AI Convergence | A Catalytic Leadership Community for the AI Era

Before We Share Our Approach

What We Hear From Leaders

We want to acknowledge what we're hearing from leaders like you. If any of this sounds familiar, you're in the right place.

"My faculty are unwilling to relearn. I have a small set of eager innovators and everyone else is waiting it out."

"We're stuck in governance fights. Every department and college wants to own AI—or wants nothing to do with it."

"Employers keep asking about our AI strategy. I don't know what to tell them."

"We've done a lot already, but I'm not sure any of it is actually working."

"I don't know where to start or how to prioritize."

"Students are using AI to generate slop and we can't stop them."

"My president wants a campus-wide AI strategy, but our liberal arts faculty see it as corporatization."

"Staff are terrified AI will replace them. They're voting against any AI initiative."

"Faculty are using AI to generate their assessments. Is that a problem? Students seem to resent it."

"Employers tell me they want AI natives. I don't know how to deliver that."

AI Convergence exists because these challenges are real, they're shared, and they're better addressed together than alone.

A Letter to Leaders

You Are Not Behind (Yet)

If you're a leader who didn't come up through technology—if your expertise is in curriculum, faculty development, student success, finance, or institutional strategy—you may feel like AI has suddenly made your experience less relevant.

It hasn't.

The most important questions facing higher education right now are not technical questions. They are leadership questions:

How do we bring people along through change they didn't ask for?
How do we protect what matters while embracing what's possible?
How do we make decisions when the ground keeps shifting?

You don't need to become a technologist. You need to become fluent enough to ask good questions, recognize good answers, and lead people who know more than you do about the technical details. That's what leadership has always required.

No one has this fully figured out. The leaders who claim certainty are either selling something or not paying attention.

You Are Not Supposed to Have This Figured Out

If you're a leader who understands the technology—if you've been experimenting with AI, reading the research, pushing your institution forward—you may feel a different kind of pressure. You can see where this is heading. And you're trying to lead organizations full of people at wildly different stages of understanding and acceptance.

Here's what we believe: the planning horizon you're working within includes technological capabilities that don't exist yet, job categories that haven't been invented, and disruptions no one can fully anticipate.

What you can do is build institutions that are adaptive, not brittle. You can develop people who are curious, not paralyzed. You can create cultures where experimentation is safe and learning is continuous.

Your People May Not Be Ready—And That's Still Your Job

You may return from conferences inspired, only to face faculty who see AI as a threat to their expertise, staff who fear displacement, and governance structures that move at geological pace.

We don't pretend that peer support alone solves these problems. But we believe leaders facing unprecedented challenges shouldn't have to figure it out in isolation. The weight of these decisions is real. AI Convergence exists because we believe you shouldn't carry that weight alone.

The Case for Action

AI Is Different

Higher education has weathered many technological disruptions. Radio, television, personal computers, the internet, MOOCs—each heralded as the tool that would finally unlock education's potential. And each changed education around the edges without systematic, foundational transformation.

AI is different.

Not because we say so—we've heard that claim before. AI is different because it addresses a challenge that no previous technology could touch.

For decades, we've known that personalized tutoring dramatically improves learning outcomes. Benjamin Bloom's famous "Two Sigma Problem" showed that students who receive one-on-one instruction perform two standard deviations better than those in traditional classrooms. The problem was never pedagogical; it was economic. We couldn't afford to give every student a personal mentor.

AI changes that equation. For the first time, we have technology that can provide responsive, individualized feedback at scale. Not a flashier worksheet. Not a more efficient content delivery system. An actual thinking partner.

2σ

Better Outcomes

with one-on-one tutoring
(Bloom's Two Sigma Problem)

74%

Organizations Struggling

to achieve value from AI
(BCG Research)

70%

of AI Failures

stem from people & process, not technology
(BCG Research)

The Real Risk Is Standing Still

The leaders who will struggle most in the coming years are not those who experiment and sometimes fail. They are those who wait for certainty that will never come, who copy peers without understanding why, who let fear of mistakes prevent them from learning.

Our Approach

What AI Convergence Is

For Senior Higher Education Leaders

AI Convergence serves presidents, provosts, chief academic officers, deans, and their strategic implementation partners—leaders who shape institutional direction and resource allocation. We are an international community of innovative higher education leaders eager to translate the power of AI into learning impact.

AI Convergence is a community like no other. It is an electrifying gathering of thought leaders, technologists, and innovators seeking to converge on the future of learning. We believe your engagement will be vital in shaping our community and how we build the right Human+AI collaboration to create the university of tomorrow.

This is for leaders who are ready to act—not wait for certainty that will never come.

Working Convenings

Two-day immersive experiences where you and your implementation partner build your institution's AI strategy together—not just listen to keynotes.

Transformational Leadership Circles

Monthly peer groups of 6-10 leaders facing similar challenges. Confidential spaces for honest conversation about what's working, what's failing, and what keeps you up at night.

Fellows Program

A 12-month leadership development program for emerging AI champions—the next generation of higher education leaders capable of driving transformation.

Explore the Experience Learn About Community

Leadership

Meet the Founders

Sandeep Krishnamurthy

Founder & Principal

Sandeep Krishnamurthy is the Singelyn Family Dean of the College of Business Administration at Cal Poly Pomona. Previously, he acted as the Dean of the University of Washington (Bothell) School of Business. He is a distinguished scholar with over 6,000 citations, experienced accreditor, seasoned board member, public thought leader and in-demand speaker.

He was included in the prestigious LA500 list by the LA Business Journal. He serves on the board of Beta Alpha Psi, a business honor society. He is passionate about leveraging the power of generative and agentic AI to maximize human potential.

Tawnya Means, PhD

Founder & Principal

Tawnya Means is Founder and Principal at Inspire Higher Ed, a consulting firm specializing in AI integration and educational transformation for higher education institutions globally. She also serves as Strategic Innovation and AI Advisor at Bowling Green State University and Chief Learning Officer at AristAI.

With nearly two decades of experience in teaching and learning across six continents, Tawnya brings expertise in evidence-based innovation and Human+AI partnerships in education. She authors "The Collaboration Chronicle: Human+AI in Education" on Substack, exploring how institutions can thoughtfully integrate AI while preserving what makes education human.

Full Bios & Advisory Board

Guided By

Leaders Who've Been There

Our Advisory Board brings together leaders from across higher education, technology, and industry who share our commitment to thoughtful AI transformation.

Dr. Lisa Abendroth

Associate Professor of Marketing & Former Associate Dean, University of St. Thomas

Founder of the Business in a Digital World initiative. With deep expertise in emerging technology, strategic foresight, and digital transformation, she teaches at the intersection of business, technology, and the common good.

France Hoang

Founder & CEO, BoodleBox

From Vietnamese refugee to West Point graduate to White House lawyer. Under his leadership, BoodleBox serves as official AI infrastructure for over 100 colleges and universities, reaching 900,000 faculty and students.

Paul Pavlou

Dean, Miami Herbert Business School

Positioned Miami Herbert as a national model of AI-driven innovation, achieving #1 graduate career placement, #2 global faculty research productivity, and #3 in executive education (Financial Times 2025).

View Full Advisory Board

The leaders who will thrive are not those with the most resources or the earliest start. They are those with the clearest vision, the strongest coalitions, and the courage to lead through uncertainty.

You Don't Have to Lead Alone

The weight of these decisions is real. AI Convergence exists because we believe leaders facing unprecedented challenges shouldn't have to figure it out in isolation.

Register Interest

Inaugural Convening • June 21–23, 2026 • Miami Herbert Business School