2025 CCPA Fall Institute:
Rooted in Resilience: Education, Healing, and Community in Times of Change
San Diego State University
Conrad Prebys Aztec Student Union (Map Link)
October 18, 2025
Presentations (Last Updated: October 14, 2025):
Presentation Block 1
Mattering & AANHPI Students
50-Minute Presentation
Virginia Loh-Hagan
San Diego State University
AANHPI communities have faced exclusion, exploitation, and discrimination. Education has long been used as a tool of social mobility; however, subjected to narratives like the perpetual foreigner and model minority, many AANHPI students struggle with a sense of belonging. Especially today, it is imperative that institutions of higher education attend to issues of mattering. AANHPI students may not feel like their issues matter or that they matter. How can college campuses do better? What does mattering look like for them? How do we show care? In this session, participants will learn best practices for increasing student belonging and AANHPI servingness.
No Longer A New Professional
50-minute Roundtable Discussion
Monique Lynch
University of California, San Diego
Kimani Francois
Pomona College
This roundtable will discuss transitioning from being a new professional in higher education. The purpose of this roundtable discussion is to create space for graduate students and new professionals to reflect on what the near or distant future looks like for them and how to prepare for it. This is relevant to the field because there will continue to be new professionals and folks becoming seasoned professionals.
Integrated Student Success: Centering Voice as Resistance, Healing, and Institutional Change
50-Minute Presentation
Mya D. Hines
University of California, San Diego
What if student success was redefined not by institutional metrics—but by the voices of the students themselves? This session explores the Integrated Student Success Model, a framework that positions student voice as both a form of resistance and healing, and as a driver of equity-centered advocacy in higher education. Drawing from Dr. Hines’ research and dissertation, this session invites educators, student affairs professionals, and institutional leaders to critically examine traditional student success paradigms, reflect on their own roles in change work, and consider how centering student voice can transform not only policy, but campus culture. Participants will engage in guided reflection, real-world case examples, and interactive tools that help operationalize the model in their own campus contexts.
Hmong women navigating college through resistance
50-Minute Presentation
Kalue Yang
Northeast Wisconsin Technical College
Soua Xiong
California State University, Fresno
This session will share findings from a qualitative study exploring how Hmong women navigate their ways to and through college. Centering the gendered-based experiences of Hmong women, findings from this study highlight the different ways they have been able to resist, reshape, and redefine what it means to be a woman in the Hmong community and how those efforts have allowed them to access and succeed in college. This session will offer recommendations on how student affairs professionals can support the college access and success of Hmong women.
Exploring Intrinsic and Extrinsic Barriers to Exercise Among Sedentary Older Adults with Mild-to-Moderate Depression
50-Minute Presentation
Rehan Tahir
Concordia University Chicago
This study explores intrinsic and extrinsic barriers to exercise among sedentary U.S. older adults (60-79) with mild-to-moderate depression. Grounded in the Socioecological Model, it identifies how multi-level factors (intrapersonal, interpersonal, community, societal) influence exercise behavior. Through qualitative interviews with 12 female participants, findings show awareness of exercise benefits but significant barriers like depression, chronic pain, caregiving responsibilities, and uninviting environments. The research emphasizes the need for tailored, multi-level interventions to promote sustainable physical activity and mental well-being in this vulnerable population.
Presentation Block 2
If You Want To Soar, Serve: The Case for Leveraging Volunteering for Professional Development
25-minute Panel
Kristi Culpepper
Clark County School District
Dennis McIver
University of California Office of the President
During this roundtable discussion, two established professionals who have led multiple volunteer organizations will reflect on how volunteering positively impacted their growth as leaders, speak to some common challenges they encountered, and provide tips on how to fully leverage the experiences.
