Return to Institute Homepage Sponsors

TIAA is a unique financial partner. With an award-winning track record for consistent performance, TIAA is the leading provider of financial services in the academic, research, medical, cultural, and government fields. TIAA has $938 billion in assets under management (as of March 31, 2017) and offers a wide range of financial solutions, including investing, banking, advice and guidance, and retirement services. 

EAB is making education smarter by harnessing the collective power of more than 1,200 educational institutions to generate insights that help education leaders fulfill their mission and enable their students to succeed. The firm works alongside administrators, advisors, faculty members, and students through research forums, technologies, and services to apply and hardwire those insights. EAB helps leaders find and enroll the right students through enrollment marketing and financial aid optimization. The firm supports student success through a student success management system, which helps advisors, faculty members, and staff members guide students through school and to the post-graduate outcomes they want to achieve. EAB also provides institutions with the strategic guidance and data needed to improve mission-critical outcomes and prepare for tomorrow’s students. 

Ellucian provides innovative software and services to help educational institutions thrive in an open and dynamic world. The company delivers a broad portfolio of technology solutions, developed in collaboration with a global education community, and provides strategic guidance to help educational institutions of all kinds navigate change, achieve greater transparency, and drive efficiencies. More than 2,400 institutions in 40 countries around the world look to Ellucian for the ideas and insights that will move education forward, helping people everywhere discover their futures through learning. 

Jenzabar is higher education’s trusted advisor, offering technology solutions and services tailored to fit the evolving needs of institutions both today and in the future. The firm collaborates with clients to ensure its software and services drive performance across campus and throughout the full student life cycle. Exclusively serving higher education, more colleges and universities selected a Jenzabar student information system (SIS) over any other SIS during the past six years. 

National Management Resources Corporation was founded in 1978. National provides services exclusively to private institutions of higher learning. Services include physical plant maintenance and repair, custodial, landscape, event planning and setups, security, and construction management. National tailors its services to meet the needs and goals of the clients the company serves. With National, you can rest assured that your facilities look their best for recruitment, retention, and advancement. National helps make colleges and universities look picture perfect all of the time.

Sodexo, a leader in quality of life services, is committed to enhancing the learning environment on campus. By focusing on quality of life services, the company reinforces the overall experience of campus life, which in turn improves its partners’ effectiveness and performance. From designing meals around lifestyle needs to designing buildings for growing enrollments, its commitment to providing students and staff a nurturing learning environment spans the entire campus experience. 

Strada Education Network is a national 501(c)(3) nonprofit dedicated to improving lives by catalyzing more direct and promising pathways between education and employment. Strada engages partners across education, nonprofits, business and government to focus relentlessly on students’ success throughout all phases of their working lives. Together, they address critical college to career challenges through strategic philanthropy, research and insights, and mission-aligned affiliates — all focused on advancing the universal right to realized potential Strada calls Completion With a Purpose. 

ACT | NRCCUA is an educational data science platform and research organization with offices in Lee’s Summit, Missouri, Boston, Massachusetts, New York City, and Austin, Texas. For 44 years, NRCCUA has been a leading provider of data, technology, and programs serving students, high school educators, colleges, and universities. These solutions represent the link between students making important life decisions and those providing the resources and information they need to succeed in their post-secondary educations and careers. 

Gonser Gerber LLP understands that each institution and its needs are unique. That is why the firm takes time to get to know the president and other institutional leaders and seeks to understand each institution’s particular opportunities and challenges. Gonser Gerber refers to this customized approach as forming individually crafted relationships. The client will call it distinctive, effective, and highly welcomed. Gonser Gerber, founded in 1950, is the nation’s first advancement consulting firm serving higher education institutions and a broad range of other organizations and agencies. The firm’s innovative services have provided more than 750 clients with creative, customized, results-oriented advancement counsel and helped clients raise billions of dollars. Services offered to clients include: comprehensive advancement counsel; campaign counsel; campaign readiness studies; advancement audits; marketing and communications counsel; strategic planning facilitation; executive searches through Gonser Gerber Search; and professional development for boards, staff, and volunteers through Gonser Gerber Institute programs. 

