Western Academic Leadership Academy

Kay Hulstrom

Associate Director of Operations and Leadership Initiatives, Programs and Services

303.541.0294khulstrom@wiche.edu

Kay Hulstrom serves as WICHE’s associate director of operations and academic leadership initiatives. She works on a variety of projects including Interstate Passport®, the Western Academic Leadership Forum, and the Western Alliance of Community College Academic Leaders. The latter two are membership organizations for the chief academic officers of WICHE-region two and four-year institutions and system offices. She holds a B.S. in finance from Colorado State University.

Sarah Leibrandt

Director of Strategy, Impact, and Academic Partnerships

303.541.0221sleibrandt@wiche.edu

Sarah Leibrandt, Ph.D., is the director of strategy, impact, and academic partnerships at the Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education and has over 15 years of experience working in secondary and postsecondary education. Since joining WICHE in 2013, Leibrandt has led several initiatives including WICHE’s Recognizing Learning in the 21^st Century, a large-scale research study and landscape analysis of the scaling of prior learning assessment policies and practices. Sarah has also helped state agencies share education and workforce data with each other through the Multistate Longitudinal Data Exchange as a way to provide better information to students and their families while also improving education, workforce, and economic development policy. Prior to joining WICHE, Leibrandt worked for the Colorado Department of Education and Red Rocks Community College. Leibrandt earned a B.A. in Spanish from Wellesley College and a Ph.D. in Education Policy from the University of Colorado Boulder.

Laura Woodworth-Ney

Academy Program and Mentoring Coordinator

Laura Woodworth-Ney, Ph.D., joined AGB Search in 2022. Prior to joining the firm, she served as senior consultant for an executive search firm in the higher education and non-profit sectors.  Woodworth-Ney has more than thirty years of experience in higher education as a tenured full professor, academic historian and administrator. With over a decade in the provost’s office at Idaho State University, she was the first female executive vice president and provost. Other administrative roles included vice president and associate vice president for academic affairs, and department chair and director of women’s studies. She has also taught at the University of North Texas, Maryville University in St. Louis, and Washington State University. A staunch advocate for equity and accessibility, Woodworth-Ney helped pioneer initiatives that significantly expanded the application and retention rates of Idaho’s public institutions and was honored with the 2021 President’s Medallion Award from Idaho State University.  Woodworth-Ney has served on the Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education’s Western Academic Leadership Forum executive committee and as a board member of the American Association of Chief Academic Officers. An expert on the history of the North American West, Woodworth-Ney is the author of three books. She holds a Ph.D. and M.A. in History from Washington State University and a B.A. in English from the University of Idaho.