What Does the Future Hold for NACADA? - Adventures in Advising

As NACADA’s executive director since August 2023, Dr. Kyle Ross joins the podcast to discuss how his background has prepared him for this role, his message to members, his vision for the direction of the organization, NACADA’s commitment to DEI, and how NACADA will remain the leader in academic advising.

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Transcript

Matt Markin  
Welcome back to the Adventures in Advising podcast. My name is Matt Markin. And as we start out 2024 We welcome back a past guest of the podcast, who at the time was at Oregon State University and is now in Kansas as the executive director of Nakata, the global community for academic advising. And that is Dr. Kyle Ross. Kyle, welcome back to the podcast.

Kyle Ross  
Thanks for having me, Matt. Good to see. 

Matt Markin  
Good to see you too. And, you know, having started your role as executive director of NACADA since August, I believe of 2023. What do you feel in your background has helped prepare you for this new chapter?

Kyle Ross  
Yeah, great question. So definitely a worming a lot still. So I feel like I'm trying to drink out of a fire hydrant, but it's going really well. So far, I'd say the things that have helped really prepare me are just my deep involvement in the association prior to this position. So having out of my 11 years membership, really jumping into leadership opportunities as quickly as possible once I joined, and then taking time in each leadership role to really deeply understand the responsibilities and the overall operations of the association. I was really grateful to have Nathan Vickers as my Emerging Leaders Program mentor, because he was really strategic with working with me on developing a plan for progression in different leadership roles in the association and making sure that there were ones that would help prepare for whatever my end goals were. So at one point I had identified that I'd like to serve on the board of directors. And he was like, Okay, well, before you do that, there are some things that I feel that are going to be really helpful for you to learn. And then once I was on the board of directors, and there were some opportunities that really fell in place during my three years that really helped me develop even more knowledge of the association for this position, specifically, my time working on the bylaws of the association, really reviewing those in depth over about a two year process, really digging into each statement of the bylaws at that time thinking through what does that mean for the association. And where does that best fit, whether it's in the policies, bylaws, themselves, or other places have the association governance structure. So that was one thing and really helped me deeply learn about the association. The other part was being able to work with a few others on establishing a new strategic plan that the board then adopted. And so that involves New Vision, Mission strategic goals. And then we worked on the benchmarks of the strategic goals during my one year term as president. So through all of that, I really got to see the ins and outs and how things operate the relationship between volunteers and the executive office, and really just took some time to listen and engage with a broad variety of members and leaders. So that way, when I did step into this position, I felt Oh, okay, I know, I know, things I know, I know about the bylaws, I know about how the Board of Directors works. And so that really helps set me up for success on those areas. And then having prior supervisory experience as well of a large team was also very helpful. But there are definitely things I'm still learning about nonprofit management and being an association executive, that are very new to me, but very grateful to have colleagues and other associations willing to dialogue with me and give me advice as they've been in their positions for either a year or 10 years.

Matt Markin  
Absolutely. And, you know, now being the new executive director of the cutter, you know, we've had past executive directors, one being Dr. Charlie Nutt, who I think is synonymous with Nakata, and, you know, led the organization for many years. There's also Dr. Melinda Anderson, who is another former executive director, and you know, she led to kata through a pandemic. And, you know, ensuring that in the kata and its members made it through, especially having the in person conference in Cincinnati in 2021. And they're very much we are back conference in 2022 in Portland, and the most recent one for you, starting with the Orlando conference. So, you know, who are Charlie and Melinda to you? Yeah.

Kyle Ross  
Gosh, that's a really big question. I'd say Charlie has such a humongous footprint and touch across the entire Association still does with his day. To me, Charlie was the person that took NACADA to such great heights that we never would have expected at that time from when the organization was 5000 members large to when we hit 15,000 members in early 2020. That is a huge accomplishment and really large thanks to him for getting out and being present with different groups of stromal partners, but really particularly members, and making them feel like they all had a place in the association that we want to carry forward to this day. So I mean, to me, Charlie is the membership accelerator and the the catalyst for huge growth in the organization. And then when Melinda stepped into the role, you know, the nice thing is, we've landed at huge growth 15,000 members, now we have to figure out what we do really well. And make sure we prioritize those things as an association, and then really starting to think about okay, we went from 5000 to 15,000 members rapidly, what does that mean, and Melinda really took that on from the get go. One of the statements that she's said to me several times when I was president working with her was we are too big of an association to act small. And that I think, really carried through and making sure that we prioritize things that we did really well, really thinking of ourselves as not only a member driven organization, but also as a business and a mission driven organization, and really starting to shift that tone, to make sure that we weren't necessarily everything for everyone, all the time, but that we were this association with a firm identity that could use our voice to advocate for our membership as well.

