Dr. Michelle R. Weise will discuss the future of education and work by elaborating on the theories of disruptive innovation. Her research on disruption will include other foresight tools to help us move beyond linear thinking and embrace the exponential future ahead of us. She will show how learning and work are becoming inseparable and why a college degree is not the only path to upward mobility. For a growing set of nontraditional students who desire on-demand access to critical education for our ever-evolving knowledge economy, we must consider all possible levers of social mobility.

About Michelle Weise

Michelle Weise, Ph.D., helps institutions and their leaders navigate the dynamics of disruption across a rapidly changing academic terrain.

Weise, the senior vice president of workforce strategies and chief innovation officer at Strada Education Network, specializes in disruptive innovation in higher education. Her work informs policymakers, community leaders, academic administrators and innovators about how the theories of disruption clarify our understanding of the industry’s transformation. Weise’s seminal book – “Hire Education: Mastery, Modularization, and the Workforce Revolution,” co-authored with Clayton Christensen – unveils the tectonic shifts to come, and discusses how online competency-based education will revolutionize the workforce and disrupt higher education.

Beyond competency-based learning, Weise’s research delves into student-learning outcomes, assessments, and public-private partnerships. Her voice has been featured in all major education publications, including the New England Journal of Higher Education, The Chronicle of Higher Education, Inside Higher Ed, as well as top-tier business outlets, such as Harvard Business Review, The Economist, Bloomberg BusinessWeek and USA Today.

Dr. Weise serves on the Commission on the Future of Higher Education for the American Academy of Arts and Sciences as well as on the Executive Council of WCET – The WICHE Cooperative for Educational Technologies. Previously, Weise was a Senior Research Fellow focusing on higher education at the Clayton Christensen Institute for Disruptive Innovation, a non-profit, non-partisan think tank dedicated to improving the world through disruptive innovation, specifically through education and health care. Prior to joining the Institute, Weise was vice president of Academic Affairs for Fidelis Education. She has also held instructional positions, serving as a professor at Skidmore College and an instructor at Stanford University. A former Fulbright Scholar, Weise is a graduate of Harvard University; she earned her master’s and doctorate degrees from Stanford University.