By Amy Goodburn, Senior Associate Vice Chancellor & Dean, Undergraduate Education, Professor of English, University of Nebraska-Lincoln

As the Senior Associate Vice Chancellor and Dean of Undergraduate Education at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln (UNL), my work centers on creating a campus culture that enables all undergraduates to thrive and earn their degrees. Over the past decade, my engagement with the Promoting At-Promise Student Success (PASS) research–practitioner partnership has been instrumental in advancing this mission. The PASS partnership has provided collaborative thought leadership and sustained space for learning that informs how I approach institutional culture change work at UNL.

I have been involved with the PASS research since its inception because I oversee the Director and Faculty Coordinator of UNL’s learning community and comprehensive transition program that was a focus of the first phase of the PASS study.  I oversee 12 units that span the areas of Advising and Career Readiness, Teaching and Learning, and Student Support and I coordinate several councils designed to identify and address systemic barriers to student success.

From Research Recipient to Collaborative Partner
Initially my role involved learning from and responding to the PASS research. I met regularly with the PASS research team, participated in interviews, and engaged with emerging findings during retreats for staff and annual convenings where research results were shared with Nebraska’s higher education leaders. These early engagements helped me to translate research and theory into practice and deepened my understanding of how institutional practices shape students’ experiences. Based on these experiences, I was invited to co-facilitate a PASS Professional Learning Community (PLC) in the second phase of the PASS project.

The PASS PLC as an Incubator for Change
Between 2019 and 2022, the PASS PLC brought together faculty and staff from 12 UNL units to engage with the PASS research and explore how its core ideas — particularly ecological validation — could inform local university practice. Zoë Corwin, a PASS researcher and PI, attended all meetings and collaborated with me and the other campus co-facilitator to develop the PLC curriculum and to reflect on what we were learning about institutional change.

The PLC faculty and staff convened monthly to learn in community, adapt research to local contexts, and test changes within our own spheres of influence. Our vision was to create a validating university culture that builds upon students’ backgrounds, strengths, and assets to support degree completion. We identified four strategies for this work: reviewing campus language and messaging, tailoring and sharing research, developing tools to assess change, and using assessment data to adjust our approaches to work.

The PLC created rare cross‑functional relationships that made collaboration more effective and student support more seamless. In addition to PLC participants’ individual projects, the PLC became an incubator for ideas that extended beyond the group. PLC recommendations were shared with existing university councils, helping align broader institutional efforts around a common framework.

The PLC participants chose to lead a campus‑wide forum to share PASS research and build the cross‑unit relationships they had found so impactful in their own work. This forum engaged 100+ participants. Five additional forums have engaged over 500 faculty and staff from 106 campus units.  

An example of broader institutional impact emerged when faculty shared confusion about how to connect students to appropriate university support services. In response, the PLC developed a concise referral guide, distributed as flyers and magnets to more than 3,500 faculty and staff. This guide addressed a clear barrier and was directly shaped by insights generated through the PASS research–practice partnership. The PLC’s work was also used for UNL’s Quality Initiative for the Higher Learning Commission, documenting how PASS research was applied across campus.

Why Research–Practitioner Partnerships Matter
Effective research–practitioner partnerships require shared decision‑making, reciprocity, and long‑term commitment. Our PASS partnership exemplified these elements. The research team consistently invited me into dissemination and sense‑making efforts—as a conference presenter, webinar participant, and co‑author of scholarly and practitioner‑oriented publications. The PASS team also prioritized accessible outputs — briefs, videos, and tools — that could be readily used by UNL stakeholders.

Although the partnership has formally concluded, the PASS research-practitioner partnership continues to inform my work —especially in developing structures for coordinated and proactive student support. Initiatives such as our student success chatbot, cross‑unit outreach protocols, and the work of ongoing councils all reflect insights gained through the PASS partnership.  

I am deeply grateful for the opportunities to learn from and alongside PASS researchers and fellow practitioners. This experience has made me a more intentional and strategic academic leader, and I believe it offers a compelling model for collaborative, action‑oriented research — research that not only advances knowledge, but which actively sponsors culture change to better support students’ success.