Matt Markin  
And I guess, kind of tying into that, you know, what, what would be your vision for the direction of the Nakata organization? You know, you know, whether it's over the next few years, five years, 10 years is your anything that you're able to mention that's coming down the pipeline?

Kyle Ross  
Yeah, so I definitely want to keep going with what Melinda had started and really carried us forward for because I think that's all unnecessary. So really thinking through, what do we do? Well, what do we do meaningfully for the association and our members, really thinking through the mission driven aspect of the association so that way, we aren't doing everything all at the same time, but thinking through okay, this is our mission moding student success through academic advising, what does that mean as an association. And so one thing I'm noticing is that we still, while we are professional academic advising as a profession, and I will be really firm on that there are always things that you can do to continue to professionalize. And so wanting to think through, okay, we have a great voice, we don't often use it, we're a little shy, how can we not be so shy about using our voice to promote the advising profession? So what does our what does an advisor scope of practice look like? Can we, as an association come up with that? What are what is the code of ethics that we would expect advisors to go by? And all those things are really helpful pieces of information that advisors and us can take back to institutions and say, Hey, this is a scope of practice. And you've got this advisor doing 200. Other things, stop it, because it's stopping them from doing things really well for their students and promoting their success overall. So I think we'll start to see some of those things. Because that has come up in lots of different spaces have been a part of is people saying, Hey, come on, why hasn't Nicola taken from positions on the profession revising the scope of practice, and other things, and so wanting to see that move forward? So yeah, really kind of thinking through what Melinda started making sure that we see that forward, and then using our voices and association, to advocate for the profession of academic advising. 

Matt Markin  
one of the topics too, that has come up over the last few years, and maybe even prior to that as well as dei or as some will call it dei JB. So diversity, equity, inclusion, social justice and belonging. So it's been a hot topic in higher ed. And you know, I guess tying that to NACADA, where do you see like, DEIor DEIJB? Within the cotton? Or you know, or even you could take it in terms of like, what do you think the cotton is doing? Or will be doing to put that at the forefront? 

Kyle Ross  
That's a great question. A little bit of hypocritical for me to say, we're not going to do everything for everyone. But in the realm of DEIBSJ, we have to have that be woven into everything of the association. So should not fall in a silo. That's something that Vice President Michelle Smith Ware when she was vice president, while I was president had really, we both agreed on that sentiment. You can't silo off DEISJB, you just can't it has to be woven into the every fabric until the fabric of everything you do as an association. So I would love to see that move forward in some way for micarta. So that way, there's everyone's equally responsible and accountable for it while there's consistent oversight. That's one thing that will need to come with that is if everyone's responsible for it, how do we still carry out actions that move us forward with DEIBSJ, meaningfully and well, and that does require oversight to make sure that hey, don't do this 300 different ways, let's do this one way, do that really well and consistently for our members. So I would like to see that happen. And I'm certainly, I'm committed to that, because I recognize we've got a lot of really great things going on in the organization, from the social justice advising community, to the recently formed dei Education Advisory Board. But there was nothing compelling those groups to talk to each other. Because you all have your charge or function in your scope. Go do it. And now we really need to make those bridges and connections and think through how do you all work together and collaborate, identify solutions that we can implement across the entire Association? And really do so meaningfully and thoughtfully.

Matt Markin  
Sounds like that this is kind of ties into maybe like your strategic direction that you would love to see NACADA go into? 

Kyle Ross  
Absolutely. It's definitely a priority for me, something I've been talking about for a while, not just as Executive Director, but well before that as well. So really wanting to make sure we do so and move forward with that quickly. But also taking our time to do so intentionally. There is that tough balance of can't take too much time, because then people are like, so what are you doing with this? And is this really a priority? But you also need the time to really do things. Right as as rightly as possible as correctly as possible?

Matt Markin  
Absolutely. And, you know, speaking of NACADA, you know, a lot of people seeing NACADA, you know, not only as a global community for academic advising, but in a way many people see NACADA as the authority on academic advising, like so how do you ensure NACADA the NACADA organization remains like a leader or the leader in academic advising? 

