Services
Our Services
Expert Guidance. Practical Solutions. Meaningful Results.
Chris Sax Consulting helps colleges and universities turn institutional challenges into opportunities for meaningful improvement. Through focused, collaborative engagements, we provide specialized expertise and hands-on support tailored to your institution’s priorities, resources, and unique circumstances.
Our five service areas address interconnected dimensions of institutional quality and effectiveness. Whether you need support with a specific project, additional institutional capacity, or professional development for your team, we work alongside you to turn ideas into action and achieve sustainable results.
Strategic Planning: From Aspirational Vision to Aligned Execution
Many find the strategic planning process to be painful – producing documents that gather dust, lack clear actions, coordination, ownership, and accountability, and include an overwhelming number of competing priorities. It doesn’t have to be that way! I help universities transform strategic planning into execution with clear priorities, concrete action, defined ownership, and real accountability. I reimagine strategic planning from a one-time event to a living framework that sharpens decision-making and drives measurable results.
How We Can Help
- Facilitate development of comprehensive, inclusive, institutional strategic plans
- Facilitate development of focused strategic plans
- Develop implementation plans that are shared, accountable, and sustainable
- Accelerate strategic planning through creative models
- Deliver presentations and training that build campus readiness for the development and implementation of a strategic plan.
Accreditation: From Compliance Obligation to Strategic Institutional Advantage
Many feel that accreditation activities are a waste of time, designed only to check a compliance box, while others find it to be onerous given the additional workload and their limited staffing. It doesn’t have to be that way! I help universities transform accreditation events into a strategic institutional advantage that leads to growth and effectiveness, elevated institutional storytelling, and authentic stakeholder engagement. I reimagine accreditation into a disciplined and streamlined engine for credibility, performance, and sustained quality improvement.
How We Can Help
- Facilitate institutional and programmatic accreditation self-studies
- Conduct benchmarking and gap analyses against accreditation standards
- Develop and implement corrective action plans to restore compliance with accreditation standards
- Prepare accreditation reports and evidence inventories
- Engage and manage internal and external stakeholders throughout the accreditation process
- Deliver presentations and training that build campus readiness for accreditation activities
Assessment and Institutional Effectiveness: From Busy Work to Meaningful Change
Many find assessment and institutional effectiveness processes to be busy work weighted by time constraints, bureaucracy, misalignment, and uncertainty about how to translate evidence into meaningful action or demonstrate institutional value. It doesn’t have to be that way! I help universities transform this experience into streamlined, relevant, and integrated processes that reduce burden, clarify purpose, and align academic and administrative practice with institutional priorities and accreditation expectations. I reimagine assessment and institutional effectiveness as shared insight, coordinated action, and measurable improvements in learning, operations, and institutional credibility.
How We Can Help
- Develop academic and non-academic assessment and effectiveness plans
- Prepare academic and non-academic assessment and effectiveness reports
- Conduct internal and external benchmarking and gap analyses
- Perform process improvement analyses
- Deliver presentations and training that build a culture of continuous improvement
Programs and Curriculum: From Limited Capacity to Quality Frameworks
Many struggle to sustain and design high-quality programs amid limited time, staffing, resources, and support. It doesn’t have to be that way! I help universities transform these challenges into structured, efficient, and future-focused frameworks that build capacity while elevating rigor and relevance. I reimagine program and curriculum quality through supported processes that make quality and innovation sustainable rather than exhausting.
How We Can Help
- Conduct external program reviews
- Develop academic programs and curricula
- Design alternative credentials, micro-credentials, digital badges, and co-curricular programs
- Develop curriculum standards and guidelines
- Deliver presentations and training that fosters the development and delivery of traditional and emerging programs and curricula
Leadership and Professional Development: From Occasional Training to Everyday Practice
Many higher ed professionals experience professional development as episodic workshops that are disconnected from daily responsibilities and difficult to apply in real time. I help institutions embed leadership and professional development directly into ongoing operational work. Through applied presentations, workshops, and trainings that emphasize reflection and real-world application, I help institutions cultivate leadership capacity and build cultures where learning and growth are continuous rather than occasional.
How We Can Help
Deliver presentations and training that foster professional development for leaders, staff, and faculty in a wide range of topics.
Flexible Support – Tailored to Your Needs
Every institution faces a different combination of priorities, challenges, and resource constraints.
Our engagements are designed to fit your circumstances – from focused projects and independent reviews to facilitated planning, hands-on implementation support, and customized presentations, workshops, and training.
Grounded in appreciative inquiry and a possibilities mindset, we build on institutional strengths, engage stakeholders, and co-create practical solutions that support meaningful, sustainable improvement.