Sessions and Speakers

Coming Soon!

Speaker: Paul Fleming McCullagh, Ariana McDonnell, Carey Musburger, Danielle Desormier, Emily Akin, Emily Goodwin
Session length: 20-minute opening session

This year, we’re doing something a little different for our opening session… join Paul Fleming McCullagh and colleagues (Ariana, Carey, Danielle, Emily, and Emily) as they talk about why they’re excited for Elevating Cougs and ask you to share what you’re looking forward to this year.

Paul will also start the session with a quick thank you to a few people and an overview of the changes we’ve made to the conference to help it continue to adapt and thrive as the university changes.

Join Matt Skinner and Jennifer Klein as they share their takeaways from the conference, why it matters, and the impact it has on WSU employees. They’ll reflect on meaningful moments and what they hope participants will take with them moving forward.

Speakers: Matt Skinner and Jennifer Klein
Session length: 15-minute closing session

This workshop shares ways you can lean into what you do best, stretch areas that might not be easy, and how to expand your impact in your current role. Attendees will leave with practical and actionable insights they can use to influence others, coach up, and make themselves more likely to be promoted.

Speaker: Craig Fischer
Session length: 90-minute workshop

Recent research from Stanford Medicine shows that even brief mindfulness practices, as short as five minutes, can significantly reduce anxiety and enhance overall well-being. In this interactive workshop, we’ll explore the latest findings on the science of mindfulness and its impact on workplace wellness.

Led by a certified 500-hour yoga teacher with additional training in iRest (Integrative Restoration) and Yoga Nidra, this session combines evidence-based insights with simple, accessible practices. Participants will learn short mindfulness techniques that can be easily integrated into the academic workday. No prior experience required.

Whether you’re looking to reduce stress, improve focus, or simply take a meaningful pause, this session offers practical tools to support mental clarity and resilience in your professional life.

Speaker: Julie Miller
Session length: 30-minute micro session

The demands of a career can overwhelm the lines between work hours and home hours. However, you deserve to keep your peace and your identity separate from your work and career. This presentation provides suggestions on how to do that, without sacrificing your identity.

Speaker: Hannah Carlan, Sarah Michel
Session length: 30-minute micro session

Creating welcoming environments isn’t just a nice-to-have–it’s essential for meaningful engagement and everyday success. This interactive micro-learning session introduces practical tools grounded in universal design principles to help faculty, staff, and event planners foster spaces where everyone feels respected and can thrive.

Objective: Equip participants with actionable strategies to design workspaces and events that support welcome, access and opportunity for everyone. Ideal for anyone involved in organizing programs, meetings, or learning and work environments.

Speaker: Scott Fraser
Session length: 30-minute micro session

Learn valuable insights and practical strategies to support your health and work-life balance. Understanding the importance of values in both your personal and professional lives leads to a more integrated and satisfying life and work experience.

• Recognize the Role of Personal Values: Understand how aligning personal and professional values can enhance overall well-being and job satisfaction.
• Apply Practical Strategies: Learn actionable techniques to support health and maintain a healthy work-life balance.
• Foster a Holistic Perspective: Gain insights into integrating personal and professional life for a more fulfilling and balanced experience.

Speaker: Lora Paz, Roberto Morales
Session length: 60-minute main session

Have you wondered what resources and services are available to you at the WSU Libraries? This session highlights the library services and resources, including databases and journals, that are relevant to your work, and provides a refresher on how to search for, locate, and access work-relevant books, articles, and more.

Speaker: Lorena O’English
Session length: 30-minute micro session

Have you heard of microaffirmations, but aren’t sure what they are? This session will share how to recognize, practice and embed microaffirmations into your daily communication to create more supportive and engaged environments.

Microaffirmations are small, intentional actions such as brief comments, gestures or acknowledgements, that affirm and validate others. Though subtle, they can have a profound impact on workplace culture, employee and student involvement and team morale. Learn how to use microaffirmations to foster engagement and team cohesion in everyday interactions. This session is ideal for anyone who wants to build more co-action and synergy in their environments.

