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Dr. Peter Felten is executive director of the Center for Engaged Learning, professor of history, and assistant provost for teaching and learning at Elon University. He teaches in both History and the Masters in Higher Education program at Elon. Peter has published eight books about higher education, including Connections are Everything: A College Student’s Guide to Relationship-Rich Education (2023) and recently The SoTL Guide: (Re)Orienting the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (2025). Both of those co-authored books have an open access online version free to all readers. He has served as president of the International Society for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (ISSOTL) and also of the POD Network, the U.S. professional society for educational developers. He is on the advisory board of the National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE) and is a fellow of the Gardner Institute, a foundation that partners with higher education institutions to enable student learning, well-being, persistence, and success. During the 2024-2025 academic year he served as Educator-in-Residence at the National University of Singapore.

Dr. Cristi Ford serves as the Chief Learning Officer at D2L, bringing more than 20 years of experience in higher education, secondary education, project management, program evaluation, training, and student services. In this role, she provides strategic leadership and thought direction, ensuring that D2L remains at the forefront of innovation in learning, teaching, and academic affairs. Her work extends across institutional, corporate, and global landscapes, driving impactful change in digital learning environments. Dr. Ford has held key roles across secondary and higher education, as well as on the international stage, where she has played a pivotal role in expanding online learning in both the U.S. and the African continent.

Her expertise includes building and scaling online education programs, faculty development, instructional design, and pedagogical best practices. Dr. Ford's contributions to the field have been widely recognized. She was selected as a 2022 OLC Fellow by the Online Learning Consortium—the highest professional distinction awarded by the association—in recognition of her dedication to advancing quality online education. Known for her visionary leadership, she is committed to helping institutions build capacity, scale digital learning, and enhance student success. And in 2024, she received the Mildred and Charles Wedemeyer Award, recognizing her as an outstanding practitioner in distance education.

Dr. Edward Benoit, III is the Interim Director and Associate Professor in the School of Information Studies at Louisiana State University. He coordinates the archival studies and cultural heritage resource management programs. He received an MA in History, MLIS and PhD in Information Studies from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. His research focuses on participatory and community archives, non-traditional archival materials, climate change, and archival education. He is the founder and director of the Virtual Footlocker Project, which examines the personal archiving habits of the 21st century soldier in an effort to develop new digital capture and preservation technologies to support their needs. He also directs PROTECCT-GLAM, an IMLS-funded project focused on identify climate-change-related risks for GLAMs.

Dr. Benoit is also an affiliated faculty member in the LSU College of Art & Design's Doctor of Design in Cultural Preservation program.

Courtney Kirschner serves as the Executive Director of Recruitment and Retention for LSU Online, where she provides strategic leadership across recruitment, enrollment, and retention operations supporting students throughout the full online learner lifecycle. With more than 13 years of experience in higher education, she oversees large, distributed teams across multiple LSU campuses and plays a key role in aligning people, processes, and technology to improve student success, persistence, and completion.

Courtney’s work focuses on building high-performing, student-centered teams through culture-driven strategy, data-informed decision-making, and scalable support models. She has led significant growth and transformation within LSU Online, including the expansion of remote student success teams, the implementation of CRM and analytics tools, and the development of proactive outreach and retention frameworks designed to support diverse adult and professional learners.

Courtney regularly presents at conferences on culture, student success, and digital transformation in online and continuing education and is deeply committed to developing talent, strengthening cross-functional collaboration, and ensuring equitable, high-quality experiences for online learners.

Megan Nelson is a healthcare strategist at UAB Medicine and the Founder and CEO of The Pivoting Professional, a career community that supports students, early-career professionals, and established professionals navigating career pivots with clarity, confidence, and connection. A proud first-generation college graduate, Megan earned both her Bachelor of Science in Public Health and Master’s in Health Administration through LSU Online. In her role at UAB Medicine, she supports strategic planning and business development efforts by translating provider analytics, market trends, and operational insights into data-informed recommendations that guide executive decision-making and strengthen patient and community outcomes. Her work focuses on aligning systems, strategy, and people to ensure organizational decisions create meaningful, real-world impact.

Over the past two years, Megan has grown The Pivoting Professional into a trusted space for mentorship, career programming, and accessible services such as résumé development, LinkedIn optimization, and interview preparation. She regularly speaks with college students and on professional panels about the transition into professionalism, overcoming imposter syndrome, building confidence, and navigating early adulthood with intention. Across both healthcare strategy and community-building, Megan is recognized for her ability to humanize the professional experience and design supportive environments where learners feel connected, capable, and empowered to flourish, making her work a natural fit for conversations that bridge policy, practice, and presence.

Teresa Seymour is the Assistant Vice Chancellor for Distance Learning at Louisiana State University of Alexandria (LSUA), where she has served for more than 31 years. With additional experience across higher education at Boston College and Louisiana Tech, Teresa brings a long-term, practitioner’s perspective to designing learning environments that support student success. She holds a Master of Arts in Human Relations and Supervision from Louisiana Tech and has worked in distance learning since the early days of telecourses and compressed video—an era her daughter fondly reminds her was “the 1900s.”

At LSUA, Teresa emphasizes empowering faculty and staff with timely, actionable data to identify student needs and respond quickly. Her work focuses on building flexible systems, policies, and practices that allow institutions to pivot as student needs evolve, ensuring learners are met where they are and supported in meaningful, sustainable ways.