Impact Sessions
Please note: All times are listed in U.S. Eastern Time Zone. The schedule is in progress, and more sessions will be added. Check back for the latest updates.
Tuesday Impact Sessions
1:00 p.m. – 4:30 p.m. (included with AIR Forum registration)
The 2026 AIR Forum officially begins on Tuesday, May 26 with a series of curated Impact Sessions focused on a wide range of emerging and important topics and issues with impact for everyone in higher education. These sessions are open to all registered AIR Forum attendees and are included in your regular AIR Forum registration. Impact sessions include lectures, panel presentations, and interactive discussions. Impact sessions are 90-minute sessions scheduled in two consecutive time blocks from 1:00–2:30 p.m. and 3:00–4:30 p.m.
Join Us
Find community in joining your higher education colleagues for a unique opportunity to network, share best practices, and learn from practical workshops and sessions led by the field's leading experts.
Building a Trusted Federal State Longitudinal Data Network
Calls for stronger federal data capacity have accelerated with the College Transparency Act and ongoing challenges to NCES surveys and IPEDS. This session explores the vision for a federal Student Longitudinal Data Network (SLDN) that connects state systems, institutions, and workforce data to provide comprehensive insights into student pathways. Drawing on comparative lessons from 14 states, the session highlights best practices in governance, privacy-by-design, and tiered access. Presenters will show how aligning SLDN submissions with IPEDS definitions, templates, and edit checks can build trust and reduce burden for institutions. Discussion will emphasize practical steps—what institutions, associations, and researchers should know now, and how the SLDN could reshape data use for accountability, equity, and advocacy.
Carolyn Mata (CM Education Insights & Solutions), Aida Ali Akreyi (Penn State University), James Isaac (RTI International)
Empowering Stakeholders with Gen-AI: Delivering Dynamic and Accessible Data
This session presents a practical, scalable workflow for transforming static assessment reports into a dynamic, self-service "Intelligent Archive" using Google’s NotebookLM. Participants will learn a three-layered prompting strategy that teaches AI models how to interpret and synthesize a range of data sources - from student surveys to focus group transcripts - into a trusted, interactive resource. Through live demonstrations and institutional use cases, the speaker will show how this workflow enables stakeholders to perform initial data exploration, compare trends, and generate grounded insights in real time. Attendees will leave with a clear, replicable blueprint for building their own intelligent archives and strategies for navigating challenges such as data accessibility, tool limitations, and stakeholder adoption.
Shannon Foster (Carnegie Mellon University), Madison Speck (Carnegie Mellon University), Kirby Livingston (Carnegie Mellon University)
MORE IMPACT SESSIONS COMING SOON!