Speaker: Elisha Hardekopf
Session length: 30-minute micro session

When it comes to our daily work at WSU, Excel is a key tool many of us need to use. This session is intended for those with a light understanding of Excel and who want to grow their confidence and knowledge in the tool. It covers basics such as navigation, how formulas work, when to use Excel instead of a calculator, and explores the real power of this everyday software.

Speaker: Joe Cross
Session length: 60-minute main session

A powerful benefit of Excel is its ability to turn a long, repetitive process into a few quick steps. This intermediate-level session is for people who already use Excel and want to work more efficiently and get more from their data. We’ll cover features that make organizing, summarizing, and cleaning information faster and easier, including autofilters, nested formulas, pivot tables, and text functions.

This presentation is aimed at Excel users who are able to navigate within Excel, enter data, and work with basic formulas like SUM.

Speaker: Joe Cross
Session length: 60-minute main session

This workshop highlights the current research on skillful change and the actions leaders can do to help their teams navigate change well and improve performance, while lowering burnout. This interactive session will give attendees practical and actionable insights they can implement straightaway.

Speaker: Craig Fischer
Session length: 90-minute workshop

Led by members of WSU’s Veterans Task Force, this session offers a focused introduction to supporting WSU’s veteran and military-connected community. Through short discussions and practical examples, participants will explore how military services can shape campus experiences and how small, intentional actions can contribute to a more inclusive environment.

Participants will leave with a clearer understanding of military-affiliated identities and experiences, familiarity with key resources, and a set of adaptable best practices to confidently stand with Cougs who have served, across classrooms, teams, and campus interactions.

Speakers: Ali Bretthauer, Jadon Hawkins, Jaylene Wecks, Kat Odell
Session length: 30-minute micro session

This engaging and empowering session will invite Cougs to take an active role in transforming campus culture by confronting and taking a stand against hazing. Through interactive dialogue and practical strategies, participants will explore the cultural foundations of hazing and hazing related behavior, its impact on individuals and communities, and how to lead with courage and compassion.

Attendees will learn about:

• What hazing is, including its various forms and misconceptions.
• How to recognize the short- and long-term impacts of hazing on individuals and campus communities.
• Explore the cultural and systemic factors that allow hazing to persist.
• Empower participants with tools to intervene safely and effectively in hazing-related situations.
• Inspire students to lead change by fostering a culture of belonging, accountability, and respect.

Together, we will help to build a shared vision for a safer, more inclusive WSU, where every student feels valued, respected, and empowered to reach their full potential.

Speakers: Lisa Hathaway, Jenna Hyatt
Session length: 60-minute main session

Learn about state and federal requirements for digital accessibility and navigate through WSU resources available to support staff.

Speakers: Holly Ashkannejhad
Session length: 30-minute micro session

This session will demonstrate how to use Microsoft Planner, Forms and Power Automate to monitor each step of the recruitment process, providing clear insights into task status and progress tracking. These tools and strategies are particularly helpful for HR partners.

Speaker: Tessi Fry
Session length: 30-minute micro session

Get tips and tricks on how to navigate an employee’s Worker History in Workday.

Speaker: Cenobina Patterson
Session length: 30-minute micro session

Learn the different Person Types in Workday and when to use them.

Speaker: Jim Lowery
Session length: 30-minute micro session

This Workday staffing and compensation basics session shares examples and answers to common issues and includes a Q&A portion.

To submit your question for the session Q&A, please fill out this Workday Service Desk ticket. Do not send personal information. Please add “Elevating Cougs Q&A question” to the ticket’s summary field.

Speakers: Jim Lowery, Joe Wagner
Session length: 60-minute main session

This session demonstrates the templates and consolidated processes now available in Hire, Change Job, and Request Compensation Change. The Modernization team will also share what is planned for phase two in the Hiring and Staffing optimizations.

