Shows
Mile Higher Ed PodcastThe Role of Department Chair with Dr. Darin Stewart and Dr. Chris NelsonIn this episode of Mile Higher Ed, Sarah and Caitlyn speak with Dr. Darin Stewart, Professor of Higher Education and outgoing department chair and Dr. Chris Nelson, Associate Professor of Higher Education and incoming department char. We talk about the role of a department chair, accomplishments of the DU higher ed faculty, and creating relational spaces and community as faculty and leaders in higher ed.
About our guests:
Dr. Darin Stewart is Professor and outgoing Chair of the Higher Education Department in the Morgridge College of Education at the University of Denver. His scholarship has...2025-06-1052 minMile Higher Ed PodcastAI and Academic Integrity with Dr. Sarah GutierrezIn this episode of Mile Higher Ed, Sarah and Caitlyn speak with EdD program alumna Dr. Sarah Gutierrez, Assistant Director of Student Conduct for Academic Integrity at Colorado State University. We talk about the world of student conduct, the challenges of AI in today’s classroom, and we learn more about her Dissertation in Practice about the transfer student experience.
About our guest:
Dr. Sarah Gutierrez is the Assistant Director of Student Conduct for Academic Integrity at Colorado State University, where she works to uphold academic integrity while supporting students through educational, restorative, and developmental approac...2025-05-2634 minMile Higher Ed PodcastResidence Life and Supporting Students with Dr. Mary ElliottIn this episode of Mile Higher Ed, Sarah and Caitlyn speak with EdD program alumna Dr. Mary Elliott, who is Executive Director of Residence Life and Auxiliary Services at Colorado School of Mines. We talk about building community through residential education, supporting students with autism, and becoming a leader in higher education.
About our guest:
Mary Elliott started her professional career as a teacher after undergrad at Cornell College (Mt. Vernon, IA). She loved studying and learning about teaching and she loves teaching. However, she discovered a need for more varied day to day challenges and...2025-05-1239 minMile Higher Ed PodcastThe Higher Education Student Association with Nate HernandezIn this episode of Mile Higher Ed, Sarah and Caitlyn speak with Nate Hernandez, current master’s student and president of the Higher Education Student Association (HESA). We talk about HESA’s work, the Higher Ed community at DU, and how to get the most out of your DU Higher Ed degree program.
About our guest: A Venezuelan immigrant originally from Florida, Nate Hernandez (he/him) is masters student at the University of Denver studying higher education. Nate holds a bachelor's degree from the University of Central Florida, where he studied teaching artistry and theatre for social change...2025-04-2823 minMile Higher Ed PodcastSupporting Parenting Students with Brandon BishopIn this episode of Mile Higher Ed, Sarah and Caitlyn speak with master’s alumnus Brandon Bishop, the Advocacy and Strategy Manager at Warren Village, a non-profit organization providing affordable housing and education opportunities for single parents and their children. We discuss the incredible mission of Warren Village, how policy decisions shape access and outcomes for higher education, why childcare is crucial for parenting students, and how the DU higher education master’s program prepares its graduates for careers in policy and advocacy.
About our guest: Brandon Bishop is an alumnus of the Higher Education Master’s program...2025-04-1440 minMile Higher Ed PodcastState Funding for Broad Access Institutions with Katie Kleinhesselink and Essa NjieIn this episode, Sarah and Caitlyn talk with Katie Kleinhesselink, a PhD candidate in Higher Education, and Essa Njie, a second year PhD student in Higher Education at DU. We discuss their recent research project examining state funding models for Broad Access Institutions, which they presented at the Association for the Study of Higher Education (ASHE) 2024 conference. We also talk about what it was like to conduct this research and present as doctoral students.
About our guests:
A third-generation Montanan and proud miner's daughter, Katie Kleinhesselink is a passionate advocate for higher education's role in mee...2025-03-3144 minMile Higher Ed PodcastOn Mentorship with Dr. Marc Johnston GuerreroIn this episode of Mile Higher Ed, Sarah and Caitlyn speak with Dr. Marc Johnston Guerrero, Associate Dean of Academic and Student Affairs and Professor of Higher Education at the University of Denver. We talk about being a mentor, building intentional community, and how to cultivate professional relationships and mentorships.
About our guest: Dr. Marc Johnston Guerrero is an accomplished scholar in the interdisciplinary fields of Higher Education & Student Affairs and Critical Mixed Race Studies and a seasoned higher education leader. He is currently Associate Dean of Academic and Student Affairs and Professor in the Mo...2025-03-1832 minMile Higher Ed PodcastAdult Education Initiatives with Ellen HoganIn this episode of Mile Higher Ed, Sarah and Caitlyn speak with Master’s program alumna Ellen Hogan
About our guest: Ellen Hogan, M.A., is an accessibility advocate focused on organizational leadership and change. She recently joined Colorado Department of Education's (CDE) Adult Education Initiatives team, serving as the Instructional Support and Professional Learning Coordinator. The AEI team is responsible for overseeing the Adult Education Family Literacy Act (federal) and the Adult Education Literacy Act (state) grants.