Johnson, Grossnickle and Associates has taken an authentic and thoughtful approach to all aspects of strategic and philanthropic consulting for its clients since 1994. JGA focuses on the concepts of mission, strategy, and accountability that underlie the philanthropic relationship and helps clients achieve high standards. JGA's team of experienced senior consultants offer client-focused, highly customized solutions to private colleges, independent schools, and large cultural organizations in the Central United States. The full-service firm assists with capital campaigns, development audits, feasibility studies, and general fundraising counsel. For more information, visit our website.

The Registry is the nation's leading firm in the interim executive space. It is the only membership-based interim placement firm, which provides a business model that preempts the need for expensive, time-consuming, and potentially disruptive open-market interim searches. Over the last quarter-century, the Registry has defined and institutionalized "best practices" for the engagement of interim executives. Now with over 800 Members, the Registry is prepared to respond to the interim needs and requirements of colleges and universities in every sector and throughout the nation. The Registry can immediately generate interim candidate pools for presidents/chancellors, all cabinet positions, and deans. Most importantly, the Registry provides the very best interim talent, and its Members continue to achieve the very best results for their college and university clients.

​AE7 is a multi-disciplinary firm that believes in a holistic approach to design. The firm collaborates with our clients to create designs that reflect their culture and address their functional needs. By designing holistically, AE7 integrates the most crucial space elements into the project - visual appeal and cohesiveness, functionality, technology, accessibility, and sustainability. AE7 service offerings range from the inception and planning stages of new and renovation projects through construction completion. Services include Master Planning, Architecture, Interior Design, Landscape Architecture, Space Planning, Facility Programming, Pre-Development Services for Public/Private Partnerships, Feasibility Studies/Condition Assessments, Code Compliance, Design and Documentation, Furniture and Fixed Equipment Selection and Specification, Workplace Evaluation and Design, Art Consultation, and Branding and Visualization.

Aramark is a campus partner for dining and facility solutions. Their innovative dining services include master planning, culinary development, venue design, catering, concessions, and residential, quick-serve and express dining concepts. Aramark's expertise extends to facilities services including maintenance, custodial, grounds, energy and engineering solutions, capital project management, and building commissioning.

Asset Strategy Consultants has been providing independent investment consulting services for retirement plans, endowments, foundations, and operating reserves since 1991. With five offices along the East Coast, ASC consults on $9.5 billion assets under management. Having no products of its own, nor any relationships with banks or brokers, ASC provides customized investing using an open-architecture approach. For 403(b) clients, ASC is the partner that will ensure best practices for an institution’s Plan, DOL compliance, and outstanding participant services. As a "preferred" TIAA Adviser, ASC is equipped to oversee the complexities of 403(b) Plans and the vendors that service them. It is the firm’s goal to service higher ed clients by supporting the institution’s participants.

Capture Higher Ed uses data and technology to attract, engage, and recruit mission-fit students. Capture leverages demographic, socio-economic, and behavioral data to deliver valuable insights for more effective and progressive student recruitment. Using an algorithmic approach, Capture maximizes meaningful engagement with prospective students at the most influential times in their decision-making journey, providing a better ROI to its partner institutions. Capture’s proprietary technology is built specifically for enrollment professionals, with real-time analytics and data visualization tools to easily monitor progress and measure the success of enrollment goals at any time. Headquartered in Louisville, Kentucky, Capture Higher Ed has served nearly 75 higher education institutions across the country, and has been recognized by Fortune as one of the greatest places to work and by Inc. 5000 as a fast-growing U.S. company. 

Collegis Education® is a strategic partner whose revenue-growth solutions help colleges and universities maximize their enrollment potential through data-rich, technology-enabled, marketing, engagement and retention services. In programs supported by Collegis Education solutions, partner institutions have realized average new-enrollment gains of 20% in just the first year of partnership. With more than two decades of experience in higher education, the Collegis team develops holistic, interconnected strategies that enable institutions to realize long-term growth in accord with their mission and values.

