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he National Center is pleased to announce that Wesleyan University President, Michael S. Roth will give the keynote address at the National Center's 53rd Annual Conference in New York City on March 22-24, 2026.
President Roth became the 16th president of Wesleyan University in 2007, after having served as Hartley Burr Alexander Professor of Humanities at Scripps College, Associate Director of the Getty Research Institute, and President of the California College of the Arts. He is one of the leading higher education voices defending the value of colleges and universities and their importance to our democracy.
President Roth is known for his work as an administrator, scholar, and public intellectual. He is the author of numerous books—many bearing on liberal education—and regularly publishes essays, book reviews, and commentaries in national media and scholarly journals. In 2025, he was given the PEN/Benenson Courage Award for standing up against governmental assaults on higher education.
Confirmed 2026 Panels and Panelists
Below is a list of currently confirmed panels and workshops for next year's conference. Additional sessions will be announced over the next few weeks.
Plenary: Education 4 All with Michael Gavin, President, Delta College, Paulette Granberry Russell, J.D., President, National Association of Diversity Officers in Higher Education, Christopher M. Reber, President, Hudson County Community College, Todd Wolfson, President, AAUP, and Alexandra (Sascha) Matish, Associate Vice Provost for Academic and Faculty Affairs and Senior Director, Academic Human Resources, University of Michigan, Moderator.
Research Panel: Report on Negotiated Academic Freedom Clauses in Collective Bargaining Agreements with Timothy Reese Cain, Associate Director and Professor of Higher Education, University of Georgia, Anita Levy, Senior Program Officer, AAUP, Erin Ward, PhD Student in Sociology, CUNY Graduate Center, and Kathryn Ritchie, M.A. Candidate, School of Education, Hunter College. Commentators will be Rana Jaleel, Associate Professor, University of California-Davis and Nicholas DiGiovanni, Morgan, Brown & Joy, LLP, with moderator Risa L. Lieberwitz, Professor of Labor and Employment Law, School of Industrial and Labor Relations, Cornell University.
Interactive Workshop: Negotiating over Academic Freedom with Bethany Gizzi, President, Monroe Community College Faculty Association, Joseph McConnell, Morgan, Brown & Joy LLP and Kathy Sheffield, CFA Director of Representation and Bargaining, Moderator. (Workshop in formation).
Book Discussion: Academic Freedom From Professional Norm to First Amendment Right (Harvard University Press, 2024) with David M. Rabban, Chair and Professor, The University of Texas School of Law, and author, Academic Freedom From Professional Norm to First Amendment Right, Nadine Strossen, New York Law School Professor Emerita and Senior Fellow, FIRE (the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression), Commentator, and Frederick P. Schaffer, former General Counsel, CUNY, Moderator. (Panel in formation).
Luncheon Book Presentation: Why Fascists Fear Teachers: Public Education and the Future of Democracy (Random House, 2025) with American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten.
Panel: Discrimination Issues on a Unionized Campus with Katherine H. Hansen, Partner, Gladstein, Reif & Meginniss, Steven J. Porzio, Partner, Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP and Ana Avendano, Visiting Assistant Professor of Law, CUNY School of Law, Moderator. (Panel in formation).
Panel: Litigation Update in Defense of Democracy (CLE) with David D. Cole, Professor in Law and Public Policy, Georgetown Law School and former ACLU National Legal Director, Will Creely, Legal Director, FIRE (the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression), Alex Abdo, Litigation Director, Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University, and Rabia Muqaddam, Special Counsel for Federal Initiatives, Office of the New York State Attorney, Moderator.
Panel: Litigation Update and Administrative Remedies in Defense of Federal Research Funding (CLE) with Amanda Fuchs Miller, Seventh Street Strategies, Rachel Homer, Director of Democracy 2025 & Senior Attorney, Democracy Forward, Adelaide Pagano, Assistant Attorney General, Consumer Protection Division, Office of Massachusetts Attorney General, and Jessica Alvarez, Interim General Counsel, Hunter College, CUNY, Moderator.
