The Distance Educator's Opportunity for Institutional Leadership

introduction This year’s 2010 university Continuing Education association (uCEa) annual Conference had something in common with the 35 previous meetings of the association I have attended. a consistent theme is that continuing education is facing greater opportunities and challenges than at any other time in history. Perhaps it is our perennial optimism and pro-active natures that keeps this theme alive from year to year—it is clearly a persistent phenomenon of university continuing education. I have adopted this theme as the basis for this paper, focusing on the unique and identifiable circumstances that are presenting distance educators with unprecedented opportunities to assume greater leadership roles in their parent institutions. These opportunities are largely driven by outside forces acting on institutions of higher education, and by the inherent advantages that distance (and continuing) educators have over others in academia. I will describe these outside forces, list the advantages that we possess, and then identify practical ways in which we can take advantage of this situation.