Since 2015, the Belk Center has welcomed college presidents, educational researchers, nonprofit leaders and philanthropists to engage in critical and emerging conversations about student success, post secondary transformation, economic equality and student outcomes.

The Belk Center is pleased to announce that Dr. Vicki Karolewics, president of Wallace State Community College in Hanceville, Ala., will present the 2026 Dallas Herring Lecture. The 2026 lecture, titled “The Value Agenda: A Systems Approach to Student Success” will take place on Tuesday, November 17 at 10 a.m. Eastern Time.

Past Dallas Herring Lectures

Lecture summaries are provided by Nation Hahn, Managing Director, John M. Belk Endowment, and Joshua Perrin, Founder, Sound and Sense Communications

DHL 2025 – Dr. Jason Wood

Dr. Jason Wood, the 2025 Dallas Herring Lecturer, most recently served as the sixth president of Southwest Wisconsin Technical College, bringing extensive experience in higher education through leadership roles in…

DHL 2024 – Dr. Russell Lowery-Hart

Chancellor Lowery-Hart’s lecture focused on leading transformational change by creating a culture of caring and “loving students to success.” Lowery-Hart was clear that this focus on love is also supported…

DHL 2023 – Dr. Falecia D. Williams

Dr. Falecia D. Williams’ lecture spoke to the reality community colleges faced emerging from the pandemic era in the 2023 Dallas Herring Lecture. She pointed to the myriad of challenges…

DHL 2022 – Dr. Mike Flores

Dr. Mike Flores, Chancellor of the Alamo Colleges District, delivered the Dallas Herring Lecture in 2022. His remarks zeroed in on the need of community colleges to both address and…

DHL 2021 – Gregory A. Haile, JD

Gregory Haile, then-president of Broward College, called for reimagining higher education access through a collaborative, replicable and disruptive model in the 2021 Dallas Herring Lecture. Haile emphasized that community colleges…

DHL 2020 – Dr. Pam Eddinger

Dr. Pam Eddinger, President of Bunker Hill Community College, delivered the 2020 Dallas Herring Lecture roughly six months into the COVID-19 pandemic. Dr. Eddinger focused on the myriad of ways…

DHL 2019 – Dr. Sanford “Sandy” Shugart

In 2019, Dr. Sandy Shugart, then-president of Valencia College, called on community colleges to redesign the system for transferring to four-year colleges. He began by noting that the scale and…

DHL 2018 – Dr. Karen Stout

Dr. Karen Stout, president and CEO of Achieving the Dream, called for focusing community college redesign efforts on prioritizing teaching and learning in the 2018 Dallas Herring Lecture. She acknowledged…

DHL 2017 – Dr. Eduardo Padrón

Dr. Eduardo Padrón, then-president of Miami Dade College, addressed the challenge of growing inequality and decreasing economic mobility in higher education in the 2017 Dallas Herring Lecture. Dr. Padrón began…

DHL 2016 – Josh Wyner, JD

In his 2016 Dallas Herring Lecture, Josh Wyner, Vice President and Executive Director of the College Excellence Program at the Aspen Institute, called for what he termed Community College 3.0—an…

DHL 2015 – Dr. Ken Ender

In 2015’s inaugural Dallas Herring Lecture, Dr. Ken Ender, then-president of Harper College, spoke about how the changing environment for community colleges requires a new set of skills for the…