HEUG the Mic

Host Alex Green sat down with Casey Hickman, HEUG Marketing Manager and the producer behind HEUG the Mic, for her first time on this side of the mic. Answering a listener voicemail about the Alliance Scholarship Program, Casey shares how the program got started, who it’s for, and what it takes to apply. She also talks through other ways members can win a trip to Alliance and shares stories from past winners.

Stick around to the end for the big reveal. Tune in to hear who’s headed to San Antonio as the 2027 US and global scholarship winners!

Have a question for Ask The Show? Leave us a voicemail or send your question below. Your voice might be our next episode.

Connect with Casey: LinkedIn | HEUG Profile

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Host Alex Green sat down with Ashley Gonzalez, HEUG’s Senior Meeting Coordinator, to answer a listener voicemail about starting your career today. Ashley shares:

🎓 How finishing college remotely prepared her for a remote career
💻 Why hands-on learning beats any tutorial when picking up new technology
💃 The Alliance moments when everything clicked

Whether you’re early in your career or mentoring someone who is, connect with peers in the HEUG Young Professionals Network.

Have a question for Ask The Show? Leave us a voicemail or send your question below. Your voice might be our next episode.

October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month. Early detection saves lives. Learn more at breastcancer.org.

Connect with Ashley on HEUG | Connect with Ashley on LinkedIn | Join the Young Professionals Network | Learn more at breastcancer.org

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Host Alex Green sat down with Hillary Chambers, HEUG's Manager of Global Meetings and Events, to answer a listener voicemail about how Alliance really comes together. Hillary pulls back the curtain on the years of planning behind every conference, including:

📍 How host cities are chosen and why we rotate between the coasts and the middle of the country
 📅 Why venues are booked about five years out and why Alliance always lands in March
 🔥 The infamous Phoenix show office fire, plus a sneak peek at celebration night in San Antonio

Whether you're a longtime Alliance attendee or planning your first trip to San Antonio, this episode offers a new appreciation for everything that happens before the doors ever open.

Have a question for Ask The Show? Leave us a voicemail or send your question below. Your voice might be our next episode.

Connect with Hillary on HEUG | Connect with Hillary on LinkedIn | Alliance 2027 in San Antonio | Meet WhooBot, HEUG's AI Assistant

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Host, Alex Green welcomes Tesha Vera, HEUG's Sr. Education & Program Manager, to reflect on nearly five years of unforgettable moments, meaningful connections, and the people who make HEUG what it is. From their first Alliance conference in Seattle to Beignets in New Orleans and planning ahead for San Antonio, Alex and Tesha dive into the relationships, community members, and creative moments that remind us why we love this organization. Whether it's HEUG Happy Hour, volunteer leaders, board members, or the everyday acts of kindness that ripple through our community, it all comes down to people.

This is the second episode of our Ask the Show season. Keep submitting your questions and voicemails by hitting the button below for a chance to be featured in upcoming episodes!

Explore past Alliance conferences | Looking ahead to Alliance 2027 in San Antonio

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Host Alex Green sat down with Tom Chambers, HEUG's Director of Community and Development, to answer a question from HEUG member Patrick Beatty (Michigan State University) about HEUG's first ever SIS Modernization Report. In this premiere episode of our new Ask the Show format, Tom breaks down the surprising findings from our peer driven research: why institutions feel caught between legacy systems and modern solutions, what student experience really means to your campus, and what the data reveals about the future of higher ed technology.

Tom also shares what HEUG learned from surveying over 130 institutions and hints at what's coming next in this ongoing annual check on the pulse of student information systems. He didn't give it all away, but watch for more reports in the future.

Download the SIS Modernization Report Today

The report is available to everyone. No membership required.

Have a question for our Ask The Show season? Leave us a voicemail or send your question below. Your voice might just be featured in our next episode.

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HEUG the Mic continues its LIVE coverage from Alliance 2026 in March, bringing the HEUG community face-to-face with the leaders shaping our future.

