Leadership development and change management for colleges and universities, grounded in organization development and 25 years of leading change from the inside.
By Eric Goodman, Ph.D., former chief academic officer · Updated October 2026
Colleges and universities run on shared governance, faculty expertise and distributed authority. Change that works in a company often fails on campus because it skips the people who have to carry it out.
Eric Goodman, Ph.D., holds a doctorate in organization development from the University of Colorado Boulder and has led change as a chief academic officer, vice president of academic affairs and dean. He has also trained academic leaders across the California Community College system in leadership, communication and emotional intelligence.
Programs for cabinets, deans and chairs on leading through uncertainty.
Change plans built with stakeholders, sequenced to survive shared governance.
Clear communication that answers the questions faculty and staff are actually asking.
Because they are treated as technology projects instead of change. Shared governance, faculty autonomy and decentralized budgets mean change has to be built with people, not announced to them.
By listening first and giving faculty a real voice before decisions are made. Skeptics often raise the right questions; answering them in the plan builds the trust that adoption depends on.
Take a baseline, then measure again at set points: stakeholder sentiment, training completion by role, policy adoption and actions completed. Higher Ed OS reports these measures to your cabinet.
In a 60-minute Executive Briefing, you’ll get a clear picture of where your institution stands on AI and a written summary to share with your cabinet.