25 Higher Ed Influencers to Follow in 2026

As co-author of Teaching with AI: A Practical Guide alongside fellow 2026 influencer C. Edward Watson, José Antonio Bowen brings deep pedagogical wisdom to the higher education AI conversation. The former president of Goucher College connects tech disruption with the human side of learning, emphasizing reflection, resilience and student readiness in a shifting knowledge economy. 

His TEDx Talk, “A New 3Rs for Education,” and the subsequent public commentary underscored a core message: Students will enter a world shaped by AI, whether higher education prepares them or not. “The resistance to AI mirrors previous responses to Wikipedia and the internet. The longer academia ignored Wikipedia, the longer it took to respond effectively,” he said in a conversation with Inside Higher Ed. “Students are already using AI. If we don’t help them to learn to use it responsibly and well, then who will?”

As the former director of accessible technology services at the University of Washington, Sheryl Burgstahler remains a leading voice in accessible digital learning. In 2025, she accelerated efforts to ensure the availability of emerging educational technologies — including AI tools — to support students with disabilities through universal design principles and inclusive digital practices. She advanced UW’s DO-IT (Disabilities, Opportunities, Internetworking, and Technology) Center’s work to support neurodivergent and disabled learners in digital-first environments, and she founded the IT Accessible Technology Team, which also promotes the use of mainstream and assistive technology and other interventions to support the success of students with disabilities in postsecondary education and careers. An affiliate professor with the UW College of Education, she teaches and focuses her research on the successful transition of students with disabilities to college and careers and on the application of universal design to technology, learning activities, physical spaces and student services.

Anna Mills, an English instructor at the College of Marin, has become one of higher education’s most trusted voices on AI literacy and the future of writing instruction. A longtime advocate for critical AI literacy, open educational resources and social annotation in writing instruction, she has helped faculty and students alike navigate the uncertainties of generative AI.

As a consultant for OpenAI, she was the only education specialist recruited to test GPT-4 before its release and report on educational impacts. Mills, who has taught writing at community colleges for the past 18 years, is the author of the free, open-access textbook “How Arguments Work,” which has been adopted by more than 65 colleges. She has led more than 40 faculty development sessions on AI literacy, is an adviser for the teacher-created app MyEssayFeedback.ai and the AI Pedagogy Project, and serves on the National Institute of Standards and Technology’s U.S. AI Safety Institute Modern Language Association team. As a member of the MLA/Conference on College Composition and Communication Task Force on Writing and AI, she helps shape responses within her discipline.

As assistant vice provost and director of the Office of Academic Technology at the University of Texas at Austin, Julie Schell has guided UT Austin’s response to AI with clarity, transparency and strong faculty partnership. Her publications and teaching initiatives address how rapidly evolving AI tools are reshaping pedagogy, assessment and student support. Last year, Schell contributed to UT Austin’s public-facing conversations on AI in teaching, including ethical frameworks and faculty development models. Schell brings research-backed clarity to how AI should — and shouldn’t — reshape instruction.  

“Two years ago, we knew there was a real need to have a balance between encouraging use but also being responsible in the adoption of AI on campus and providing support for our faculty,” Schell told EdTech: Focus on Higher Education. “We were able to work through some testing on the implementation of it in an environment we felt reflected responsible adoption and protected our students’ data.”

In a time defined by AI disruption and uncertainty on how to preserve academic integrity, C. Edward Watson, vice president for digital innovation at the American Association of Colleges and Universities, has helped anchor the national conversation for educators. He is co-author, with José Antonio Bowen, of the widely read Teaching with AI: A Practical Guide. The book, dubbed “zeitgeist-y” during an interview on Trending in Education with Mike Palmer, is now available in a second edition. The new edition includes research on the indelible impact that AI has had on campuses as well as practical updates on reasoning models and agents, new assignment ideas and revised prompts.

As a leading AI researcher, artist and technology advocate, Joy Buolamwini co-founded the Algorithmic Justice League to build empirical research and highlight bias in algorithmic systems. The goal: to champion equitable, accountable AI. With AI adoption accelerating across campuses, the bestselling author of Unmasking AI: My Mission to Protect What Is Human in a World of Machines has weighed in at congressional hearings and with government agencies seeking to enact equitable and accountable AI policy. A Rhodes Scholar, Fulbright Fellow and former pole vaulter, Buolamwini earned her Ph.D. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She shared insights as a keynote speaker at last year’s EDUCAUSE conference, and her well-known TED Talk on algorithmic bias has been viewed more than 1.7 million times.