Ellen provides proactive and responsive support for institutions and organizations to enhance inclusivity and accessibility for all. Ellen has extens...2025-03-0342 minMile Higher Ed PodcastAdministration, Practice, and Scholarship in Medicine with Dr. Sylk SottoIn this episode of Mile Higher Ed, Sarah and Caitlyn speak with EdD program alumna Dr. Sylk Sotto, Associate Vice Chancellor for Faculty Development and Inclusive Excellence and Associate Professor of Medicine at the University of Pittsburgh. We discuss the importance of inclusive learning environments in academic medicine, Dr. Sotto’s pathway to administration and leadership, and why it is important to consider professional schools in higher education scholarship and practice.
About our guest: Dr. Sylk Sotto is an internationally recognized scholar and leader. Currently, she serves as the inaugural Associate Vice Chancellor for Faculty Development at Uni...2025-02-1845 minMile Higher Ed PodcastPathway to Conocimiento with Dr. Lauren ContrerasWelcome to Season 2 of Mile Higher Ed. In this season premiere episode, Sarah and Caitlyn talk with Dr. Lauren Contreras, who is assistant professor of education leadership at Northern Arizona University and an alumna of DU’s higher ed Ph.D. program. We discuss her recently published article “Latina Undergraduates on the Path to Becoming Exitosas on Their Own Terms” in the Journal of College Student Development, conocimiento as a framework for understanding Latina students’ experiences, and the process of turning a dissertation into scholarly journal publications.
About our guest: Dr. Lauren Contreras is an assistant professor in the De...2025-02-0339 minMile Higher Ed PodcastSpecial Episode- Applying Critical Race Theory to Civic Engagement with Dr. Darin StewartIn honor of Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, we are rereleasing an episode from season 1. Dr. Darin Stewart joins Sarah and Caitlyn to talk about his new article Civic Engagement and Resisting ‘Docile Bodies’ in Postsecondary Education published in Teachers College Report. We discuss the importance of civic engagement in racially minoritized communities, why a critically-oriented curriculum is necessary in higher education, and how we must go beyond voting to increase engagement with, and participation in, our democracy.
A few of the things we talk about:
Racial Capitalism, coined by Dr. Cedric J. Robinson in his...2025-01-2047 minMile Higher Ed PodcastSeason 1 Finale and RecapIn this season finale of Mile Higher Ed, Sarah and Caitlyn discuss the topics we covered this season and our takeaways.
Are you an alum of DU’s Higher Ed program, or know an alum of DU’s Higher Ed program, who is doing amazing work in the higher education space? Would you like to be featured on Season 2 of Mile Higher Ed? Contact Dr. Sarah Hurtado to learn more.
Mile Higher Ed is a production of the Higher Education Department at the Morgridge College of Education at the Univers...2025-01-1505 minMile Higher Ed PodcastRewiring Settler Colonialism with Dr. Chris NelsonIn this episode of Mile Higher Ed, Dr. Chris Nelson joins Sarah and Caitlyn to discuss a book chapter she recently co-authored called “(Re)wiring Settler Colonial Practices in Higher Education: Creating Indigenous-Centered Futures Through Considerations of Power, the Social Place, and Space” in the Higher Education Handbook of Theory and Research.
We discuss decoloniality vs decolonization, decolonial collaborative writing practices, and how to bring a sense of yourself into your academic writing.
About our guest: Dr. Chris A. Nelson (she/her) is from the K’awaika (Laguna Pueblo) and Diné (Navajo) tribal communit...2025-01-1534 minMile Higher Ed PodcastDr. Stevie Lee Discussion on Her DissertationIn this episode of Mile Higher Ed, Dr. Stevie Lee joins Sarah and Caitlyn to discuss her dissertation, for which she just won the Franz Fanon Dissertation Award Honorable Mention for the dissertation of the year through the Decolonial, Post-colonial and Anti-colonial studies in Education SIG of AERA. We discuss her use of the Chapter House Framework, decolonizing research methods, and what it was like to share her research at the AERA conference this year.
Read Dr. Lee’s dissertation here: Examining the Relational Space of Native Faculty Members in Higher Education
About our Guest: St...2025-01-1529 minMile Higher Ed PodcastOpen Education Resources with Dr. Liliana Diaz and Casey McCoy-SimmonsIn this episode of Mile Higher Ed, Dr. Liliana Diaz and Ph.D. candidate Casey McCoy-Simmons join Sarah and Caitlyn to talk about Open Education and Open Education Resources (OER). We discuss the benefits of OER, why Open Education is an equity issue, and the current OER policy landscape.
Here are some links to the things we talk about:
Webinar Recording: “A Not-Boring Tour of State OER Policies” https://openoregon.org/archived-webinar-a-not-boring-tour-of-state-oer-policies/
SPARC OER State Policy Tracker: https://sparcopen.org/our-work/state-policy-tracking/
Casey’s article about OER and equity: https://journals.uwyo.e...2025-01-1543 minMile Higher Ed PodcastKeeping Malawian Girls in School with Alice KanyamaIn this episode of Mile Higher Ed, Sarah and Caitlyn interview Ph.D. student Alice Kanyama about her recent work in Malawi, where she provided menstruation products to girls and young women through a grant from DU’s Center for Community Engagement to Advance Scholarship and Learning. We talk about the educational landscape in Malawi, how reusable sanitary pads improve education outcomes, and why secondary schooling is a critical foundation for university access.
