Panels
Bringing together the people and ideas shaping what's next for higher education.
October 14-16, 2026
Luskin Conference Center, UCLA
An invitation-only convening
Bringing together the people and ideas
shaping what's next for higher education.
October 14-16, 2026
Luskin Conference Center, UCLA
An invitation-only convening
PROGRAM
Conversations and ideas reshaping higher education
Explore five mainstage panels, sixteen breakout sessions across five Learning Tracks, a Poster Gallery Walk, and more. The program brings together ideas, expertise, and innovative work from Learning Lab’s grantee network and leaders across California’s three public higher education systems.
Panels
Thursday, Oct. 15 · 9:15–10:15 am
PANEL 1: The New Reality of Teaching and Learning
Back for its third iteration, INSPIRE’s signature opening panel examines the most critical issues shaping teaching and learning in California public higher education today. How must colleges evolve to implement authentic and meaningful assessments in an era of AI and grade inflation? What’s higher ed’s responsibility to prepare students for a job market that is changing more rapidly than we can understand—and how does that show up in the classroom? How do faculty decide when (or whether) to teach with or about AI—and how are they supported in this? California faculty and administrators will discuss emerging threats and opportunities to higher ed’s primary teaching and learning mission and how educators are responding in real time. Will those responses be enough, or is it time to write a new playbook for teaching and learning?
Moderator
Zach Justus
Director of Faculty Development, Chico State
Zach Justus is director of faculty development and professor of communication arts and sciences at California State University, Chico. He also serves as the CSU AI academic innovation fellow. Since the launch of ChatGPT, Justus has written, spoken, and worked extensively at the intersection of artificial intelligence and education. His scholarship has appeared in Argumentation and Advocacy, Communication Teacher, and other publications. He has also collaborated on articles for Inside Higher Ed and EdSource, webinars, an ongoing blog, podcast, and newsletter, and conference and keynote presentations.
Panelist
Michael Dennin
Dean of Undergraduate Education, Vice Provost for Teaching and Learning, Professor of Physics and Astronomy, UC Irvine
Michael Dennin is vice provost for teaching and learning, dean of the Division of Undergraduate Education, and a professor of physics and astronomy at UC Irvine. His research spans the dynamics of foams, the modeling of ice mélange in fjords, and issues in education. He is also committed to public engagement with science and has appeared on numerous television programs. His contributions to research and outreach have been recognized through his election as a Fellow of the American Physical Society.
As vice provost, Dennin contributes to national efforts to reform teaching and learning at public research universities. His work focuses on structural issues that shape students’ experiences and outcomes, including assessment, the use of technology, and the role of grades.
Panelist
Safiya U. Noble
David O. Sears Presidential Endowed Chair of Social Sciences and Professor of Gender Studies, African American Studies, and Information Studies, UCLA
Safiya U. Noble is the David O. Sears Presidential Endowed Chair of Social Sciences and Professor at UCLA. She directs the Center on Resilience & Digital Justice and co-directs the Minderoo Initiative on Tech & Power at UCLA. She also serves as a director of the UCLA DataX Initiative, where she leads work in critical data studies.
Noble is the author of Algorithms of Oppression: How Search Engines Reinforce Racism, which examines racist and sexist algorithmic harm in commercial search engines. A 2021 MacArthur Foundation Fellow, she is recognized for her groundbreaking work on algorithmic discrimination.
Noble also serves on the board of the Cyber Civil Rights Initiative and advises civil and human rights organizations. She is a chartering member of the International Panel on the Information Environment at the Oxford Internet Institute at the University of Oxford. In 2022, she received the inaugural NAACP–Archewell Digital Civil Rights Award.
Panelist
Kyla Oh
Dean of Math, Science and Career Education, Berkeley City College
Kyla Oh is dean of mathematics, science, and career education at Berkeley City College (BCC), where she leads efforts to expand student opportunity through innovative programs, industry partnerships, and transfer and workforce pathways. She works with faculty, industry, and community partners to create meaningful career connections and work-based learning experiences. She is particularly interested in connecting emerging technologies with student opportunity.
