Events & Contact

✨ The Higher Education Staff Hope Collective✨

About the Hope Collective

The Higher Education Staff Hope Collective is a grassroots effort jump-started on Sept. 1, 2025, by a staff member directly impacted by the layoff notices sent to over 360 dedicated staff at Stanford University in summer 2025. The mission of the collective prioritizes community over profit as we build networks and collaborate to uplift job-seeking and career-curious staff and educators across higher education.

📅 Hope Collective Events 📅

Looking to register for events hosted by the collective? Zoom registration links will be emailed to registered attendees closer to the event date. Use the registration button below to sign up for events.

REGISTER FOR GATHERINGS

⭐ Collective Gatherings: Fall 2025 ⭐

This is an evolving schedule of the collective gatherings, which will be on a drop-in basis and hosted virtually via Zoom. Presentations and guest speakers will be included in the first 60 minutes of the 90-minute collective gathering. The last 30 minutes will be spent as an open social and networking opportunity.

Upcoming 2025 gathering dates:

Past gathering dates:

REGISTER FOR GATHERINGS

⭐ Collective Gatherings: Jan. – June 2026 ⭐

In 2026, the Higher Education Staff Hope Collective plans to continue hosting gatherings with community and learning at the center. 

Each month in 2026, you can expect at least:

  • 1 virtual networking social, the Hope Collective Lounge
  • 1 virtual learning session, the Hope Collective Learning Lab
  • 1 monthly newsletter

Also, in 2026, we will have expanded ways to stay connected via a free digital community platform, which could inspire more regional meetups and networking gatherings for the Hope Collective!

✨ Hope Collective Lounge Dates ✨

  • Jan. 14 — 9–10am PST / 12–1pm EST
  • Feb. 11 — 12–1pm PST / 3–4pm EST
  • March 11 — 9–10am PST / 12–1pm EST
  • April 8 — 12–1pm PST / 3–4pm EST
  • May 6 — 9–10am PST / 12–1pm EST
  • June 3 — 12–1pm PST / 3–4pm EST

💡 Hope Collective Learning Lab Dates* 💡

  • Jan. 29 — 11am–12pm PST / 2–3pm EST
  • Feb. 26 — 6–7pm PST / 9–10pm EST
  • March 26 — 11am–12pm PST / 2–3pm EST
  • April 23 — 6–7pm PST / 9–10pm EST
  • May 21 — 11am–12pm PST / 2–3pm EST
  • June 18 — 6–7pm PST / 9–10pm EST

*Depending upon facilitator availability, there may be one-off learning lab sessions that get added to the schedule—the more opportunities to connect and learn, the better.

If you are interested in presenting or facilitating, please email: matt@mattnazario.com

REGISTER FOR GATHERINGS

📣 Call for Volunteers 📣

As higher education staff interest in the collective continues to grow in parallel with increases in job loss across the higher education staff community, this national organization is in its early stages of formation and needs additional volunteers for part-time support. 

How to Volunteer: If you believe in the mission of the collective, and if you have time and talents to volunteer to staff navigating layoffs and career development questions, you’re enthusiastically invited to get involved by emailing us at staffhopecollective@mattnazario.com. You can be in NYC or anywhere with access to the internet to support the collective.

Volunteer roles that are of the greatest need are detailed on the interest form:

SIGN UP TO VOLUNTEER

Questions before committing? Have ideas for a volunteer role you’d like to offer? Send Matt an email or a DM.

📧 Subscribe to Matt’s Website Announcements 📧

Be the first to know about new content on my website, including downloadable template releases, project announcements (podcast, anyone? 👀), and updates from Matt’s own ongoing job search journey. To register for virtual collective gathering sessions, use the separate registration button above.

Contact Matt Nazario-Miller, M.Ed.

For business-related inquiries for Matt, please contact them by email or LinkedIn. Matt’s email: matt@mattnazario.com

Latest Blog Posts