UNITE 2026 Workshops and Special Meetings
UNITE is the premier summit delivering on the promise of HBCUs. Held Sunday, July 19 through Thursday, July 23 in Atlanta, Georgia, UNITE features plenary sessions, breakout sessions, workshops and special meetings organized around our five guiding pillars – Institutional Excellence, Student Success, Research & Innovation, Economic Mobility and Systems Change.
Please find below additional details on UNITE 2026 workshops and special meetings. To register for the Summit or for additional details on the program, click here.
Institutional Excellence
Characteristics of a Change Agent
Monday, July 20 (9am-3pm)
Open to UNITE Attendees
Designed for leaders from across the HBCU ecosystem, Characteristics of a Change Agent is a professional development experience designed to catalyze the skills needed for leadership on campus and beyond.
As defined by the Institute for Capacity Building, a Change Agent is charged with building community and driving transformation throughout their institution to promote institutional resiliency and exceptional student outcomes. Effective change embody six essential characteristics – they are influential, relational, visionary, flexible, knowledgeable and systematic.
During this workshop available to all UNITE attendees, participants will investigate and refine their leadership against the change agent framework. Through interactive activities and reflective exercises, participants will their assess own leadership style while developing practical tools for fostering institutional progress. This session emphasizes emotional intelligence, continuous learning, and strategic thinking as foundational elements for driving meaningful change through inclusive and data-driven leadership.
UNITE 2026 Transformation Officer Convening
Sunday, July 19 (1pm-5pm) and Monday, July 20 (9am-3pm)
Invitation Only
The HBCU Transformation Project is a collaborative initiative designed to strengthen Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) through strategic investments, innovation, and networked support to improve student outcomes and institutional sustainability. Launched in 2022, the project is led by the United Negro College Fund (UNCF), Thurgood Marshall College Fund (TMCF), and Partnership for Education Advancement (Ed Advancement), with support from Blue Meridian Partners.
Its mission is to accelerate systemic improvements at HBCUs, ensuring these institutions continue to drive social and economic mobility for Black students while addressing historic underinvestment in higher education.
During this invitation-only convening, UNCF, TMCF and Ed Advancement will bring together Transformation Officers responsible for advancing institutional change on their campuses. Galvanized by the theme Transformational Leadership: Fostering, Managing and Sustaining Change, the convening will support Transformation Officers as they seek to:
- Lead through resistance and competing priorities.
- Strengthen internal alignment and execution.
- Sustain momentum beyond the launch phase.
- Share knowledge and best practices across institutions.
This event is supported by Aramark, a UNITE 2026 sponsor.
Student Success
From Mission to Movement: Building Student Success Systems That Work
Sunday, July 19 (1pm-5pm)
Open to UNITE Attendees
Join UNITE 2026 partner Complete College America for an interactive pre-conference workshop designed to help HBCUs break down institutional silos and transform student support from fragmented services into integrated systems that drive completion. Whether you represent a public institution, faith-based college, land-grant university, or workforce-focused campus, this session will equip you with practical tools to build a unified ecosystem that moves the needle on student success.
Moving beyond high-level theory, this workshop focuses on the operational realities of higher education — the real barriers, the hard-won solutions, and the strategies you can take home and put to work. This is a working session. Come ready to engage, share your campus challenges, and build collaborative solutions with fellow HBCU leaders who understand our unique context.
HBCU Future Leaders Institute
Sunday, July 19 (10am-5pm)
Invitation Only
The HBCU Future Leaders Institute will convene a select group of HBCU students to accelerate their ability to support the transformation of their respective campuses. The Institute will expose students to higher education from a holistic, systems-level perspective and provide training that deepens their understanding of how institutions operate, evolve, and pursue transformation.
Through facilitated sessions, applied learning, and engagement with institutional leaders and practitioners, participants will examine the state of higher education and explore how student activation can serve as an additional pathway to institutional transformation. The experience will emphasize leadership development, institutional navigation, and practical insight into the conditions that enable meaningful and sustained change on HBCU campuses.
Students interested in participating in the HBCU Future Leaders Institute may indicate their interest and availability through the Institute’s interest form. Applications are due on April 30. Space is limited and participants will be selected through a review process.
