Keynote Speakers
45th Annual Conference on The First-Year Experience
February 15-18, 2025 - Seattle, WA
José Antonio Bowen, Ph.D., FRSA
José Antonio Bowen has been leading innovation and change for over 45 years at Stanford, Georgetown and the University of Southampton (UK), as a dean at Miami University and SMU and as President of Goucher College. Bowen worked as a musician with Stan Getz, Dave Brubeck, and many others and his symphony was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize in Music (1985). Bowen holds four degrees from Stanford and has written over 100 scholarly articles and books, including the Cambridge Companion to Conducting (2003), Teaching Naked (2012 and the winner of the Ness Award for Best Book on Higher Education), Teaching Change: How to Develop Independent Thinkers using Relationships, Resilience and Reflection (2021) and Teaching with AI: A Practical Guide to a New Era of Human Learning (2024; 2nd edn 2026) with C. Edward Watson. Bowen has appeared in The New York Times, Forbes, The Wall Street Journal, has three TED talks, and he has presented more than 500 keynotes and workshops in 47 states and 22 countries around the world. In 2010, Stanford honored him as a Distinguished Alumni Scholar and in 2018 he was awarded the Ernest L. Boyer Award for significant contributions to American higher education and is now a senior fellow for the American Association of Colleges and Universities. He lives in Dallas and also does innovation and inclusion consulting for a wide variety of Fortune 500 companies.
Amber Williams, Ed.D.
Vice Provost for Student Success, University of Tennessee - Knoxville
A visionary and transformational higher education leader, Dr. Amber Williams serves as the first Vice Provost for Student Success at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. During her five-plus years at UT, Dr. Williams has propelled the university’s reputation as the national leader in student success, using an innovative, personalized and strengths-based approach that allows scholars to reach their academic and career goals.
Dr. Williams is known for looking beyond numbers to see students as individuals, keeping them at the center of her work, and creating innovative, data-driven programs and services that allow them to thrive.
During her leadership of UT’s Division of Student Success, retention rates—which measure the percentage of first-time, first-year undergraduate students who continue into their second year—have climbed from 86% to a record-breaking 92%, considerably above the national average of 75%. UT’s six-year graduation rate sits at an all-time high of 74%.
In her five-plus years on Rocky Top, Dr. Williams has launched numerous pathway programs that use data-driven frameworks and structures to customize a scholar’s academic journey. Examples include the Vol First-Year Experience, University Honors, and the Veterans Impact Program.
Additionally, Dr. Williams led her team to create the Vol Success Teams program which matches every student with three dedicated mentors. Additionally, she envisioned and led the 2025 launch of Vol Edge, the only comprehensive platform of its kind that guides students from the college campus to careers, immersing them in the life skills, experience and confidence they need to succeed.
Such accomplishments, along with others, thrusted UT onto the national student success radar, leading to the university hosting the Student Success 2024 Conference which convened 200 institutions in Knoxville.
Dr. Williams arrived at UT from the University of Nebraska, where she served as Assistant Vice Chancellor for Enrollment Management. She is a member of the prestigious Association of Governing Boards (AGB) Institute for Aspiring College and University Presidents and a contributing author to the upcoming book ASCEND to Higher Retention Rates, Vol. 3. She is also a passionate certified CliftonStrengths coach.
Dr. Williams holds a bachelor’s degree in communication studies from the University of Kansas; a master’s in leadership education and a doctorate in educational administration from the University of Nebraska—Lincoln. A nationally recognized expert, she is a sought-after keynote speaker, podcast guest and media interview subject.