The League for Innovations Conference is held in Chicago.
Moraine Valley has the honor of being the host college for the 2016 League for Innovation in the Community College Innovations Conference in Chicago March 20 to 23.
The college was selected as the host college because it is a board member for the League; however, Moraine Valley has solicited supporting host colleges on behalf of the League, including College of DuPage, College of Lake County, Harper College, Highland Community College, John Wood Community College, Joliet Junior College, McHenry County College, Oakton Community College, Olive-Harvey College, Prairie State College, Sauk Valley Community College, Triton College, and Waubonsee Community College. These colleges are sending volunteers to help in various capacities during the conference.
One of the many benefits of being the host college is all of the presentations submitted to the League are accepted to be included in the conference program. Twenty-one faculty and staff members will give 13 presentations over the four-day conference. Each of those presenters receive free registration to the conference and volunteer.
Over the last several months, Mike Crehan, event coordinator in Corporate, Community and Continuing Education, has been coordinating 167 volunteers from several institutions to fill volunteer slots. Moraine Valley is sending 45 faculty and staff to help with either speaker support, presenter support, hospitality, AV technical support, photography/videography, or registration support.
In addition to volunteer recruitment, Moraine Valley was responsible for creating the welcome video that will play during the opening session, designing the volunteer badges and speech writing.
As the host college, Moraine Valley is welcoming 14 guests from Koning Willem I College in the Netherlands on Tuesday, March 22. This higher education institution was the first international member of the League and has been a long-term alliance member for decades. As their administration retires, a new cadre of faculty and staff are coming to the conference to learn about community colleges. They will take a break from the conference to visit campus.
“We are excited to welcome our Netherlands visitors to see our campus and meet one-on-one with their counterparts here,” said Dr. Margaret Lehner, vice president of Institutional Advancement and chair of the League conference steering committee.
Three of Moraine Valley’s own will receive the Roueche Excellence Award, which is presented to community college professionals who exemplify exceptional teaching and leadership. Michelle August, professor of Information Management Systems and last year’s Professor of the Year; Ricky Moore, associate professor of Information Technology and this year’s Master Teacher; and Chief Patrick O’Connor, last year’s recipient of the Vernon O. Crawley Leadership Award, will accept the award during the Excellence Awards Celebration and Closing Session.
A steering team of 16 employees has been helping plan and facilitate this conference since last spring.
