Advancing Systemic Change in Higher Education

Helping campuses build leadership capacity to achieve more strategic and sustainable change.

Opportunities to Engage With Change Leadership Group (CLG) Experts

Workshops and Webinars

What: Customized interactive workshops that engage leaders in identifying key contexts and levers for change that will shape strategic leader “moves” to more effectively achieve and sustain systemic change goals.

Who: Campus leaders and teams, organization-wide programs, multi-campus grant-funded initiatives.

How: 60-90 minutes, 3 hours, full-day or multiple engagements over a 6-12 month timeframe, in-person or virtual.

Presentations

What: Customized interactive presentations that foster understanding of systemic change leadership and build leadership capacity to achieve lasting change.

Who: Conferences, organizational meetings, multi-campus grant-funded initiatives.

How: 45-90 minutes, in-person or virtual.

Consultations

What: Customized sessions to guide change teams in assessing readiness for change, developing and implementing change leadership plans, and evaluating progress in achieving and sustaining systemic change goals.

Who: Campus and organizational leaders and their teams.

How: Format varies depending on client goals, in-person or virtual.

Change Leader Coaching

Holcombe, E., Kezar, A., Elrod, S.L., and Ramaley, J. (Eds) (2021)

Scholarship Our Work is Based Upon

Elrod, S.L., Lawson, A., Salomone, S. (2024)Leading Systemic Change: A How To Guide for Long-lasting Results. Change: The Magazine of Higher Learning. 58(3): 46-52. Available at: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/00091383.2024.2349460

Elrod, S. (April 1, 2024) Five Reasons Change Initiatives Fail. Academic Leader. Available at: https://www.academic-leader.com/topics/leadership/five-reasons-change-initiatives-fail/

González, A., Holcombe, E., Elrod, S.L., Kezar, A., (2023) Transforming Higher Education Through an Ecosystem Model of Systemic Change Leadership. Academic Leader. Available at: https://www.academic-leader.com/topics/leadership/transforming-higher-education-through-an-ecosystem-model-of-systemic-change-leadership/

Elrod, S.L. Kezar, A., González, A., (2023) Change Leadership Toolkit: A Guide for Advancing Systemic Change in Higher Education. Available on the University of Southern California Pullias Center for Education website at: https://pullias.usc.edu/project/the-change-leadership-toolkit-for-advancing-systemic-change/

Holcombe, E., Kezar, A., Elrod, S.L., and Ramaley, J. (Eds) (2021) Shared Leadership in Higher Education: Framework and Models for Responding to a Changing World, Sterling, VA: Stylus.

Kezar, Adrianna, Elizabeth Holcombe, Darsella Vigil, and Jude Paul Mathias Dizon. Shared Equity Leadership: Making Equity Everyone’s Work. Washington, DC: American Council on Education; Los Angeles: University of Southern California, Pullias Center for Higher Education.

Elrod, S.L., and J. Ramaley (June 5, 2020) Shared Leadership as a Strategy for Leading in a Time of Crisis and Beyond. Posted at Higher Education Today, a blog by ACE. Available at: https://www.higheredtoday.org/2020/06/05/shared-leadership-strategy-leading-time-crisis-beyond/

Elrod, S.L. and Kezar, A. (2017) Increasing Student Success in STEM: Summary of a Guide to Systemic Institutional Change. Change: The Magazine of Higher Learning. 49(4):26-34.

Elrod, S.L. and Kezar, A. (2016) Increasing Student Success in STEM: A Guide to Systemic Institutional Change. Washington, DC: AAC&U. Click here for PDF.

Kezar, A., Gehrke, S., and Elrod, S. L, (2015) Implicit Theories of Change as a Barrier to Change on College Campuses: An Examination of STEM Reform. The Review of Higher Education. 38(4): 479-506.

Clients

Our list of Higher Education clients includes dozens of colleges and universities within the US and Canada across the spectrum of institutional types: community colleges, regional comprehensive universities, liberal arts and faith-based colleges, research and land grant universities, and minority-serving institutions in the public and private sectors. In addition to our extensive engagement with colleges and universities, we have worked with multiple national associations and their members.

Client details available upon request.

Who We Are

Susan Elrod, PhD

Susan Elrod is an accomplished university administrator, experienced systemic change leader, and a nationally recognized expert in STEM higher education. She uses an entrepreneurial mindset and a shared leadership approach to achieve goals that result in meaningful progress and lasting change. Her primary goal as a change leadership expert in higher education is to help campuses build the leadership capacity needed to adapt and respond to the constantly shifting environment and challenges facing higher education.

Susan has served as a dean, provost and chancellor in three university systems in the United States: the California State University (CSU) system, the University of Wisconsin (UW) system, and Indiana University system. In these roles, she led efforts that resulted in enrollment gains, curricular innovations, greater achievement of diversity outcomes, improved fiscal sustainability, organizational realignment with strategic priorities, improved community engagement and fundraising success. During 2006-2007, she was an American Council on Education (ACE) Fellow at Colorado College.

She also served as the executive director of Project Kaleidoscope (PKAL) at the Association of American Colleges & Universities (AAC&U) in Washington, DC. In this position, she led multi-campus national initiatives focused on improving undergraduate STEM education with funding from the United States Department of Education and several philanthropic foundations. She is also a co-founder of CRUSE, the Coalition for Reform in Undergraduate STEM Education, a consortium of seven national associations focused on fostering national collaborations for student success in STEM. For her work in STEM higher education, she was elected as a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS).

In all of these positions, she has been a change agent resulting in strategic gains and progress in enrollment, financial sustainability, marketing, fundraising, facilities, community and alumni engagement, and new programs.

Elrod has been published more than 30 times on topics ranging from undergraduate research to systemic change and leadership, as well as several scientific publications. She holds numerous patents. She is co-author of the books Change Leadership Toolkit: A Guide for Advancing Systemic Change in Higher Education (Elrod, et al., 2023) and Shared Leadership in Higher Education: Framework and Models for Responding to a Changing World (Holcombe, et al., 2022).

She has raised more than $10 million in federal and private funds to support research and educational initiatives. She regularly leads workshops, webinars, and keynote addresses on systemic change and leadership for campuses, associations, state systems, and national conferences. She serves on the Campus Compact Board of Directors and on the editorial board of Change Magazine. She previously held a six-year term on the HERS Board of Directors through two presidential transitions, expansion of programming, and reaching fully independent 501(c)3 status. Elrod holds a Ph.D. in Genetics from the University of California, Davis and an undergraduate degree in Biological Sciences from California State University, Chico where she also served as President of the Associated Students, Inc. (ASI). After completing her PhD, she held a postdoctoral fellowship at Novozymes, Inc. in Davis, California.