CAA Academic Alliance Announces S2EARCH26 Collaborative Research Convening

6/1/2026 2:00:00 PM

Elle Peterson

Richmond, VA – The CAA Academic Alliance announces a research-focused, inter-institutional collaborative convening, in support of its core strategic initiatives, set for June 2-4, 2026. Hosted on the campus of the University of North Carolina Wilmington (Wilmington, NC), and co-sponsored by UNCW’s Office of Research and Innovation, S²EARCH26 (Student Success Experiential Academic Research Collider – Holistic 2026) will welcome faculty/staff/leadership engaging in cross-institutional research, with attendees anticipated from across the thirteen institutions of the CAA Academic Alliance.

S²EARCH26 brings together educators, researchers, and institutional leaders from across the Alliance to explore shared challenges and opportunities in higher education. The research collider event, with focal domains of AI Technologies and student success/resiliency/faculty development, is designed to encourage interdisciplinary dialogue, knowledge exchange, and the development of collaborative initiatives. The three-day event includes presentations, research lightning talks, faculty and student research poster celebrations and domain-relevant workshops. The event serves as the culminating convening for the Alliance’s AI TECHNOLOGIES CHAMPION Network, who have met virtually via teleconferencing over the previous six months.

S²EARCH26 is anchored by a keynote presentation from Dr. Kevin McClure. A distinguished scholar of higher education, McClure holds the joint title of Professor of Higher Education and Department Chair at the University of North Carolina Wilmington. He is the author of The Caring University: Reimaging the Higher Education Workplace after the Great Resignation (Johns Hopkins University Press). His research on college leadership, workplace culture, and organizational care has been featured in The Chronicle of Higher Education and national conferences.

The current cohort of the Academic Year 2025/26 AI TECHNOLOGIES CHAMPION Network are invited to the event, along with leadership/faculty/staff from across the Alliance who are conducting research and working in the focal domains. In addition, the Academic Year 2025/26 AI TECHNOLOGIES CHAMPION Network Award recipients will be providing Featured Presentations on their award-winning scholarship efforts during S²EARCH26.

The CAA Academic Alliance provides leadership development and inter-institutional collaborative opportunities for the AI TECHNOLOGIES CHAMPION Network and AI TECHNOLOGIES Network Awardees. In alignment with the Alliance’s recently adopted Strategic Roadmap, the CAA Academic Alliance launched its signature AI TECHNOLOGIES CHAMPION Network in fall, 2025 as a bold leadership initiative focusing on the impact of AI Technologies in higher education, tied to student success/holistic well-being, innovative curricula, faculty leadership development, interdisciplinary research, and operational effectiveness.

As a core strategic initiative emerging from these priorities, the AI TECHNOLOGIES CHAMPION Network signals collective intent to shape the future of ethical and responsible use of AI technologies in higher education. Through this initiative, the Alliance seeks to drive collaboration, innovation, and inclusion across all thirteen campuses. By combining expertise and working together, Alliance institutions will accomplish more, and much more rapidly, than any single institution could achieve individually, driving synergistic transformation, and resulting in findings that can be disseminated widely, supporting success beyond CAA higher education institutions.

The Alliance supports faculty teams from two or more CAA Academic Alliance institutions through its strategic initiatives, focused on developing collaborative extramural grant proposals that bring artificial intelligence technologies into work across the disciplines. Programming offers seed funding, proposal development support, and cross-campus partnership matching to lower the barriers to multi-institutional collaboration. Funded projects feed a pipeline of scholarship and practice that are showcased through Alliance convenings, publications, and conference presentations.

As the use of AI technologies becomes more pervasive, structured and collaborative approaches which are cohesive, consistent and ethical are essential for implementation/integration in higher education. The AI TECHNOLOGIES CHAMPION Network initiative addresses this transformational challenge by recognizing leaders across the Alliance, building a community of AI technology champions and preparing inter-institutional teams for near-future extramural funding efforts and cross-institutional dissemination.

The inaugural class of the AI Technologies Champion Network for the Academic Year 2025/26 includes the following faculty/staff:

Sarah Cansler Campbell University
Scott Kelly Campbell University
Becka Rich Drexel University
Michael Wagner Drexel University
Daniel J. Anderson Elon University
Michele Lashley Elon University
Yohannes Bekele Hampton University
Mariel Friberg Hampton University
Ethna Lay Hofstra University
Grace Valdez Hofstra University
Stephanie Lynch Monmouth University
Weihao Qu Monmouth University
Chyi-lyi Liang North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University
Yimesker Yihun North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University
Daisyane Barreto University of North Carolina Wilmington
Julian Keith University of North Carolina Wilmington
Samita Heslin Stony Brook University
Margaret Schedel Stony Brook University
Miranda Donnelly Towson University
Lei Zhang Towson University
Dawn Edmiston William & Mary
Daniel Miller Runfola William & Mary

About The CAA Academic Alliance
As a higher education academic consortium that facilitates collaboration and communication across its 13 member institutions, the CAA Academic Alliance was formed in 2002 to academically link the higher education institutions of the CAA (Coastal Athletic Association) conference. The Alliance serves a diverse audience across its member institutions: engaging faculty, staff, and students in meaningful initiatives that enrich the academic environment, advance student success, and drive innovation and best practices in higher education.
www.caa-academics.org