lfutrell@tulane.edu
Lauren is a Registered Dietitian and Public Health Researcher with public health teaching, research, and evaluation experience. She is an Assistant Professor in the CSWSPHTM Undergraduate Public Health Studies Program, currently working to expand nutrition courses and degree offerings. Before this role, she was a Professor of Practice in the Tulane School of Professional Advancement’s Kinesiology program where she developed robust and interactive undergraduate and graduate online courses. Prior to becoming a faculty member she took a non-traditional role in academia, working for more than a decade as a staff for both the Tulane Prevention Research Center and the Tulane Mary Amelia Women’s Center directing and managing various community-based research and evaluation projects. While she has experience with grant writing, data collection and analysis, manuscript development, and program development––her most fulfilled place is in the classroom.
2027 Plenary Speakers
Ned Scott Laff has over 35 years of experience in college and university settings in administrative and faculty roles. He has worked in curriculum development, program assessment, general education review and revision, self-designed majors, and developing centers that integrate advising, mentoring, and career development. He has taught course in language and literature, and he has both directed and taught seminars in community-based learning. He was awarded the Civic Engagement Award from The Washington Center for his work in community-based learning. He has broad interests in improving the quality of undergraduate education and has presented nationally on the nature of liberal learning and student success. He has a special interest in the role mentoring plays in helping students design and integrate their educational, professional, and personal goals into a successful undergraduate education.
Scott Carlson is a senior writer at The Chronicle of Higher Education who explores where higher education is headed. Since 1999, he has covered a range of issues for the publication: college management and finance, facilities, campus planning, energy, sustainability, libraries, work-force development, the value of a college degree, and other subjects. He is the author of Hacking College: Why the Major Doesn’t Matter — and What Really Does, and he was the writer of The Chronicle’s column The Edge. Carlson has won awards from the Education Writers Association and is a frequent speaker at colleges and conferences around the country. His work has also appeared in The Baltimore Sun and Dwell, among other publications. He is a graduate of the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities.
Most students who walk America’s college campuses are invisible.… And they move through the system smoothly, with one major drawback: they are building empty college degrees, with no plan for how to connect that degree to the life that comes after.
from Hacking College: Why the Major Doesn’t Matter — and What Really Does
Conference Registration
2pM - 3PM Check-In
3pm - 5pm Plenary Session
Hacking College to Reinvigorate the Value of Higher Education
Colleges are struggling to regain trust and show value in the undergraduate degree. Scott Carlson and Ned Laff will discuss ideas at the core of their book, will show that by changing the conversations with students about majors and their interests, we can more clearly show the value and applicability of a college education.
5PM - 6PM Sparkling Reception
Sparking Success | Sponsors
- Center for Public Service
- Connolly Alexander Institute For Data Science
- Goldman Center for Student Accessibility
- Newcomb -Tulane College
- Phyllis M. Taylor Center
- School of Architecture
- A. B. Freeman School of Business
- School of Law
- School of Liberal Arts
- School of Medicine
- School of Professional Advancement
- Celia Scott Weatherhead School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine
- School of Science & Engineering
- School of Social Work
- Tulane Libraries
- Wave of Support