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For more than 20 years, Dr. D’Andra Mull has served the field of higher education and student affairs, leading organizations and initiatives that uplift and enable a comprehensively excellent student experience. Throughout her tenure, and beyond the traditional classroom setting, she has sought to create educational environments in which all students can engage, transform and thrive as active citizens in an evolving global society.

Dr. Mull serves as the Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs at the �鶹���� (CU �鶹����), where she leads a division of 30 departments, over 850 staff members��and more than 2,700 student employees. The Division of Student Affairs at CU �鶹���� crafts a comprehensive student experience through co-curricular programs, supports and services that promote academic achievement, student learning, health and wellness, safety, personal development��and community building as we prepare students for lifelong engagement as global citizens.

Prior to joining CU �鶹����, Dr. Mull served as Vice President for Student Life at the University of Florida (UF), leading a team of more than 25 departments committed to developing a robust community for 58,000+ undergraduate, graduate��and professional students and was responsible for managing a budget of $140 million. As the university’s chief student affairs officer, she developed and oversaw numerous initiatives to enhance students’ sense of belonging, well-being��and career opportunities, creating pathways for student success. As a key executive leader during the global COVID-19 pandemic, Dr. Mull led collaborations with her divisional team, campus leaders and partners��and the greater Gainesville community to create supportive and innovative structures of support for students and staff.

In addition to her role at the University of Florida, Dr. Mull held numerous executive and senior leadership posts within the Division of Student Life at Ohio State, including serving as Associate Vice and Dean of Students; Assistant Vice President; Chief of Staff; Interim Director for the Multicultural Center; Director for Strategic Partnerships��and Director for Graduate Programs��during her 16-year tenure with the Buckeyes. As a practitioner-scholar, her areas of focus include undergraduate, graduate��and global recruitment and retention, community outreach and engagement, organizational development, student support and success��and diversity and inclusion initiatives. As a member of the graduate faculty for the University of Florida and Ohio State, she has taught courses focused on multiculturalism in higher education and student affairs; service learning and leadership engagement; and the administration of higher education and student affairs. Beyond UF and Ohio State, she has also held student life positions at Kent State and Michigan State University.

Dr. Mull serves on numerous student affairs executive committees for state and national organizations, including the American Association of Universities (AAU) and the Association of Public Land-Grant Universities (APLU), and as a higher education consultant in diversity and inclusion initiatives, organizational strategy and development��and strategic global recruitment and retention efforts.��She has contributed to numerous national and international knowledge communities as an invited speaker, panelist and author.��

Dr. Mull is the recipient of multiple national honors, including the 2022 ACPA Diamond Honoree award for her commitment to the advancement of research, scholarship and programs that uplift college student development and success. She is a first-generation college graduate who earned a Bachelor of Arts in political science and criminal justice studies from Kent State University, a Master of Arts in higher, adult and lifelong education from Michigan State University��and a Ph.D. in educational policy and leadership from The Ohio State University.

Location: UMC 415-417
Speaker:��Rebecca Komarek (she/her/hers), Associate Director Idea Forge, College of Engineering and Applied Science

Authentic leadership is leading your way – in a way that aligns with your authentic self. Leadership is not emulating leaders who you admire. It is leaning into your own life story.

Learn to be an authentic leader who uses your values and personal sense of purpose to build relationships and lead with compassion.

In this session, you will work independently to identify the most important personal values you hold. You will take those values and collaborate with a team to translate your values into leadership principles that you can use to guide your day to day and decision making both in the workplace and in your personal life.

Location: UMC 247
Speaker:��Rawan AlGahtani

In a world full of uncertainty, one can easily find themselves drifting and uneasy most of the time. Reasons could include work, school, business, news, etc. However, it is ordinary and normal to feel that way. But what is not normal is allowing them to take over you and cause you more harm than good.

