Expert sense-making, storytelling and facilitation on student success.

Elliot is an expert on student success, and the role that people, academic programs, places, technology platforms, and career paths play. He brings together stories, stats, and strategies to redesign what you offer, how you operate, and the way you are organized. 

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From his consulting work with more than a 100 colleges and universities and books on student success, Elliot understands the issues, and he engages audiences not only with stories and stats but with activities, exercises, and questions that make for interactive experiences that help audiences learn.

Whether you need a conference keynote, a leadership/board retreat speaker and facilitator, a session to develop emerging leaders, or a workshop to get people aligned and inspired, Elliot offers expert sensemaking, storytelling, and facilitation on student success. No matter the format or audience, Elliot can spark conversations with trends and examples, help you envision and plan for the future, and build consensus and excitement to get there.

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The Connected College

Student success does not happen within a single office, department, or initiative—it happens when institutions work together with purpose and intention. Elliot Felix draws on insights from his book The Connected College and his work with more than 100 colleges and universities to explore how institutions can create more connected, student-centered experiences. He examines how demographic, technological, and cultural shifts are reshaping higher education and what leaders can do to foster belonging, improve outcomes, strengthen career readiness, and break down organizational silos. Through practical examples and success stories from institutions across the country, Felix demonstrates how collaboration across academic affairs, student affairs, technology, facilities, career services, advancement, and other key areas can drive meaningful results. He challenges audiences to rethink how their institutions are organized and where opportunities exist for greater alignment and impact. This keynote offers a practical roadmap for creating a more connected institution where students, faculty, and staff can thrive.

Audiences will learn:

  • How demographic, technological, and cultural trends are reshaping student success

  • Practical strategies for creating stronger connections across institutional departments and functions and with industry partners

  • Ways to foster belonging, improve outcomes, and better prepare students for life after graduation

This program can also include an interactive assessment of institutional connectedness and exercises to help teams identify opportunities for improvement and develop a roadmap for action.

 
 
 

Redesigning the Student Journey

Navigating college should not feel like an obstacle course for students—it should be a seamless, supportive pathway designed around their actual lives. Elliot Felix draws on insights from his book The Connected College and his work with more than 100 colleges and universities to show how institutions can comprehensively redesign the student experience. He explores how leaders can combine high-touch human interaction with high-tech solutions, including AI, to remove administrative friction while deepening relationships. Through practical examples, Felix demonstrates how to integrate the student voice to audit technology, curb digital sprawl, co-locate vital support services, and transform campus spaces. He challenges audiences to look at the entire student lifecycle through a holistic lens—from academic program design to physical and digital touchpoints—using clear metrics to measure and improve engagement. This keynote offers a practical roadmap for creating an intentional, friction-free journey where every student feels seen, supported, and guided toward graduation.

Audiences will learn:

  • How to strike the right balance between high-touch human care and high-tech tools like AI

  • Practical methods for auditing technology to curb digital sprawl and co-locate fragmented student services

  • Ways to integrate student input and real-time metrics to continuously optimize campus spaces and academic programs

This program can also be extended to include activities such as developing student personas, mapping current student journeys, brainstorming potential solutions, and roadmapping future changes to academic programs, technology, facilities, operations, and organizational structures.

 
 
 

Dynamic Planning for Institutional Uncertainty

In a landscape defined by rapid disruption, a rigid, five-year strategic plan is often obsolete before the ink dries. Elliot Felix draws on insights from his book The Connected College and his work with more than 100 colleges and universities to help leaders shift from prescriptive plans to agile execution. He examines the massive demographic, financial, and cultural trends reshaping higher education and introduces scenario planning, design thinking, and other tools to structure how you navigate uncertainty. Felix demonstrates how institutions can design dynamic strategic playbooks that provide fierce organizational focus and true market differentiation. He outlines how to conduct rigorous academic program reviews to align institutional strengths with the evolving needs of students and employers, while exploring new models for cross-institutional collaboration, consortia, and operational consolidations. This keynote offers a practical roadmap for building institutional resilience and equipping leadership teams to adapt swiftly to whatever the future holds.

Audiences will learn:

  • How macro-trends are driving uncertainty and why traditional, rigid strategic planning no longer works

  • Strategies for using scenario planning and academic program reviews to align offerings with market demand

  • Frameworks for developing agile playbooks and leveraging partnerships, consortia, and consolidations for long-term sustainability

This program can also include interactive exercises such as scenario planning, roadmapping, and pilot project design which can bring strategic planning to life and jumpstart future planning efforts so that participants leave not only with information and inspiration but momentum as well.

 
 

From Silos to Synergies: Redesigning Campus Operations

Higher education is plagued by operational fragmentation, where departments run smoothly in isolation but the student experience suffers and the costs are not sustainable. Elliot Felix draws on insights from his book The Connected College and his work with more than 100 colleges and universities to explore how institutions can move from protective silos to powerful synergies. He examines how to remove costly redundancies and bridge administrative gaps across divisions by rethinking campus infrastructure. Felix shares proven strategies for co-locating student services, building active cross-functional communities of practice, and leveraging clear operational metrics for continuous improvement. He demonstrates how redesigning academic programs and curbing digital sprawl can simultaneously lower institutional costs and elevate the quality of support. This keynote challenges audiences to break down structural walls and offers a tactical guide to building an integrated ecosystem where data, spaces, and people work in harmony.

