Welcome to the 85th Anniversary Year of the Association for Continuing Higher Education (ACHE)! What a privilege it is to serve this outstanding organization that has been my professional home for the past 30 years since I entered higher education in 1992! Our ACHE family has given so much to me throughout my professional and personal journey, so I am honored to give back to my ACHE family by serving as president for the coming year, working closely as Team ACHE with a superb Board of Directors and so many outstanding leaders and members across the country and internationally!
The mission of ACHE is to promote lifelong learning and excellence in continuing higher education, and the organization is comprised of a dynamic network of diverse professionals who are dedicated to promoting excellence in continuing higher education and to sharing their expertise and experience with one another. Belief in the values of professional development, collegiality, and service continues to guide the mission of ACHE, and there is no more important activity of the organization than the Annual Conference and Meeting where this mission and values are exemplified. So, before we look at the future of the 85th year, we need to pause and celebrate this past year under the amazing leadership of President TinaMarie Coolidge from Drexel University and her spectacular leadership team that culminated in the phenomenal 84th Annual Conference that was held this week in New Orleans! This entire edition of Five Minutes with ACHE is dedicated to celebrating the many accomplishments of President Coolidge and our outstanding conference in New Orleans!
My very first item of business as president is to extend our deepest thanks to President TinaMarie on her excellent year at the helm of ACHE. On behalf of our entire membership, we extend our deepest gratitude to you for your phenomenal leadership over the past year! You have done an amazing job in a very challenging year following our two years...plus... of a global pandemic and you provided superb leadership for the 84th Annual Conference that brought us back together again for our annual family reunion! (Where else can you go where you tell people what you do for a living, and they actually understand you!!) Our outstanding conference attendance of approximately 150, the many amazing business partners you almost single handedly recruited, and the very popular two new certification tracks you personally developed were but a few of the successes that made the conference experience and your ACHE presidential year a huge success! So, on behalf of our ACHE International members, we thank you for a phenomenal job as President!
Also, let me extend our deepest gratitude to our other past presidents who were with us at the conference, along with those who could not be with us. We are truly standing on the shoulders of giants -- including:
- Dr. Amy Johnson - Immediate Past President who amazingly led us through two years as president during the Covid-19 era…..and the only president to ever serve two years!
- Dr. Clare Van Ness - Past President who most graciously agreed to host the Home Office for the next year during the transition from Nardone Consulting firm.
- Dr. Brian Van Horn - Past President who hosted the largest conference in recent history in Las Vegas and continues to serve ACHE during his very busy years as President of Mayville State University in Mayville, North Dakota.
- Dr. David Grebel - Past President who has been serving as chair of the Finance Committee and managing our finances, including our conference budgets, following his retirement from Texas Christian University.
- Dr. Richard Osborn – Past President who served as ACHE Executive Director and Home Office at East Tennessee State University for the past several years before the Home Office was moved to Nardone Consulting.
Also, to the ACHE Executive Committee, the Board of Directors, to the Co-Chairs of the 84th Annual Conference - Alex Read and Amanda Colburn - and to the entire Conference Planning Committee, we extend our most sincere thanks for your outstanding leadership and many efforts with President TinaMarie throughout the last year!!!
Finally, to the many other ACHE founders and leaders who were not with us at the conference and especially to those who have passed on.... we express our deepest gratitude for their 84 years of leadership and dedication to the ACHE family! We will continue to stand on your shoulders forever! And, we’ll spend our 85th year “Celebrating the Many Successes of the Past and Looking Forward to a Strong Future” for our beloved ACHE!!! Thank you, again, President Coolidge, for an outstanding 84th year!!!