Project ACCLAIM: The Institutional Path Forward
Tuesday, July 21 (10am-11am)
Open to UNITE Attendees
Project ACCLAIM is a groundbreaking initiative that provides HBCU students with a comprehensive undergraduate learning experience in investment management, equipping them with the knowledge and skills necessary to succeed in the asset management industry. Through a combination of rigorous coursework, hands-on experience, and co-curricular activities, students receive the knowledge and skills needed to manage $4 million in investments on behalf of their institution.
During this interest session, participants will learn more about the initiative and opportunities to partner with Project ACCLAIM to enhance finance and investing curricula at HBCUs, foster a strengthened community of practice among faculty, and contribute to a centralized student-managed investment pool. Facilitators will also outline what it takes to become an ACCLAIM institution, including core principles, expectations, and the pathways to activation of Project ACCLAIM on HBCU campuses.
Read more about Project ACCLAIM here.
Research & Innovation
Degrees of Freedom: HBCUs & Justice-Impacted Talent
Wednesday, July 22 (3pm-5pm)
Open to UNITE Attendees
As HBCUs continue to lead in advancing access, equity, and economic mobility, a critical question remains: who is still being left out of higher education—and how do we bring them in?
Justice-impacted individuals represent one of the nation’s most overlooked talent pipelines, with significant implications for workforce development, community stability, and long-term economic growth. With the restoration of Pell Grant eligibility for incarcerated learners, this moment offers a powerful opportunity for HBCUs to extend their legacy of access and reimagine pathways into and through higher education.
This open, drop-in session – facilitated by UNCF’s Institute for Capacity Building and Morehouse College – invites institutional leaders, funders, and partners to explore how HBCUs can engage more intentionally in postsecondary education in prison (PEP) and in reentry pathways. Through informal dialogue, resource sharing, and networking, participants will gain insight into emerging models, institutional considerations, and opportunities for collaboration across the HBCU ecosystem.
Smarter Systems, Stronger HBCUs: Leading in the Age of AI
Monday, July 20 (9am-3pm)
Open to UNITE Attendees
Artificial intelligence is rapidly transforming how HBCUs teach, operate, innovate, and compete, and HBCUs aren’t shying away from the opportunity. According to a 2025 report from Huston Tillotson University, Ellucian and UNCF, 98% of HBCU students, 96% of faculty, and 81% of administrators have used AI tools, and usage is expected to rise across nearly every category over the next two years. HBCUs are not only adopting AI but applying it in meaningful ways — from exploring workforce preparation to experimenting with new approaches to teaching and learning.
This UNITE pre-summit will convene institutional leaders and partners for forward-looking dialogue, applied case spotlights, and an interactive AI Strategy Lab focused on AI implementation across academics, operations, research, and workforce alignment. Through facilitation by UNCF’s Institute for Capacity Building and Enterprise Technology teams, participants will explore practical approaches to strengthening governance, building institutional capacity, and forming strategic partnerships to position HBCUs for success in an AI-driven future.
This event is supported by Salesforce, a UNITE 2026 sponsor.
Economic Mobility
Civic Infrastructure: Reimagining the Role of HBCUs in America’s Future
Monday, July 20 (9am-3pm)
Invitation Only
Across the United States, communities are confronting a profound challenge: the erosion of the civic infrastructure that once connected education, economic mobility, and democratic participation. Yet for more than a century, HBCUs have quietly served as some of the nation’s most powerful civic anchors—institutions that educate talent, stabilize neighborhoods, cultivate leadership, and generate opportunity across generations.
This pre-summit convening will explore a bold question: What would it look like to intentionally design HBCUs as modern civic infrastructure for the 21st century?
Bringing together presidents, board members, funders, policy leaders, and institutional innovators, the session will examine how HBCUs function as engines of regional development, talent cultivation, wealth creation, and community resilience. Participants will explore emerging models—from shared services and capital strategies to workforce partnerships and innovation ecosystems—that position HBCUs not only as colleges, but as catalysts for broader civic renewal.
Through conversation and collaborative design, the convening will surface new strategies for strengthening the institutional capacity of HBCUs while expanding their role as anchor institutions shaping the economic and social futures of their region, building the civic infrastructure America needs by investing in the institutions that have been doing this work all along.
