March 2019
Dear Colleagues,
It seems like a thousand years ago, but when serving as UPCEA president in 2012-1013 I proposed that the association rethink its professional journal, Continuing Higher Education Review. At the time, the journal was a relatively nondescript print publication distributed only to UPCEA institutional representatives, which essentially meant to the deans or CE leaders of the roughly 350 institutions that belonged to our association at the time. Many of our members and certainly most others in our field had never seen the journal.
Over the next year or so, I worked closely with UPCEA CEO Bob Hansen to form a journal working group and re-envision the publication, which today is Unbound: Reinventing Higher Education. We moved to a professionally designed online journal that would deliver in-depth, readable, magazine-style articles and video interviews with industry leaders about professional, continuing, and online education. The design was created so, in time, a body of articles would be available to readers interested in any specific topic. Rather than restricting access to the few, we opened our door to the world, especially to all UPCEA members and others in the CE field. We formed an editorial board to assist in evaluating all article submissions and to assist in offering editorial direction. I agreed to serve as the inaugural editor and my Northwestern colleague, Peter Kaye, with a background in university publications, volunteered to serve as Associate Editor.
With this latest issue, we have now published Unbound for three years and I am preparing to hand the reins over to a new editor. I would be remiss not to give credit where credit is due and thank Peter Kaye for his excellent editorial leadership and UPCEA’s Molly Nelson whose diligence and professionalism has made our journal possible. The UPCEA members who have served on our editorial board are also unsung heroes and have earned my thanks for their many insights and contributions.
Thank you for taking the time to read Unbound and for allowing me to serve as your editor for these past few years. I am very proud of the professional journal we have created and I look forward to reading it for years to come.
Sincerely,
Editor, Unbound
Dean, School of Professional Studies
Northwestern University