SRP CONSULTING, LLC
BOCA RATON, FLORIDA

Susan Resneck Pierce is President of SRP CONSULTING, LLC and President Emerita of the University of Puget Sound where she served from 1992-2003. Under her leadership, Puget Sound entered the ranks of the national liberal arts colleges. The endowment grew from $68 million to $213 million; the college completed $85 million of new construction and major renovations; SAT scores increased from 1067 to 1253; applications for 650 freshmen places grew to 4400 annually. To honor her work at Puget Sound, donors endowed both a chair in humanities and honors and a lecture series in public affairs and the arts in her name. In addition, thanks also to a major donor, the atrium of Puget Sound’s new humanities building now carries her name. Today, as President of SRP CONSULTING, Susan Pierce advises colleges and universities on such matters as effective board and presidential performance, governance, board development and strategic planning. She coaches presidents, advises board chairs and facilitates focused retreats for boards, president’s cabinets and faculty. Dr. Pierce writes and speaks extensively about higher education. Jossey-Bass published and Inside Higher Ed sponsored her two recent books: Governance Reconsidered: How Boards, Presidents, Administrators and Faculty Can Help Their Colleges Thrive (2014) and On Being Presidential: A Guide for College and University Leaders, (2012). She is also the author of The Moral of the Story: Literature, Values and American Higher Education (Columbia University’s Teacher’s College Press, 1982) and numerous essays about American literature, and she is co-editor of a book on Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man (The Modern Language Association, 1989). Boards of Trustees often use her books and essays. “University presidents are burning out like so many moths in a room filled with lit candles. Governance Reconsidered provides an antidote to this melancholy circumstance. To read this book is to experience the scales falling from one's eyes about the management and governance of America’s colleges and universities. In one of the most daunting times since the Great Depression. Pierce has identified the most consequential contemporary challenges to the institutions of higher education and their leaders and has provided answers that are insightful and informed by reflection and practice.” ~ Stephen Joel Trachtenberg, President Emeritus, George Washington University