Kyla helped launch data science programs at both Laney College and Berkeley City College and now leads initiatives in AI design and quantum information science, including a pilot partnership with Berkeley Lab and development of BCC’s first introductory quantum course.
Previously, she was a tenured mathematics instructor at Laney College, where she led data science initiatives and a districtwide effort to improve calculus outcomes and advance equity. Before entering higher education, she worked as an electrical engineer and practiced intellectual property law. Kyla holds a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from Brown University, a master’s degree in mathematics from California State University, East Bay, and a law degree from UC Berkeley.
Panelist
Ji Son
Professor and Co-Founder @ CourseKata, Cal State LA
Ji Y. Son is a professor of psychology and director of the Learning Lab at California State University, Los Angeles. She co-authored Statistics and Data Science: A Modeling Approach (CourseKata.org), an interactive textbook used by more than 35,000 students across over 150 institutions. Her research explores how insights from the learning sciences can improve teaching and learning at scale, particularly in mathematics, statistics, and data science. Son studies how to design learning environments that help students develop understanding that endures even as data and artificial intelligence reshape the world around them. Across her research, curriculum design, and teaching, she is guided by a simple idea: learning changes the way we see the world.
Thursday, Oct. 15 · 1:00–2:00 pm
PANEL 2: Structure, Function, Purpose — Do We Need a Better Model for Higher Education?
Through multiple generations, the ideals of higher education—and the narrative of America’s preeminence in it—have persisted. But cracks in the edifice are showing. Colleges and universities across the country are confronting new realities and expectations. What higher education teaches, how it teaches, who has access and at what cost—are all being called into question. How should we think about R1 and comprehensive universities, community colleges, and other providers of learning, as public perception and financial models shift? And what could it mean for California, where the Master Plan for Higher Education has served as both guiding light and fragile peace among the state’s three public higher education segments for more than six decades? Can the Master Plan persist, or do we need a new compact or model to fulfill the promise of higher education for tomorrow’s learners?
Moderator
Elizabeth González
Chief Program and Strategy Officer, College Futures Foundation
Elizabeth González is a philanthropy leader focused on public-sector systems change and equitable, intergenerational socioeconomic mobility. At College Futures Foundation, she leads the development and implementation of the foundation’s philanthropic strategy, guiding its program, learning, and grants administration teams in supporting educational solutions that reflect who today’s learners are and what they need to thrive in a rapidly changing economy. Her experience spans early childhood through workforce development.
Previously, González directed the education and workforce portfolios at The James Irvine Foundation and served as a program officer on the Gates Foundation’s postsecondary success team. She serves on the boards of Grantmakers for Education and KQED and on several policy and philanthropy advisory bodies.
Proud daughter of Mexican immigrants and a first-generation college student from southeast Los Angeles, González earned a bachelor’s degree from Columbia University and a doctorate in sociology from UCLA.
Panelist
Christopher Cabaldon
California State Senator
State Senator Christopher Cabaldon represents California’s 3rd Senate District, which includes Yolo, Solano, and Napa counties and parts of Sonoma, Contra Costa, and Sacramento counties. He chairs the Senate Privacy, Digital Technology, and Consumer Protection Committee, shaping policy at the intersection of emerging technology, data privacy, and public accountability. He also serves on the Senate Budget, Appropriations, Education, Housing, and Natural Resources and Water committees.
Before joining the Senate, Cabaldon served for two decades as mayor of West Sacramento, earning national recognition for his innovative approach to urban policy. His work encompassed transportation and land-use reform, floodplain management, universal preschool, and a pioneering automatic college-enrollment program that guaranteed free tuition to graduating seniors.
A tenured professor of public policy and administration at Sacramento State, Cabaldon teaches design thinking and public-sector prototyping. His combined experience in digital policy, institutional innovation, and hands-on civic leadership offers a grounded perspective on building public trust in an era of rapid technological change.
