HOW TO LEAVE
Learn to make thoughtful transitions when you're leaving something behind.
FOUR HOURS.
SIX SPEAKERS.
SIX SPEAKERS.
Clarity about how to make your next transition
your most powerful one.
your most powerful one.
Making transitions that work for you.
We rarely pay attention to the thing we're leaving behind.
This year's IMPACT fills that gap by helping you focus on making an exit that serves you.
Whether you're changing roles, moving institutions, or shifting your identity, IMPACT 2026 gives you the tools, strategies, and clarity that will guide you through your next transition.
Leave with tools, insights, and a guide for your path.
At IMPACT 2026, you’ll:
- Learn to connect your core values to the transitions you make
- See options for understanding yourself—and presenting yourself to others—in ways that serve you, even during moments of change
- Build trust in yourself as you consider what's important to you as you cross thresholds
Our workshops give you the methods, resources, and connections you need to move forward:
Leave Toward Something
with Jen Polk
Your Online Presence at Times of Transition
with Jennifer
Van Alstyne
Van Alstyne
What Would You Do If You Knew You Couldn't Fail?
with Stephanie Cawthon
Keeping Purpose in Transitions
with Julio Rivera
That's Not Me Anymore
with Rebecca Pope- Ruark
How To Navigate The Messy Middle
with Jennifer Askey
Our workshops give you the methods, resources, and connections you need to move forward:
Leave Toward Something
with Jen Polk
Your Online Presence at Times of Transition
with Jennifer
Van Alstyne
Van Alstyne
What Would You Do If You Knew You Couldn't Fail?
with Stephanie Cawthon
Keeping Purpose in Transitions
with Julio Rivera
That's Not Me Anymore
with Rebecca Pope- Ruark
How To Navigate The Messy Middle
with Jennifer Askey
Leave Toward Something
with Jen Polk
Time: TBD (central)
Workshop Description
- Identify contributions that may not appear on a CV
- Articulate the impact of their work in concrete terms
- Clarify what they want to carry forward into their next chapter
About the speaker
Jennifer Polk, PhD, is a career coach, educator, and recognized expert in PhD careers. She regularly facilitates professional development workshops and delivers keynote presentations at institutions across the US, Canada, and internationally. Jen created her PhD Career Clarity Program to help PhDs navigate their career paths with confidence.
Jen’s writing is published in University Affairs, Inside Higher Ed, the Chronicle of Higher Education, the Globe and Mail, Academic Matters, and in three books. More recently, she was an expert panelist for the 2021 Canadian Council of Academies report, Degrees of Success, on the challenges PhDs face transitioning to employment. Jen served on the board of directors for the Canadian Association for Graduate Studies, and was part of the management committee for a multi-year transborder project about PhD career paths. She earned her PhD in history from the University of Toronto. Find Jen online at From PhD to Life.
Your Online Presence at Times of Transition
with Jennifer Van Alstyne
Time: TBD (central)
Workshop Description
We tend to notice these more at points of change or transition.
This session is about being intentional in sharing your story and what you care about. You are worth intentionality when it comes to your online presence. You have the capacity to explore new avenues of expression (even if you don’t know how to do it now). This is a practical session of storytelling and mindset shifts that helps you prioritize your next steps with a take-home worksheet.
About the speaker
She helps academics share their teaching, research, and leadership online. She offers bespoke services including done-for-you bio writing, social media training and strategy, and personal academic website design.
Jennifer received her MFA from Naropa University in Writing and Poetics where she was the Jack Kerouac Fellow. She has an MA from University of Louisiana at Lafayette in Literature and Cultural Studies where she was a fellow. She received her BA in English from Monmouth University.
What Would You Do If You Couldn't Fail?
with Stephanie Cawthon
Time: TBD (central)
Workshop Description
This workshop will provide insight and strategies not only on how to transition confidently from one role to the next, but how to remove the fear factor, the FOMO, and the second-guessing that detracts from the joy, peace, and focus you deserve.
About the speaker
Dr. Stephanie W. Cawthon is on a mission to translate research into practices that help millions of deaf and disabled Americans like her succeed — at schools and colleges, at work or training programs, and most importantly at life.
Internationally renowned in her fields, Stephanie is a professor, academic leader, and mentor at The University of Texas at Austin in the Department of Educational Psychology, with a courtesy appointment in Special Education. She is the founder and executive director of the National Disability Center for Student Success.
Deaf and disabled herself, Stephanie has blazed trails that would be a surprise to her sixth-grade teacher, who told her “you’ll never get past algebra.” She has Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Psychology from Stanford University, and she received her doctorate in Educational Psychology from the University of Wisconsin at Madison in 2002. Learn more about her journey as a deaf academic in her profile in The Mind Hears.
