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 $1.1 trillion in assets under management (as of June 30, 2019) and offers a wide range of financial solutions, including investing, banking, advice and guidance, and retirement services. 

EAB’s mission is to make education smarter and communities stronger. The firm harnesses the collective power of more than 1,500 schools, colleges, and universities to uncover and apply proven practices and transformative insights. EAB knows complex problems require multifaceted solutions, and they work with each school differently to apply these insights through a customized blend of research, technology, and services. From kindergarten to college and beyond, EAB partners with education leaders, practitioners, and staff to accelerate progress and drive results across three key areas: enrollment management, student success, and institutional operations and strategy.

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. 

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.

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. 

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. 

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.

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 increasing enrollments, its commitment to providing students and staff a nurturing learning environment spans the entire campus experience. 

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.

Ardeo Education Solutions helps colleges and universities increase enrollment. Ardeo is a mission-driven company that provides loan repayment assistance programs (LRAPs) proven to impact enrollment decisions by eliminating uncertainty around student and parent loans after graduation. Formerly known as LRAP Association, Ardeo Education Solutions has been providing enrollment management support for over a decade and is the only company offering LRAPs to colleges and universities.

Blue Moon Consulting Group (BMCG) provides colleges and universities insight, counsel, and experience to help them effectively manage real-time responses to significant issues and crisis events. BMCG also help schools mitigate issues and avoid crises altogether through the development of proactive issues management programs, the enhancement of crisis management and communications plans, and the use of training, exercises and leadership sessions. Their goal is to build an organizational culture in which reputation is viewed as a key asset and fundamental strategic input into decision-making.

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 a team of interdisciplinary experts to develop, research, implement, and help presidents and leadership teams go farther faster and more efficiently. Credo's expertise in this sector of the higher education marketplace allows them to understand the unique challenges independent institutions face, as well as add context to the cultural, societal, and economic pressures influencing change. Informed by a holistic approach to institutional health, Credo delivers action and results in strategic planning, campus planning, student success, enrollment, and architecture.

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. 

​EY-Parthenon is a strategy consultancy, committed to bringing unconventional yet pragmatic thinking together with their clients’ intelligence to deliver actionable strategies for real impact in today’s complex business landscape. Parthenon has served as an advisor to the education sector since its inception in 1991. The EY-Parthenon Education practice – the first of its kind across management consulting firms – invests in dedicated management and team resources to achieve its explicit mission and vision to be the leading strategy advisor to the global education industry. EY-Parthenon has a track record of consistent success in working closely with educational institutions and organizations across the globe.

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. 

​McAllister & Quinn is a higher education consulting firm that specializes in working with small colleges to secure federal grant funding. The firm is regarded as one of the most effective federal grant and faculty development firms for small colleges and universities. The firm currently represents more than 50 small and mid-sized colleges and has generated hundreds of millions of dollars for scholarships, academic programs, research, and student support services.

Metz Culinary Management is a family-driven company that collaborates with its clients to deliver restaurant-inspired hospitality to each and every guest since 1994. By taking the time to learn the needs of those we serve, Metz Culinary Management provides unsurpassed service that exceeds the needs of our guests. In 2019, Food Management Magazine named Metz the Top 13 Management Company in the U.S. and one of the Top 8 Risers.

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. 

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. 

Ziegler provides its higher education clients with private placement structuring, capital raising, public private partnership structuring, strategic advisory services, equity and fixed-income sales and 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.

Acadeum, formerly known as College Consortium, is building a network of colleges and universities committed to sharing high-quality online courses to improve student success. Together, they are unlocking the collective potential of institutions to ensure that all learners have access to the courses they need at the time they need them. More than 200 colleges and universities now use Acadeum’s cross enrollment platform to improve student retention and completion while increasing institutional revenue.

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. 

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.

​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. 

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. 

Farrell Day empowers college and university leaders to make data-informed decisions. The organization uses a proprietary combination of data, context, and expertise to help student-serving institutions achieve their goals. Farrell Day aggregates, analyzes, and benchmarks student record-level data from departments across campus and the larger higher education marketplace so that they can illuminate actionable insights for their clients.

​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.

​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.

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. 

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. 

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 is a highly successful national and international executive search firm. The firm includes a strong support staff and excellent senior consultants who are rich in higher education and recruitment experience. Hyatt-Fennell is well-known and respected for placing top executives with private colleges and universities. 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. Hyatt-Fennell brings over 60 years of experience to the process of client-centered service.

Knack's 21st-century student success platform helps institutions improve retention, graduation, and college-to-career outcomes by increasing access and impact of peer-to-peer support services. The platform activates high-achieving students as a network of campus peer educators, allowing them high-impact experiential employment opportunities that cultivate career skills. In turn, the model simultaneously enables equitable peer-to-peer support services to every student at scale. Program costs stay low by having top employer/corporate partners sponsor the program activities as a way to build brand recognition and identify top rising talent for recruiting purposes.

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.

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.

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. 

Synergis Education works with colleges and universities to develop, launch, and expand niche degree programs in face-to-face, online, and blended program formats. With a special focus on in-demand programs in nursing and education, Synergis assists institutions by providing expertise and resources devoted to marketing, recruitment, retention, instructional design, and data integration. Their approach is to enable institutional partners to extend their reach by creating high demand programs with environments and services that attract prospective students. Since 2011, 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.

​Haley Associates Higher Education Executive Search + Consulting 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.

Kaludis Consulting has provided strategic advice, planning support, and management solutions to more than 700 colleges and universities and related organizations since 1977. The firm’s service portfolio emphasizes strategic, academic, and business planning; institutional economics and finance; and organizational design. Kaludis Consulting provides analysis, perspective, and guidance that enable clients to gain strategic traction in their thinking, planning, and decision making. The firm’s senior consultants have served as Presidents, Provosts, Academic Deans, CFOs, and in senior staff roles in Advancement in higher education.

​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 the search process; and 5) operating in a spirit of collegiality by treating others with respect and honoring diverse life and work styles.

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 Dysart Group is a higher education consulting firm specializing in admissions, financial aid, retention, pricing, and revenue growth. The firm has provided consulting services to nearly 200 colleges and universities throughout the country. The Dysart Group’s clients have been able to increase new student enrollments by as much as 70%, stabilize or reduce financial aid costs, and improve retention rates by as much as 7% in a single cycle.