Sagewood Consulting provides trusted, specialist support, guidance and advice to Higher Education institutions, their leadership and governing body.
I founded Sagewood in 2022 following a 30-year career in Higher Education, culminating in the Vice Chancellorship at the University of Hull, to meet a perceived sector need for support that is trusted, specialist, highly experienced and fundamentally rooted in the sector itself. This is ever more vital as senior leaders, and their governing bodies, navigate the ongoing volatility and challenge affecting institutions in different ways.
The distinctive offer of Sagewood is the combination of direct experience at the highest level in universities, a focus on challenge and change which delivers intended benefits and outcomes, psychological knowledge and expertise, and a strong focus on equality, diversity and inclusion.
Sagewood, therefore, offers a unique and personal service that combines:
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A deep knowledge and understanding of the sector, rooted in a career spanning three decades, enabling a credible, nuanced and sensitive appreciation of the complex and nubby issues facing higher education leadership today.
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My expertise lies in the successful delivery of large-scale and whole institution change – including financial turnaround - that sees the intended benefits of strategy realised and sustained. Having personally led evidence-based, successful institutional transformation as a Vice Chancellor and in senior and executive positions across diverse universities, Sagewood’s approach is founded in both extensive, direct experience and relevant theory and research.
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As a psychologist, with specialist training in Community Psychology, the theory and practice of how to engage diverse communities genuinely and meaningfully in change through participatory methodologies is a strong focus of my work.
Universities are essentially about social change, at the individual and societal level, achieved through the tripartite mission of education, research and public engagement. Inclusive practice and a firm commitment to social justice runs through my work both within higher education and beyond, including my own academic research.
I have been lucky enough to work with Susan as a Coach through Advance HE’s Top Management Programme in both a group and individual setting.
Susan’s coaching approach has been instrumental in my personal and professional development as a leader. The questioning reflective conversation is always pitched at a great level and is empowering, insightful and generous. I have always left each of our sessions feeling both validated and challenged- grounded in the knowledge that I have more developmental work to do, but I have everything I need to do that work. Above all, I feel that Susan has helped me to validate my leadership practice and bring my authentic (slightly quirky) professional, personal and cultural self to the act of genuinely approaching leadership as an enabling act of transformation for others. I can’t recommend Susan enough for her helping me to turn this key and open the door to the next adventure.