2024 Summit Agenda

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 Shayla Rivera is an Aerospace Engineer and former Rocket Scientist with NASA turned salesperson, corporate trainer, and now International Keynote Speaker, TEDx Speaker, TV & Radio host, Emcee/Host, Comedian, Actor, Writer, Producer, Seminar Facilitator, Panel Moderator.  As of 2017, she is also the Director of the ENGR[x] program and Professor of Practice with the College of Engineering at Texas A&M University.  

Born and raised in Puerto Rico, Shayla grew up with an avid interest in human behavior, science, machinery and fixing things.  Her parents always made it clear that going to college was the way to go in order to have a successful personal and professional life.  She attended Texas A&M University, earning a Bachelor of Science degree in Aerospace Engineering.  Along with a great number of additional credits in her other passion, Psychology.  After graduation she joined McDonnell Douglas Space Systems at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston.  For five years she worked with NASA on the Space Shuttle and Space Station programs.

Rivera left NASA to pursue her abiding interest in psychology, trying to figure out what makes people tick.  This pursuit took her through several years in Technical Sales of environmental systems.  It finally guided her onto becoming a corporate trainer.  She began facilitating life-changing seminars on stress management for corporate executives nationwide.  Shortly thereafter, she began giving motivational speeches.

Devinder Malhotra served as the Chancellor of Minnesota State Colleges and Universities (Minnesota State) from 2018 to 2023. He was Interim Chancellor of Minnesota  State in 2017-18. He led Minnesota’s largest and most diverse higher education provider, with seven state universities and 26 state technical and community colleges. These colleges and universities are spread across 47 different communities with 54 campuses, serving nearly 300,000 students a year. He retired in 2023 and currently lives in Concord, California. Devinder has been an active participant in national conversations on the role and power of public post-secondary systems in bringing about quantum transformational change in higher education. He has served on and chaired the Board of the National Association of System Heads (NASH). He also served on and chaired the Board of Midwestern Higher Education Compact (MHEC).As Chancellor, he led Minnesota State to embrace a systemwide vision of Equity 2030, which was adopted by the Board of Trustees in 2019. Simply put, Equity 2030 is a commitment by each of the colleges and universities of Minnesota State to close the educational equity gaps in both access and student success by the year 2030. Devinder is a passionate believer in higher education as a catalyst for upward social and economic mobility, and an anchor to preserve and enhance economic competitiveness in this ever-changing world. Before serving as Chancellor, Devinder was interim president for two years at Metro State University in Saint Paul, Minnesota. Prior to that he was provost at Saint Cloud State University, and dean of arts and sciences at University of Southern Maine. At the University of Akron he served as chair of the Faculty Senate, chair of the economics department, and associate dean of the college of arts and sciences. Devinder earned his doctorate in economics from Kansas State University. He holds both a Bachelor’s degree and a Master’s degree in economics from the University of Delhi, India. 

 Jim serves Greenwood Asher & Associates (GA&A) and its clients by developing strong partnerships informed by his distinguished background, and passion for, leadership in higher education, business, and government. He has led successful presidential and other senior level searches for liberal arts, comprehensive, and R1 AAU institutions and large university systems.

Before joining GA&A, Jim served as a senior fellow at the National Association of System Heads (NASH), commissioner for the Western Interstate Commission on Higher Education, and Alaska representative to the State Higher Education Executive Officers. At NASH, Jim co-developed the transformation agenda for public university systems and was the founding director of its Systems Center for State Policy. Jim continues to contribute to scholarship in higher education through his role as affiliate faculty at the University of California Berkeley and as editor of the forthcoming volume Public University Systems: Leveraging Scale for Higher Education to be published by the Johns Hopkins University Press.

Prior to his role at NASH, Jim was president of the University of Alaska system where he led: the resolution of a severe budget crisis; creation of an innovative vision for the university as of 2040 and system-level goals and measures tied to the state's needs; resolution of systemic Title IX issues on the campuses; the first statewide philanthropy campaign; creation of the framework for resolving the university’s federal land-grant deficit; and elevation of faculty, staff, and students in system governance. His previous roles include leadership positions at Alaska Communications, Inc.; Doyon, Limited; the University of Alaska; the University of Minnesota; and the State of Alaska.  

Chancellor Emeritus of The State University of New York (SUNY) and from 2009 to 2017, served as the twelfth chancellor of The State University of New Your, the nation's largest comprehensive system of public higher education. Prior to SUNY, she served as president of the University of Cincinnati, chancellor of the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, and executive dean of the Professional Colleges and dean of the College of Education at the Ohio state University.

Dr. Zimpher is currently Interim Executive Director of the National Association System Heads, a leadership organization for presidents and chancellors who lead this nation's public higher education systems across the fifty states, an organization she chaired for three years while serving at SUNY. Today Nash is leading a comprehensive transformation agenda called the Power of Systems, leveraging "systemness" to advance prosperity for the country by using collective impact and improvement science to increase credential and degree completion, expand social and economic mobility, and bring down the cost of college.

Dr. Zimpher is co-founder of StriveTogether, a national network of innovative partnerships that holistically address challenges across the education pipeline. As SUNY chancellor, in addition to chairing NASH, she also chaired the New York Academy of Sciences from 2011-2016, CEOs for Cities from 2012-213, the coalition of Urban Serving Universities from 2005-2011, chaired the Board of the Association of Public and Land Grant Universities (APLU) and served two terms on the board of the American Council on Education (ACE). Most recently, she completed a six-year term on the knight Commision of Intercollegiate Athletics (KCIA), serving as co-chair year fro the past two years. She currently serves on the National Advisory Board of College Promise, a non-profit focused on building broad public support for funding the first two or more years of postsecondary education.

Dr. Zimpher holds a BS in English Education and Speech, an MA in English Literature, and a PhD in Teacher Education and Higher Education Administration, all from The Ohio State University.