Panel: Community College Perspectives on AI Policy and Codified Teaching Practice: Faculty and Administrator Views, Liability Implications, and Impacts at the Bargaining Table with Andre’ L. Poplar, J.D., Vice Chancellor for Human Resources, Oakland Community College, Cameron Redden, Ed.D., Executive Director, Presidential Initiatives & Strategic Management, Cuyahoga Community College, Deborah H. Williams, J.D., Ph.D., Professor and Chair, Johnson County Community College, Former JCCC Faculty Association President and Lead Negotiator, Eric Rader, AFT’s Higher Ed's Policy and Program Council and AI Task Force, President, AFT Local, Henry Ford Community College, and Martin Balinsky, Ph.D., Professor Tallahassee State College, President, United Faculty of Florida-Tallahassee State College, Moderator.
Interactive Workshop: Ensuring Equitable AI Transitions in Higher Education Workplaces and Beyond with Joy Ming, Postdoc, Cornell ILR, Dibyendu Mishra, PhD Student, Cornell Information Science, Ayham Boucher, Head of AI Innovations, Cornell Information Technologies, and Ariel Avgar, Professor, Cornell ILR.
Panel: Just Cause: Practical Issues in Pursuing and Defending Disciplinary Allegations with Dana E. Lossia, Levy Ratner, P.C., Nicholas L. Collins, ArentFox Schiff LLP, and Patrick McDermott, Arbitrator and Professor, Management and Legal Studies and Chair of Management Department, Franklin P. Perdue School of Business, Salisbury University, Moderator
Panel: When Democracy and Equity Collide: Responses to Promote Institutional Learning with Elizabethada Wright, Professor, University of Minnesota Duluth, and Contract Administrator, UEA, Josué Arredondo, adjunct English Professor, Southwestern College and San Diego Miramar College, Michael Buchler, Professor of Music Theory, Florida State University and co-chief negotiator, United Faculty of Florida–FSU, Geoffery Johnson, adjunct English and Humanities Professor, San Diego Mesa and Southwestern Colleges and President, AFT National Adjunct Contingent Caucus, John L. Hoffman, President, Bemidji State University, Commentator, and Christina Gallup, Associate Professor, University of Minnesota Duluth, Moderator.
Interactive Workshop: Stress Reduction for Faculty, Administrators, Student Employees, and Staff with facilitators Serena Rice, M.S., Project Manager, UMass Lowell, Courtney Hill, LCSW, CSWM Social Services Specialist, NYSUT, and Lili Palacios-Baldwin, Deputy General Counsel, Tufts University.
Panel: Best Practices in Establishing or Opposing Past Practices in Labor Arbitration with Shinika Hunter, Labor Relations Specialist, NYSUT, Kevin Pollitt, NYSUT Regional Director, John Gross, Ingerman Smith LLP, Christopher Mestecky, Guercio and Guercio LLP, and Katie Rosen, Arbitrator and Mediator, Moderator.
Research Panel: Equity at Work? Gender, Parenthood, and Benefits in Higher Education with Rhiannon M. Maton, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Foundations and Social Advocacy, State University of New York, Cortland, Affiliated Researcher, National Center, Carrie Rohman, Ph.D., Professor of English, Lafayette College, Editor, SUNY Press (2025) “Broken Record: Gendered Abuse in Academia”, Eve Weinbaum, Ph.D., President, Massachusetts Society of Professors and Professor of Sociology & Labor Studies, UMass Amherst, UMass Amherst, Melissa Sortman, Assistant Provost for Faculty and Academic Staff Affairs, Michigan State University, and Shirley Lin, Associate Professor of Law, Brooklyn Law School, Moderator.
Research Panel: Postdocs, Sexual Harassment, and Collective Bargaining--Intersections and Issues with Kait Spear, Program Officer, National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, Andrea Joseph, Assistant Professor of Biomedical and Chemical Engineering at Syracuse University, and Karen R. Stubaus, Vice President of Academic Affairs Emerita at Rutgers University and Affiliated Researcher at the National Center for the Study of Collective Bargaining in Higher Education and the Professions. (Panel in formation).
