Rewriting the Rules in Higher Education: Teresa Flannery, Ph.D.

At age 14, Teresa Flannery, PhD worked a short stint on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., teaching visitors to the city how to play American children's games, from Red Light Green Light to Red Rover. It was a memorable experience that foreshadowed her current leadership as Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of the Council for Advancement and Support of Education. Terry has worked with CASE colleagues and leaders across higher education in an ongoing effort to review and revise the standards and metrics by which higher education institutions operate – the rules of the game – in areas such as philanthropy, alumni engagement and, currently, marketing and communications, and to disseminate them to more than 3,000 member institutions in more than 80 countries worldwide.

Higher education, she admits, faces immense challenges today in justifying its value to an increasingly skeptical public. In this conversation with WittKieffer's Melissa Fincher, Terry shares insights into industrywide efforts CASE is supporting to better communicate what makes higher education special and how it is a "strategic asset" for countries around the world. She maintains optimism and a broad perspective on the future—higher education has been around for more than 1,000 years and has adapted to challenges before; it will do so again, she believes.

Throughout her career Terry has learned to "lean more into curiosity and less into judgment" in approaching challenges and guiding her colleagues and team members. Wrapping up the conversation, she advises other leaders to exercise patience in their careers: "You can have everything," she says, "you just can't have it all at once."