It Takes a Campus: Building Cross Collaborative Systems for Work Integrated Learning at HBCUs
Monday, July 20 (9am-3pm)
Open to UNITE Attendees
As the value of a college degree faces increasing scrutiny, institutions are being challenged not only to provide access—but to demonstrate clear, consistent pathways from learning to opportunity. For HBCUs, this is not a new mandate but a continuation of a long-standing mission to prepare students for leadership, mobility, and impact. The question is no longer whether experiential learning matters—it is how institutions build the capacity to make it meaningful, scalable, and sustainable.
Work-Integrated Learning (WIL) is often understood as a collection of student experiences—internships, co-ops, research, or service learning. While these experiences are valuable, they are not enough on their own. Without intentional alignment with the curriculum, faculty leadership, and institutional strategy, they remain isolated opportunities rather than structured pathways.
This session will explore what it takes to move from fragmented experiences to integrated, career-connected pathways. Through facilitation by UNCF’s Institute for Capacity Building and Arizona State University’s Work Integrated Learning Accelerator, participants will examine how HBCUs can align faculty, career services, student success, and employer relationships around a shared model—one that is degree-anchored, faculty-guided, and workforce-connected, while remaining grounded in institutional mission and capacity.
Participants will leave with a clearer understanding of how to approach WIL as a system rather than a program—along with insights, examples, and strategic considerations to help build or strengthen career-connected learning pathways on their campuses.
Systems Change
Purpose, Partnership & Possibility: A Primer on the UNCF Institute for Capacity Building
Wednesday, July 22 (3pm-5pm)
Open to UNITE Attendees
Celebrating its 20th anniversary at the UNITE 2026 Summit, UNCF’s Institute for Capacity Building strengthens organizational capacities across higher education. Through this interactive workshop, participants will establish a foundational awareness of ICB as a trusted strategic partner in institutional transformation.
Participant will:
- Build awareness of UNCF’s Institute for Capacity Building (ICB) and its role in strengthening institutional capacity and student success.
- Articulate the purpose, mission, and value proposition of ICB, grounding the work in equity, sustainability, and long-term institutional transformation.
- Shift institutional narratives from deficit-based framing to asset-based transformation, emphasizing possibility, resilience, and growth.
- Secure leadership buy-in and trust by clarifying how ICB partners with institutions—not as a compliance function, but as a strategic ally.
- Strengthen institutional engagement and readiness for deeper collaboration across ICB strategies and programs.
Risk, Resilience, and Reform: Navigating Post-Secondary Leadership as Women of Color
Wednesday, July 22 (3pm-5pm)
Open to UNITE Attendees
Women of color leading across post-secondary education are navigating unprecedented pressures and risks — this working session creates an intentional space to speak honestly about those realities.
Through facilitated dialogue and peer exchange by Complete College America, Teamer Strategy Group and UNCF’s Institute for Capacity Building, participants will identify concrete strategies for building resilience without sacrificing identity, values, or integrity. Participants will leave with actionable tools for maintaining balance and centeredness, and a network of peers committed to sustaining one another through the work.
UNITE the Diaspora: Connecting HBCUs to Global Possibilities
Sunday, July 19 (1pm-5pm)
Open to UNITE Attendees
As higher education becomes increasingly global, partnerships are no longer optional—they are the infrastructure for scale, innovation, and long-term impact. Yet for HBCUs and institutions across the African diaspora, this work is not just about global expansion—it is about reconnection. It is about activating the African diaspora’s full potential through education, shared knowledge, and collective advancement.
Across continents, institutions—and the communities they serve—are reimagining how to connect to expand access, strengthen capacity, and prepare students to lead in a rapidly evolving world. At the same time, persistent barriers to mobility, financing, and institutional alignment continue to constrain what is possible.
UNITE the Diaspora convenes leaders, innovators, and institutional partners to explore the next frontier of cross-continental collaboration—focused on building more intentional, reciprocal, and sustainable connections across the African diaspora. From student mobility and financing to joint curriculum design, shared services, and research collaboration, this experience will examine what it takes to move beyond transactional partnerships toward ecosystem-level impact.
Participants will leave with deeper insight, stronger cross-continental connections, and a clearer sense of how to advance partnerships that are not only global in scope but also rooted in shared purpose, mutual benefit, and long-term transformation.