Panelist
Sonya Christian
Chancellor, California Community Colleges
Sonya Christian has served as chancellor of the California Community Colleges since June 2023 and is the first woman appointed permanently to the role. Throughout her career, she has championed collaborative leadership and advanced equity in student access, success, and economic mobility.
Christian began her career as a mathematics professor at Bakersfield College, where she later served as division chair, dean, and president. She also held leadership roles at Lane Community College and served as chancellor of the Kern Community College District. Christian has served on the Accrediting Commission for Community and Junior Colleges and holds degrees from the University of Kerala, USC, and UCLA.
Panelist
Pradeep Khosla
Chancellor, UC San Diego
Pradeep K. Khosla is chancellor and chief executive officer of UC San Diego, where he provides vision and strategy for a campus serving more than 46,000 students across 12 academic, professional, and graduate schools, eight undergraduate residential colleges, a preeminent health system, and the prestigious Scripps Institution of Oceanography.
Under Khosla’s leadership, UC San Diego has expanded college access and affordability for underserved students, launched interdisciplinary research initiatives to address societal challenges, and strengthened university and community partnerships. He also led the university’s first strategic plan and initiated more than $12 billion in capital improvements, expanding health care facilities, classroom and research space, and on-campus housing.
An engineer and academic leader, Khosla is an elected member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the National Academy of Engineering. He has been recognized with a lifetime achievement award from the American Society of Mechanical Engineers and holds fellowships in several scientific and engineering organizations.
Panelist
Steven Mintz
Professor of History, The University of Texas at Austin
Steven Mintz is a professor of history at the University of Texas at Austin and a leading authority on families, the life course, and higher education’s past, politics, and future. He is the author or editor of 17 books, including, most recently, The Learning-Centered University and The American Child: The Transformation of Childhood Since World War II, co-authored with Peter N. Stearns.
Mintz previously directed the University of Texas System’s Institute for Transformational Learning and Columbia University’s teaching center. He has served as president of the Society for the History of Children and Youth and H-Net, held a leadership role with the Council on Contemporary Families, and completed fellowships at Stanford and Harvard. His public writing appears on Substack and in Inside Higher Ed and The Chronicle of Higher Education.
Thursday, Oct. 15 · 4:30–5:30 pm
Panel 3: Building California’s Resilient Workforce (And Higher Ed’s Role)
Higher education is under increasing pressure to demonstrate its value, just as technology and labor markets are shifting in unexpected and potentially unprecedented ways. Panelists will discuss the industries, careers, and skills likely to shape California’s future economy, what employers will seek from the next generation of degree and certificate holders, and how colleges and universities can prepare learners for a lifetime of adaptation, reskilling, and change. How can higher education meet students’ evolving career-preparation needs and the changing needs of the workforce while still fostering civic participation and the resilience needed to navigate an uncertain future?
Moderator
Jaweed Kaleem
Higher Education Reporter, Los Angeles Times
Jaweed Kaleem is the higher education reporter at the Los Angeles Times, where he covers the University of California, California State University, community colleges and private institutions.
Previously, Kaleem was a Los Angeles-based national correspondent and London-based foreign correspondent for the publication. Before joining the L.A. Times in 2016, he covered religion for HuffPost and the Miami Herald.
Panelist
Maria Anguiano
Chair, UC Board of Regents; Chair, Board of the James Irvine Foundation
Maria Anguiano is a board director and strategist specializing in organizational transformation, finance, and growth. She chairs the University of California Board of Regents and The James Irvine Foundation and serves on the board of the KIPP Foundation. Anguiano previously held leadership roles at Arizona State University, UC Riverside, Minerva, Barclays, Lehman Brothers, and Deloitte, bringing experience that spans higher education, philanthropy, finance, and consulting.
Panelist
Diego Arambula
Vice President of Education Transformation, Carnegie Foundation; Board of Trustees Chair, California State University
Diego Arambula is vice president for educational transformation at the Carnegie Foundation, where he leads strategies and builds partnerships with educators, policymakers, families, employers, and community-based organizations to advance the foundation’s mission.