Credo has partnered with independent college and university presidents, cabinets, and board members around the country for more than 20 years, using their team of interdisciplinary experts to help colleges’ teams go farther faster and more efficiently. Informed by a holistic approach to institutional health, Credo delivers action and results in strategic planning, campus planning, student success, marketing, enrollment, architecture, and research. Credo’s expertise in this sector of the higher education marketplace allows them to understand the unique challenges independent institutions face. The firm knows that with smart, data-driven strategies designed to lift up institutions’ missions and propel their visions, independent higher education can grow and thrive through any challenge. 

Dynamic Campus partners with forward-thinking leaders of colleges and universities who want to ensure their institution’s technical capabilities are optimized for the rapidly changing needs and goals of students, faculty members, and stakeholders alike. Dynamic Campus provides a proven blend of managed IT services, on-demand technical capabilities, and an objective approach to help colleges and universities maximize the performance of their existing technology investments and IT support teams. Universities and colleges trust Dynamic Campus to greatly improve student success outcomes and deliver better strategic alignment, improved organizational visibility and accountability, lower institutional risk, and a campus IT environment that is “future ready.” 

Hanover Research, founded in 2003, is a global research, grant development, and analytics firm that delivers market intelligence through a unique, fixed-fee model to hundreds of higher education institutions worldwide. Hanover’s team of experts helps higher education institutions offer a world-class educational experience and operate an efficient and sustainable institution. Hanover has designed a tried and tested suite of higher education solutions that tackles the academic and administrative challenges facing every department at the institution, amplifying individual efforts in areas including enrollment management, academic affairs, finance, marketing, and advancement. Hanover’s partners include higher education institutions of all varieties: from large to small, public and private, two-year, four-year, professional, graduate, and for-profit institutions. With its comprehensive solutions and multi-methodological approaches, the firm’s dedicated team of analysts diagnoses an institution’s needs and develops a customized research agenda.

Hastings+Chivetta Architects, Inc. practices the firm’s mission statement every day, “Building clients, not just projects.” Over 80 percent of their projects are on a repeat or referral basis for higher education clients throughout the nation. For a half-century, the dedicated staff has participated in the master planning, design, and construction of every campus project type from science to athletics. From this experience they have gained a deep understanding of what campus leaders require to deliver projects that instill pride in past and future graduates. Hastings+Chivetta is committed to planning and designing facilities that meet each client’s unique requirements. The firm is recognized as a steward of sustainable design that supports its clients’ missions. Hastings+Chivetta is proud to have worked with over 70 CIC institutions in their 58-year history. 

Metz Culinary Management has been an innovative leader in the hospitality industry since 1994. The company’s experience with thousands of guests per week enables Metz to bring restaurant-quality cuisine and service to its foodservice operations in the educational setting. The company’s menus offer fresh, nutritious, enticing options tailored to students, staff, and guests. Metz sources the best local foods and ingredients each season and offers an abundance of vegetarian, vegan, heart-healthy, and lower–fat choices because of the company’s commitment to nutrition. Cage-free eggs, fair-trade coffee, and antibiotic-free chicken are just the beginning of the company’s sustainability efforts. 

Stevens Strategy, LLC is a full-service consulting firm specializing in managing the process of strategic change in colleges, universities, and schools. The firm offers professional services to the leaders of these institutions in the following areas: institutional vision and strategy, strategic organizational leadership, market and program analytics, finance and data analytics, and institution-wide policy manual development. Stevens Strategy’s consultants have extensive experience serving colleges, universities, and schools—including positions as present and former trustees, presidents, faculty members, vice presidents, and other senior staff—each with a particular area of expertise in leadership and management. The firm’s clients include independent and public institutions from the largest universities to the smallest colleges and schools in America and throughout the world. 

