This year’s theme, From Access to Impact: Education as the Engine of Economic Mobility, challenges us to move beyond opening doors and focus on what happens next: persistence, completion, career readiness, and long-term economic mobility. In a rapidly shifting policy and higher education landscape, this conference equips you with the knowledge, strategies, and professional network needed to lead with confidence and purpose. Across four dynamic days in San Diego, Wednesday, September 16 to Saturday, September 19, participants will engage in powerful conversations, practical professional development, and forward-looking sessions designed to ignite new ideas and strengthen program impact. Through evidence-based best practices, expert-led discussions, and collaborative learning, attendees will gain actionable tools that can be implemented immediately to elevate student outcomes and advance institutional goals. Download the paper registration form here.

Your Work Is Moving the Needle. Now Share How. At a defining moment for higher education and federal student support programs, the national spotlight is on outcomes. Postsecondary attainment. Workforce readiness. Measurable economic mobility. This year’s convening is designed to highlight how TRIO professionals are translating access into tangible, sustained impact for students, families, and communities. If your program is innovating, refining, scaling, or proving what works—this is your platform. This conference is not about maintaining the status quo. COE seeks forward-thinking sessions that move beyond compliance toward innovation; beyond enrollment toward completion; and beyond aspiration toward sustained economic advancement. Your session can help define what excellence looks like in today’s environment.