Category: Leadership and Culture

In this episode of Changing Higher Ed, Dr. Drumm McNaughton speaks with Raj Vinnakota, president of the Institute for Citizens & Scholars, about civic preparedness in higher education and why colleges can no longer assume students will develop productive conversation, credible information, and collaborative problem-solving skills by accident.

The discussion centers on College Presidents for Civic Preparedness, or CP², a coalition of 135 college and university presidents working to strengthen civic learning, reduce the risk of leading this work alone, and help institutions move beyond opt-in programming toward campus-wide culture change.

What you’ll gain from listening to this podcast:

✓ Civic Preparedness: Why colleges and universities need to teach civic skills as intentional learning outcomes.

✓ Public Good Mission: How higher education can restore its role as a public-good institution

Empathy is often treated as a temperament. In leadership, it functions more like a competency: a repeatable set of behaviors that improve judgment, communication, and follow-through under pressure. Higher education leaders are making decisions in environments where people are tired, trust is uneven, and the stakes are personal. In that setting, empathy is not about being agreeable. It is about getting better information, reducing defensiveness, and choosing actions that people can understand even when they do not like the outcome. In this episode of the Changing Higher Ed podcast, Dr. Drumm McNaughton speaks with Dr. Laura Parson, Associate Professor at North Dakota State University and founder of The Empathy Classroom, about empathy as a practical leadership competency. The conversation treats empathy as something leaders can build deliberately through specific behaviors,

  In this unique episode, Dr. Drumm McNaughton assumes both the role of host and guest, focusing on the theme of thankfulness and gratitude in university leadership.   The Importance of Gratitude in Leadership The podcast illuminates the natural tendency to prioritize problem-solving over appreciation. “Your brain is designed to problem-solve rather than appreciate. So, you must override this design to reap the benefits of gratitude.” ~ Dr. Drumm McNaughton Drumm emphasizes the need for leaders in higher education to cultivate a mindset of gratitude. As noted by the Mayo Clinic, this shift can lead to numerous benefits, enhancing mood, immunity, and overall well-being and improving the ability to deal with challenges.   Gratitude in the Context of University Governance In university leadership, gratitude is not only about personal well-being

Pastides’ caring and compassionate approach to leadership at the University of South Carolina has yielded trust, goodwill, and meaningful relationships with both students and faculty. His leadership style has also created positive, measurable outcomes: under Pastides, the University of South Carolina became the number-one honors college in the United States, as well as the top-ranking school in terms of student freshmen experience.