The Learning House, Inc. helps people improve their lives through education. The academic program manager offers a full suite of education services, including Online Program Management, Corporate Solutions, The Software Guild, Learning House International, and Advancement Courses. Built on a foundation of data-driven decision making, thorough market research, and robust technology services, Learning House is focused on delivering high-quality, relevant, timely education services to meet the needs of a dynamic, global market. Through its partnerships, Learning House helps universities acquire more students, produce more graduates, and deliver better outcomes while helping companies attract, develop, and retain a happier, more skilled workforce. 

Yaffe & Company, Inc. can help where boards and executive teams interface, and where data and relationships intersect. The firm’s team is comprised of former presidents of prestigious colleges and universities, and has four decades of experience in helping institutions to thrive and grow. Yaffe & Company are experts in the areas of board effectiveness, executive compensation contracts and performance, IRS compliance, goal-setting and performance evaluation, retirement and retention plan design, succession planning, leadership development, and presidential transition. With the firm’s guidance, the institution’s entire team will have constructive conversations that lead to greater clarity, meaningful outcomes, and positive growth. 

AGB Search, LLC focuses exclusively on higher education leadership. The firm identifies interim appointments to preserve continuity, offers full search services to help institutions navigate the hiring process, provides transition assistance to set up leaders for long-term success, and offers compensation evaluation services to assess fair, competitive salaries. Each member of the consulting team brings years of experience as a higher education leader to the firm. AGB Search not only understands the demands of leadership, but also is deeply invested in supporting the next generation of leaders. 

Art & Science Group offers market-informed strategy to higher education institutions, independent schools, and the nonprofit sector. Since its founding in 1994, the firm has provided its clients with strategic market research and recommendations, built on a foundation of both creative thinking and empirical rigor—art and science. The Group works in a variety of arenas, leveraging a foundation of market data, analysis, and inventive ideas, to guide and advance institutions’ strategic interests and critical investments. The firm is dedicated to helping each institution position itself in ways that positively affect the decisions of its key constituents in an institution’s favor. The Group provides a customized and collaborative approach for each client, with recommendations rooted in sophisticated research and thorough analysis. 

nded by John Payiavlas in 1960. His son Anthony now serves as CEO and president, continuing his father’s tradition of responsible and sustained growth serving leading education, business, healthcare, and leisure and entertainment institutions across the United States and Canada. Today, AVI Foodsystems is the largest family-owned foodservice company in the United States with over $800 million in revenue. The firm has always been driven by core values that define who they are and how they act: integrity. excellence. innovation. relationships. sensitivity toward people. sensitivity toward society. family. passion. customer and guest focus. and accountability.

BCWH collaborates with colleges and universities to assess opportunities to enhance the campus and to design and capture the full potential of an institution's resources. A college or university campus is an eco-system for learning. At every scale, a well-designed campus serves the collegiate community with an environment for interaction, discovery, creation and reflection. BCWH helps institutions achieve that goal.

​BKD CPAs & Advisors helps higher education institutions nationwide maintain financial stability, manage risks, and stay compliant with accounting standards and changing tax laws. By partnering with BKD CPAs & Advisors, colleges and universities can take advantage of opportunities, meet student needs, and prepare for what’s next. The firm’s knowledgeable advisors work with colleges and universities of all shapes and sizes, offering audit, tax, and consulting services, including contribution margin and program economics analysis. 

Casagrande Consulting, LLC is a boutique firm focused on providing insight into institutional, board, leadership, and compensation effectiveness to institutions of higher education. The firm has provided insight to more than 50 institutions since its launch in 2009. 

College Consortium (CC) allows schools to share online courses and tuition revenue (academic sharing) to improve retention and graduation rates, academic alignment, and student success. Their platform seamlessly manages inter-college enrollments so schools can access a back-up inventory of online courses to support student progress and program enhancement. Students can access financial aid, count course grades in their campus GPA, replace poor grades, and count credit hours towards full-time status. CC's leadership team has over 80 years of experience in private, independent higher education as former presidents, provosts, CFOs, and vice presidents of enrollment and works directly with each institution to adapt academic sharing to its unique environment and culture.