Sarah Christen, deputy CIO at Cornell University, is working to strengthen one of higher ed’s most important professional ecosystems: cloud and AI knowledge communities. Seven years ago, she started the Higher Education Cloud Forum, where her leadership has amplified collaboration across institutions, ensuring that modernization doesn’t happen in silos but through shared problem-solving and collective wisdom. Christen received Internet2’s Cloud Superhero Award and Cornell’s Excellence Award in part for her contribution to building communities of practice around cloud modernization and AI governance. Her efforts to establish a higher ed cloud community came at a moment when institutions needed cross-campus collaboration more than ever.

“We wanted it to be small, we wanted everyone in one room. It could be CIOs, and it could be developers. We wanted to have a diverse group of people,” Christen told EdTech at EDUCAUSE about hosting the Cloud Forum for seven years at Cornell before Internet2 took over hosting it. “We limited it to three people per university so we could have a lot of them present. What we built together created this really cool community that has really worked together to solve problems. We’ve created things together, and we work with the vendors that best support us.”

For more than five years, Lance Eaton has offered his insights on generative AI, innovative pedagogies, thoughtful use of educational technology and faculty development, and he remains a grounding national voice on equity in digital learning. His writing and presentations center on the growing divide in AI literacy and access, urging institutions to integrate inclusive teaching practices and digital ethics frameworks into their modernization efforts. Eaton has considerable experience designing courses and programs, including faculty development programs and courses on comics, popular culture, social media, fear and horror, and LGBTQ studies. He is widely cited across faculty communities and contributes to AI-in-education conversations, emphasizing the equity risks of generative tools.

Rajiv Jhangiani, vice provost of teaching and learning at Brock University in Ontario, Canada, has long championed open education, but his work took on new significance in 2025 as institutions grappled with critical cost optimization decisions, enrollment pressures and a need for more equitable access to learning. As a co-developer of Brock University’s Ethical Framework for Educational Technologies — designed to guide faculty and staff as they procure, develop and deploy digital tools to facilitate learning — he helped clarify not just how to adopt new tools, but why to adopt specific ones, ensuring that tech decisions stay aligned with institutional values and student needs. 

“This cuts to the core of the purpose of higher education: to aid and lead societal transformation, to inform, to educate, to be driven by evidence-based practice and to steer toward a more just future that builds a better world,” says Jhangiani, who connected the framework to values prioritized by the university’s Academic Strategic Plan. The framework includes 11 considerations for assigning technology to students. 

An author and speaker, Jhangiani created Canada's first zero textbook cost program and helped develop British Columbia’s postsecondary microcredential policy. He demonstrates how resilience can be built through ethical, student-centered design.

When Shelly Lowe stepped into the presidency of the Institute of American Indian Arts in August 2025, she brought national leadership experience and a visionary approach to higher education centered on Indigenous people. Her work advancing culturally grounded digital learning pathways and strengthening community-based curriculum innovation made IAIA a powerful example of resilience and sovereignty in a rapidly shifting technological landscape. She’s dedicated her career to Indigenous student success and representation, serving as chair of the National Endowment for the Humanities, where she managed a federal agency with a $207 million annual budget. Before that, she was executive director of the Harvard University Native American Program and held administrative and teaching positions at Yale University and the University of Arizona, where she earned her Ph.D. in educational policy studies and practice.

Mardecia Bell retired in 2025 after a 40-year career at North Carolina State University. She spent the last 18 years as CISO, where she led the security and compliance leadership team and prioritized collaboration between her team and other university departments. A 2025 Carolina ORBIE award winner in the Large Corporate category, Bell is a frequent speaker at the North Carolina Cybersecurity Symposium. In an interview with CIO Magazine, Bell said she hopes in her retirement to work with senior citizens on cybersecurity education about the dangers of phishing while also mentoring women and those from underrepresented groups to encourage them to pursue cybersecurity careers.

Maricopa Community College Vice Chancellor and CIO Jess Evans specializes in next-generation technology initiatives, such as advanced analytics, generative AI, quantum computing, software-defined networks, Infrastructure as Code, cloud-first/cloud-native and agile development practices. This year, she was named to the National Applied AI Consortium’s National AI Business Industry Leadership Team, sponsored by the National Science Foundation.

