Promoting Student Success Series
The Promoting Student Success Series encourages campus-wide conversations about promoting and advancing the culture of student success. This lecture series has been designed to inform the development of a vision for the role of WSU educators in promoting student success.
Each academic year, WSU educators hear from nationally renowned speakers regarding student success efforts in various contexts. Our goal is to identify strategies to better coordinate WSU efforts around student success and better define the roles of educators in promoting student success.
2025-2026
Aug. 18, 2025
Back-to-School Keynote & Workshop
Derrick Anderson, Ph.D.
Vice President for Enterprise Design and Policy at the University of Utah.
Keynote Address:
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Topic: Higher Education at the Crossroads: Meeting the Moment
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10:30 a.m.
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Austad Auditorium at the Browning Center
Back to School Workshop
- Topic: Higher Education at the Crossroads: Meeting the Moment
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1-2 p.m.
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Shepherd Union Skyrooms (SU 404)
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Light hor d’oeurves will be served.
Speaker Bio
Dr. Anderson is an innovative leader in higher education policy, skilled in institutional transformation and public sector strategy. As the inaugural Vice President for Enterprise Design and Policy at the University of Utah, he leads efforts to imagine and design bold new futures for higher education, bridging academic research, public service, and enterprise-scale innovation.
Before joining the University of Utah, Dr. Anderson served as Senior Vice President for Education Futures at the American Council on Education (ACE), where he led initiatives involving hundreds of colleges and universities, dozens of industry partners, and millions of learners. He previously held a tenured faculty position at Arizona State University, where he played a key role in advancing the university’s public enterprise model.
Dr. Anderson’s research explores public management, organizational design, governance of emerging technologies, and the future of higher education. He has advised federal agencies, state legislators, foundations, and universities across the U.S. and globally. His work has been supported by major funders, including the Gates Foundation, NSF, Lilly Endowment, and USAID, generating more than $100 million in impact since 2017.
Dr. Anderson holds a Ph.D. in Public Policy and Management from the University of Georgia, as well as a B.S. and an M.P.P. from Arizona State University.
Access Previous Student Success Presentations
You can access the videos of previous presentations by enrolling in the Promoting Student Success Canvas course in three easy steps:
1. Go to: https://weber.instructure.
2. Log in using your Wildcat username and password, (if you are not already logged in on the browser.)
3. Click the "Enroll in Course" button located on the right side of the screen.
Please peruse the materials and feel free to contribute to the dialogue about what we can do to promote student success even more or better than we already do at WSU.