Building Pathways Summit 2026

The Building Pathways Summit is the capstone event for a year-long series of state-focused convenings that brought together higher education institutions, state leaders, employers, student voices, and community organizations as partners in advancing student success and building strong state ecosystems. The summit will feature state and national leaders and weave together insights from our convenings in Richmond, Virginia, Kalamazoo, Michigan, and Lehigh Valley, Pennsylvania, as well as a national webinar featuring system leaders from Alabama and North Carolina. The program will amplify the value of higher education and our shared work with employers and bipartisan state policymakers to engage, educate, and strengthen a new generation of students, employees, and communities. Funded by Imaginable Futures, the Building Pathways series partnered with public, private, two-year, and four-year institutions to elevate the voices of underrepresented student populations, including student-parents, military-affiliated students, first-generation students, and adult learners. These convenings demonstrated how cross-sector partnerships strengthen state ecosystems and drive solutions to expand student access, address barriers, develop workforce pathways, and build regional economic development. The half-day program will be followed by a networking reception.