Previously, Evans served as chief operating officer for Arizona State University’s Knowledge Enterprise and helped strengthen the university’s cybersecurity posture during one of the most volatile threat years in higher education. Her leadership advanced zero-trust architecture, tightened identity governance and supported research security controls across ASU’s R1 environment, which represents a critical step as universities face rising attacks on high-value research assets. She publicly outlined ASU’s zero-trust and data governance enhancements as part of the university’s ongoing research security modernization effort, setting a benchmark for large public institutions.

In early 2025, Clay Gloster Jr., vice provost and dean of the graduate college at North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University, was honored with the Presidential Award for Excellence in Science, Mathematics, and Engineering Mentoring. Gloster was among 35 individual and organizational mentors to receive the nation’s highest award in this category. A force in cybersecurity workforce development, expanding N.C. A&T’s national leadership in cyber education during a year of extraordinary demand. In 2025, he advanced new pipelines, partnerships and research initiatives that connected historically Black college and university talent to defense, industry and public sector needs — strengthening the cybersecurity ecosystem far beyond campus walls. With a Ph.D. in Computer Engineering and a Master of Divinity, Gloster endeavors to blend technical expertise with a commitment to holistic student development.

Juan Salgado, chancellor of City Colleges of Chicago, brings civic leadership to the cybersecurity conversation. In 2025, he championed workforce pathways that prepared Chicago’s learners — particularly Latino and underrepresented students — for roles in cyber operations and cloud security. His work shows how community colleges can anchor regional resilience through talent development and accessible training. A community college graduate himself, Salgado oversees Chicago’s community college system and previously served as the CEO of Instituto del Progreso Latino, where he worked to empower residents of Chicago’s Southwest Side through education, citizenship and skill-building programs that lead to sustainable work. A 2015 MacArthur Fellow, Salgado was elected chair of the MacArthur Board in 2025.

As CIO of the University of California, a $40 billion-plus enterprise that spans 10 campuses and six health care systems, Van Williams helped lead one of the largest coordinated cybersecurity modernization efforts in public higher education. In 2025, he oversaw cross-campus alignment on shared services, risk management and operational continuity — a massive undertaking that fortified resilience for hundreds of thousands of students, faculty and staff.

Maya Georgieva, senior director of the Innovation Center and the XR, AI and Quantum labs at Parsons School of Design and The New School, pushed higher ed to imagine beyond traditional learning environments. Georgieva’s 2025 speaking engagements focused on the rise of AI-driven immersive experiences and the need for flexible instructional ecosystems that can evolve alongside emerging technologies. Her work explores how spatial storytelling, generative systems and quantum thinking can unlock new dimensions of creativity, learning and human agency. In multiple talks for EDUCAUSE and others, Georgieva anchored her influence in the discourse on AI-powered XR and future campus design.

North Carolina Central University stepped into national prominence in 2025 by hosting one of the year’s most important AI summits for higher education. As an HBCU leading the conversation on AI’s impact across teaching, research and workforce pathways, NCCU brought together educators, industry experts and policymakers to chart a more equitable, community-centered AI future. Their leadership signals a major shift in where innovation is happening — expanding beyond traditional power centers and into institutions historically denied visibility despite driving transformational work. The Institute for Artificial Intelligence and Emerging Research held the AI Summit in partnership with OpenAI Academy to bring together 445 attendees from various HBCUs.

In 2025, Hae Won Park, research scientist and principal investigator at the MIT Media Lab, advanced research on learner-responsive AI, helping institutions imagine more supportive and adaptive learning environments during a year of rapid technological change. Park is shaping the future of AI-driven learning through her research in socially aware machine intelligence and human-robot interaction. Her work at the Media Lab explores how AI systems can adapt to learners’ needs, emotions and behavior — a critical question for higher education in 2025 as institutions explore personalized teaching at scale. 

An Amazon Scholar, Park is also principal investigator for an MIT program exploring social robots for the elderly, leading the long-term personalization of interactive AI systems in domains that help humans flourish. While completing her Ph.D. at Georgia Tech’s Institute of Robotics and Intelligent Machines, she co-founded Zyrobotics, a spin-off that has licensed three patents from her research. Her work offers a window into next-generation AI tools that don’t just process information but understand and respond to students as whole people.

The AI Enablement team that Brandon Rich helms at the University of Notre Dame was formed in response to recommendations in the university’s Spring 2024 Generative AI Task Force report. At a time of rapid institutional change, Rich became a community anchor for higher ed technologists. Through the university’s AI Forum, he created a space where practitioners could exchange strategies, troubleshoot challenges and accelerate modernization safely. 

