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!nspireU Professional Development

!nspireU Professional Development Program

!nspireU provides funding for both full-time and part-time staff to attend conferences, workshops, and webinars to strengthen core competencies, boost employee engagement, and increase retention by aligning staff development with Sinclair’s core values and strategic drivers. !nspireU ensures that all employees have access to the resources they need to grow professionally and contribute meaningfully to our college community.

Career Seminars and Mini-Sabbaticals

FUNDING ASSISTANCE APPLICATION LINK


!nspireU Annual Professional Development Day

This event - presented in collaboration with The Center for Teaching & Learning - is a cornerstone of the !nspireU Professional Development Program, with a focus on the training and development of non-faculty staff. It is a half-day program celebrating the progress we’ve made together, building connections across departments, sharing stories of resilience, innovation, and success, and recognizing the hard work and dedication of our colleagues.

2025 !nspireU

Session 1
How AI Can Enhance Student Support Business Operations
Featured Speaker: Kevin Hallinan, University of Dayton Professor of Mechanical Aerospace Engineering

An early adopter of AI technology, Kevin is passionate about the many ways that these new tools will positively impact how student support and business operations offices serve our students. Leveraging input from interviews with personnel from Sinclair’s Academic Advising, Career Development and Tutoring Learning Center, Kevin will take us beyond the basic prompts of ChatGPT learned at this event in 2024 and also provide real world applications.

Session 2
Leadership at All Levels
Featured Speaker: Fran Kick, Instruction & Design Concepts, www.kickitin.com 
Watch the ABC Game in Panopto

Fran uses an innovative approach to engagement that will inspire us to think about leadership in a fresh way; see things differently to better solve problems, collaboratively create solutions, and engage more people in the process of making things happen.


2024 !nspireU

Session 1
Ohio Ethics Law 101 (watch this session in Panopto)
Featured Speaker: Susan Willeke, Training and Communications Manager, Ohio Ethics Commission 

Did you know you can’t accept free lunch from a vendor—even if it’s your favorite tacos—without risking an ethics violation? This dynamic speaker from the Ohio Ethics Commission will present an “Ethics 101” session to help us make sense of financial disclosure, conflicts of interest, and all those “things of value” with humor, clarity, and real-life higher ed examples. Who knew legal compliance could be this engaging?

Session 2
Artificial Intelligence 101 (watch this session in Panopto)
Featured Speaker: Christi Amato, Dean of eLearning

This hands-on session will introduce employees to ChatGPT, and lay the groundwork for how to use AI in our every day work. From creating an account to how to create a useful prompt, staff will be encouraged to experiment and collaborate in an exploration of the potential uses of AI to make processes more efficient.