2026 All-Conference Session: DeEtta Jones

Keynote speaker DeEtta Jones asked her audience to close their eyes and imagine themselves in 2033 and to reflect upon how their campuses, their students, and their coworkers would be. Try to imagine, she asked, what was different, what had grown stronger, and what your students and coworkers experiencing? “And what kind of professional have you become?”

“History shows us something important: that everything moves in cycles,” she said. “There are periods of disruption, periods of rebuilding, periods where the work we do quietly today becomes the foundation for what others will stand on tomorrow.”

Using Peter Senge’s organizational learning model based on creative tension from his book “The Fifth Discipline,” Jones talked about how tension is defined as a pull created by the gap between a desired vision and reality or where “we are now.”

“On one side is fear, and on the other side is vision, and right when we focus on uncertainty or fear, our energy shifts. People begin asking questions, and that is absolutely natural,” she said. “When there is a lot of uncertainty, people start asking questions. What does this mean for my work? Will our priorities change? These are questions associated with not knowing what is going to happen next, and they are fear-inducing, and they cause distress. It’s a sign people are looking for answers, and it’s also exhausting.”

Things are going to change, things are changing, and being able to identify the fundamental tasks to be accomplished is a challenge. Why is there a constant need to pay attention to a core purpose—the root of why we are here, even in a changing environment, Jones asked. 

Jones acknowledged that preserving a legacy structure at all costs would be difficult in today’s environment; but helping people move forward when conditions around them have changed is really an opportunity. 

“This ability to question ‘What are we really trying to accomplish?’, getting to the root, the values, and bringing them forward despite our changing conditions that are beyond our control. That will be essential to getting things done.”

Jones continued, “Leadership in uncertain times isn’t about having all the answers. It’s about how we show up. Transformation is never comfortable while it’s happening, but history shows us something important: every generation inherits moments of uncertainty, and every generation produces leaders. Helps others move through it.”