With the recent hire of Bill Heinrich to lead our Mindset Division, Orbis is pioneering bold insights and ideas to guide what’s next in experiential learning and career-readiness. In alignment with this new division, and in celebration of our twentieth year of campus partnership and innovation, we are excited to announce the launch of “Mindset in Motion” – an audible series of podcasts and webinars that engages our higher learning community in the conversations, ideas, and insights that will steer student career-readiness and higher learning excellence.

Our first episode of this series, a webinar, “The Modern Credential Ecosystem: Equity, Agency and the Currency of High-Value Learning Experiences,” takes place this Tuesday, September 29th at 1:00 PM.

Join Cameron McCoy, vice president and vice provost for strategic initiatives at Lehigh University, and Mary Strain, business development at Hyland Credentials, to discover Lehigh’s transformative approach to the architecture and recognition of experiences of distinction for their students, and how blockchain technology enhances the value of their credentials in the global marketplace.

As we know, higher education has always been about far more than the content of academic coursework. Peers, professors, staff, and alumni provide valuable social capital. Athletics, research, social clubs, internships, study abroad programs, and other high-value learning experiences are essential elements of an educational experience. Such experiences often offer students critical opportunities to develop in-demand employability skills—communication, growth mindset, emotional intelligence, creativity, decision-making, leadership, and cultural intelligence set a point of differentiation for graduates in today’s workforce. Long-term student livelihood is contingent on the next generation of leaderships’ ability to lead effectively.

This Mindset in Motion episode dives deep to discuss answers to some of today’s most pressing questions critical to shaping the future of higher learning and student career-readiness. These questions include, but aren’t limited to:

• How are academic institutions creating opportunities to recognize and create value for all of these learning experiences?
• How are those experiences aligned to existing paradigms of value outside of the issuing institution?
• How can stakeholders verify such credentials? How are students empowered with agency over the records of their accomplishments?

Registration is open now, and limited seats are available. To join us, register here.

Meet our Featured Speakers

 Cameron McCoy, of Lehigh University

Cameron J. McCoy, Ph.D., vice president and vice provost for strategic initiatives at Lehigh University. Cameron is accountable for leading enterprise-wide external engagements, aligning careers and economic development, and enabling institutional innovation through design thinking and internal consultation.

Dr. McCoy completed his graduate studies at the University of Oklahoma, M.A. (Organization Leadership), Doctoral (Interdisciplinary), and his undergraduate degrees (History, Social Studies, and Architectural Studies) at Washington State University, cum laude, with Honors and Global certificates.  His research interests combine economics and educational administration in evaluating university organizational economic engagement approaches. His recent work explores allocative inefficiency of boundary-spanning functions in US higher education.

McCoy is a graduate of the Academy for Innovative Higher Education Leadership and served as an American Council on Education (ACE) Fellow at George Mason University and Southern New Hampshire University in 2018.

Mary Strain, of Hyland Credentials

Mary Strain leads US higher education and public sector adoption of Hyland Credentials, the global leader in blockchain anchored, digital credential issuing systems built on the Blockcerts open standard.

Prior to joining Hyland, Mary led large scale digital credentialing initiatives in New York City and in several US states. As an advisor to technology firms, large urban school systems and state licensing agencies, Mary has been positioned on the leading edge of technology and brought innovative approaches to public-serving agencies for over a decade.

Mary serves as an advisor and speaker at The University of Pennsylvania’s Education Design Studio, The Coalition of Schools Educating Boys of Color and The School Improvement Partnership and was a middle school teacher in NYC.

Mary completed a BA in History from Fordham University and an MPA in Public Policy from The City University of New York.

Hear all of their insights next Tuesday, September 29th. We can’t wait to see all of you there.