MET Makes Conversation

Today, incidents of mass violence can seemingly come about anywhere—which is why so many organizations are taking concrete steps to invest in behavioral threat assessment, a tool specialists use to detect and manage threats before they happen. Now, those specialists are leveraging artificial intelligence to analyze large sets of complex data, so that they can decide what potential threats bear further inspection by human eyes.

Join BU Metropolitan College Assistant Professor Shea Cronin; Visiting Associate Professor James Silver, who teaches and conducts research on threat assessment approaches; and Mark Concordia, enterprise director of behavioral intervention and support, and executive director of workplace violence prevention at Advocate Health, for an expansive discussion about behavioral threat assessment, assessing and analyzing digital footprints, methods of forestalling acts of violence, the elements of the field unique to healthcare, and the future of threat evaluation.

How is the project manager’s role on a construction sitesimilar to that of an orchestra leader? What role will emerging technology like AI play in the evolving landscape of construction management? And how is the field adjusting to challenging dynamics like skilled labor shortages, changes in workforce expectations, equipment volatility, increased lead time, andthe impact of tariffs?

To learn the answers to these questions, join BostonUniversity Metropolitan College (BU MET) Administrative Sciences Master Lecturer Richard Maltzman, BU MET Administrative Sciences Visiting Professor of the Practice Dr. Anil Sawhney, and BU Associate Vice President of Planning,Design & Construction Michelle Maheu for an in-depth conversation about the future of project and construction management, the unique role higher educationcan play in the industry, and more.

In recent years, the arts sector has endured the COVID-19pandemic, the rise of generative AI, and evolving audience behaviors and marketing needs. Yet, these challenges have also served as a catalyst for much-needed change, exposing stubbornly entrenched practices and unsustainablebusiness models. To survive, arts organizations found innovative ways to engage with their audiences, embraced technology and social media, and re-examined theimportance of effective arts management and new entrepreneurial initiatives. So, what is next?

Join Doug DeNatale, director of Arts Administration programsat Boston University, and Michael J. Bobbit, executive director of the MassCultural Council, for an eye-opening discussion on the future of the arts, and how to ensure resilient arts organizations in an era of rapid transformation.

Biographies:

 Michael J. Bobbitt

Executive Director, Mass Cultural Council

A distinguished theater artist, Michael J. Bobbit is thehighest-ranking public official in Massachusetts state government focused on arts and culture. Since 2021, he has led the Mass Cultural Council through several initiatives, including the development of its first Racial Equity Plan,d/Deaf & Disability Equity and Access Plan, and Native American & Indigenous Equity Plan; the launch of the nation’s first statewide Social Prescribing Initiative; the securing and distribution of $60.1 million in pandemic relief funding; and the design and implementation of a strategic planfor fiscal years 2024–2026. Recently, Bobbit was listed as one of the Boston Business Journal’s Power 50 Movement Makers. He has been appointed by Governor Maura Healey to serve on both the Governor’s Advisory Council on BlackEmpowerment and the newly established Massachusetts Cultural Policy Development Advisory Council, and he recently received an honorary Doctor of Fine Arts, honoris causa from Dean College. He is a proud alumnus of the University of Massachusetts Amherst.

Douglas DeNatale

Associate Professor of the Practice

Director, Arts Administration

Dr. DeNatale earned his PhD in folklore and folklife fromthe University of Pennsylvania in 1985. Prior to joining the Metropolitan College faculty, he was the president of Community Logic, Inc., an arts consulting firm specializing in research and documentation. He previously served as director of research for the New England Foundation for the Arts(NEFA), where he played an instrumental role in forecasting the emerging creative economy and in developing the web-based research database CultureCount. Formerly, DeNatale was director of the Lowell Folklife Project at the Libraryof Congress and director of the oral history and folklife program and collections at the University of South Carolina’s McKissick Museum. He has overseen collaborative arts research projects for the Ford Foundation, theRockefeller Foundation, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, and the Library of Congress. He conducted oral histories for the Lowell National Historic Park, the Southern Oral History Program, and the J. Alden Weir National HistoricSite, and curated exhibitions for the McKissick Museum and the Smithsonian Institution Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage.

Communication skills, the ability to build relationships, positivity, and even a good sense of humor are qualities that recruiters are looking for when hiring project managers. In this episode of MET Makes Conversation, Metropolitan College project management lecturer Richard Maltzman and student Farrah Aversano discuss the rising emphasis on these “power” skills, as projects become more complex and automation simplifies planning and scheduling processes.

Few consider the complex functions and operations of a supply chain—until it’s interrupted, and goods and services are delayed. That is the inspiration for this discussion with subject experts Canan Gunes Corlu, BU MET supply chain management professor and program coordinator, and Barry Lynn, president and founder of Supply Chain 411 Corp and member of the MET Supply Chain Management Advisory Board.

In this installment, BU MET Criminal Justice professors Mary Ellen Mastrorilli, Shea Cronin, and Danielle Rousseau examine institutional and organizational reform efforts and offer solutions to the practical challenges they face.