Speakers: Sabrina McPherson, Cenobina Patterson, Jim Lowery, Joe Wagner
Session length: 30-minute micro session

Join us as we walk through the Supplier Invoice and Expense Report payment process in Workday. This presentation will provide information on what drives Payment Dates within these documents, all the way to Payment going the door and being released.

Speakers: Kelsey DeMacon, Troy Jackson
Session length: 30-minute micro session

Join Modernization’s HCM team for an interactive and engaging run down of the latest HR related updates and optimizations in Workday. This 90-minute session includes plenty of time for Q&A. Modernization holds What’s New sessions every quarter, and October’s session is the third in this year’s series. For previous recordings and presentation materials, visit the What’s New recordings page in the Workday Knowledge Base.

Speakers: Emily Goodwin, Sabrina McPherson, Wendy Weber
Session length: 90-minute workshop

This session explains the Medical Leave and Accommodations processes and showcases the actions from both the employee and the HR Partner perspectives.

Speakers: Medical Leave and Accommodation team
Session length: 30-minute micro session

A common question that bookends an employee’s WSU career is, “What’s next?” This session shares resources and training tips for employees to help set them up for success at the beginning of their careers, and covers best practices for employees, HR Partners, and Managers for when employees leave to ensure business continuity and a successful and amicable separation.

Session length: 30-minute micro session

How often do you hear a finance or HR related term in a meeting or read it in an email and wonder what it means? This session explains the common, and not so common, finance and HR terms used in Workday and by the central units.

Session length: 60-minute main session

Expense Protect is a new feature launched in July 2025, that assists in identifying duplicated expenses for Expense Report documents in Workday. Join us to learn more on how this tool in Workday leverages Machine Learning, a type of A.I., to maximize Workday resources, reduce administrative burden, and detect errors with greater accuracy and efficiency.

Speaker: Kelsey DeMacon
Session length: 30-minute micro session

Did you know WSU pioneered the award winning Grants Forecasting tool in Adaptive Planning? This tool is a university-wide grants forecasting tool enhancing support for research on a brand new level. It assists Grant Managers and Principal Investigators (PIs) across the WSU system in projecting future expenses and remaining balances on their grants. Learn more about this tool with Modernization’s Grants team as they demonstrate the Grants Forecasting tool in Adaptive Planning for Grant Managers, PIs, and AFOs.

Speaker: Joel Bifford
Session length: 30-minute micro session

WSU’s Budget Office and Modernization share the basics of university budgeting and explain the main sources of revenue at the university, how the funds are used, and the annual budget cycle. This session is beneficial for those employees who perform finance related actions in Workday and other WSU systems.

Speaker: Matt Skinner, Vice President of Finance and Business Services
Session length: 60-minute main session

Washington State University has recorded over $19.4 million in revenue through e-commerce and card-present TouchNet stores. 

TouchNet allows for the creation of scalable, self-managed virtual storefronts and integrates sales directly with Workday, eliminating the need to prepare a separate Record Cash Sale thru the Bursar’s office. TouchNet subscription costs are centrally funded in order to make this e-commerce feature  affordable for departmental use.  Joan Wilmotte will provide a brief overview of TouchNet and how to get started.

Maintaining compliance with the PCI DSS ensures your customers are using secure payment platforms and reduces the risk of security breaches. Arthur Whitten, Director of Treasury services will provide an overview of what is PCI, why it is important, and current topics in fighting credit card fraud.

Speakers: Joan Wilmotte, Arthur Whitten
Session length: 30-minute micro session

Join Modernization’s Finance team for an engaging run-through of the new Accounting Center functionality in Workday as they share how it works and the benefits and enhancements to accounting journals it brings to WSU.

Speakers: Gerik Kimble
Session length: 30-minute micro session

Have you ever wondered what a Workday Hub is or what it does? In this engaging session, the Modernization team will share how hubs pull together related data and actions into one area, how to access them, and the benefits of using them.

