Hinds Community College in Raymond Mississippi was the site of the 2008 Annual Conference of the Academy of Process Educators. Held July 16-18 at the picturesque Eagle Ridge Conference Center, the conference featured an impressive hall of teaching innovations, engaging plenary speakers, informative workshops, a bus tour of Vicksburg and surrounding battlefields, and a delightful southern meal at the Walnut Hills Restaurant. Participants from two dozen higher education institutions joined in sharing of best practices, networking with other process educators, and planning future activities of the Academy.

The theme for the 2008 conference was Striving for Quality: Aligning and Implementing Continuous Improvement in Higher Education. Dr. Daniel Apple facilitated the initial keynote session by using an interview format to discuss the five principles of politicking in higher education with Dr. Clyde Muse, president of Hinds Community College. Dr. Muse identified the five principles of politicking as connecting with your values, knowing your facts, creating a thoughtful plan, modifying the plan with stakeholder input, and patiently facilitating decision-making. He gave examples to illustrate how he involved stakeholders at various levels in the Mississippi community college system who stand to be impacted by new projects or fiscal changes. It is essential to listen carefully, to respect opinions, to have a plan, to exercise leadership at key junctures, and, very importantly, to "get there first."

Dr. Steven Spangehl, director of the Academic Quality Improvement Program (AQIP) of the Higher Learning Commission, focused, in his keynote presentation, on the importance of the conference theme of implementing good processes to produce good results. He described how accrediting organizations have shifted focus from measuring inputs (e.g., financial and facility resources, SAT/ACT scores of entering students, and headcounts) to measuring outputs (e.g., student success, graduation rates, community engagement, and regional economic development). Dr. Spangehl stressed that processes need to be designed and good designs should make processes consistent, effective, and proactive rather than reactive.

Dr. Eric Clark, Executive Director of the Mississippi Board of Community and Junior Colleges, outlined, in his keynote, how the state has been able to close the gap in earnings differentials with the rest of the country over the last thirty years. This has been accomplished, in large part, by focusing on educational needs of the citizens and gathering outcome data about value-added changes in income and other measurable outcomes that justify the financial investments in education. Dr. Clark described how leveraging the significant potential of students from diverse backgrounds who need and want more education, and by building collaborations with many new industries and manufacturing complexes, the state has accomplished many win-win improvements for its citizens.

Lt. General Russel Honoré, who played a significant role in managing the post-Katrina rescue and clean-up efforts in New Orleans, reminded everyone how much we need to "restack our values deck" in order to proactively prepare citizens for their roles in a sustainable economy, including readiness and skills to deal effectively with natural , as well as social, disasters that should be expected in the coming decades. General Honoré repeatedly recognized the key role that educators and the education system have in making the future better for everyone.

The core of the conference was parallel workshop sessions that featured best practices and action research in curriculum design, facilitation, assessment, and faculty development. These included new methodologies, tools, and resources that will enrich the next edition of the Faculty Guidebook and the inaugural issue of the International Journal of Process Education. Wisdom gained over many years of experience with process education, as well as insights produced through conference interaction with those new to process education, were inventoried in a final plenary facilitated by Dr. Daniel Apple and Dr. Betty Lawrence. Participants were excited to see many of these principles and teaching/learning methods already documented in on-line resources available at www.pcrest.com/LO.