Founded in 2012, the Association of Chief Academic Officers (ACAO) is a nonprofit association that works to enhance the effectiveness of Chief Academic Officers by providing networking and professional development opportunities and engaging members in conversations focused on issues that cross higher education institutions and missions. Conversations and engagement include topics such as staffing and turnover, financial pressures, enrollment dynamics, institutional memory, external pressures, technology integration, professional development, public advocacy, and virtual engagement

Examples of work includes:

• Digital Fellows Program
  • A previously offered fellowship program that include small campus grants was supported by a grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, to provide professional development focused on leveraging digital pedagogical resources to improve student outcomes and degree completion rates.
• Panel Discussions
  • Hosted a panel discussion to help CAOs understand and respond to technologies like ChatGPT and similar AI language models, discussing both opportunities and challenges for teaching and learning.

Resources

Association of Chief Academic Officers. (2025). ACAO Strat Plan 2025-2026 FINAL. ACAO. Retreived November 20, 2025, from https://drive.google.com/file/d/1XqZC25ALV5Mc_JEMpOsJzHhqervQkuXR/view.

Association of Chief Academic Officers. (2025). Home. ACAO. Retrieved November 20, 2025, from www.acao.org.