In this session, we will do our best to navigate ourselves to come up with our "Solid Ground."��Your Solid Ground is your homepage (Aka a You Website) that you can visit whenever you are in an unfamiliar situation causing you��to doubt yourself. We are going to restate what we believe in, our values/principles, our identities, leadership style��and unique stories that shape us. Then, we can dive into the benefits of asserting our grounds in different settings and places, including work and school. I am super excited to be part of this transformation and can't wait to see what you all come up with!

Please bring a device/journal to take notes - a guiding sheet will be handed out during the session!

Location: UMC 235
Speakers:��Emily Cosnett (she/her), Assistant Director of Outdoor Pursuits and��Denise Adelsen (she/her), Assistant Director of Fitness & Wellness

Join us for a panel discussion exploring the unspoken gendered challenges within your career field. Raise your awareness of the landscape and equip yourself to forge new pathways to meet these challenges in your own career journey.

Location: Aspen Rooms
Speakers:��Kira Pasquesi (she/her/hers), Assistant Professor of Teaching & Leadership Studies Minor Faculty Director, CU �鶹���� and��Jaci Abeloe (she/her/hers), Program Manager for Service Learning, Community, and Civic Engagement in the Volunteer Resource Center & Leadership Studies Minor Lecturer, CU �鶹����

The legendary bell hooks (1994) articulated a vision of education that includes “necessary conditions where learning can most deeply and intimately begin.”��In this view of education as a practice of freedom, learning environments foster the “possibility of recognition” and the “will and desire to respond to our unique beings” (p. 14).��The session focuses on considerations for all types of facilitators seeking to cultivate the kind of environments that hooks described.��Participations will explore how to lead authentically while encouraging others to show up more fully as themselves in a variety of contexts (e.g., classrooms, student organizations, work settings).��Presenters will share approaches to meaningful engagement stemming from their experiences developing group environments that foster authenticity (e.g., storytelling, dialogue, active listening practice).��They will also invite collective thinking around the nuances, risks��and complexities of how we show up based on positionalities and intersections of identities.��For example, what does authenticity mean, and to whom? Who might various interpretations privilege at the expense of others?��Most importantly, participants will together co-create a toolkit of resources and ideas for authentic leadership to thrive moving forward.

Location: UMC 415-417
����𲹰���:��CJ Llewellyn-Ryan, MSOL��(she/her), Sr. Training and Development Specialist, Enrollment Management
Panelists:
Christina Alston, PhD, Director, Colorado Diversity Initiative - Faculty Affiliate School of Education
Sarabeth Berk Bickerton, PhD, Chief Creative Disruptor, Author of More Than My Title
Dr. Patricia Gonzalez, A&S Assistant Dean for JEDI
Dr. Stefanie Johnson, Director, CU �鶹���� Center for Leadership. Associate Professor, Leeds School of Business; author of INCLUSIFY
Dr. Jennifer Ziegenfus, Assistant Vice Chancellor of Admissions, former Broadcast Meteorologist

From a young age, we are conditioned to think, act��and be a certain way. This is especially prevalent in gender norms in which women are expected to be soft��and warm. Any action counter to this incites negative responses… you’re not assertive, you’re difficult; you’re not confident, you’re forceful; or, in the case of the session host, CJ Llewellyn-Ryan, you’re not a leader, you’re bossy.

This issue is even more compounding as we consider the intersection of identities… people of color, members of the LBGTQI+ community, neurodivergent folks��and parents, to name a few, are straining under the weight of others’ expectations when all we want to be is seen and valued for who we are and what we can bring.

CJ isn’t one to bend. Even if others didn’t see the value in her budding leadership skills, she did and now uses them by helping others leverage their talents, drive��and contributions.

We don’t have to be defined by the labels and restrictions of others. We can prevail despite the roadblocks set before us��and use our voices and actions to elevate others who may be falling under the weight of society's standards.

Join CJ as she introduces five powerhouse leaders in the CU community to learn more about how they used courage and fortitude to be their authentic selves at work and in life, and how you can too.

