I’m in Portland this week attending and photographing the Professional and Organizational Development (POD) Network in Higher Education’s annual conference. If you’ve never been to a POD conference, you’ll just have to trust me when I say it’s unlike any other conference you’ve attended. Yes, you’ll find the usual here: hard working academic professionals, scholarship, researched solutions you can bring back to your campus, and more. The difference between this and other conferences is the people, who are not only incredible at what they do but also incredible at freely sharing their ideas and hard work – and at helping others do that hard work at their own institutions.

This first photograph of the week is of the 2019 Organizational Development Institute facilitators. (Yes, that’s me in there – and sorry for cutting off your face, Mary.) The ODI is a day-long session POD coordinates in conjunction with the Association of American Colleges and Universities’ annual meeting. The 2019 topic is Creating or Re-vitalizing a Center for Teaching and Learning.

I’ll be photographing this year’s POD conference in the same way I approach the Teaching and Learning Project. I’ll post a few images here throughout the week, and follow up with a summary early next week.