Kyle Ross  
I do see that NACADA should be the preeminent authority for academic advising globally. We can certainly work with a variety of external party owners to help inform our voice and authority, because you're going to have other organizations, academic advising that maybe we don't necessarily, so like EDUCAUSE looking at technology for all different aspects of higher ed. But they also look at that for academic advising. Great, let's partner with them. Let's talk about advising technology and academic advising. You realize their expertise as well. One thing I'm really grateful for, as as I've talked with external organizations is that they do definitely see us as that expert. But they are also asking for answers and information that we have not yet provided. And I think that that's where that will inform our research agenda moving forward is what are those questions that are out there that only NACADA can answer? And how can we get those answers out to everybody so that other organizations are working with us collaboratively, we also need to recognize that time is a serious threat here. Because if we don't come up with those answers, some other organization will do it for us. And at that point, they'll start assuming the authority for academic advising, which they shouldn't, because at the end of the day, we have the opportunities for professional development for what is now 14,000 members across the world, and no one's going to be able to do what we'd quite what we do for academic advisors and academic advising.

Matt Markin  
I guess a couple questions has been cotton, I should have asked you this in the beginning of going from your previous role at your other institution to now going and being the executive director for Anakata. Was that a challenge or a hard decision to make when being offered the role?

Kyle Ross  
So when I was offered the role, it felt like a dream come true that I never thought was going to be possible. So when the position was announced, I initially wrote it off. I was like, there's going to be someone really great who's going to come into this position. I'm really excited to work with them. And then someone called me was like, Well, why don't you put your name in the hat? And I was like, okay, that's not funny. Stop it. And then after enough encouragement, I was like, Well, why not? The worst thing that can happen is that I'm told no, thank you for applying. And the best thing that can happen is, hey, we're gonna offer you this position. And so really no harm and going through that process at that point. So I applied and I was like, we'll just see what happens. Got a first round interview. I was like, Oh, okay. Okay, let's do this. Yeah, let's have a conversation. And then when I found out as a finalist, I was like, Okay, this isn't funny anymore. This is like the worst April Fool's joke ever if someone's trying to prank me right now. And that's when I really started getting my head. looks up for sure, wanting to see how this could go for me. And then I got the call from the Dean of the College of Education, Dean Debbie Mercer. And she had actually called me when I was in between flights and an airport. So I had I had pretty calm and when I got the call, because I didn't want to, you know, start anything in public. So he's just like, you seem a little unimpressed. And I was like, Well, I'm trying to maintain my calm right now. I'm really doing a bad job of it. Like you shouldn't see my nonverbals at that point in time. So at that point, it wasn't even a question. And it was a yes, we are absolutely moving forward with this opportunity. Because it's, it really does feel like an once in a lifetime opportunity. And I'm so grateful and honored to be in the position. I will say that this was my first semester, since 2011, that I didn't regularly interact with students day in and day out and advising appointments. That was a little bit weird. But what I'm really replacing that with is being able to work with members and leaders every day of the association, that's been really fulfilling.

Matt Markin  
Was it something when you were, you know, waking up and you're like, wait, I don't have any student appointments? You know, when does it not feel like that now? Because I would imagine the beginning. Yeah, that it's awkward. You feel like you should be doing something else or meeting with students? And then you're like, Wait, that's not my role anymore. 

Kyle Ross  
For me, the biggest shift that made me realize, oh, this is very different was...so my prior role at Oregon State University, I was the person looking at internal petitions of college of business requirements, because I was ahead advisor for the College of Business. So I was collaborating with faculty daily on we've got this petition over a student, do we or don't we make an exception? What does that look like? And that was where a lot of my work and time was going. So when I woke up one day, and I looked at my inbox and didn't see a petition, I was like, okay, things are really I don't miss don't necessarily miss that part. I miss the interaction with students, but petitions, they were tough.

Matt Markin  
And then when you left and then moved, and then now in this role, and did you still have students or staff from Oregon State still emailing you for questions?

Kyle Ross  
Only, mainly just where we might have missed some training and time for the next people to come in. We thought we hit all the topics and then was like, hey, this was a question when missed and popping in. But mainly just kind of messages from my team I worked with saying, Hey, we miss you, how's it going? How's life in Kansas? Those kinds of questions. So it's been really nice to stay in touch with several others people.

