Education leaders from across Southern California joined the Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce’s 2025 Business & Education Innovation Summit to explore the possibilities and obstacles facing their institutions and the prospects for connecting with local industries.
The summit on Nov. 18, 2025, also kicked off Inauguration Season on the Loyola Marymount University campus as it prepares to inaugurate its 17th president, Thomas Poon, Ph.D., on Dec. 9, 2025.
Poon was among the high-profile panel that included Beong-Soo Kim, interim president of USC, Ann McElaney-Johnson, president of Mount St. Mary’s University, Juan Sanchez Munoz, chancellor of UC Merced, and Alberto J. Roman, chancellor of the Los Angeles Community College District. The discussion was moderated by Maria Salinas, president and CEO of the L.A. Area Chamber of Commerce, and a 1987 graduate of LMU.
Bringing together these thought leaders in the Los Angeles region for a discussion is much in keeping with LMU’s approach to the education-business nexus. “At LMU we see ourselves as very nimble,” said Poon. ”We have seven schools and colleges and three campuses and we have utilized our Playa Vista campus as a bridge in the sometimes divide between business, industry and higher education. We see ourselves as a convener of industry, such as the Innovation Summit and the many working groups we have, to address the challenges that the workforce is facing.”
This third Chamber of Commerce Education Summit, all hosted by LMU, was convened to make positive recommendations to better align education with workforce needs.
The panel involved an intriguing range of higher education representatives in the Los Angeles region: While LMU is the region’s leading private Catholic university, USC is one of the largest and most prestigious private universities in the country. Public college students were represented by UC Merced and the Los Angeles Community College District, the largest community college district in the nation with 210,000 students at nine campuses. Mount St. Mary’s University, the only women’s university in Los Angeles and a Catholic institution, added yet another dimension.
The areas of agreement were many – each institution engages deeply with first-generation students, in fact, the leaders themselves were first-gen students – and each of the leaders emphasized their work with students to prepare them for internships and future jobs. And each had their strong areas, for instance, McEleney-Johnson stressed the networking capabilities at Mount St. Mary’s, while Kim took pride in the vast range of USC’s community involvement from medical to international students.
When the discussion turned to effects and promises of artificial intelligence, the panelists again had topics of agreement and individual institutional challenges.
Munoz of UC Merced noted that over time, the instruments and mechanics of education change. “Faculty are going to have to come up with ways to use this new instrument [AI} in the training and instruction of young people who will be exposed to this expectation in the workforce,” he said. “Hard stop.” Roman of the LACCD, said, “AI entered the educational space faster than we can catch up with it – we’re catching up to it – yet, technology is innate to our students; at the end of the day we see AI as a tool that enhances our educational experience.”
McElaney-Johnson of Mount St. Mary’s, pointed out the dearth of women in technology and AI and how that effects the capacities and limitations of AI. She asked, “How do we prepare women to move into these fields? How do we get our students digitally fluent? She suggested robust community discussion about relationship to AI involving students, faculty, and staff.
Poon, talking about the historical characteristics of LMU, said the combination of LMU’s religious charisms – the Jesuits, Religious of the Sacred Heart of Mary, and the Sisters of St. Joseph of Orange – allows the university to “animate our mission in almost everything we do, in academics, in co-curricular life, spiritual guidance.” Because of that, Poon said, “We’re approaching AI in a very different way; we’re looking at it from an ethical standpoint, we’re looking at it from a liberal arts standpoint.”
Poon concluded the discussion by reiterating the importance of partnerships. “One thing I can recommend for the Chamber is to think more broadly in terms of partnerships.” He noted that LMU formed the Aerospace Alliance that involves faculty, students, executives, and scientists, and LMU’s partnership with Rams which has resulted in productive engagements, such as the “1,300 students who have had engagements with the Rams,” and the alliance with Homeboy Industries and Team USA. He urged the Chamber to consider higher education as they become more engaged in the coming Olympics Games and FIFA World Cup.