Arambula brings more than 15 years of experience in education. Previously, he was a managing partner at Transcend, working with teachers, principals, and superintendents to reimagine learning environments. He also founded and led GO Public Schools Fresno, an education advocacy nonprofit, and held roles at Summit Public Schools as a classroom teacher, founding principal, and chief growth and innovation officer.
In 2020, Arambula was appointed to an eight-year term as a trustee of the California State University system, where he chairs the Education Policy Committee. He also serves as board chair of Summit Public Schools and the Central Valley Community Foundation. Arambula holds a bachelor’s degree in government from Harvard University and a master’s degree in education from Stanford University.
Panelist
Kathy Booth
Senior Director for Economic Mobility and Educational Data Systems, WestEd
Kathy Booth directs WestEd’s Center for Economic Mobility, where she transforms data into practical solutions that connect education and workforce development. She has helped design state longitudinal data systems, including the California Cradle-to-Career Data System, and improve coordination across agencies through efforts such as California’s Career Education Master Plan.
Booth’s work clarifies students’ economic outcomes, including the earnings gains associated with upskilling, and guides the use of labor market information to create pathways to better-paying, more stable jobs. She has also led statewide reform efforts in developmental education, student supports, accountability frameworks, and Guided Pathways.
Panelist
Thomas C. Tubon, Jr.
Executive Director, MiraCosta College Technology Career Institute
Thomas Tubon is a leader in workforce development, education, and industry partnerships with more than 20 years of experience. As executive director of the Technology Career Institute at MiraCosta College, he leads innovative workforce training and community education programs focused on skilled trades and emerging technologies.
Previously, Tubon served as chief workforce development officer for BioMADE, where he helped launch national education and training initiatives to strengthen the bioindustrial manufacturing workforce. He was also a biotechnology professor at Madison College for 13 years and led multiple National Science Foundation Advanced Technological Education projects. Earlier in his career, he conducted research at the University of Wisconsin–Madison in neuroscience, neurological diseases, and regenerative medicine.
Tubon earned a doctorate in molecular genetics from Stony Brook University and Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory and a bachelor’s degree in molecular biology from San Diego State University.
Friday, Oct. 16 · 8:45–9:45 am
Panel 4: Human Learning in a Machine-Learning World
As AI’s capabilities grow more powerful, higher education is still struggling to understand the role AI could play in learning and what should be adapted, preserved, or abandoned about what and how we teach. Bringing together experts in the science of human learning and artificial intelligence, this panel will explore what we know about how humans learn, what AI systems can now do, and what the rapidly evolving relationship between the two means for education. Can (and should) AI fundamentally change not only how people learn, but what they need to learn? What truly empowers learning and not just performance? And what does it take for human learning to thrive in this new era?
Moderator
Matthew Rascoff
Lecturer, Stanford Graduate School of Business, and former Vice Provost for Digital Education, Stanford University
Matthew Rascoff is an education innovation leader who works across sectors to democratize access to knowledge and opportunity. As Stanford University’s inaugural vice provost for digital education, he advises university leadership on digital learning and leads Stanford Digital Education, which advances mission-driven approaches designed to support students historically underserved by higher education. He is also a lecturer in management at the Stanford Graduate School of Business.
Rascoff has written about open educational resources and digital pathways that expand access to higher education. He is currently developing case studies on emerging approaches to AI and education. Previously, he founded and led Duke Learning Innovation and established the Office of Learning Technology and Innovation for the University of North Carolina system, where he built UNC Online, a statewide cross-registration network for online courses. Earlier in his career, Rascoff launched JSTOR’s first international office, led product teams at Wireless Generation (now Amplify), helped create the strategy group at ITHAKA, and worked with Google on the Book Search project to digitize all the world’s published works.
Rascoff earned an MBA from Harvard Business School after studying at Columbia University and Boğaziçi University as a Fulbright Scholar. He serves on the advisory boards of Anthropic and the California Education Learning Lab and on the governing board of Meritus College.
