Meet the Speakers

Welcome to our conference speaker lineup, where expertise meets innovation and inspiration ignites change!

UT San Antonio is thrilled to introduce an exceptional group of thought leaders, educators, and visionaries who will guide us through the dynamic landscape of teaching, learning, and higher education technology. Each speaker brings a unique perspective, a wealth of knowledge, and a passion for student success. Join us as we explore cutting-edge ideas, engage in meaningful discussions, and embark on a journey of transformation together in the era of Generative AI. Click here to view the full schedule.

Keynote & Workshop

Andrew Hines

Dr. Andy Hines is Associate Professor and Program Coordinator for the University of Houston’s Graduate Program in Foresight and is also speaking, workshopping, and consulting through his firm Hinesight. His 30+ years of professional futurist experience includes a decade’s experience working inside first the Kellogg Company and later Dow Chemical, and consulting work with Coates & Jarratt, Inc. and Social Technologies/Innovaro. His books include The Knowledge Base of Futures Studies 2020, Thinking about the Future (2nd edition), Teaching about the Future, ConsumerShift: How Changing Values Are Reshaping the Consumer Landscape, 2025: Science and Technology Reshapes US and Global Society, and his dissertation was “The Role of an Organizational Futurist in Integrating Foresight into Organizations.” His next book slated for the fall is Imagining After Capitalism. He is a member and was Founding Chair of the Association of Professional Futurists. Connect with Dr. Hines on his website.

Keynote title: Getting Ahead of the Futures

Too many times organizations find themselves in the whack-a-mole approach to the future – constantly reacting to the various crises of the day. Foresight and futurist thinking provides a better way. This session will share tips, tools, and techniques that futurists use for getting ahead of the future. Taking the approach results in shift from reactive to proactive mode changes the game – instead of being worried about the future, it is seen as a source of opportunity.  

Workshop title: Future of AI Strategic Questions Workshop

This hands-on session will give participants an opportunity to practice with some of the tools futurists use in thinking through ways to respond to future challenges and opportunities. Five mini-scenarios in the future of AI will be shared and used as a springboard to practicing how to get ahead of the future. participants will be asked to identify what they see as the key changes that various AI scenarios. These changes in turn will lead to prioritizing a key strategic question for each scenario. We will then respond to these strategic questions by developing strategic options or responses using an elevator speech tool.  

Participants will:  

• Learn about a technique for developing scenarios, or structure stories about the future  
• Practice developing responses to potential futures scenarios using a futurist process of identifying changes, strategic questions, and options for action.  

Keynote  

I-Sah Hsieh  

I-Sah Hsieh helps organizations innovate responsibly as a member of SAS’ Data Ethics Practice. For the past 15 years, I-Sah has been an analytics advisor to the United Nations and the international development community and has implemented numerous award-winning projects. I-Sah holds an engineering degree from Cornell University and has also implemented transformational technologies across highly regulated industries like healthcare, defense, and telecommunications. Connect with Hsieh on X (formerly Twitter) and LinkedIn .

Keynote title: The Importance of Trustworthy AI and how to achieve it

A high-level discussion on the importance of trustworthy AI and the skills required to align people, process and technology for AI to be transparent, trusted, and unbiased. We will also review the history, current challenges and future trends of AI.  

Conference Hosts

Melissa Vito

Vice Provost for Academic Innovation (Host)

Melissa Vito has over 35 years of experience in public higher education. As Vice Provost for Academic Innovation at the University of Texas San Antonio (UTSA), Melissa has transformed teaching and learning at UTSA, grown an infrastructure for fully online programs and created dynamic learning environments that prepare students to thrive in a world where digital literacy and fluency are required. Under her leadership, UTSA Online, a fully-online university experience, climbed to the top 20% of all online U.S. News and World Report’s Best Online Programs list in 2024. Melissa was instrumental in uniting UTSA and Adobe Creative Campus and creating a research project to measure the impact of curricular use of Adobe tools on student learning. At UA, she earned a bachelor’s degree in Journalism and English and a master’s degree in Higher Education and Counseling. She has a Doctorate in Educational Leadership from Northern Arizona University. Connect with Melissa on LinkedIn.

Heather Shipley

UTSA Interim Provost and Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs

A career advocate for student success and faculty excellence, Dr. Heather Shipley is a collaborative academic leader and a systems thinker with over 15 years of experience in higher education. She currently serves as UTSA’s Interim Provost and Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs where she  oversees eight academic colleges; the academic support divisions, including Faculty Success, Academic Innovation, Undergraduate Studies, Career Engaged Learning, Continuous Improvement & Accreditation, Graduate and Post-Doctoral Studies, Global Initiatives, Student Success, Strategic Enrollment, Student Affairs, and the Libraries, UTSA Art Collection and the Institute of Texan Cultures; in addition to cross-cutting teams Institutional Research and Analysis, Academic Finance & Administration, Academic Initiatives, and Academic Strategic Communications. Read Interim Provost Shipley's full bio.

Taylor Eighmy

UTSA President

Taylor Eighmy is the 6th president of The University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA). In addition to serving as university president, Eighmy holds faculty appointments in the Margie and Bill Klesse College of Engineering and Integrated Design’s Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, and the College of Sciences’ Department of Environmental Science and Ecology.

Eighmy is passionate about the critical role that research universities play in creating and applying knowledge to improve the world. He believes deeply in higher education as a great equalizer, especially when grounded in student success. Once more, he is a vigorous advocate for experiential learning—including undergraduate research—as foundational to such success. 

Since arriving at UTSA, Eighmy has made great strides toward linking educational attainment to San Antonio's economic development. Under his leadership, UTSA is producing more graduates than ever before, driving job creation and the city's growing knowledge economy. He is nationally recognized for advancing top research universities through strategic government-university-industry collaborations, public-private partnerships and community engagement. These principles are at the heart of his conviction that UTSA is “the university of the future in the city of the future." Read President Eighmy's full bio.