Courageous Leadership to
Reimagine the Future of Higher Education

Join the evolution

Tomorrow’s world is yours to build.

Yuri Kochiyama

Our Moment

Higher education is facing unprecedented challenges. We need courageous leadership, now more than ever, and poor leadership has never been more costly. A new generation of leaders with the capacity to lead forward is not optional; it’s urgent. 

These challenges are also full of possibilities for courageous leaders who can let go and move forward, accepting the challenges we face as real and embracing their agency to lead with and through them. At Evolve, we help leaders face these realities with clarity, capacity, and confidence.

  • Unprecedented Challenges

    Enrollment cliff, budget constraints, staff disengagement and attrition, feeling under attack, external interference, and indefinite uncertainty.

  • Better Tomorrows for Us All

    Rooted in values and purpose

    Clear aims & aligned action

    Do less to be more

    Letting go and embracing new ways of being

    Cultures of innovation, creativity, & transformation

  • Evolve Institute Offerings

    Leadership coaching journeys to take your leadership to the next level whether you are an executive leader, emerging executive, emerging leader, or leading for equity.

Leadership Journeys

We offer leadership coaching journeys for leadership teams and individual leaders focused on executive leaders, emerging executives, emerging leaders, and those leading for equity.

  • Summit

    Executive Leadership

  • Ascent

    Emerging Executives

  • Base Camp

    Emerging Leaders

  • Elevate

    Leading for Equity

Your EVOLVE Facilitators and Coaches

Higher Education is facing unprecedented challenges.

Leaders are facing budget constraints, enrollment cliffs, feeling under attack, staff disengagement and attrition, external interference, and indefinite uncertainty. If you are a leader operating from a fear and scarcity mindset, there’s plenty of evidence to justify that perspective. 

Many leaders are working longer and harder than ever trying to just survive and minimize the losses and harms to their institutions. We can lose ourselves in arguing that the challenges we are facing shouldn’t be, longing for a return to normal, and hoping that the world around us will shift to make leadership easier and our institutions successful. This approach makes sense, is completely understandable, and it won’t work. Leading from fear and scarcity will not help us move our people, institutions, or students forward.

Reimagining higher education leadership for better tomorrows for us all.

We must see not only the challenges but the possibilities beside and within these challenges and strategically lead toward better tomorrows for us all. We can lead with and through these challenges.

We need courageous leaders who can grieve what has been lost, accept the challenges we are facing as real (without agreeing this is the way it should be), and embrace the agency we have to lead with and through these challenges.

Institutions of higher education need to invest in and empower a new generation of leaders to reimagine higher education leadership to move people and organizations from surviving to thriving; increasing outcomes for faculty, staff, and students; and courageously co-creating transformational change to move higher education forward.

Evolve Institute for Higher Education Leadership

We are reimagining higher education leadership and empowering the next generation of higher education leaders, at all levels,  with the leadership capacity to lead toward better tomorrows for us all.

We are the leaders we have been waiting for.

Grace Lee Boggs

Testimonials from Prior Participants

  • Evolve provides an intentional and thoughtful approach to finding your voice ... It allows you to be introspective and vulnerable while being challenged to dig deeper and consider how you might tackle real-world examples differently in the future. Ultimately, it has given me increased confidence in those situations that oftentimes provide me the most anxiety that I will get it wrong. The group sessions allowed me to find camaraderie with others who experience similar feelings and challenges, and the individual sessions allowed me to dig into the content in very intentional and enlightening ways. Evolve is a game changer for those in senior leadership positions.

    Senior Leader in Higher Education

  • As someone who has more than 30 years of experience in my field, Evolve's personalized, asynchronous approach was exactly what I was looking for. The program allowed me time to explore my fears and reflect on areas of deficiency while I strengthened my foundational commitment to this work, and learned new skills, insights, and tools. The individual coaching combined with the collaborative and supportive nature of the Evolve cohort model, provided me with countless moments of growth.

    Vice President for Student Affairs

  • Evolve was one of the best professional development experiences I've had in my 20+ year career in higher education. This program pivoted my clarity and truly pulled out the innate wisdom that I already possessed. The facilitators and coaches were brave, compassionate, and knowledgeable in their work with the cohort. The curriculum was thoughtfully put together in such a way that it didn't feel like a textbook but rather a journey. I highly recommend Evolve to anyone who wants to strengthen their leadership voice.

    Jamie S. Patton, Ed.D., Associate Vice President for Student Affairs

  • This was an incredible professional development journey. I truly didn't realize the level of impact it was making on my work in the moment. It has framed conversations and ideas in a strategic way I had not considered before.

    Senior Leader in Higher Education

  • The value of the one-on-one coaching is immeasurable. To have one of the faculty talk with you about the content is invaluable. In addition, the group sessions were transformative for me. I really appreciate hearing from colleagues who are going through this content alongside me and are working through it in their own personal and professional contexts.

    Tim Miller, Vice President for Student Affairs

  • As leaders in higher education, we can easily become absorbed in our daily tasks, sometimes feeling the need to recharge and refocus on our purpose. Evolve provided me with the perfect opportunity to step back, reflect, and develop new strategies. The guidance from three exceptional coaches, Dawn, Brian, and Keith, along with the insights gained from my cohort, offered me fresh perspectives and reaffirmed the knowledge and wisdom I already possess. This experience has been invaluable in renewing my energy and commitment to my role, equipping me with the tools to move forward with confidence.

    Fraylanie Aglipay, Ed.D., Director of Student Affairs

Join the evolution of
higher education leadership.

Let’s move your vision forward.
Join the list for upcoming Evolve offerings or book your FREE 30-minute discovery meeting with Brian, Dawn, or Keith today.