Matt Markin  
Much reporting such as, you know, let's say the the Boyer commission report, you know, makes various recommendations on you know, blueprints for for education or undergrad education, you know, closing equity gaps, student advisor ratios, and many institutions kind of depend and look to NACADA for guidance, maybe even looking for those concrete answers of, you know, being able to get information from NACADA to then inform their administration. What do you what do you see like NACADA been in that with helping us substitutions administrators, advising centers, you know, developing plans or obtaining some of that information that they're looking for?

Kyle Ross  
Yeah, and this is where I want to see NACADA use its voice in ways that may not have been able to before or may not have had the capacity to before. So I think it's great that other folks are coming out with these recommendations that we not necessarily have been able to before, but we should be those people. I know that the biggest reason why we haven't is because folks feel like well, you can't establish parameters around case loads or centralized versus decentralized advising models or anything like that, because every institution is so different. The students that are enrolled at those institutions are so different. The models for advising with faculty advising professional advising, peer advising looks so different, that there's no way you could come up with this one size fits all answer, and that is certainly true to a certain extent. But here's where I see things a little differently is I do think that regardless of institutional type student enrollment, demographics, governance structures, organizational models, there are common threads that make up of academic advising as a profession that can guide the parameters around what an advisor shouldn't shouldn't be doing in their day to day practice. And those are the things I think we really need to be exploring. And then from there that can help inform if an advisor scope of practice is this, then realistically, this is what the caseload should be no matter what type of institution you're at. Otherwise, you will not be able to actualize that scope of practice, or should not be inundated with other administrative tasks every day, so they have no time to see students. And I think the kata can find those common threads, we've got the experts in the association in the membership, we need to utilize that leverage to that, and really give those answers that people are looking to us for because I think now's the time for us to be able to do that.

Matt Markin  
For sure. And the kata has conferences, you know, region conferences, annual conferences, but offers so much more to its members, you know, so sometimes you have individuals that may just think NACADA is just does the conference says, How do you help someone understand how much more NACADA offers and how much more someone could get involved within the organization?

Kyle Ross  
Yeah, so I think once someone becomes a member, they start seeing more of those opportunities and resources for NACADA. Next week in our monthly highlights, and once on the website. So you know, we're looking online events alone, not counting webinars and tutorials, but the online events that are offered through advising communities, regions, committees and advisory boards, you're looking at 150 plus potential online events in 2024. For that, and that's a lot. That is a humongous opportunity. If you just look at the membership rate to that alone, there, it's quite the bang for your buck of having access 250 Plus online events in a given the year, not to mention discounts on attendance registration fees for Institute's annual conference region, conferences, webinars, tutorials. So I think people start seeing that through an academy next week, when we are advertising, hey, here's the registration deadline for this or the signup deadline for this webinar, or this opportunity, hey, we're advertising this online event, you start seeing that throughout next week. And it's funny isn't uncommon next week was intended to be really short updates, and just the amount of offerings makes that email quite lengthy nowadays. So we're trying to look at that and say, how do we utilize that for short and timely updates, while we still make sure we get all the information of wonderful opportunities for our members out there? 

Matt Markin  
I guess, speaking of opportunities, you know, everyone's different in their roles in terms of how involved they are what's expected of them from their institutions, their departments that are offices. And so you might have some that are wanting to expand out or do more they see these opportunities that maybe they feel it's their may not have the time for it. Any advice you have for a member that's looking to get more involved, and then just kind of concerned about if they are able to kind of add that into what they're already doing within their role at their institution?

Kyle Ross  
Absolutely. My biggest piece of advice to that is, whatever time you think you have, realistically, you're able to commit, there is an opportunity and NACADA aligns with that. There are some really quick involvement opportunities that are timed very carefully over a few weeks, like reviewing proposals for a region conference or annual conference. And then there are things that you can devote even more time to the Association for like serving as Division representative on the NACADA Council can take up a lot of time. I think we have done a lot to really clearly articulate those expectations. I think we still have a long way to go on that to have some room for improvement there to really say if you're signing up for this, this is what that time commitment looks like. But that has been the question is what does the time commitment looks like look like? And we've been trying to answer those questions for people as candidly as possible, while recognizing things are changing. And as we look at new opportunities, resources, maybe that makes it so that the time commitment is more than what a person initially signed up for. So work in progress there. But I would say that if you've got a certain amount of time over a month long timeframe, there's going to be something we can connect you with. And so at that point, it's a matter of asking, Hey, how can I get involved? This is what my time commitment looks like. We do have a get involved button on in the kata website where you can kind of articulate those things and identify what areas interest you and then the executive First and relevant volunteer leaders would reach out to that person and say, hey, great, do you want to get involved in this? This was what that looks like.

