Weekly perspectives on higher education, teaching, leadership, and change.
Higher education has entered one of the most transformative periods in its history. Artificial intelligence is changing how students learn. Demographic shifts are redefining enrollment. Employers are demanding new skills. Faculty are rethinking teaching and assessment. Institutions are being challenged to innovate while preserving academic quality, financial sustainability, and their core educational mission.
Navigating that complexity requires more than adopting new technologies or launching new initiatives. It requires thoughtful leadership grounded in evidence, strategy, and a deep understanding of how institutions create value for students and society.
That is the focus of my work.
I am a higher education executive, educator, author, and speaker who helps colleges and universities navigate institutional transformation. Throughout my career, I have worked across nearly every level of higher education—as a tenure-track faculty member, associate dean, executive administrator, graduate professor, and academic leader. Those experiences have given me the opportunity to see higher education from multiple perspectives and to understand the challenges facing institutions of different sizes, missions, and cultures.
Today, I serve as Executive Director of Distance Education at the University of Florida College of Journalism and Communications, where I provide executive leadership for the college’s online undergraduate and graduate programs. My work includes academic strategy, program development, enrollment growth, faculty support, instructional quality, budgeting, student success, and organizational innovation.
Across every role, one principle has remained constant:
The best institutional decisions are grounded in evidence rather than assumptions.
Universities often make decisions based on long-held beliefs about students, technology, learning, or the future of higher education. My work focuses on challenging those assumptions, understanding the realities facing today’s learners, and helping institutions build strategies that are responsive, sustainable, and mission-driven.
Artificial intelligence has become a central area of my scholarship and leadership, not because technology itself is the goal, but because it is forcing institutions to reconsider longstanding assumptions about teaching, learning, assessment, and the purpose of higher education. I believe AI represents an opportunity—not simply to adopt new tools—but to rethink how colleges and universities prepare students for a world defined by continuous change.
In addition to my administrative leadership, I teach graduate courses, write about the future of higher education, and speak nationally on topics including academic leadership, institutional strategy, artificial intelligence, online education, faculty development, and organizational change. Whether I’m working with faculty, executive leaders, governing boards, or conference audiences, my objective is the same: to help institutions make better decisions that strengthen both educational quality and long-term institutional success.
Higher education has never stood still. The institutions that will thrive are not necessarily those that change the fastest, but those that adapt most intentionally. My work is dedicated to helping colleges and universities do exactly that.
Making Sense of Teaching, Learning, and Higher Education to Teach with Confidence
By Evan L. Kropp, Ph.D. | Now available from Cognella
Knowing a subject and helping someone else learn it require different skills. This book addresses the teaching preparation gap with guidance for graduate teaching assistants, adjunct instructors, early-career faculty, and professionals moving into college teaching.
It connects the context of higher education with how students learn, course design and alignment, assessment, accessibility, engagement, AI, common teaching challenges, professional development, and teaching portfolios. Voices from the Field contributions connect these ideas to educators’ experiences in practice.