Opening Keynote Speaker
Dr. Julie Payne-Kirchmeier, CSAEd
President and Senior Partner, Edgefield LLC
Dr. Julie Payne-Kirchmeier, CSAEd, is President and CEO of Edgefield Group, LLC, where she advises colleges and universities on student success strategy, organizational design, and institutional effectiveness. A sought-after speaker, strategist, and author, she brings more than 30 years of higher education experience leading student success and student affairs work at both campus and university-system levels.
Born and raised in Texas, a Midwesterner for more than half her life, and educated entirely in public institutions, Julie has experienced higher education from many sides. She was a traditional undergraduate at Texas A&M University and later completed her Ph.D. through distance education at Indiana State University while working full time. As an educator and senior leader, she has since worked across institutions, regions, and communities with very different students and very different realities. Together, those experiences have reinforced a long-held conviction: student reality must be the governing consideration in how institutions design for student success, shaping how they wrestle with mission, evidence, resources, policy, and context—and ultimately, what students experience.
Julie has carried that conviction into leadership at both institutional and system scale. Before founding Edgefield, she served as the inaugural Vice President for Student Success for the Indiana University system and as Vice President for Student Affairs at Northwestern University, along with earlier leadership roles across multiple institutional types and regions. She also brings more than 15 years of teaching experience across three higher education graduate programs, giving her a perspective shaped not only by administration, but by the classroom as well.
Julie is a former Chair of the NASPA Board of Directors, a 2022 NASPA Pillar of the Profession, and an AGB Institute for Leadership & Governance in Higher Education Fellow. She remains deeply curious about how institutions can better understand and design for the students they serve—and energized by the work of helping leaders turn that understanding into strategy that holds.
Plenary Keynote Speaker
Sonja Ardoin, Ph.D.
Professor of Higher Education and Student Affairs, Clemson University
Sonja Ardoin, PhD, is a learner, educator, speaker, and author. Proud of her rural hometown of Vidrine, Louisiana, her working-class, Cajun roots, and her first-generation college student to PhD journey, Sonja earned degrees from LSU, Florida State, and NC State. A dedicated scholar-practitioner, Sonja spent a decade as a student affairs administrator before transitioning to the faculty in 2015. She currently serves as a professor of higher education and student affairs at Clemson University. Sonja studies social class identity, rurality, first-generation college students, and career preparation and pathways in higher education and student affairs. She has published over 70 scholarly works (including 7 books!) and provided over 200 keynote and scholarly talks for over 100 different organizations. She stays engaged in the broader field through ACPA, AFLV, ASHE, FirstGen Forward, LeaderShape, NASPA, SACSA, and several journal editorial boards. Learn more about Sonja's work at www.sonjaardoin.com.