This hour-long moderated discussion features a national leader in student mental health research (Dr. Sarah K. Lipson), an AI guru focused on using Generative AI to drive enrollment through personalized support of students (Samin Khan), and the leader of a college that won the 2023 Aspen Prize as the Best in America by “ceaselessly striving to love our students” (Dr. Russell Lowery-Hart).
Prospective students (including the many with anxiety about the personal, social and academic challenges postsecondary enrollment presents) will be motivated to enroll if they believe there will be abundant personalized academic, financial, and mental health support, support that AI-tools can now dynamically amplify leading students to a sense of belonging from Day One.
Associate Professor (Department of Health Law Policy and Management)
Boston University School of Public Health
Sarah Ketchen Lipson (she/her) is an associate professor in the Department of Health Law Policy and Management at the Boston University School of Public Health. Her research, originally inspired by her years working in residential life, focuses on understanding and addressing mental health and disparities therein within higher education.
She is also the Principal Investigator of the Healthy Minds Network. This includes the Network’s national Healthy Minds Study, an annual mental health survey conducted at hundreds of colleges and universities each year. Sarah’s research has been funded the National Institute of Mental Health and William T. Grant Foundation, among others. Her work has been featured in the New York Times, Boston Globe, Huffington Post, on NPR, and in numerous other national and international media outlets.
Sarah completed a dual-PhD at University of Michigan in the Schools of Public Health and Education. She received her bachelor’s degree from Tufts University, her master’s from Harvard University, and was a Fulbright scholar.
Additionally, Sarah teaches a range of graduate-level courses at the Boston University School of Public Health.
Product Manager
ACUE
Samin Khan is an AI product-builder for higher education with a former life as an AI researcher and entrepreneur. Holding a background in computer science and psychology from the University of Toronto, Samin used computational linguistics to predict mental health trends. This methodology was the foundation of his start-up, Autumn, which leveraged a privacy-Birst AI model to assist remote teams in averting burnout during the pandemic. Since then, Autumn has been successfully acquired.
In addition, Samin was a founding engineer of smartARM, a company recognized globally for creating the world’s Birst AI-driven robotic prosthetic arm. This achievement won Microsoft’s Blagship technology competition, Imagine Cup, in 2018.
Today, Samin leads AI product initiatives at ACUE while pursuing a graduate degree in Education Data Science at Stanford, both aimed towards improving higher education through the emerging technology of AI.
President
Amarillo College
Dr. Russell Lowery-Hart, President for Amarillo College since 2014. Amarillo College was named the 2023 Aspen Prize Co-Winner for Community College Excellence.
His leadership is focused on improving student success through systemic and cultural change centered on one word: LOVE. Under Russell’s leadership, Amarillo College developed the systemic Culture of Caring targeting removal of poverty barriers that was featured in The Atlantic (June 2018) and in the documentary on AmazonPrime, The Antidote.
Dr. Lowery-Hart previously served as Vice-President of Academic Affairs for Amarillo College and named the National Council of Instructional Administrators Academic Leader of the Year for 2014. He received his Ph.D. from Ohio University; M.A. Texas Tech University; and, B.S. from West Texas State University.