Panel: Union Leaders of Color Transforming Higher Education and Centering Democracy with María del Mar Rosa Rodríguez, Professor Hispanic Studies, Universidad de Puerto Rico Recinto de Cayey, President, Asociación Puertorriqueña de Profesores Universitarios (APPU), Charles Toombs, Professor of Africana Studies, San Diego State University, Immediate Past President, California Faculty Association, Michelle Ramos Pellicia, Professor of World Languages and Hispanic Literature, California State University, San Marcos, Vice President, California Faculty Association, Tracey Salisbury, Associate Professor, Chair, Ethnic Studies, California State University, Bakersfield, Associate Vice President, South, California Faculty Association, and Margarita Berta-Avila, Professor of Education, Sacramento State University, President, California Faculty Association, Moderator.
Panel: Turnover the Other Cheek: Challenges of Collective Bargaining for Graduate Assistant Populations with Cassandra Urbenz, UF GAU President and NEA Graduate Committee, University of Florida, Tessa Barber, USF GAU President, NEA Graduate Committee, University of South Florida and United Faculty of Florida, VP of GAU Bargaining Council, Michael Eagen, Associate Provost, Academic Personnel, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, Ayanna Thomas, Dean of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, Tufts University, and Rebecca S. Natow, Associate Professor, Educational Leadership & Policy, Director, EdD Program in Educational Leadership & Policy Studies and MSEd Program in Higher Education Leadership & Policy Studies, Hofstra University, Moderator.
Panel: Creating Shop Culture in Higher Ed Unions with Sunshine Alvarez de Silva, UVM-GSU UAW 2322, Sara V. Speller, HGSU-UAW Local 5118, and Lily Luo, GEU-UAW 6950. (Panel in formation).
Panel: Creative Responses to Persistent Inequities of Contingent Labor in Community Colleges with Jennifer Shanoski, Faculty, Merritt College, Wendy Brill-Wynkoop, Past President, Faculty Association of the California Community Colleges, Colena Sesanker, Chair, Faculty Advisory Committee to the Board of Regents for Higher Education, Connecticut State Community Colleges, Christine Mangino, President, Queensborough Community College, CUNY, and Robin G. Isserles, Faculty, BMCC, CUNY, Discussant and Moderator.
Book Discussion: Library Workers as Defenders of Democracy: Organize Your Library! Developing the Collective Power of Library Workers (Critical Cultural Information Studies series), ALA Editions, 2025 with Emily Drabinski, Associate Professor, Graduate School of Library and Information Studies, Queens College, CUNY, Kelly McElroy, Librarian and Associate Professor, Oregon State University (OSU), Angelo Moreno, Organizer, AFSCME Council 31, Chicago, Maura Smale, Executive Chief Librarian, CUNY Graduate Center, and Meredith Kahn, Librarian, University of Michigan, Moderator.
Panel: The Crisis of Collegiate Black Male Identity: Education, Work, and Democracy with Rolando Shannon, Doctoral Candidate, Tennessee State University, Interim Assistant Athletic Director of Student Development, Nicole Arrighi, NCAA Faculty Representative, Tennessee State University, and Ajah Hawley-Alexander, Clinical Lecturer, Iona University, Doctoral Candidate, University of Southern Mississippi, Moderator. (Panel in formation).
Panel: Strategies to Protect International and Immigrant Faculty and Students with César Moreno Pérez, Senior Associate Director, Human Rights & Community Relations Department, AFT, Diego N. Sánchez, Esq. Director of Policy and Strategy, Presidents' Alliance on Higher Education and Immigration, Danielle Dirocco, Higher Education Organizational Specialist, National Education Association, and Ashwini Sukthankar, National Center Affiliated Researcher, Moderator.
Panel: Annual Legal Update (CLE) with Damien DiGiovanni, Morgan, Brown & Joy, LLP, Amy L. Rosenberger, Willig, Williams & Davidson, Aaron Nisenson, Senior Legal Counsel, AAUP, Brian Selchick, Cullen and Dykman LLP, and Ayanna T. Blake, Director Labor Relations, Weill Cornell Medicine, Moderator.
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