Student Parents Speak: Preliminary Findings from a Qualitative Study
15-minute California Chat
Mui Vuong
California State University, Fresno
Cindy Phu
Pasadena City College
This study explores the lived experiences of 32 student parents at a public university in the southwestern United States, designated as a Hispanic Serving Institution (HSI) and an Asian American and Native American Pacific Islander Serving Institution (AANAPISI), examining the unique challenges and supports encountered as they strive to balance academic pursuits with familial responsibilities. Through the thematic analysis of in-depth interviews, several key preliminary themes emerged: 1) Increased Responsibility & Prioritization, 2) Motivation & Purpose. Student parents, with increased responsibility, face the constant struggle to balance time, prioritize the demand of multiple roles, and cope with the emotional and financial strain.
Connecting to Ancestral Wisdom and Resilient Roots: Creating Healing, Nurturing and Resilient Spaces for Community and Connection
50-Minute Presentation
Heidi Coronado, Raul Flores, Nancy Bueno, Emelin Alvarado Sanchez, and Rivelle Jauregui
California Lutheran University
This presentation explores culturally sustaining, trauma-informed, healing and decolonizing educational practices to support first-generation Counseling graduate students. Focusing on The Strive Scholars program, and the autoethnographies of participants, it examines factors influencing student success and the broader application of these frameworks in higher education. Insights highlight transformative impacts for BIPOC and first-generation student engagement.
Bridging the Personal + Academic Support Gap: Finding Community in Your Institution
50-Minute Presentation
Vanessa Keodara
University of California, San Diego
Donnet Montañez
University of California, San Diego
Want to “bridge” community and communication gaps between the students you serve? Join us in community as we discuss the retention efforts within the UC San Diego Summer Bridge program. Bridging the Personal + Academic Support Gap, led by Donnet Montanez and Vanessa Keodara, will provide the opportunity to learn the OASIS core values and how it can connect to your workspace. In this session, we’ll go through our process for retention efforts with our students, our pedagogy and values, and essentially how you may be able to implement this approach within your communities.
Presentation Block 3
Increasing Belonging: Place-Based Learning
50-Minute Presentation
Virginia Loh-Hagan
San Diego State University
In order to support academic learning and to develop identity and community, place-based learning bridges what students learn in classes to real-life community experiences. As such, APIDA histories, joys, and struggles are authenticated. Place-based learning connects academic learning to community needs; it also allows students to dive deep into content and enable solution-oriented design thinking. As such, it is the perfect vehicle for enhancing radical hope and instilling love for community and the courage to act. By physically grounding and rooting students in a place, our place-based initiatives empower students to consider the very real and authentic experiences that surround them. By observing firsthand the past, present, and future of a place, students are able to feel and experience the needs and hopes of a community site and its people. Place-based learning is an important and empowering tool for building and instilling radical hope.
Living on Campus & Thriving: What It Takes To Be Resilient in Res Life
50-minute Roundtable Discussion
Monique Lynch
University of California, San Diego
Maria Villanueva
University of San Diego
The presenters will provide Residential Life professionals the opportunity to discuss their experiences managing their mental health & well-being while working and living on campus. Being a live-on professional can cause burnout so it’s important to establish healthy habits. The purpose of this roundtable is to allow Res Life professionals room to share their experiences, some resources and encouragement with each other.
Students Using Spirituality as Form of Resistance
50-Minute Presentation
Stephanie Felton
University of the Pacific
Spirituality is a growing interest amongst Generation Z college students. Following research completed in the Bay Area, students found an increased sense of belonging and community when institutions provided opportunities for spiritual engagement. Students used their intersectional identities as a form of representation and resilience on their campuses. This session will explore opportunities for community engagement that bridges their practices with their underrepresented identities of these students while uplifting justice in our communities.
A.L.I.G.N. – Caring for Our Bodies in Academia: A Somatic Framework for Resilience and Resistance
50-minute Roundtable Discussion
Ariana Romero
University of California, Riverside
Rooted in the belief that healing and resilience must include the body, A.L.I.G.N. – Caring for Our Bodies in Academia offers a framework for navigating burnout, stress, and institutional pressures through embodied care. Drawing from personal experience and collective wisdom, I share how this approach emerged during a time of deep exhaustion, and how it continues to support a more grounded, sustainable relationship with academic life. Participants will leave with practical tools and gentle reminders to reconnect with themselves and their communities in times of change.