In this episode, host 🎙️ Alex Green sits down with Ernesto Crucet from Florida International University, YPN Council Storytelling Lead, to dive deep into the Young Professionals Network and what it means to build community in Higher Ed technology.

Together, they explore:
- What drew Ernesto to lead YPN after 20 years in higher ed
- Breaking through imposter syndrome and finding your voice
- Why in-person connections move the needle (Alliance 2026 speed networking)
- The dream event: matching mentors & mentees by passion and curiosity
- Lessons from olive farming, rare corals, and growing people
- Why YPN is the safe space to ask questions, fail forward, and thrive

This episode is all about how we build each other up in Higher Ed tech — and how YPN creates that launchpad for everyone, regardless of where you are in your career.

👉 Ready to join? Explore the YPN Community

📚 Check out YPN Blogs

📅 Join us September 16 for This & Yap

🎬 Check out the video version on our HEUG the Mic YouTube channel! 

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Host Alex Green sits down with Rupal Shah, Chief Business Officer at HighPoint and 25-year higher ed tech veteran. From Accenture and Oracle to co-founding multiple EdTech startups, Rupal has seen it all—and he's got the pattern recognition to prove it.

They explore the real state of higher education today: system fatigue, budget constraints, enrollment cliffs, and the arrival of AI. Rupal frames this moment as a "golden opportunity" for institutions to focus on modernization and what matters most. His key message to HEUG members: fight the hype, trust your instincts, and recognize the value already in your systems.

Learn more: Find Rupal on LinkedIn and explore HighPoint at highpoint.io

SIS Modernization Matters: Because modernization is critical to this conversation, see what HEUG is doing with the 2026 SIS Modernization Report

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Host Alex Green sat down with Jasmine Solomon, Senior Associate Director of Systems Operations at New York University, where she leads the systems supporting more than 150,000 applicants each year. Jasmine also founded the Slate AI User Group and helps shape national conversations around AI literacy and responsible adoption in higher education.

A new AI feature or upgrade lands in your inbox at least once a month, and plenty of it is snake oil. This episode skips the hype and gets practical. Jasmine shares how she decides which announcements deserve her attention, the red flag that separates fluff from substance, and why she favors purpose built tools that plug into the tech stack she already runs.

Listeners will walk away with:

• A simple test for evaluating new AI features before they reach your team
• The eager intern mindset for getting past AI that just agrees with you
• A fresh chat technique that gets AI to pick apart its own output
• The AI skills every higher education professional should build now

Want to connect with Jasmine? Find her on LinkedIn and on her HEUG member profile.

Have an AI question or a hot take? Leave a voicemail for next season's Ask the Show segment, or keep the conversation going in the HEUG AI Innovators Network.

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Host Alex Green sat down with Brittany Moon, Executive Director of HEUG, for a conversation about the person behind the title. Brittany leads a community that reaches more than a thousand institutions across 49 countries, and she does it all from her home in Arizona, a place she once believed she would have to leave in order to grow.

In this episode, Brittany opens up about parenthood, ambition, and what it really means to show up when you feel pulled in a hundred directions. She shares how motherhood reshaped her definition of success, the honest reality behind work life balance, the trip that taught her she could be heartbroken and still do the job, and why your kids don't need perfect, they just need you.

Whether you are a working parent, an aspiring leader, or simply navigating a busy season of life, you will likely see a little of yourself in this one.

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Host Alex Green sat down with Sathish Sundaramoorthy, ERP Analyst at Florida State University and chair of HEUG's Connected Campus Community of Practice, for this professional development season's deep dive into AI. Sathish has been working with AI since 2018, long before it went mainstream, and now blends that expertise with his PeopleSoft background to build automation solutions at FSU. He and Alex swap real world AI use cases, from coding and meeting summaries to bedtime storybooks Sathish creates for his daughter, and he closes with simple advice: don't wait for the perfect strategy, just start small.

Connect with Sathish on LinkedIn or check out his HEUG profile.

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