Panelist
Ali Arsanjani
Director, Applied AI Engineering, Google Cloud
Ali Arsanjani is director of applied AI engineering at Google Cloud and head of its Global AI Center of Excellence, where he leads strategic co-innovation, thought leadership, and alliances in generative AI. He works with partners and product teams to develop AI and machine-learning solutions and help shape Google Cloud’s AI and analytics offerings.
Arsanjani is also an adjunct professor at San José State University and the University of California, San Diego, where he advises graduate students in data science. Previously, he led machine-learning initiatives and technical strategy at Amazon Web Services and held AI and machine-learning leadership roles at 8x8 and Deep Context, an AI startup he founded.
During two decades at IBM, Arsanjani served as chief technology officer for analytics and machine learning and as a distinguished engineer, leading a global team developing machine-learning and analytics solutions. His expertise encompasses natural language processing, large language models, deep learning, anomaly detection, customer analytics, and conversational AI. He has also helped develop industry standards for service-oriented architecture and cloud computing through The Open Group.
Panelist
Andrea A. Chiba
Professor, Cognitive Science & Director, Temporal Dynamics of Learning Center, UC San Diego
Andrea A. Chiba is professor in the Department of Cognitive Science and the Program of Neuroscience at the University of California, San Diego. She co-founded the Global Science of Learning for Education Network and served as founding science director of the Temporal Dynamics of Learning Center, which focused on the role of time and timing in learning.
Chiba leads an interdisciplinary laboratory investigating the neural systems underlying learning, memory, affect, and attention, with an emphasis on neuromodulation. Her team uses neurobiological, neurochemical, neurophysiological, computational, robotic, and behavioral approaches. Its research on the neural basis of prosociality and interoception received an NSF BRAIN Initiative award, and related work applying these insights to classroom learning received an NSF Director’s Award.
Chiba is also co-principal investigator of NSF AccelNet: Cultures of Learning, which focuses on self-regulation, and has served as a faculty member with Moving Boundaries, an initiative exploring connections between neuroscience and architecture in support of human flourishing.
Panelist
Narges Norouzi
Associate Dean and Associate Teaching Professor, UC Berkeley
Narges Norouzi is associate dean for students at UC Berkeley’s College of Computing, Data Science, and Society and an associate teaching professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences. Her research focuses on applied machine learning, including agentic systems, representation learning, human-in-the-loop optimization, and the use of large language models to understand and support complex human behavior. Her recent work examines how LLM-based agents coordinate and compete in strategic multi-agent settings.
Norouzi leads interdisciplinary projects that combine deep learning, natural language processing, and knowledge tracing to design intelligent systems for real-world applications ranging from student modeling and personalized tutoring to cognitive state assessment. Her work advances methods for interpreting and adapting models to dynamic, user-centered environments, with an emphasis on transparency and responsiveness. Her research has been supported by the National Science Foundation, Google, Microsoft, and NVIDIA.
Panelist
Sarah Senk
Professor of English, Cal Poly Maritime Academy
Sarah Senk is professor of English at Cal Poly Maritime Academy. She earned a doctorate in comparative literature from Cornell University, where she specialized in postcolonial literature and trauma studies and trained and taught at the Knight Institute for Writing in the Disciplines.
Before joining the Cal Maritime faculty in 2016, Senk was assistant professor of postcolonial literature at the University of Hartford. Her experience teaching humanities-based writing and first-year seminar courses helped shape her interest in the potential for technology to transform teaching and learning.
Senk’s research and teaching interests include trauma and cultural memory in 20th- and 21st-century global Anglophone literature, speculative fiction and film, “slow disaster,” and commemoration in the digital age.
Friday, Oct. 16 · 11:40 am–12:40 pm
Panel 5: Higher Ed in 2050
Imagine California higher education in 2050. What will it look like? Who will it serve, how will it serve them, and for what purpose? Join us for INSPIRE’s closing panel as leaders collectively envision what California higher education can become, considering the demographic, technological, political, socio-cultural, and economic forces that will shape the next quarter century. Most importantly, what actions and decisions must we make today to transform vision to reality?