Places of Joy in the Middle of Darkness: the work of Deans of Students in 2025
50-minute Panel
Craig Elliott
Nicole Whitner
University of San Diego
Heather French
San José State University
Serving as a dean of students under the current administration has presented new challenges for professionals. While we have continuously demonstrated resilience, adaptability, and commitment to students and institutions, the challenges supporting students in this new environment require new levels of skill, support, and resilience. It also has brought new levels of stress, angst, anger, and grief. But in the midst of it all, we also have found places of joy.
This panel of three senior-level deans will share their experiences, reflections, resilience, lessons, and joy learned through the current administration, protests, immigration issues, and increased hate on campus, as well as the unique challenges it presented to our communities.
Presentation Block 4
Pained Community and Identity: Designing Virtual Workshops for Chronic Pain and illness
50-Minute Presentation
Jessica King
City University of New York, School of Professional Studies
Love Letters from the Chronically Ill-Remembered (L2CR) is a digital archive project to help people with chronic pain/illness nurture love for the self and the community, creating a supportive network against social, systemic, and biological challenges. A multidisciplinary program originating from a pluralism fellowship program, it will utilize creative expression and research to create a digital safe space for the nuances of joy, pain, and community. A major component of L2CR is a participatory action research project, coordinating community-building and identity-exploration workshops with the development and facilitation by community members leading this endeavor as experts of their experiences.
Equity Embedded: How California Law Supports Systemwide Inclusion in Higher Education
50-Minute Presentation
Nicole Belisle
Palomar College
In the face of budget cuts and political challenges, California’s higher education systems remain uniquely positioned to sustain equity work through a robust legal framework. This session explores key statutes and how they embed diversity, equity, and inclusion systemwide. Participants will gain a clear understanding of legal mandates and develop strategies to align DEI initiatives with new and existing programs or initiatives. Rooted in resilience, this session empowers practitioners to build inclusive, legally grounded systems that support students and communities in times of change.
Developmentally Focused Evaluations
50-Minute Presentation
Conor McLaughlin
San Diego State University
Rachel Hart
San Diego State University
Many employees are terrified of evaluations. However, these experiences do not have to be painful and can, in fact, be a time to affirm good work and set goals for years to come. This session will offer staff and managers strategies for proactively engaging and initiating a developmental evaluation process with their supervisor in order to create and sustain developmental, as well as supportive, spaces of professional learning. Together we will discuss new approaches to employee development, and address the ways evaluations can be part of a host of equitable and inclusive workplace practices.
You Already Know: Resilience as Energy Conservation
50-minute Roundtable Discussion
Kwaishon Bell
University of California Office of the President
Resilience isn’t a finish line—it’s a practice. This roundtable repositions resilience as a form of energy conservation and self-trust, especially for higher ed professionals navigating chronic uncertainty, systemic inequity, and invisible labor. We’ll explore how institutions often incentivize hypervigilance and over-processing, and how to recognize when we already have enough wisdom to act. Participants will reflect on lived patterns, share insights, and co-create strategies that center maintenance over martyrdom. Through story, research, and dialogue, this session offers a healing space for reimagining resilience as a tool for longevity, not just survival.
Our Policies Aren’t Being Followed: Providing Viable Solutions for Student Needs
50-Minute Presentation
Monique Lynch
University of California, San Diego
Mandy Womack
The University of San Diego
This session will explore the process that the University of San Diego utilized to analyze policy violations in our residence halls. This data led to providing alternative options for student needs. These needs required partnerships to be developed and nurtured in order to move to mutual success. We will utilize a case study model of implementing this approach, discuss partnerships to find solutions and the assessment of the initiative.