Continuous improvement is no longer a periodic accreditation exercise; it is mission-critical. As federal negotiated rulemaking, emerging accreditors and changing accreditation expectations reshape higher education, institutions also face intensified public pressure to demonstrate student learning, value and return on investment while responding responsibly to artificial intelligence. The Continuous Improvement Summit provides a national forum for turning evidence into coordinated action, building cultures that sustain change, and sharing practices that produce lasting results. From 2024 to 2026, Summit registration and attendance more than doubled to over 1,000 attendees representing almost 300 institutions with nearly 90 sessions offered across the four days.
For information about previous summits, please contact Dr. Will Miller at will.miller@erau.edu.
Registration
- Presenter registration: $15
- Single registration: $35
- Group registration for three people: $75
- Group registration for five people: $115
- Group registration for 10 people: $200
- Embry-Riddle faculty and staff: Free
- Graduate students: Free
Tracks
This year, we are proud to announce several focused tracks to help guide your submissions.
Submittions accepted until Dec. 18 at https://erau.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_a9mE0RgFRh4oSvI.
Student success requires institutions to connect evidence with meaningful improvements in access, belonging, persistence, completion, career readiness and post-graduation outcomes. This track invites practical approaches that use student-centered and disaggregated evidence to strengthen curriculum, advising, support services, policies and the overall student experience.
Colleges and universities face growing expectations to show not only whether students graduate or find employment but also what they learn and how their education creates lasting value. This track explores meaningful measures of learning, durable skills, program effectiveness, workforce outcomes, affordability and return on investmen, along with responsible ways to communicate that evidence without reducing education to a single metric.
Lasting improvement depends on more than processes and reports; it requires shared ownership, trust, leadership and habits that make reflection and evidence part of everyday work. This track welcomes sessions on faculty and staff engagement, change management, shared governance, psychological safety, distributed leadership and strategies for moving improvement from isolated initiatives into institutional culture.
Institutions must improve how work gets done while protecting quality, supporting employees and directing limited resources toward their highest-impact uses. This track focuses on process improvement, cross-functional collaboration, student-facing services, strategic planning, resource allocation, compliance and the successful expansion of promising practices.
Evidence cannot drive improvement when it is difficult to access, poorly understood, or confined to a small group of experts. This track invites proposals addressing data governance, shared definitions, dashboards, data literacy, privacy, public reporting and other approaches that give people the information and confidence they need to ask better questions and make better decisions.
Sponsors
Summit Awards
As part of the Continuous Improvement Summit, the Office of Continuous Improvement and Institutional Performance grants five awards annually.
Submit an award nomination for 2027 by Jan. 8.
Recognizes Embry-Riddle faculty, staff, programs and offices that live the spirit of continuous improvement in their efforts and encourage others to do the same.
2026 Winners
Tim Ehrenkaufer
Anne Boettcher
Worldwide M.S. Uncrewed and Autonomous Systems
Worldwide Student Affairs
2025 Winners
Debra Bourdeau
Amy Deahl
Daytona Beach General Education Program
Prescott Student Support Services
2024 Winners
Taylor Mitchell
Sarah Thomas
Daytona Beach B.S. Global Conflict Studies
Worldwide Singapore Campus
Polaris Award — Forward-Thinking Institutional Leadership
Recognizes institutions whose forward-thinking initiatives set new standards in continuous improvement, with broad impact and clear results.
2025 Winner: San Jacinto College for ImprovE
Constellation Award — Cross-Campus Collaboration
Celebrates institutions that foster cross-campus collaboration and a unified culture of improvement, demonstrating coordination, clarity, and cohesion.
2025 Winners: Maricopa County Community College District for their Assessment Committee and The University of Texas at Tyler for their Decentralized Assessment Professional Model
Pathfinder Award — Emerging Leader
Honors emerging leaders who are charting new directions in continuous improvement and demonstrating the vision, curiosity, and initiative to challenge convention and inspire others.
2025 Winner: Jessica Taylor, UC Foundation Associate Professor of Applied Leadership & Learning at University of Tennessee at Chattanooga
Aviator’s Honor — Lifetime Achievement
Celebrates a career of sustained commitment to institutional excellence and enduring contributions that have strengthened continuous improvement in higher education through mentorship, leadership, and dedication to student success.
2025 Winner: Stephen Hundley, Founding Executive Director, Center for Leading Improvements in Higher Education at Indiana University Indianapolis
Improvement Imperative Webinar Series
Between Summits, you can join us the first Tuesday of every month at 3 p.m. EST for an Improvement Imperative Webinar. See the schedule below. Feel free to email us at will.miller@erau.edu if you’d like recordings or more information.Contact Us
Dr. Will MillerAssociate Vice President for Continuous Improvement and Institutional Performance
SACSCOC Liaison