OREGON STATE UNIVERSITY
Open search box
Established in 2004, the Charles E. Carpenter Lecture and Conference Endowment supports advances in professional development for community college leaders. Held each spring, the Carpenter Lecture features a nationally known speaker on a topic of importance to community colleges. In addition to current students in the Adult and Higher Education doctoral program, attendees include northwest community college leaders and members of the OSU community. The Carpenter Lecture has become a premier professional development event for community college leaders and has significantly advanced Oregon State University’s work in community college leadership.
The 2024 Carpenter Lecture date will be announced soon!
Check back for more details. To see a recording of the 2023 event, click here.
Thursday, February 23, 2023
7:00 to 8:00 pm PST
This virtual event is free and open to the public.
Dr. Pamela Eddy from William & Mary will deliver the 2023 Charles E. Carpenter Lecture and focus on equity-minded leadership. She will report out on data from her national study of community college senior and mid-level leaders that centered on the question of how to develop community college leaders who promote social justice and an equity agenda. The survey data from Dr. Eddy’s study showed differences in perspective exists for how senior leaders envisioned safe spaces for dialogue on campus relative to mid-level leaders and found that women and leaders of color noted different experiences on campus. Many of the survey participants noted their campuses had a formal diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) plan and that a commitment to equity and social justice is reflected in their college’s mission statements and strategic plans. Using the study data, Dr. Eddy and her colleagues have built a model for developing equity-minded leaders who can help campuses move beyond individual level workshops on DEI to campus wide changes that move the needle on persistent equity gaps. Fostering an equity-minded community of practice on campus first requires individuals to reflect on and improve their own self-awareness and equity-minded practices and to cultivate habits of mind through continuous learning that are equity-minded. Critical to leaders’ ability to learn is advancing their contextual competency—how does the college’s location influence understandings of equity on campus? Building an inclusive campus where campus members feel like they belong and are supported serves to help the bottom line by increasing enrollment, persistence, and graduation rates and helps to break cycles of oppression. Moving from individual level change to campus change requires leaders to tell a compelling story regarding the need to change policies and practices, to help create common understandings of terms, and to put together a plan of action that recognizes that change takes time. Community colleges are at a critical juncture in their organizational cycle and desperately need equity-minded leaders to secure a better future for their students and communities.
Pamela Eddy is the Associate Provost of Faculty Affairs and Faculty Development and a professor of higher education in Educational Policy, Planning, and Leadership at William & Mary. Her research interests include community college leadership and development, organizational change and educational partnerships, gender roles in higher education, and faculty development.
Professor Eddy serves as a consultant for campuses, system offices, and on funded grants regarding strategies to support community college student success and to promote leadership development. Eddy has authored six books and edited six others. Her most recent book, with Betty Kirby, is titled Leading for Tomorrow: A Primer for Succeeding in Higher Education Leadership (2020). Eddy is the editor-in-chief for New Directions for Community Colleges, and serves on the editorial boards for Community College Journal of Research and Practice, Journal of Women and Gender in Higher Education, and Innovative Higher Education. She received the 2006 emerging scholar award and the 2013 senior scholar award from the Council for the Study of Community Colleges. Professor Eddy was recognized with a 2021 Outstanding Faculty Award from the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia. Additionally, Eddy received the 2011 Plumeri Award for Faculty Excellence at William & Mary. She was a Fulbright Scholar in Dublin, Ireland in 2009 and continues her research on partnerships there.
Eddy received her Ph.D. from Michigan State University, her M.S. from Cornell University, and her B.S. in economics from Allegheny College.
AHE programs invite nominations for three alumni awards. Nominations are accepted each year between November 1st and December 1st. Award recipients are honored by the College of Education dean, AHE chair, faculty, fellow alumni, and current students at the Charles E. Carpenter Lecture.
A list of speakers and a collection of some of the content from past Carpenter Lectures.
