Call for Proposals
2027 CONFERENCE THEME
“Sustainable Leadership: Cultivating People, Purpose, and Progress”
Sustainable leadership recognizes that organizational success and personal well-being are inseparable. Institutions thrive when they have healthy leaders, engaged employees, effective systems, and collaborative cultures.
This year’s conference invites us to explore how we cultivate people, purpose, and progress to create positive and lasting impact in higher education. We welcome proposals that share practical strategies, innovative approaches, lessons learned, and experiences that participants can apply within their own roles and institutions.
Proposal Focus Areas
Proposals may align with any one of the following focus areas:
- Leading Sustainable Organizations : Explore leadership practices that strengthen organizational culture, collaboration, engagement, equity, belonging, and the ability to navigate change.
- Wellness, Well-Being & Resilience: Explore practices that support personal and organizational well-being, including resilience, mental health, boundaries, burnout prevention, and healthy workplace cultures.
- Operational Excellence & Innovation: Explore ways to improve how we work through effective systems, process improvement, technology, AI, data-informed decision-making, and innovative practices.
- Strategic Priorities & Project Leadership: Explore strategies for moving priorities into action through planning, project management, prioritization, resource management, partnerships, and accountability.
- Growth, Learning & Career Development: Explore opportunities for professional growth through career advancement, networking, mentoring, leadership development, career transitions, and retirement
Suggested Proposal Topics
Within the focus areas above, proposals may address one or more of the following topics:
- Career Advancement & Networking
- Diversity & Equity
- Teaching & Learning
- Technology & Innovation
- Wellness & Mental Health
- Leadership
- Retirement & Turning Points
Topics may cross multiple focus areas. Presenters are encouraged to consider how their session connects to the conference theme and contributes to cultivating people, purpose, and progress.
We encourage proposals that are practical, engaging, and relevant to professionals across higher education. Sessions should provide participants with ideas, strategies, tools, resources, or perspectives they can take back to their institutions and apply in their professional lives.
PROPOSAL TIPS AND TRICKS
Picking a Topic for your 2027 AWHE Presentation
Choosing a topic may be one of the hardest parts of agreeing to present. Since we come from diverse backgrounds and bring with us a wide range of passions and knowledge, it can be hard to focus on just one thing. When trying to decide what you want to share with AWHE, consider the following:
- Is there a topic that you are passionate about that does not get enough coverage?
- Can you design a presentation that is both detailed and engaging?
- Will participants be given a chance to set goals or create a mini action plan?
Workshop Title
The title of your presentation is your first chance to catch the audience’s attention. When trying to name your presentation, think of the main goals/objectives you have for participants and use that to inspire a title.
- Can you incorporate or be inspired by the conference theme to further demonstrate how your presentation is a good fit for this conference?
- Example: Conference Theme: Vision 2020: Reflect. Transform. Lead.
- Workshop title: Mentorship: Reflecting on the Past to Transform Student Success
- Having a hard time coming up with a title? Work on the other parts of your presentation to see if a title emerges from the outline or main content.
Workshop Description
(Maximum 100 Characters)
The workshop description is a summary offered during conference registration. Conference registration may be the only opportunity you have to entice potential participants into your workshop. Think of your workshop description as your elevator pitch.
- Inform a potential audience member why your topic is relevant, valuable, and useful.
- Your title could be in the form of a problem statement. Example: The number of online distance learning students is growing; how can we improve their retention and graduation rates?
- Alternatively, you can use some sort of hook statement. Example: Are you interested in a new way to interact with student staff and young professionals regarding their work habits?
- Share information about what participants will be doing in the session and what they may take away if they attend. Example: Learn more about these theories by discussing challenges, strategies, and examples to help develop action plans for implementation.
When there are a lot of proposals, there are many things a committee looks at when making decisions about what workshops to invite to present at a conference. One thing the committee will review and consider is how relevant the topic is to the overall conference theme. This can be your opportunity to consider and highlight those connections so it is clear to a committee member reviewing your submission.