The Alliance of Future Makers program is designed to help leaders, innovators, and changemakers build the skills and strategies needed to navigate uncertainty and shape what comes next. The Administrator Track is built for college and university senior administrators ready to lead innovation and cultivate the conditions for it across their institutions. Through peer exchange, applied foresight, and real-world planning, participants move beyond theory into institutional practice, building the capacity to plan now for the future.
| Administrator Track For Administrators advancing future readiness |
| BENEFITS • Lead institution-wide foresight and innovation strategy, not just projects .• Build a toolkit for scenario planning and organizational future-readiness .• Connect directly with a national network of peer executives and innovators. • Attend the in-person Spring Summit alongside your Fellows and administrators. • Cultivate the conditions for innovation to take hold across your institution. WHO SHOULD JOIN• Cabinet members, executive directors, AVC, VC, EVC responsible for strategy, execution, and impact. |
Learning Objectives
As a member of the Administrator Track, you’ll focus on a clear set of learning objectives, including:
- Establish a Shared Language for Leading Change: Build executive fluency in futures thinking and strategic foresight as tools for decision making, not academic exercises.
- Sponsor Institutional Horizon Scanning: Build the organizational capacity and structures to surface emerging trends shaping your institution and its ecosystem.
- Lead Scenario-Informed Planning: Use 2–3 plausible scenarios as direct inputs into institutional strategy, budget, and risk decisions.
- Cultivate a Culture of Innovation: Establish the incentives, permissions, and psychological safety that let innovation take hold across your institution, not just in a single office.
- Govern for Institutional Readiness: Assess and strengthen the governance, policy, and resource structures that enable or block future-readiness.
- Champion Revenue and Business Model Innovation: Sponsor and protect space for your institution to test new, sustainable models for growth and impact.
- Build a Peer Network for Collective Action: Join a community of presidents, CEOs, and senior leaders planning collaboratively for shared challenges across the sector.
- Model Forward-Looking Leadership: Communicate a credible future-facing narrative to boards, faculty, and the public that sustains and legitimizes innovation work.
What to Expect
Joining the Alliance of Future Makers’ Administrator Track, you’ll step into a peer-driven experience built for sitting leaders: focused conversation, applied foresight, and space to think about what’s next for your institution alongside others facing the same questions. You’ll engage with fellow senior administrators, explore futures methods at the strategic level, and leave each session with something to bring back to your cabinet table.
Here’s what you can expect:
- Attend 80% of quarterly Alliance meetings.
- All meetings are approximately 1.5 hours and virtual.
- Attend Spring Summit: April 2027 in Austin, TX
Meeting Schedule
Meeting Details
- 2 p.m. – 3:30 p.m.
- Virtual
- Kickoff Meeting
Meeting Details
- 2 p.m. – 2:30 p.m.
- Virtual
Meeting Details
- 2 p.m. – 3:30 p.m.
- Virtual
Meeting Details
- 2 p.m. – 3:30 p.m.
- Virtual
Meeting Details
- 2 p.m. – 3:30 p.m.
- Virtual
Meeting Details
- 2 p.m. – 3:30 p.m.
- Virtual
Meeting Details
- 2 Day Conference
- Austin, TX @Austin Community College
- April 29 & 30
Get Started
Explore your path today. By completing the application, you’ll help us understand your interests, expertise, and goals as we chart the best path forward: from starting here to getting there, together.
Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis with a deadline of August 14, 2026 for the 2026–2027 cohort.
Your application should include the following:
- Letter of Commitment from you, affirming your commitment to the meeting schedule and full participation in the AFM experience
- Application form
- Letter of support from your supervisor, affirming institutional backing for your participation in AFM
Thank you for your interest in joining the AFM 2026–2027 cohort!
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