Creative Communication Associates (CCA) is a full-service marketing communications and branding agency, specializing exclusively in higher education. From the Ivy League to large public universities to small private colleges to specialty schools, CCA’s nearly 30 years of strategic and creative expertise has built some of the best brands in higher education today. 

Derck & Edson‘s commitment to higher education is demonstrated through their numerous planning, enhancement, and athletics projects on campuses throughout the United States. The firm’s expertise is demonstrated by the lasting, positive impressions that their work leaves on college and university campuses. Since 1940, the company has been transforming campuses through planning, design, and implementation services that meet the needs of colleges and universities, including: feasibility studies, master planning, athletic facilities design, implementation services, engineering, GIS services, architectural services, site design, circulation solutions, construction observation, inventory and analysis, and identity enhancement. 

Educational & Institutional Insurance Administrators, Inc. (EIIA) is a nonprofit consortium offering a sophisticated range of insurance and risk management services to higher education institutions across the country and internationally. The consortium’s programs include property and casualty, auto, educators’ legal liability, workers’ compensation, student and athlete health insurance, employee benefits, and health plans. EIIA offers a library of educational videos, policy drafts, white papers, and legal briefs free to its members. The consortium is proud of its long-standing track record for educating institutions in managing risk and providing unique insurance programs and services tailored to their needs. 

​Goff Public is a Minnesota-based public relations and lobbying firm that has been helping clients share their stories, shape public opinion, and protect their reputations for more than 50 years. Goff Public is focused on three areas: relationships, reputations and results. The members of the firm are proven problem solvers who set the standard for client service, offering a full range of public relations expertise from crisis communications to strategic plans and communication audits to proactive media relations. Goff Institute, the training arm of Goff Public, has trained thousands of leaders and spokespeople across the country on how to interact with the media, respond in a crisis, and effectively advocate for their organization.

​Hopelab is a social innovation lab focused on designing science-based technologies to improve the health and well-being of teens and young adults.

Hunter Global Education, LLC was established to bridge educational and relational gaps between American and Asian educational institutions and businesses. With today’s globalization, the need for honest, affordable, and reliable educational advice and assistance is growing. Institutions that once served local and regional needs are now being challenged to enter the global market, and trusted relationships are the highway on which international programs run. Students who once attended local and regional colleges and universities are venturing far from home to secure their education. Good decisions in all these areas require a sound knowledge of other cultures and countries. Hunter seeks to fill this knowledge and relationship void with its many programs and services. 

Institute for Humane Studies at George Mason University is a programmatic and grant-making organization committed to furthering freedom of expression in higher education and the flourishing of classic liberal studies in the college curriculum. Programs such as Learn Liberty introduce undergraduate students to classical liberal ideas and writers, while grants for graduate students assist interested students in pursuing advanced degrees. Grants to faculty members support on-campus programming related to liberal education and, increasingly, freedom of expression and open inquiry. 

​LRAP Association is an enrollment tool that positively impacts enrollment decisions. LRAP (Loan Repayment Assistance Program) helps colleges and universities enroll and retain students who may feel college is unaffordable, by resolving the fear of loans and student debt. If a student’s income after graduation is modest, LRAP helps repay their educational loans. The program covers federal loans, private alternative loans and parent PLUS loans. Students who aren’t stressed about debt are more likely to enroll.

mStoner, Inc. is a digital-first agency committed to tailored solutions that deliver real results. The company crafts powerful, tailored, human-centric experiences to illuminate clients’ brands and allow them to tell their unique story. mStoner connects their clients with the right audience at the right time to form right-fit relationships. The firm positions teams for improved productivity, sustainable growth, internal alignment, and proof-positive success. mStoner aims to help clients create inspired work that they are proud to show off. Since 2001, mStoner has worked with more than 350 colleges, universities, and professional schools in the U.S. and abroad.

