Military Community of Practice Aiming for National Impact

CAEL’s Military Community of Practice held its kickoff meeting on January 22. It was the first of five virtual meetings planned for 2025 in addition to in-person gatherings in San Diego and at CAEL’s annual conference. 

The Community of Practice is designed to help individuals and organizations benefit from an exchange of best practices and connect with the workforce ecosystem's multiple sectors. Participants include experts based in higher ed, government, workforce, and private employer organizations. 

More than 75 people committed to serving the military-connected community joined the kickoff meeting. Carolyn Swabek, CAEL director of community engagement, and Doug Heckman, CAEL vice president of partnerships and development, led the discussions. Members of the CAEL Military Advisory Team were present and relayed their vision and support for the Military Community of Practice. 

Ensuring the community of practice represents a wide variety of backgrounds is critical, said Heckman. “I think oftentimes CAEL is thought of as a higher education organization, but in fact we're more of a workforce ecosystem organization, and we're rapidly adding workforce organizations, chambers, and employers to the CAEL membership.”

This strategy of connecting diverse practitioners who support military-connected learners and workers is aimed at delivering impact on a national level, said Swabek. “Our community of practice will operate as a hub-and-spoke model, with a national scope at its core, but with spokes, or chapters, of people who share a particular regional or sector interest. We are committed to fully reflecting the ecosystem of stakeholders that serves our military-connected community.”

The community of practice’s chapters will tackle specializations and report back to the national group. The first chapter will be an Illinois-focused chapter whose earlier success helped lead the way in the formation of the national community of practice. The chapter has origins in two former military-focused CAEL groups: the Veterans Higher Education Affinity Group (VHEAG), founded in 2011, and the Alliance for Veterans in Higher Education (AVHE), founded in 2020.

The community is free to join for any CAEL member. Members regularly interact via a dedicated community space on the CAEL Member Hub. In addition to forums and other interactive engagement, the hub offers a library of resources on topics related to supporting military-connected students and other adult learners.

The Community of Practice’s next meeting will occur in person, on March 11 in San Diego. The half-day event will precede CAEL’s regional convening. The next virtual meeting will be on April 17. Details can be found in the Military Community of Practice space on the CAEL Member Hub. Additional virtual meetings are planned in July, October, and December. CAEL’s annual conference, held this year in Memphis Nov. 11-14, will also host community of practice events. 

For more information on joining the Military Community of Practice, please contact Carolyn Swabek at cswabek@cael.org.