Arizona State University hosted its 2025 Principled Innovation Fall Convening this November in the Memorial Union on the Tempe campus. The convening brings together faculty, staff, and partners from across the institution for a full day of learning, collaboration, and reflection on character-driven innovation. Now in its third year, the convening has become a central gathering point for those working to integrate Principled Innovation into teaching, leadership, and community engagement.
The convening blended long-time PI collaborators — many of whom have worked together across multiple projects and roles — with attendees who were just beginning to explore PI, giving the event a mix of familiarity and fresh perspective. People had the chance to meet one another through an activity using PI-themed bingo cards, where participants moved around the room, sparked conversations, and learned about each other’s experiences of character-driven innovation. “The room filled in so quickly,” said event Emcee Lisa Molloy. “You could feel people were ready to engage.”
Grounded in experience
This year’s program was guided by themes of culture, purpose and institutional identity. ASU Vice President for Principled Innovation and Impact Jacqueline Smith welcomed those in attendance with a reflection on how our choices to be kind, honest and courageous shape the environments where people work and learn. Grounding her remarks in personal experience, she emphasized PI as “character in action,” a way of aligning what we do with who we hope to become.
A focus on practice
This year’s convening exemplified what Matt Nock, a member of PI’s storytelling team, described as a deepening maturity of Principled Innovation at ASU. “It’s great to see how people’s learning about PI has translated into so many different kinds of practice across ASU,” said Nock. “I really get a sense that people are embracing Principled Innovation and making it their own.” Molloy agreed, noting how PI has expanded across dozens of ASU colleges and units since it became ASU’s ninth design aspiration in 2023. “This growth feels especially clear this year,” noted Molloy. “We’ve reached a place where the breadth and depth are finally coming together. People aren’t just hearing about PI — they’re applying it, teaching it, and creating tools that others can use.”
That shift from learning to application was especially visible in the morning’s roundtable discussions, where groups detailed their practical applications of PI in different academic contexts. Participants examined case studies, shared challenges, and reflected on how PI’s character-focused practices — such as understanding context, engaging with diverse perspectives, and slowing down for ethical reflection — show up in their daily work.
Molloy noted that ASU’s workforce is dynamic, and staff and faculty often move between roles and units. While this movement can create its own institutional challenges, she suggested it also strengthens PI’s culture: “When people shift roles, they take PI with them,” she said. “It spreads the work wider, even as other teams go deeper.”
Fireside chat
This year, ASU President Michael Crow joined Chris Stawski of the Kern Family Foundation for a conversation on character and leadership. They reflected on how values shape decision-making across public and philanthropic settings, illustrating their points with stories of professional challenges, institutional shifts and moments when character was tested. Their exchange underscored that innovation requires more than creativity — it depends on clarity of purpose and the willingness to make principled choices. The discussion also highlighted how PI aligns with broader national efforts to link imagination with integrity.
Panel on character, culture, and public life
The convening also featured a panel discussion with Angel Adams Parham and Ryan Olson from The Institute for Advanced Studies in Culture at University of Virginia, and Christine Emba from the American Enterprise Institute. Their conversation, moderated by ASU Assistant Vice President of Principled Innovation Dr. Ted Cross, situated PI within larger patterns shaping public discourse today, including polarization, questions of belonging and the need for ethical frameworks that honor pluralism. The panelists shared how communities form shared values and how trust evolves within institutions. Rather than prescribe solutions, the panel explored how universities can cultivate spaces where people feel safe to think critically, disagree respectfully and seek the common good.
The convening showcased its practical nature through a PI Tools Expo, which highlighted the creativity emerging across the university. Tools ranged from curriculum resources and reflection guides to facilitation tools developed within Communities of Practice. Many of the tools on display were created collaboratively over months of work. “Seeing the Expo made the depth tangible,” Molloy said. “These tools represent time, commitment, and real ingenuity.”
By the end of the convening, participants described feeling both energized and grounded, carrying forward ideas for new partnerships, curriculum innovations, and leadership practices. In Molloy’s view, the event captured the trajectory of Principled Innovation at ASU: “It reflected what we’ve been building — a community that is thoughtful, creative, and committed to doing meaningful work.”
Looking ahead
For many, the convening served as both a reflection point and an invitation: to continue deepening the work, to welcome new collaborators and to strengthen a university community grounded in purpose, integrity and care. The next convening will take place in Fall 2026, continuing the university’s effort to create a culture where character and values shape innovation across all parts of ASU.