Orbis Education solves health care workforce shortages by creating collaborative partnerships between educators and employers. Orbis partnerships combine the university’s academic expertise, the health care provider’s clinical expertise, and the company’s own substantial program management expertise to drive transformative enrollment growth without sacrificing academic quality. Orbis specializes in managing degree programs for high-demand health care fields, such as nursing and occupational therapy, which also have a significant clinical education component. The company helps academic partners remove the typical barriers to enrollment growth, from lack of capital to constrained faculty resources to the challenge of securing and managing clinical placements. The result is a health care program that attracts quality students, creates more high-quality practitioners to meet employer demand, and provides a sustainable incremental revenue stream for the institution. 

Partners Development is a full-service real estate development firm specializing in higher education project management. The firm focuses on private, independent colleges and universities. For over forty-five years, Partners has managed facility development on campuses across the country, providing planning, design, financing, and construction of any campus capital project. Beyond traditional project management services, Partners brings significant expertise and experience conducting project feasibility analyses, exploring creative financing solutions, and leading conceptual facility development exercises.

Pioneer College Caterers is the only dining service provider catering exclusively to faith-based universities, colleges, and seminaries since 1973. The organization currently serves 48 partners in 20 states across the United States. Pioneer College Caterers is committed to each client’s success by providing outstanding food and service in every campus venue. Through these efforts they partner in recruiting, retention, student life, sustainability, financial success, and spiritual mission.

SAGE Scholars’ Private College & University Enrollment Marketing Consortium provides its nearly 400 colleges and universities ,including several CIC member institutions, with free access to a unique database of students who have expressed interest in attending private college. The families are either saving for college or employed by companies that provide superior benefits, including free Tuition Rewards. Consortium membership is free to colleges. The SAGE database of actively participating students includes more high school seniors than the combined seniors planning to attend four year colleges in the cities of Houston, Philadelphia, Phoenix and San Diego.

Spelman Johnson is an executive search firm exclusively committed to serving higher education. Recruiting talented leaders on behalf of the institutions the firm serves, its success is strengthened by its deep and diverse relationships and its investment in the development and engagement of a leadership pipeline. Since 1991, the firm has helped hundreds of higher education institutions identify outstanding professionals, pairing exceptional leaders with positions across all facets of the academy. Spelman Johnson is nationally recognized for its thought leadership on issues of equity and diversity and for its commitment to inclusion in higher education. 

Stamats allies with colleges and universities on a mission. The firm helps institutional leaders dream, strategize, articulate, and implement, from strategic planning through market research and creative communications across all channels. 

​Strategic Higher Ed (SHE) is a strategy consulting firm committed to bridging the gap between the modern learner, the workplace, and the academy. Creating a sustainable learning future demands that agents of change, faculty and corporate leaders, become integrated within the solutions that are developed and executed. SHE focuses on refreshing and creating learning engagements based on the tenets of liberal education and mapped to employment, thus bringing life to a modern learning economy. Building on over a half century of higher education experience, SHE consultants provide assessment and insight to assist in the development of strategy, business intervention and expansion, and learner support services.

​Synergis Education was established in 2012 to work with colleges and universities to co-design and launch niche degree programs in face-to-face, online, and blended program formats. Institutions have been able to extend their reach by creating rich and unique learning environments that complement faculty-developed courses, creating an environment that attracts prospective students into the right degree programs. Synergis has built and supported over 60-degree programs on behalf of its diverse institutional partners and has enrolled more than 12,000 students.

The Collaborative prides itself on design solutions tailored to each client’s specific needs and context. Founded in 1973, with offices in Toledo, Ohio, and Ann Arbor, Michigan, the firm is led by six principals who are hands-on in day to day project management.  The firm’s 42-person team is broken down into functional focus areas, creating experts in the areas of design solutions and project delivery mechanics. The Collaborative’s experience includes 80+ campuses and more than 650 major higher education projects. With this benchmarking knowledge, the firm can provide guidance for translating strategic goals into physical parameters.