Here are links to some of the things we talked about:
Seeds of Promise, a non-profit organization committed to s...2025-01-1518 minMile Higher Ed PodcastSupporting Transfer Students with Caitlyn Potter GlaserIn this episode of Mile Higher Ed, Sarah interviews Caitlyn about her recent work with the National Institute for the Study of Transfer Students. We discuss the gap between transfer aspiration and bachelor’s degree attainment, challenges for community college students, and how practitioners can work together to understand and support students in the transfer process.
Here are links to some of the things we talked about:
The National Institute for the Study of Transfer Students- www.nists.org
Transfer Nation- www.transfernation.com
“Tracking Transfer” report from the...2025-01-1521 minMile Higher Ed PodcastReport on the Alliance for Research on Regional Colleges with Anna DodsonAbout our guest: Anna Dodson was born and raised in Portland, Oregon, and attended her undergraduate education at Gonzaga University in Spokane, Washington, graduating with a BA in Psychology. She moved to Denver in 2019, volunteering with AmeriCorps through City Year in a Kindergarten classroom and learning valuable knowledge about the K-12 education system in Denver. She has continued to study education through the higher education lens in 2022, choosing the University of Denver to complete her MA in Higher Education because of their strong graduate assistantship program and interest in the higher education faculty’s areas of study. In the pr...2025-01-1526 minMile Higher Ed PodcastRural-Serving Institutions and Regional Colleges with Dr. Cecilia OrphanIn this episode of Mile Higher Ed, Dr. Cecilia Orphan joins Sarah and Caitlyn to talk about her work with ARRC, or the Alliance for Research on Regional Colleges. ARRC recently released its work creating a designation for rural-serving institutions of higher education (RSIs). We discuss the role RSIs play in higher education, and why more research is needed to support this sector.
You can read more about this work on ARRC’s website, www.regionalcolleges.org.
About our guest: Dr. Cecilia M. Orphan is a working class, first-generation college graduate who...2025-01-1537 minMile Higher Ed PodcastApplying Critical Race Theory to Civic Engagement with Dr. D-L StewartIn this episode of Mile Higher Ed, Dr. D-L Stewart joins Sarah and Caitlyn to talk about his new article Civic Engagement and Resisting ‘Docile Bodies’ in Postsecondary Education published in Teachers College Report. We discuss the importance of civic engagement in racially minoritized communities, why a critically-oriented curriculum is necessary in higher education, and how we must go beyond voting to increase engagement with, and participation in, our democracy.
A few of the things we talk about:
Racial Capitalism, coined by Dr. Cedric J. Robinson in his book Black Marxism: The Making of the B...2025-01-1544 minMile Higher Ed PodcastSupporting Non-Tenure-Track Faculty with Dr. Laura SponslerIn this episode of Mile Higher Ed, Dr. Laura Sponsler joins Sarah and Caitlyn to discuss issues facing non-tenure-track faculty, workload equity, and how to create more leadership roles for non-tenure-track faculty. Laura’s article “Expanding Leadership Roles for Non-Tenure-Track Faculty: What Institutional Leaders Should Consider” was recently published in Academic Leader.
About our guest: Dr. Laura Sponsler is a Clinical Associate Professor of Higher Education at the University of Denver, as well as the Resident Scholar for Teaching and Professional Faculty in the Office of the Vice Provost for Faculty Affairs. Her work broadly examine...2025-01-1518 minMile Higher Ed PodcastUnderstanding women’s leadership programs with Dr. Michele TysonIn this episode of Mile Higher Ed, Dr. Michele Tyson joins Sarah and Caitlyn to discuss the legacy of women’s colleges and women’s leadership programs in higher education. Michele recently co-authored a chapter in the newly published book Rooted and Radiant: Women’s Narratives of Leadership.
About our guest: Dr. Michele Tyson is clinical associate professor in the Higher Education program at the University of Denver and has worked in the field of higher education for 25+ years, with experience in student affairs, enrollment management, and student services. Her professional and research interests fall into two...2025-01-1529 minMile Higher Ed PodcastInterpreting Campus Sexual Assault Policies with Dr. Sarah HurtadoIn this inaugural episode of Mile Higher Ed, Caitlyn interviews our own co-host Dr. Sarah Hurtado about interpreting campus sexual assault adjudication policies, and how the language used in these policies sets the tone for the student experience relating to interpersonal violence and Title IX. Her article “Using Intersectionality to Reimagine Title IX Adjudication Policy” was recently published in a special issue of the Journal of Women and Gender and Higher Education.
About our guest: Dra. Sarah Hurtado has been with DU Higher Education since 2018. She first started in a visiting role, and loved it so much...2025-01-1525 minMile Higher Ed PodcastTrailerWelcome to Mile Higher Ed Podcast
2025-01-1501 min