NCHEP began with approximately 75 people in 2010 and has now become the largest regular conference focused on higher education in prison in the country. Although the days when conference attendees could fit into a few cars are long past, the conference’s foundational character remains unchanged: NCHEP continues to center community and to convene individuals from every walk of life who share a commitment to the transformative power of education.

This year’s evaluation also surfaced something distinctive. Respondents repeatedly described NCHEP as more than a professional convening; they described it as critical infrastructure, or a sustaining space for a community whose work is often emotionally, politically, and financially demanding. The data also reflect a field actively wrestling with the productive tensions of a maturing movement: between expanding access and deepening quality, between centering lived experience and welcoming dissenting viewpoints, and between NCHEP’s role as a professional convening and its emerging function as field-wide infrastructure. These are not problems to resolve; they are signals of a maturing field, and of a conference increasingly asked to hold more than it was originally designed to. These findings suggest that the conference’s continuing strength will depend on its ability to remain a site of community building and connection while allowing for expanded numbers and more diverse perspectives.

This report documents the impact of NCHEP 15 using data from the exit survey (n=256), the conference registration process, and observations gathered by staff and volunteers throughout the convening. The report is intended as a resource for reflection and as a guide for future conference planning and field development. In many ways, the findings here reinforce the Alliance’s mission: to build and support the field-wide infrastructure necessary to advance access and excellence in higher education in prison.

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