Matt Markin  
Now, I've noticed on a lot of social media and some of the emails, there's going to be aside from like region conferences coming up for the spring. There's also assessment assessment institutes. Many think there's also the administrators Institute at some point for someone that's not that knows about, like the region annual conferences, but maybe not so much about the institute's. Can you talk a little bit more about what those are?

Kyle Ross  
Yeah, absolutely. So we have three Institute's currently, at this time, we've got the administrators Institute, which is for folks who are even interested in becoming an advising administrator to people who are currently advising administrators, learning to be better administrators, so management supervision and leadership skills, things to know about the landscape of academic advising in higher education today, what are the current issues that teams are going to be facing and advising, so virtual advising, and mental health for students, that's certainly an issue right now. So we provide timely topics around that at the administrators Institute for people to be able to address those issues and problems of practice with their teams at their institutions. Simultaneously, those administrators are also come in able to come in and say, here's the problem practice I'm experiencing, and work with a group of advising administrators on what actions and steps they can take around that to leave with it. And that is something that's really tangible there with the institute's is those action plans. So we have great faculty who teach at the advising administrators Institute, the administrators Institute is divided for two primary audiences, we've got a track specifically for administrators who look who supervise advising for a single unit departments, versus track B, which is going to be our track for administrators who provide oversight for academic advising for their whole institution, or campus. So you know, the Vice Provost AVPs. And that track, you're advising directors of maybe have a college advising unit on the other track. Then we have the assessment Institute, which is for the people who either even want to dabble with assessment of academic advising, who are charged with being responsible for assessment of academic advising. Those folks who are just wanting to build their skills, knowledge and abilities around assessment, that's exactly what that Institute's for and developing an assessment plan that they can take back home with them. Same type of idea, faculty teaching around timely topics, being able to engage with them in smaller groups to mentor them through creating those plans. We don't have like separate tracks for that one, it's just assessment. And then we have our Institute for academic advising. That was previously called the Summer Institute, since it was offered in the summer, but it didn't really do much to say what it is. So we've renamed it to the Institute for academic advising. And that one has been a place for advising teams to really go together to explore problem practice for their units, and create action plans together. So a really great example is let's say you were an advising unit that has an unassigned system for academic advising and caseload. So if a student comes in, they can see whatever they want. And you want to consider transitioning to formally assigned, advising model with case loads, the summer Institute's a great place to bring that because you and your whole team can go together, learn from other folks and get those timely presentations, and then create that plan. I know that units have gone there to create mission statements for advising in their advising, syllabi, other types of topics for those teams to work through. But you can also be an individual and attend the Institute for academic advising. Maybe you want to bring back a plan to your whole team and say, Hey, this is something I thought about at the summer at the Institute for academic advising. And I think that this would be a good plan for us to move forward on a new approach to working with students on academic probation or different way to look at advising technology at their campus or institution.

Matt Markin  
And as we close with this interview, I mean, we're recording this December of 2023. But anyone listen to this right now. It's 2024. It's a new year. So as we end this interview in these last couple minutes, is there any message you want to tell anakata members or the advising community in general?

Kyle Ross  
Yeah, I welcome engagement with you. So I will be attending all eight region conferences and 2024 and so you'll see me there if you're going to reach and conference would love to talk with you hear from you. Get your perspective on the association in the profession overall. I promise I'm fun and nice and easy to talk to. So don't be intimidated by The title, I would love to connect with you. So that's a big message there is please do connect with me whether that's in person on an event, send me an email, connect with me through social media. I'm largely on LinkedIn right now. And so I would love to engage with all of you as much as you all are comfortable with. So I welcome that. And then of course, at the annual conference as well. And then, over the years, I'll be attending various Institute's to connect with stakeholders there, but I just want to say please do say hi, tell me about yourself. Tell me your about your insights and perspective on the association and the profession overall, and I would love to hear all of that.

Matt Markin  
And if you've never met Kyle, I can confirm Kyle is fun. He is engaging, he means what he says. So if he says, you know, talk to them, you know, connect with them. Absolutely, do it. You won't regret it. But Dr. Kyle Ross, thank you so much for being on the podcast again.

Kyle Ross  
Thanks, Matt.