Location: UMC 235
Speakers:��Paula Armendariz��(she/her/hers), Program Director, McNeill Academic Program and��Loren Intolubbe-Chmil (she/her/hers), Assistant Teaching Professor
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Nancy Mora Dominguez
Baneen Al-Yasiri
Kaia Gonzalez

The Three Sisters Indigenous agricultural method is the planting of corn, beans and squash next to one another. When planted together these crops, the Three Sisters, enrich the soil and provide mutual support to one another. This interplanting sustained entire communities across North and Central America. Outside of an agricultural context, we use the Three Sisters model as a framework to describe the intergenerational and multidirectional approach to leadership in the Student Academic Success Center.

This session will highlight the stories and leadership journeys of women leaders in SASC. Panelists will include students, staff and faculty who will discuss the influences that have shaped their leadership identity development and how they’ve drawn from their lived experiences to further develop as leaders. Panelists will pay particular attention to the “Three Sisters” in their journeys and discuss how communal support and symbiotic relationships have strengthened their leadership development.

Location: UMC 247
Speaker:��Catherine Erickson (she/her/hers), Associate Director of Graduate Career Management, Leeds School of Business

Research tells us that women struggle disproportionately to men when it comes to confidence and estimating the full scope of their capabilities. How many of us feel like we’re not good enough, or that everyone else around us is more qualified? How many of us also have hope that we can move past that toward successful outcomes? This workshop will help address the internal and external barriers to realizing our authentic, brave selves as women.
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During our time we will utilize research, data��and a safe-space approach that incorporates coaching practices and standards from the International Coaching Federation. This will be a participation-centric workshop with the goal of everyone being able to take away something personally meaningful for them.
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The primary focus of this workshop is to enable attendees to build a foundation for realizing change in their lives. As an attendee you will have the freedom to define that for yourself. The presenter operates on the spectrum of life-changing conversations and believes that we can propagate the success of women at CU and beyond through finding the courage to help you discover and embrace your unique identity and value as a human being, and particularly as a woman.

Location: Dennis Small Cultural Center (UMC 457)
Speakers:��Janelle Taylor (she/her/hers), Senior Director of Medical Services at CU �鶹����;��Kathryn Dailey (she/her), Director of Health Promotion and Jess Morris (she/her), Program Director for Employee Wellness

Join us for an engaging dialogue on leadership, authenticity��and the unique experiences of women in the workplace. Members of CU �鶹���� Health & Wellness leadership will share their early career experiences including how leading authenticity differs between individuals, workplace policies that support and hinder authenticity for women��and how different phases of life can inform and challenge our experiences with leadership. Attendees will participate in self-reflection exercises to clarify what authenticity in leadership looks/sounds/feels like for you and facilitated group dialogue will spark ideas for sustaining that authenticity throughout your career.

Whether you are an aspiring leader, just a few years into your career or a veteran at the leadership table, this interactive session will help you discover empowering tools and practices to lead authentically now and throughout your leadership journey.

Location: Aspen Rooms
Speakers:��Katherine Nielsen (they/them), Teaching Professor and��Camden Mullens (she/her), Undergraduate Student

Embark on a leadership journey exploring ways authentic leadership springs from deep interconnection among people. Beyond the individual expression of "who I am," authentic leadership invites us to explore and enact "who we are'' collectively. Standing tall in our authenticity becomes an invitation to bring out the best in ourselves, nurture potential in others��and build on each other’s ideas as we navigate towards communal goals and values.

Leaders and followers thrive within relationships built through empathy; just as understanding one another and ourselves deepens our capacities to lead. Entwining authenticity with relational trust enables respect of difference and acceptance of our humanity, as opposed to social harmony via conformity.��This workshop unravels the power of authentic connection in creating powerful collaboration within communities. Join us and contribute to the creation of communities that flourish on the principles of authenticity, empathy��and interconnectedness.