Innovations 2026 Tuesday Keynote

General Session Keynote
Tuesday, March 17
9:00 - 10:00 AM

  • Rufus Glasper, President and CEO, League for Innovation in the Community College

  • Kurt Hoffman, Senior Vice President, Instructional and Student Affairs, Allegany College of Maryland

  • Chadd Engel, Manager, AI Initiatives and Outcomes, Waubonsee Community College

  • Joanne Fish, Associate Dean, Humanities, Jefferson College

Keynote Address

AI in Action: A Conversation With League AI Fellows

Artificial intelligence is already reshaping how community colleges teach, support students, and operate—but turning possibility into practice requires intention and leadership. In this engaging panel, graduates from the League AI Fellows Program share firsthand experiences using AI at their institutions, from early exploration to real-world application. Panelists discuss what motivated them to engage with AI, how their colleges are approaching it today, and what they’ve learned through hands-on use. Through concrete examples, they highlight practical AI applications improving workflows, informing decisions, and supporting students and staff, alongside challenges related to culture, ethics, and trust. Conference participants will leave with grounded inspiration and actionable insights for advancing responsible, human-centered AI use in community colleges.

Biographies

Rufus Glasper

Dr. Rufus Glasper is President and CEO of the League for Innovation in the Community College (League), an international nonprofit organization with a mission to cultivate innovation in the community college environment. Chancellor Emeritus of the Maricopa Community Colleges, he served as Chancellor from 2003 through 2016 and held district leadership positions for a total of three decades.

Nationally, Glasper serves as an advisory board member for Center for Community College Student Engagement (CCCSE), The University of Texas at Austin; Community College Research Center, Teachers College, Columbia University; and Belk Center for Community College Leadership and Research, North Carolina State University, and is on the board of directors for Education Design Lab. He previously served as a member of the American Council on Education (ACE) Commission on Higher Education Attainment, Homeland Security Academic Advisory Council, Educational Testing Service Advisory Council, and as a trustee for HLC and ACE. He served on the League’s board of directors from 2003 to 2016.

Glasper is an active community member, serving on the boards of Arizona State University Center for the Study of Race and Democracy and Sandra Day O’Connor Institute for American Democracy. He is also an emeritus member of Greater Phoenix Leadership.

Glasper earned a bachelor’s degree in business administration from Luther College in Iowa and a master’s and advanced degrees in school business administration from Northern Illinois University. He received a Doctor of Philosophy in higher education finance from University of Arizona.

Kurt Hoffman

Dr. Kurt Hoffman serves as Senior Vice President of Instructional and Student Affairs at Allegany College of Maryland (ACM), where he has spent 23 years shaping the institution's academic vision and student success initiatives. A tenured associate professor and former chair of the Social and Behavioral Sciences division, Hoffman has been the Senior Vice President of Instructional and Student Affairs for more than a decade.  

As a passionate advocate for democratic education, Hoffman was instrumental in making ACM an original signatory college for The Democracy Commitment. He has published and presented nationally on civic engagement and democratic education at rural community colleges, bringing critical attention to the unique role these institutions play in strengthening democratic participation.  

Under his leadership, ACM has launched transformative academic initiatives, including the college's inaugural Educational Master Plan, the Program Health Index, a comprehensive Culture of Care model featuring a Holistic Mental Health Network, Teaching and Learning Communities (TLC), and annual professional development programming. He has pioneered instructional technology innovations and championed new curriculum development that responds to evolving student and workforce needs. Recently, he completed the League for Innovation’s AI Fellows Program as an inaugural cohort member.   

His most significant contribution to date is being a girl-dad to university students Claire and Ella, and husband to Vicki.

Chadd Engel

Chadd Engel is an AI and learning systems leader whose work sits at the intersection of generative AI, pedagogy, data infrastructure, and institutional transformation. Across his career, he has been a Computer Science for All advocate, working across K-12, higher education, and community-based settings to expand access to computing, data literacy, and emerging technologies.

Engel’s background spans system design, platform implementation, and analytics, with experience in Python, R, enterprise analytics workflows, data visualization, and data governance. He has led and supported institutional ecosystems that include learning management systems, assessment platforms, adaptive learning tools, student success and analytics systems, and enterprise collaboration environments—strengthening evidence-informed decision-making and organizational coherence.

Engel is a Ph.D. candidate in curriculum studies at DePaul University. His research examines the impact of generative AI on human learning, with a focus on transparency, ethics, and safeguarding human agency within automated systems. His work emphasizes AI not as a standalone tool, but as institutional infrastructure that must be governed, accountable, and aligned with human values.

A father of three, Chadd’s thinking about learning is shaped as much at home as it is in professional settings. Watching his children collaboratively design complex digital worlds through curiosity and play reinforced a guiding belief in his work: Innovation does not begin with content delivery; it begins with environments that invite inquiry.

Across roles in enterprise technology, data systems, and education, he is guided by a core principle: Transparency is a prerequisite during times of transformation and disruption.

Joanne Fish

Joanne Fish, Ph.D., is an Associate Dean of Humanities at Jefferson College and co-leads the college's AI subcommittee. She has been instrumental in assisting instructors in incorporating ethical, human-centered AI practices into coursework. She is working with the college community to create an AI ecosystem and transform learning from traditional pedagogy to one that embraces an AI-supported learning redesign (AI-LX). Along with her colleagues, Fish is working with Jefferson College’s business and industry partners to establish common curricular and support needs related to the implementation of AI in the workforce. She has a background in literacy education and trauma-informed practices. Fish recently co-edited a book titled Beginning Within: Marking a New Journey Toward Equity in Trauma-Informed Education Practices.

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