WRITERS: Minerva Baumann, mbauma46@nmsu.edu; Tracy Soren: tsoren@goodrebellion.com
The National Association of Higher Education Systems (NASH) has launched the first national AI effort built exclusively for public university systems.
“AI is no longer simply an emerging technology; it has critical and lasting implications for student success, academic governance and institutional capacity,” said Jessica Todtman, NASH executive vice president. “By leveraging the collective power of public systems, we are moving public higher education beyond fragmented, isolated campus experimentation toward a cohesive, scalable model of readiness.”
Enrico Pontelli, dean of New Mexico State University’s College of Arts and Sciences and NMSU senior adviser for AI, is among the sitting and emeritus chancellors, system presidents and chief AI officers chosen to leverage collective scale and move public higher education from isolated campus experimentation toward coordinated, sustainable system-level AI readiness. The NASH AI Advisory Board includes 35 leaders from public higher education systems, campuses and the broader AI field.
“Instead of hundreds of public colleges wasting time and money trying to reinvent the wheel in their own institutions, we are teaming up to build one shared, secure foundation to ensure AI actually helps students across the country by forming an integrated lasting network,” Pontelli said.
The landmark initiative is bringing public institutions and associations together to develop valuable guidance, pilots, policies and approaches to AI. The NASH AI Advisory Board’s mission is anchored in seamless integration, bringing together collective expertise to develop practical resources that help public higher education systems assess readiness, strengthen institutional capacity and advance responsible AI practices within their unique contexts.
The goal of this work is to add a distinct system-level lens to build shared capacity, address common risks, and prepare millions of learners for an AI-enabled economy.
“Dean Pontelli has been an AI authority for many years, well before recent developments in the field,” NMSU President Valerio Ferme said. “He brings to this opportunity unrivaled expertise and commitment, both as the current chair of the New Mexico AI Consortium and as the director of the Institute for Applied AI and Machine Learning at NMSU. His enthusiasm and expertise have allowed NMSU to grow the first Bachelor of Science in AI and machine learning in the state and receive grants for the instruction of AI through our entire K-12 system. He brings to this new AI board the practices of many years, and the kindness and ethical commitment that we need to advance our understanding and use of AI in higher education.”
The board’s efforts are organized across five workgroups: teaching and learning; student success and advising; data infrastructure and privacy; governance, ethics and risk; and operational capacity and efficiency.
Pontelli will serve on the governance, ethics and risk group, which will examine the policies, governance structures and organizational capacities needed to balance responsible innovation, accountability, ethics and risk.
“AI behaves differently than any technology we have ever used before,” Pontelli said. “Traditional software does exactly what a human codes it to do. AI, however, adapts, learns and can make its own unpredictable mistakes. Think of governance, ethics and risk as the brakes on a high-performance sports car. You don’t put brakes on a race car to make it go slow; you put them on so you can drive fast safely.”
AI moves faster than products can be built. Rather than tying its work to point-in-time applications, the board assesses the governance, leadership, workforce and decision-making capabilities that remain valuable no matter which platform is in place. Its frameworks are developmental rather than compliance-driven: no binary scorecards, but instruments that surface pockets of campus excellence, name enterprise risk and move systems from assessment to action.
“As a chancellor of a state system for a decade, there is no more urgent work than helping state systems respond at speed and scale to the emergence of AI,” said Mark Hagerott, chair of the NASH AI Advisory Board, NASH senior fellow and former chancellor of the North Dakota University System. “Our work is to build the governance capacity and decision-making agility that system leaders need, and to do it collaboratively, with the people who carry responsibility for entire systems. By making our charge, rosters and milestones public, we are setting a national benchmark for what serious system-level AI leadership looks like.”
The board launched in July 2026 by selecting workgroups and confirming its strategic foundation. Workgroups are developing an assessment and playbook through fall 2026, followed by review, refinement and validation to publish and disseminate the plan to NASH member systems in in spring 2027.
Learn more about the NASH AI Advisory Board with complete rosters and initiative updates at nash.edu/AI .
CUTLINE: Enrico Pontelli, dean of New Mexico State University’s College of Arts and Sciences and NMSU senior adviser for AI, is among 35 leaders from public higher education systems, campuses and the broader AI field serving on the first national AI advisory board for public higher education. (NMSU photo by Josh Bachman)