Moderator
Mitchell Stevens
Professor, Stanford University
Mitchell Stevens is professor of education at Stanford University, with a courtesy appointment in sociology. An organizational sociologist, he studies educational pathways, lifelong learning, alternative educational forms, and the organization of knowledge. At Stanford, Stevens convenes the Learning Society project and Pathways Lab and serves as co-director of the Stanford Center on Longevity and academic editor of Stanford Social Innovation Review.
Panelist
Marty J. Alvarado
Partner, Sova
Marty J. Alvarado is a partner at Sova, where she works with colleges, universities, and public systems nationwide to reimagine how higher education is structured, delivered, and funded. Her work focuses particularly on the solutions public higher education needs to respond to shifting demographics, workforce demands, and student needs.
Alvarado is the author of The New Learning Contract: California’s Path to Direct Assessment Competency-Based Education and a related brief series outlining the infrastructure, policy, and program redesign needed to support continuous, lifelong learning. Her work helps institutions move beyond incremental improvements toward learning and workforce models designed for how people learn and work today.
Before joining Sova, Alvarado served as executive vice chancellor for equitable student learning, experience, and impact at the California Community Colleges Chancellor’s Office and as vice president of postsecondary education and training at Jobs for the Future.
Panelist
Bridget Burns
Founding CEO, University Innovation Alliance
Bridget Burns is the founding CEO of the University Innovation Alliance, an award-winning consortium of 19 public research universities working together to improve student success and expand upward mobility at scale. Over the past decade, UIA campuses have produced more than 183,000 additional graduates, more than doubling the number of graduates from historically underrepresented backgrounds.
Washington Monthly named Burns one of the “Most Innovative People in Higher Education,” and UC Berkeley honored her with the Clark Kerr Award in 2025. Her work has been featured in The New York Times, Fast Company, 60 Minutes, and the documentary Unlikely. Burns holds a doctorate in higher education leadership and policy from Vanderbilt University.
Panelist
Junius J. Gonzales
Vice Chancellor, Academic Affairs, California State University
Junius J. Gonzales is vice chancellor for academic affairs and chief academic officer for the California State University system. He provides systemwide leadership and strategy for academic affairs and serves as a policy advisor to the chancellor and partner to campus presidents, faculty, staff, and other university leaders.
Gonzales brings more than three decades of experience across higher education, government, and the private sector. Before joining the CSU Chancellor’s Office, he held senior academic leadership positions at Montclair State University, New York Institute of Technology, the University of North Carolina system, the University of Texas at El Paso, and the University of South Florida, where he was the founding dean of the College of Behavioral and Community Sciences and executive director of the Louis de la Parte Florida Mental Health Institute. A psychiatrist by training, he also led the National Institute of Mental Health’s Division of Services and Interventional Research and served as a principal and scientist at Abt Associates (now Abt Global).
A first-generation college student, Gonzales earned his bachelor’s degree from Brown University, medical degree from the University of Pennsylvania, and MBA from the University of Maryland. He completed his residency at Massachusetts General Hospital and a postdoctoral fellowship at the National Institute of Mental Health.
Panelist
Rich Lyons
Chancellor, UC Berkeley
Rich Lyons is the 12th chancellor of UC Berkeley and the first undergraduate alum to serve in the role. Before becoming chancellor, he served as associate vice chancellor for innovation and entrepreneurship, leading the campuswide expansion of innovation and entrepreneurship initiatives. He previously served as dean of UC Berkeley’s Haas School of Business.
Lyons earned his bachelor’s degree from UC Berkeley and a doctorate in economics from MIT. After six years on the faculty at Columbia University, he returned to Berkeley in 1993 as a Haas School faculty member. In 1998, he received Berkeley’s Distinguished Teaching Award.
Lyons describes his six-word memoir as “long-term love affair with ideas, learning,” reflecting a career spanning teaching, academic leadership, and campuswide innovation.
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