Ziegler provides its higher education clients with private placement structuring, capital raising, public private partnership structuring, strategic advisory services, equity and fixed-income sales & trading, for both rated and non-rated bond issues. The higher education practice complements Ziegler's other business lines in the healthcare, senior living and education sectors, allowing us to leverage our unique expertise in complex credit structures and financial advisory services. Through the practice, independent colleges and universities can learn what their competitors are doing, keep abreast of market trends, and take advantage of new financing opportunities.

​Buchart Horn Architects’ design process begins with a simple goal: to meet clients’ needs through visionary and realistic designs. It is Buchart Horn’s responsibility to provide clients with unparalleled service and exceptional design while creating spaces that function for the client and inspire the community. The firm’s professional and support personnel have completed hundreds of projects on college and university campuses across the country, including master plans, academic buildings, science facilities, health science facilities, campus centers, residence halls, libraries and learning commons, athletic and recreation facilities, dining halls, and historic restoration/renovation projects. Buchart Horn brings the ability to quickly understand project needs, constraints, and future requirements.

​The Charles Koch Foundation grants funding to scholars, students, and partners developing creative solutions that empower individuals to transform their lives and to improve society.

​Farrell Day is a strategic management consulting firm partnering with presidents, boards, and senior leadership to build institution-wide strategic intent and the planning and execution necessary for sustained success. Formed by former Royall & Company senior principal Peter Farrell and Hardwick Day founder James Day, their engagements reflect the principals’ unusually broad range and deep level of experience and wish to be embedded in team efforts to achieve and optimize success. This range of experience includes a proprietary approach to tuition pricing and market position research as well as utilization of CRM data for analysis, prediction, prioritization, and segmented communication consulting across enrollment, development, and institutional research endeavors.

​GMB Architecture + Engineering is an architectural and engineering firm specializing in higher education, sports, K-12 education, healthcare, corporate, and industrial environments. Founded as an architectural firm in 1968, their list of services quickly grew to include mechanical, electrical, civil, and structural engineering, interior design, and landscape architecture. GMB offices are filled with over 100 experts who enjoy sharing their knowledge, and it’s amazing what great minds can do when they work together. The firm has 50 years of learning, growing, and giving back under their belts and serve their clients from four offices: Holland, Grand Rapids and Royal Oak, Michigan, and Indianapolis, Indiana.

​Haley Associates Executive Search is a boutique higher education executive search and consulting firm which provides expert and customized support for college and university leaders and institutions. Haley Associates’ consultants have supported over 100 searches at the president, chancellor, provost, vice president and dean level, including over 45 president/chancellor searches. With 10 years of executive search and consulting experience, the founding principal, Dr. Katherine Haley, is the former president of Whittier and Gettysburg colleges. Dr. Haley advises colleges and universities on leadership succession, governance and effective board performance.

Huron is a global professional services firm committed to achieving sustainable results in partnership with its clients. The company brings depth of expertise in strategy, technology, operations, advisory services, and analytics to drive lasting and measurable results in the health care, higher education, life sciences, and commercial sectors. Through focus, passion, and collaboration, Huron provides guidance to support organizations as they contend with the change transforming their industries and businesses. 

Hyatt-Fennell, Executive Search brings over 60 years of combined highly successful executive search expertise to its higher education clients. Hyatt-Fennell is well-known and respected for placing top executives with independent colleges and universities and has earned a reputation for achieving results on the national and international level. Through a partnership with its clients, Hyatt-Fennell enhances and streamlines the search process and provides a commitment to find the perfect person for each position. 

​The Nelson Mullins School and College law team reaches across disciplines to help clients reach their goals and plan ahead. The firm provides holistic representation for clients’ legal needs. Their education law professionals serve as thought leaders, and partner with other thought leaders, to impact educational policy and advocate best practices. The firm has worked with local, state, and federal regulatory agencies and legislative bodies. They also represent clients before administrative tribunals and federal courts to achieve optimal results for their clients. Founded in 1897, Nelson Mullins today has more than 550 attorneys and other professionals located in 10 states and Washington, DC. 

