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CASE STUDIES
The Change Leadership Toolkit Case Studies are currently in development. This page will be continuously updated as new Case Studies are published.
Amarillo College Case Study
Elizabeth Holcombe, Ángel de Jesus Gonzalez and Russell Lowery-Hart (Amarillo College)
Pullias Center for Higher Education (2023)
This case study documents the transformation of Amarillo College (AC) from an institution with low retention and completion rates to a community college that has been recognized nationally for its innovative approach to improving student success. In the midst of a budget crisis, President Russell Lowery-Hart worked to both cut costs and streamline bureaucratic processes, while at the same time transforming systems and structures to improve outcomes for students and tackle the challenges of poverty that were holding students back. Facing declining enrollments, a nearly $4 million budget cut from the state, and told by the Board that tuition could not increase, Russell had to figure out a way to cut costs and simultaneously improve the College’s low completion and transfer rates.
Categories: Leadership, Equity and Leadership
Change Leadership Toolkit Case Studies equity and leadership leadership
Download 392.39 KB 2151 Downloads
Dallas College Case Study
Elizabeth Holcombe, Ángel de Jesus Gonzalez, Adrianna Kezar and Karen Stills (Dallas College)
Pullias Center for Higher Education (2023)
Karen Stills, Senior Associate Vice Chancellor for Student Success at Dallas College (DC), led an effort to transform advising for the students at this community college beginning in 2020. In the midst of a merger and reorganization effort, where seven campuses of the Dallas Community College District were consolidated into a single multi-campus institution (Dallas College), Karen had the opportunity to completely rethink advising structures and systems in ways that would improve outcomes for DC’s 100,000+ students. Karen worked with her team to develop an entirely new training and professional development model for the Success Coaches to help them better support students in their educational journeys.
Categories: Leadership, Equity and Leadership
Change Leadership Toolkit Case Studies Equity & Leadership leadership
Download 355.39 KB 2816 Downloads
California State University, Monterey Bay Case Study
Ángel de Jesus Gonzalez, Elizabeth Holcombe, and Andrew Lawson (California State University, Monterey Bay)
Pullias Center for Higher Education (2023)
This undertaking to implement EO 1110 was the driving force behind the systemic change project led by Andrew Lawson, Dean
of the College of Science at CSUMB. Because of CSUMB’s existing commitment to innovation to support student success for
traditionally-disenfranchised students, the adoption of a new system-wide policy was seen as an opportunity to once again
be innovative. At the time, the College of Science represented roughly a third of the campus’s student population.
Categories: Leadership, Equity and Leadership
equity and leadership leadership
Download 944.58 KB 1140 Downloads
University of Portland Case Study
Ángel de Jesus Gonzalez, Elizabeth Holcombe, and Stephanie Salomone (University of Portland)
Pullias Center for Higher Education (2023)
This Case Study describes how Stephanie Salmone, Department Chair of Mathematics and Director of the STEM Education
and Outreach Center at the University of Portland (UP), led a project called Redesigning Education For Learning through
Evidence and Collaborative Teaching (REFLECT). The REFLECT project was funded by an NSF IUSE: EHR grant (#1710735) and was designed to increase the use of evidence-based teaching methods in STEM at UP, with a special focus on peer observation and feedback to improve teaching and learning.
Categories: Leadership, Equity and Leadership
equity and leadership leadership
Download 708.78 KB 536 Downloads
San Francisco State University Case Study
Ángel de Jesus Gonzalez, Elizabeth Holcombe, and Sue Rosser (San Francisco State University)
Pullias Center for Higher Education (2023)
Over a 3-year period starting in 2014, Sue Rosser, Provost at San Francisco State University, worked with women faculty in
STEM to explore their experiences and determine their priorities for career advancement during their time with the university.
Preliminary data from SF State STEM departments had revealed a high service burden for tenure-track women faculty. This
data was a major impetus for advancing the work in evaluating the impact of service on career advancement of tenure-track
women faculty at SF State. This Case Study showcases how Sue’s Leader Moves varied across different parts of the change process, from pre-phase through grant acquisition to after she transitioned into a new role.
Categories: Leadership, Equity and Leadership
equity and leadership leadership
Download 3.23 MB 592 Downloads
University of LaVerne Case Study
Ángel de Jesus Gonzalez and Elizabeth Holcombe
Pullias Center for Higher Education (2023)
In 2016, as part of a three person team, Lisa Looney and Sean Bernard led the efforts to create a new teaching evaluation
policy and a larger set of faculty-related policies within a new Faculty Handbook. As chair of the Faculty Policies Committee
(Lisa) and Faculty Senate President (Sean), these leaders worked for 2 years with colleagues across the University of LaVerne
(ULV) to launch and implement this systemic change project. The project began with the need for a new teaching evaluation
policy but quickly evolved as campuswide conversations established that there was a lack of clarity and consistency on many
faculty-related policies, not just those related to teaching evaluations. This Case Study describes the creation
of the new Faculty Handbook and teaching evaluation policy and the Leader Moves that Sean and Lisa made to enact these
changes at ULV.
Categories: Leadership, Equity and Leadership
equity and leadership leadership
Download 2.64 MB 634 Downloads
CU Boulder Case Study
Ángel de Jesus Gonzalez, and Elizabeth Holcombe, Noah Finkelstein, (University of Colorado Boulder)
Pullias Center for Higher Education (2023)
This Case Study highlights Noah Finkelstein, Professor of Physics at CU Boulder, and the Leader Moves he made to develop
and adopt a new framework for supporting and assessing teaching on his campus. Noah is one of the Principal Investigators in the Physics Education Research (PER) group and is a fellow and founding co-director of CU’s Center for Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) Learning. He co-directs the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities (APLU’s) national Network of STEM Education Centers, and is helping build the STEM Discipline-Based Education Research (DBER) Alliance and coalitions advancing undergraduate education transformation. Given his robust involvement at the campus, regional and national levels, Noah was experienced and well-positioned to lead the development and implementation of the Teaching Quality Framework (TQF) at CU Boulder. The purpose of the TQF was to provide a richer evaluation of teaching that would encourage broader adoption of evidence-based teaching practices and enhance student learning at CU Boulder.
Categories: Leadership, Equity and Leadership
Equity & Leadership leadership
Download 3.60 MB 724 Downloads