Powering the Workplace: Administrative Professionals Leadership Day

Managing Conflict: Staying Professional Under Pressure

Presenter: Dr. Mary Dixson

Administrative professionals are often the steady center of busy, high-pressure workplaces. In this interactive session, you’ll learn practical strategies to manage tension, navigate difficult personalities, and respond confidently when conflict arises. We’ll explore communication tools that protect relationships while maintaining boundaries, allowing you to reduce stress, increase clarity, and handle challenging moments with professionalism and composure.

Transform the Way You Work with Data in Excel (Beginner)

Presenter: Jagmeet Cheema, MBA

This session walks participants through essential Excel tools designed to enhance productivity and build confidence using spreadsheets. You’ll learn core fundamentals along with practical features that support effective data analysis and reporting. Ideal for anyone looking to strengthen their Excel expertise and improve their ability to work with data in a professional environment.

Problem Solving & Decision Making: Thinking Clearly in Fast-Moving Environments

Presenter: Dr. Mary Dixson

Administrative professionals make numerous decisions every day, often with limited time and information available. This session provides practical frameworks to help you analyze problems, prioritize effectively, and make confident decisions under pressure. You’ll leave with clear, usable tools for reducing overwhelm, improving judgment, and supporting leaders and teams with thoughtful, solution-focused thinking.

Transform the Way You Work with Data in Excel (Intermediate)

Presenter: Jagmeet Cheema, MBA

This session builds on Excel fundamentals and introduces more advanced tools to enhance productivity and confidence. Participants will explore formulas, PivotTables, and data visualization techniques that support stronger analysis and reporting. Ideal for professionals who want to improve the way they organize, interpret, and present data in the workplace.

Project Management for Administrative Professionals

Presenter: Dr. Carla Sizer

This dynamic class equips administrative professionals with essential project management skills to lead initiatives with confidence and efficiency. Participants will learn practical tools for planning, prioritizing, communication, risk management, and stakeholder coordination. Designed specifically for admin professionals, the session focuses on real-world applications that enhance organization, streamline workflows, and strengthen strategic partnership within their teams and organizations.

Using AI to Maximize Your Productivity

Presenter: Randy Quinn, MBA

Administrative professionals are the organizational backbone of their teams—managing information, coordinating priorities, and keeping everything moving forward. In this interactive session, you’ll discover how artificial intelligence can help you work more efficiently and strategically. Learn practical ways to use AI tools to draft emails, summarize meetings, organize information, create reports, and streamline daily tasks. You’ll leave with simple, ready-to-use workflows that save time, reduce workload stress, and help you add even greater value in your role.

Project Management for Administrative Professionals

Presenter: Dr. Carla Sizer

This dynamic class equips administrative professionals with essential project management skills to lead initiatives with confidence and efficiency. Participants will learn practical tools for planning, prioritizing, communication, risk management, and stakeholder coordination. Designed specifically for admin professionals, the session focuses on real-world applications that enhance organization, streamline workflows, and strengthen strategic partnership within their teams and organizations.

Using AI to Maximize Your Productivity

Presenter: Randy Quinn, MBA

Administrative professionals are the organizational backbone of their teams—managing information, coordinating priorities, and keeping everything moving forward. In this interactive session, you’ll discover how artificial intelligence can help you work more efficiently and strategically. Learn practical ways to use AI tools to draft emails, summarize meetings, organize information, create reports, and streamline daily tasks. You’ll leave with simple, ready-to-use workflows that save time, reduce workload stress, and help you add even greater value in your role.

Jagmeet Cheema is a data and analytics professional with over 15 years of experience working with data, analytics, and project management across public and private sector organizations. Her work focuses on helping organizations transform complex data into actionable insights that support strategic planning and informed decision-making.

In higher education, Jagmeet focusses on business intelligence, analytics, and data-driven strategy. She leads the development of analytical models, dashboards, and benchmarking frameworks that help organizations better understand trends, performance, and outcomes indicators. Jagmeet has led and supported numerous analytics and reporting initiatives, collaborating with stakeholders across academic and administrative units to design solutions that improve transparency, reporting efficiency, and organizational effectiveness. She is passionate about turning data into meaningful insights that support confident, evidence‑based decisions.

Dr. Dixson has over 25 years of higher education teaching experience. and fifteen years of administrative experience including directing the operations of the Faculty Center, overseeing UTSA libraries, faculty development, distance learning, applied research, SACS accreditation, service learning, and dual credit programs.

She has been the author and Principal Investigator of Innovista, a $2 million, Department of Education Hispanic Serving Institution grant to increase institutional capacity for the purpose of increasing student retention and success.

Research Areas include political rhetoric, citizen participation, and civic education. She has published in the Journal of Communication, Presidential Studies Quarterly, and Political Communication. She has presented at numerous conferences and been an invited keynote speaker on topics around faculty development and teaching excellence.

In addition to her academic experience, Dr. Dixson has been employed by both private and non-profit sectors. She was the founding executive director of the Bexar County Performing Arts Center Foundation and consults with businesses and organizations on all areas of communication and training.

Randy Quinn is a 30+ year veteran of the Tech and Healthcare industries. He has successfully run his own marketing consultancy and run resilient teams for startups and global Fortune 15 companies. His expertise focuses on strategic product marketing and product management as well as intrapreneurship and new product development. He has also worked as a freelance journalist for various newspapers and magazines and as a science documentary producer in Public Television at the home of Mr. Roger’s Neighborhood, WQED-TV.

Randy earned his MBA and his undergraduate degree in physics as a first-gen college student from the University of Pittsburgh. He also completed an executive program in medical marketing at the University of California Los Angeles.

Dr. Carla Sizer is an accomplished program management and leadership professional with over three decades of experience spanning military, corporate, and academic sectors. A retired U.S. Air Force Captain, she currently serves as the Platform One Acquisition Lead Program Manager and Branch Lead at Applied Research Solutions, where she advances Department of Defense software innovation and DevSecOps readiness. Her career also includes leadership roles at USAA, directing global teams in information governance, data quality, and enterprise security.

She holds a Doctor of Management in Organizational Leadership, a Master of Public Administration, and a Bachelor of Science in Healthcare Management, along with certifications as a Project Management Professional (PMP) and Certified Scrum Master (CSM). A mentor, educator, and nonprofit founder, Dr. Sizer has taught leadership and business courses to hundreds of students and remains active in coaching, speaking, and community service. She is a recipient of the San Antonio Business Journal’s Women’s Leadership Award and continues to champion veterans, education, and youth leadership initiatives.

As Mayor, Nirenberg’s policy priorities included addressing poverty through workforce development. In 2020, he successfully led the approval of SA Ready to Work, providing training for out-of-work and underemployed adults. He also championed the AlamoPROMISE program, providing tuition-free college for all county high school graduates, and established equity as a guiding principle for budget and policy development for the City. Mayor Nirenberg spearheaded a comprehensive, multimodal transportation plan, leading to the city's first-ever mass transit system, set to open in 2027. He initiated a transformation of the San Antonio International Airport, with a new international terminal opening in 2028. In 2017, he led the formation of a strategic housing plan, designed to ensure safe, affordable housing in all parts of the city while stabilizing 95,000 cost-burdened households in 10 years.

Mayor Nirenberg championed the City’s first-ever Climate Action and Adaptation Plan and crafted a long-term solution for funding the Edwards Aquifer Protection Program, which has protected nearly 200,000 acres that are critical to the main source of water in the San Antonio region. He is also credited with building a public-private coalition to save the world-renowned Bracken Bat Cave in 2014.