His work reflects a new archetype in higher ed IT: the practitioner-leader whose influence is born from transparency, collaboration and a willingness to lift the entire field. Last year, Rich led sessions at EDUCAUSE on his community approach, which he described to EdTech. He also appeared in Notre Dame’s publicly shared AI and cloud strategy sessions, shaping the national conversation around secure, sustainable modernization during a year of rapid cloud expansion. Prioritizing community connection and problem-solving, he has become a community anchor, helping institutions share insights, avoid pitfalls and accelerate modernization safely.

As George Mason University’s first chief AI officer, Amarda Shehu is shaping what institutional AI leadership looks like in higher education. A longtime AI researcher and former National Science Foundation program director, Shehu stepped into this role during one of the most unpredictable technological periods on record. Her charge: to build a unified AI vision across research, academics, partnerships and workforce development — all while navigating ethical concerns, data privacy imperatives and campuswide uncertainty.

In 2025, Shehu launched Mason’s AI Literacy Campaign, expanded responsible AI credentials and helped bridge silos between computing, humanities and social sciences to create new, interdisciplinary programs. Her leadership models a form of resilience rooted not in efficiency alone but in community-building, ethical integration and preparing students to thrive in an AI-driven world.

Known for his cloud strategy, network upgrades and digital learning infrastructure, Timothy Chester is highly regarded in higher ed tech circles. As vice chancellor for IT, he elevated the University of Georgia’s digital infrastructure in 2025 through strategic cloud expansion, strengthened cybersecurity architecture and modernized academic and administrative systems that support a rapidly growing campus. His leadership emphasizes operational excellence, service reliability and long-term resilience, positioning UGA as a model for how large public universities can future proof their IT foundations in an era of accelerating change.

Recognized for her leadership in centering inclusivity and taking a people-first approach, Liv Gjestvang, vice president and CIO at Denison University, was honored with the 2025 EDUCAUSE Organizational Culture Award. She was also recently given the Ohio ORBIE Award for CIO of the Year. Her purview includes overseeing digital transformation, AI innovation, cybersecurity, enterprise and educational technologies, business intelligence, high-performance research computing and more. Gjestvang is lauded for fostering a strong and positive team culture, with EDUCAUSE celebrating her demonstration and promotion of “the responsibility of institutions and individuals to ensure that all voices are heard and all people are welcome, nourishing cultures that enable everyone to thrive.”

At the University of California, Riverside, CIO Matt Gunkel led one of the most ambitious infrastructure upgrades in the public university space, strengthening the institution’s digital foundation while navigating the pressures of scale, hybrid work and evolving student expectations. His approach aligned modernization with academic and operational needs, ensuring technology served as a stabilizer rather than a stressor. In 2025, Gunkel’s strategic partnership work, highlighted by UCR’s collaboration with Cisco, showcased how coordinated modernization efforts can accelerate resilience across a large, diverse campus. Gunkel modernized core systems to ensure the reliable digital infrastructure on which operational continuity, access and student success depend.

Nationally recognized for digital transformation in higher ed, Vanessa Hammler Kenon, associate vice president for technology compliance and community engagement at the University of Texas at San Antonio, co-led the university’s massive infrastructure modernization, including cloud strategy, digital experience and enterprise systems upgrades. Often cited in EDUCAUSE circles for her modernization best practices, she works to strengthen the university’s digital infrastructure to support hybrid learning, systems modernization and long-term cloud readiness. Her leadership at one of the nation’s largest Hispanic-serving institutions demonstrates how intentional infrastructure strategy can advance both institutional resilience and student success.

University of St. Thomas Chief Data and Analytics Officer Jena Zangs helped shape the university’s cloud-forward strategy at a time when higher ed institutions were racing to build scalable, secure technical foundations, and her work helped build a cloud foundation sturdy enough to support institutional resilience, hybrid learning and future AI integrations. Her leadership bridges institutional strategy and vendor collaboration, ensuring modernization efforts align with both mission and long-term resilience goals. 

As a woman recognized for her AI leadership, she also brings crucial visibility and diversity to the modernization conversation. Zangs is a steering committee member for the university’s Institute for AI for the Common Good, co-leading the AI research and development initiative with a focus on producing innovative and ethical AI that drives higher education forward. In 2025, she was selected as the Minnesota Ambassador for Women in AI – USA. She was honored by the organization for her role in advancing cloud capacity and AI-ready infrastructure, marking her as one of the standout transformation leaders of the year.