About the Webinar
Recorded September 24, 2026
Higher education is in constant flux, from budget cuts to program eliminations, mergers and leadership turnover. HR professionals are often significantly involved in managing the human fallout of change, as well as helping managers navigate what looks like resistance or disengagement that quietly erodes retention and morale. But much of that behavior isn’t resistance at all — it’s unacknowledged grief and burnout, and traditional change management consistently misreads it. This webinar will help you accurately diagnose what’s really happening during loss-driven change and respond in ways that protect engagement and retention. You’ll learn to:
- Distinguish hidden grief and burnout from behavioral resistance (and help leaders do the same)
- Recognize three common leadership responses that quietly make things worse
- Apply a grief- and burnout-informed communication approach you can use immediately
You’ll leave with diagnostic tools, communication scripts and a practical action plan you can adapt to any institution type and put to work right away.
CUPA-HR is a nonpartisan, nonprofit educational organization of HR professionals serving our nation’s institutions of higher education. The content and discussions in this webinar are intended to be educational in nature. They do not constitute legal advice or counsel, and they shall not promote partisan positions on the issues discussed. To that end, we request that participants refrain from promoting partisan positions during this webinar as well.
Materials
Presenter
Mira Brancu
Founder and CEO, Towerscope, and Adjunct Associate Professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Duke University
Building Capabilities
Change Management
Core
Communication