Stephanie lives in Austin, Texas, surrounded by hilly vistas and delicious BBQ joints.
Keeping Purpose in Transition
with Julio Rivera, PhD
Time: TBD (central)
Workshop Description
The everyday drivers in your life—what consistently pulls you forward, what you return to, what feels meaningful—are expressions of purpose. When you recognize those drivers, they ground you and connect you to your past work and activities, even as you step into something new or something that might seem “out of place” or “out of character.”
Whether you recognize it or not, purpose can serve as a beacon—steady, persistent, and clarifying—as you leave one role and set out for the next opportunity. Participants will engage in a brief reflective exercise designed to help identify the core ideas that drive them and to begin articulating how those ideas carry across transitions.
About the speaker
A Fulbright Scholar to Iceland in 2024, he is Professor Emeritus of Management, Marketing, and Geospatial Science and served as Provost at Carthage College. He was the President of the Council on Undergraduate Research where he worked to promote student-centered learning and global engagement.
That's Not Me Anymore: When Your Identity Shifts But Your Work Stays The Same
with Rebecca Pope-Ruark
Time: TBD (central)
Workshop Description
In this interactive session, Rebecca Pope-Ruark, PhD, author of Unraveling Faculty Burnout (Johns Hopkins, 2022), shares how we can recognize these shifts in our professional identities, assess our values and needs in these new realities, and leave behind what no longer serves our purpose.
Participants will walk away with a better sense of who they are now and what they need to thrive in a workplace.
About the speaker
She is also the host of the agile academic, a podcast for women in higher education, now in its 5th season. Rebecca coaches around the topics of faculty burnout, career development, compassionate leadership, and the day-to-day challenges and opportunities of being a faculty member or leader.
How to Navigate the Messy Middle
with Jennifer Askey
Time: TBD (central)
Workshop Description
Between the comfort of the known and the rosy vision of the future lies the uncertainty and fear of the messy middle.
You've outgrown. your current situation—whether research agenda, role, or career—but you haven't yet landed in the magical future state where everything feels settled and great. Meanwhile, things feel difficult: less certainty, fewer accolades, more questions.
In this session Jennifer Askey introduces a framework for thinking through the stages of career and personal transitions, moving from your comfort zone through fear or uncertainty...into a different future.
Working with the realities of academic jobs, participants will have the opportunity to workshop individual strategies for various career transitions and pivots, from pivoting research agendas to wholesale career reinvention, and focus on where to develop skills for visioning, ownership communication, and small wins. Participants will leave with their own touch-points for navigating their personal messy middles.
About the speaker
Jennifer lived the academic journey before transforming my work to help higher education leaders, faculty, and staff build opportunities to become masters of themselves and their careers.
Jennifer believes self-actualization starts with reconnecting to our most important things. Growing our full potential begins with our values and how we align our actions with those beliefs. We are here to make sense of ourselves, each other, and the world so we can all find fulfillment and joy in our lives.
This belief guides Jennifer's commitment to providing intentional coaching and facilitation for academic leaders and staff to help them navigate their higher education journeys to be more impactful, joyful, and aligned with their deepest missions.
IT'S 2026
Time to shift from intention to IMPACT
Time to shift from intention to IMPACT
MINI-CONFERENCE DETAILS
Location: Zoom
Time: 11:30 - 3:30PM (central)
Price: $49
Perks:
six months of access to workshop recordings,
plus worksheets and resources from the workshop leaders)
Registration Deadline: Tuesday March 3 at 8 PM (central)
IMPACT 2026
is for you if...
Got questions?
We've got answers.
We've got answers.
Anyone making an important transition.
Whether you're leaving your current job, leaving an institution, or leaving higher ed entirely, you're making an exit—and that's important.
The mini-conference lasts four hours.
You might be able to spend the whole time with us, learning in real time from our presenters.
Even if you can only attend some of the event live, you'll have access to the recordings for six months.
Yes! You’ll have access to those for six months after Impact 2026 ends.
Please pay by credit card.
If you are a grad student or adjunct and don’t have access to professional development funds, email Carole about a discounted rate.
Our presenters have deep experience inside higher ed and have navigated many kinds of transitions.
Founded by Dr. Carole Chabries, Third Rail Leadership creates spaces where exceptional teachers lead, coach, and inspire high achievers ready for their next chapter.
Get over your good intentions already.
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IMPACT 2026
Get over your good intentions already.
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