The team will demonstrate the following Finance and HCM hubs:

• Expense Hub (recommended for all employees)
• Requisition Worklet (recommended for those who submit requisitions)
• HR Partner Hub (recommended for HR Partners)
• Jobs Hub (recommended for all employees)
• Time and Scheduling Hub (recommended for Managers/Time Approvers)
• Benefits, Pay, and Compensation Hub (recommended for all employees)

For a sneak peek into future updates, the team will also walk through the upcoming Buyer Hub.

Speakers: Kelsey DeMacon, Marie Tucker, Emily Goodwin, Sabrina McPherson, Wendy Weber
Session length: 60-minute main session

Join us for an informative session designed specifically for Workday Recruiters, HR Partners and search support personnel. We will explore current recruitment trends and share best practices for conducting fair, and effective searches. Participants will be introduced to key tools, university resources, and practical strategies to enhance each phase of the recruitment —from crafting job postings to evaluating candidates.

Whether you’re new to recruitment or looking to refine your approach, this session offers actionable tips to help improve outcomes and streamline your hiring efforts.

Speaker: Bonnie Wilmoth
Session length: 30-minute micro session

Title IX is the federal law prohibiting discrimination and harassment based on sex. The reach of Title IX, the types of conduct covered by it, and the process by which institutions are required to respond has consistently shifted since its enactment in 1972. Join this session to learn about the history of Title IX, its current status and application at WSU, and what the future may hold.

Speaker: Holly Ashkannejhad
Session length: 60-minute main session

This interactive and engaging session shares how to use Microsoft Copilot chat to help you in your-day-to-day work at WSU.

Topics include:

• Writing effective prompts
• Saving your prompts
• How to access Copilot chat
• When to use the paid version

The session is presented by both Microsoft and ITS.

Session length: 60-minute main session

Ever wondered what all the numbers on your payslip mean, or how the deductions are calculated? Payroll Services, HRS, and Modernization will walk you through the line items on your payslip and explain the deductions and benefits.

Speakers: Karman Rosendahl, Moose Letz
Session length: 30-minute micro session

Are you involved in student registration, enrollment, or finances? Join the Collections/Student Accounts team in the Bursar’s Office as they cover student account information, define registration holds, explain available payment options, and cover WSU collections processes.

Speakers: Collections/Student Accounts team from the Bursar’s Office

Are you ready to create a healthier work environment that is worth more than money—one that values people, purpose, and presence over metrics and burnout? Sharing practical guiding principles and effective culture building strategies, this interactive session will help you build an inclusive culture that supports everyone, even those who opt out.

Attendees will learn how to:

• Increase employee satisfaction and retention
• Reduce burnout and absenteeism
• Enhance creativity and innovation
• Create a stronger leadership pipeline
• Develop a culture that supports all—even those who opt out

The guiding principles explained in the session are:

• Availability Over Participation: Not everyone will engage 100%, but everyone should be aware of the benefits and feel welcome.
• A healthy culture is one where even non-participants respect the values.
• Open Dialogue: Talk openly about priorities, values, and the realities of work.
• Policy Alignment: Develop policies and processes that reflect our stated priorities.
• Do More with Less: Innovate within budget constraints by leveraging creativity, technology, and space.

The culture building strategies discussed in the session include:

• Monthly Team Meetings
• Team Retreats
• Leadership Development
• Operational Tactics
• Policy & Process Alignment
• Space Redesign

Speakers: Kimi Lucas, Michael Gibson, Kat Odell
Session length: 60-minute main session

Cyber threats don’t just target big corporations—they target universities, students, and faculty every day. This session will give you the tools to fight back. We’ll break down the most common threats facing students, faculty, and staff, from phishing scams and fake job offers to MFA fatigue and data theft. You’ll learn how to spot warning signs, protect your accounts, and research, and take quick action when something feels off. Join us to discover how simple choices can help build a safer, stronger WSU digital community.

Speaker: Nathan Tims and Rebecca Solen
Session length: 30-minute micro session