‘Be the hope’: Dr. Karen A. Stout’s opening remarks at DREAM 2022

For the opening plenary session of DREAM 2022, Dr. Karen A. Stout, president and CEO of Achieving the Dream, recognized the work and resilience of the more than 3,400 registrants attending the virtual gathering. “We have collectively worked to put the ATD Network in position to meet this important moment, a moment that requires us to put forward a new vision of what community colleges could and should be and, as a result, what our work as an organization should be.”

Acknowledging the challenges that colleges, their students, and the communities they serve are facing from two years of a global pandemic, economic instability, and continued systemic racism and political turmoil, Dr. Stout urged attendees to “be the hope.”