​Parkhurst Dining delivers authentic culinary experiences exclusively to private colleges and universities. Parkhurst Dining was founded in 1996 on the premise of choosing “imperfection over standardization”. The organization has held fast to their culinary values and knows that made-from-scratch food delivers greater student satisfaction and engagement leading to stronger financial outcomes for its clients. Parkhurst Dining is also known for its commitment to sustainable practices and local sourcing; dedication to client partnerships and seamlessly integrating into the campus culture; a people-first approach to team management, training and development; and an investment back in the communities in which they live and work.

RH Perry & Associates partners with institutions of higher education and other mission-driven organizations to identify outstanding leaders. Established in 1974, RH Perry’s higher education practice consists of a well-balanced mix of individuals with executive-level higher education experience and search expertise. Their team is comprised of 11 senior consultants who co-lead search assignments and a team of communications and research specialists who support each search team. RH Perry is committed to: 1) respecting and embracing the unique perspectives and talents of their clients, their candidates, and their team; 2) acting with integrity through honest and informed counsel; 3) promoting transparency by proactively communicating critical information and clearly articulating their best practices; 4) maintaining appropriate confidentiality throughout and beyond our search process; and 5) operating in a spirit of collegiality by treating others with respect and honoring diverse life and work styles.

RHB is a marketing and design consultancy serving higher education. The firm has aided more than 125 colleges and universities in their efforts to solve branding, marketing, enrollment, and fund-raising challenges. RHB’s mission to help great causes succeed leads them to market research, strategic planning and creative implementation solutions for institutions. The firm utilizes its experience and expertise to offer informed counsel to college and university presidents regarding differentiated marketing positions, signature experiences, and revenue-generating strategies. RHB also collaborates with the Lawlor Group to generate The Survey of Independent College Presidents, available at www.higheredintelligence.com. Through RHB Insights, the firm writes about and shares its latest thoughts on higher ed marketing to provide clarity and confidence to a higher ed readership that spans the globe. 

SimpsonScarborough's integrated approach to market research, strategy, and creative brings together people, vision, and values with the firm’s recognized experience to build brands that inspire and endure. SimpsonScarborough believes that creative marketing ideas need to be inspirational and motivational but also grounded in research in order to reach enrollment, fundraising, and reputation goals.

Steptoe & Johnson PLLC is a national law firm of more than 300 lawyers with offices in Colorado, Kentucky, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Texas, and West Virginia. The firm’s higher education team consists of attorneys from multiple disciplines who cater to the diverse legal service needs of independent colleges throughout the United States, including advice on a broad array of compliance issues and tax-exempt financing. The firm’s attorneys have held positions in higher education as in-house counsel, accountants, development officers, trustees, and faculty members, and they have extensive experience handling issues confronting multiple colleges. In short, the firm understands higher education and constantly aspires to provide cost-effective, pragmatic solutions based on that understanding. 

​The Lawlor Group, Inc. is a full-service, award-winning, higher education marketing firm that has served over 250 educational institutions, consortia, and associations since its founding in 1987, providing them with market research, strategic counsel, and integrated/interactive marketing communications services (print, web, digital/social, advertising, PR). The firm's core areas of expertise are enrollment management, institutional marketing, and, increasingly, alumni engagement and fundraising (capital campaign consulting, campaign messaging, case statements, annual fund communications, content, etc.). The firm also publishes Lawlor Perspective, a series of white papers for senior management and trustees; and Lawlor Focus, a monthly e-newsletter that explores topics relevant to college presidents and enrollment management, marketing, and communication professionals in higher education. In addition, Lawlor sponsors a series of professional development seminars and symposiums for higher education leaders during the course of the year, including the very popular annual summer seminar.

The Dysart Group is a higher education consulting firm specializing in admissions, financial aid, and retention. The firm has worked with more than 175 colleges and universities to achieve extraordinary outcomes.