My Thinking
Featured Series
Agile: Higher Education Administration’s Best Hope?
Articles on Higher Education
Of Black Sheep and Other Important People
When a front-line staff or faculty member cares enough to bring an issue to our attention, we as leaders are called upon to at least acknowledge and consider those views in the interest of innovation and organizational learning. More
A Question of Semantics? Some Thoughts on the “D” in DEI
Only by creating an environment that allows our organizations to be disrupted can we truly activate and leverage the diversity inherent in our teams and – most importantly – change the status quo for the betterment of all. More
“Treat Them Well…” – And Why Higher Education Often Fails to Do So
“Train people well enough so they can leave, treat them well enough so they don’t want to.”
I have since thought a lot about this statement and how it applies to higher education. Much to my chagrin, I find that, more often than not, our institutions of higher learning fail to live up to Branson’s maxim. But why is that? More
Why Words Matter: Labels, Semantics, and Higher Education Leadership
If the past two decades as a world language and cross-cultural educator have taught me one thing, it is that words matter. Any labels we attach to things, actions, and people have the potential to elevate them to tremendous heights or reduce them to insignificance. More
Leaders, Managers, and Everything In-Between
Managers tell and – under the best of circumstances – demonstrate to us what to do and how to do it. Leaders, on the other hand, model and make us believe in why we do these things. More
Gained in Translation: What Six Sigma Can Teach Us About Communication in Higher Education
Years of experience have taught me that there is often a glaring disconnect between what members of the upper administration consider important information as it relates to the strategic mission of the institution on the one side and how such information is perceived at the department level on the other. More
My Blog
Here you can find my latest short-form essays on organizational leadership, design, and people-centered transformation. In these compact pieces, I tackle a variety of topics, such as the philosophy of writing, today’s workforce expectations, and general leadership topics. More
Socially Responsive Leadership for Post-Pandemic International Higher Education: Theoretical Considerations and Practical Implications
Institute of International Education (2021)
The pandemic has exposed the vulnerability of traditional programs to a range of geopolitical forces out of any internationalization leader’s control. This realization now forces leaders to reprioritize their efforts toward meaningful and sustainable on-campus programs and curricular changes to prepare students for the immense complexities of today’s global issues. This paper interrogates and extends traditional concepts of leadership in international higher education and proposes a shift from primarily instrumental strategies toward organizational and curricular changes. More
Mechanisms of Impact: An Exploration of Leadership for Sustained World Language Enrollment in U.S. Higher Education
Dissertation (2019)
In response to the pressures of globalization, internationalization has been driving change in higher education over the past decades. Most internationalization frameworks consider world language and intercultural education essential to 21st-century global education. While many U.S. institutions of higher education (IHEs) increasingly depend on tuition revenue, enrollment numbers in language programs across the U.S. declined 15.3% from 2009 to 2016. Given the need for academic departments to generate tuition revenue to remain viable, dwindling world language enrollment in most U.S. higher education institutions is a pressing issue that warrants further investigation. More