Audiences will learn:

  • The operational cost of silos and how to identify and remove institutional redundancies

  • Tactical approaches to co-locating services, curbing digital sprawl, and building cross-departmental communities of practice

  • How to use data-driven metrics to redesign operations and academic programs around modern student needs

This program can also include interactive activities to map and audit programs, technology, and reporting structures; identify potential solutions, and roadmap operational and organization changes.

 
 

Higher Education’s New Org Chart

Most university organizational charts were designed for a different era, creating rigid barriers that prevent institutions from adapting to modern realities. Elliot Felix draws on insights from his book The Connected College and his work with more than 100 colleges and universities to explore how to design a flexible, responsive, and future-ready organizational structure. He examines how leaders can purposefully align their institutional structure, services, staffing, and technology systems to match how work actually gets done – at a cost that can actually be sustained. Felix outlines how to build an org design that aligns with institutional strategy, enables focus and differentiation, and fosters internal collaboration and innovative industry partnerships. He shares practical examples of how cultivating communities of practice can break down legacy hierarchies and build a campus culture that views change as a competitive advantage. This keynote offers an actionable framework for rewriting the rules of campus organization to unleash human talent and improve outcomes.

Audiences will learn:

  • How legacy organizational charts hinder innovation and how to redesign them for agility

  • Methods for aligning staffing, services, and systems to deliver on strategic goals and market differentiators

  • Strategies for fostering internal collaboration, external industry partnerships, and a campus culture that adapts to change

This program can also include an interactive assessment of current structures and the way they shape staffing, technology systems, and campus spaces as well as identify the principles and priorities to guide a redesign at the institutional, school, or department level.

 
 

The Next Generation Library

The academic library can no longer focus solely on stewarding collections and providing quiet space. It must be the intellectual and social heart, the primary collaborative hub of the modern campus. Elliot Felix draws on insights from his book The Connected College and his work with more than 100 colleges and universities to map out the evolution of the next generation library. He examines how institutions can successfully shift the balance between physical collections and dynamic study spaces, reimagining facilities to be more varied, flexible, and deeply tech-enabled. Felix demonstrates how libraries can become premier engines for retention by deliberately partnering with student success units, integrating tutoring, writing centers, advising, career services, and experiential learning under one roof. He challenges audiences to rethink traditional service models and staff structures to ensure next-generation services can be delivered sustainably and impactfully. This keynote offers a visionary yet highly practical playbook for maximizing the spatial, operational, and strategic value of the campus library.

Audiences will learn:

  • How to balance physical collections with flexible, tech-enabled spaces that accommodate diverse learning styles

  • Models for integrating student success partners—like advising, tutoring, and career services—directly into the library ecosystem

  • Ways to restructure library service models and staffing frameworks to ensure long-term operational sustainability

This program can also include an interactive assessment of spaces, service and staffing models, and technology systems to support learning and research into the future as well as activities to brainstorm and prioritize potential interventions.

 
 
 

  • "Elliot Felix delivered an exceptionally interactive and engaging session for Quinnipiac’s leadership team based on The Connected College. By interweaving compelling statistics, success stories, and practical advice, he masterfully addressed scenario planning for an unknown future, improving health and wellness, and the vital role of space in student success—providing the essential insights needed to inform our institutional planning."

    – Marie Hardin, President of Quinnipiac University

  • "A great conference needs a strong finish, and Elliot delivered on every front. His closing keynote synthesized the core conference themes of culture, workflow, and team design into a practical strategic framework. He then seamlessly transitioned into facilitating a deep-dive panel, guiding speakers and engaging the audience to ensure the insights were directly applicable. Our attendees left with the gift of a clear path from big ideas to real-world execution."

    – Mike Moss, President, Society for College and University Planning (SCUP)

  • "Elliot Felix’s insights from The Connected College were transformative for our staff retreat. His content and delivery resonated with our staff immediately. He helped us think differently about persistent challenges, and he sparked vital conversations on redesigning administration and support. The ideas and examples helped us create a more effective and efficient organization while improving the daily experiences of our students, faculty, and staff."

    – Justin Thompson, Senior Associate Dean, University of Virginia

  • "Elliot served as keynote speaker and moderator for our Student Success Forum. We brought colleagues together from across campus to highlight and build on student success initiatives. His remarks encouraged reflection on current approaches and connected the work to our strategic priorities. As a moderator, he was especially effective in identifying common themes in real time and asking the right questions to keep the conversation focused and moving forward."

    – Jodi Bailey Accavallo, VP for Student Affairs, Temple University

  • "Elliot facilitated our annual retreat, sharing lessons from The Connected College. He is an engaging speaker with case studies and strategies that resonated with us. I particularly appreciated Elliot's skilled facilitation. He encourages participants to question presumptions and think deeply, and he can refocus the room when necessary to ensure productive ideation and conversation. Our team left feeling energized and unstuck, and we are already piloting several of our retreat ideas."

    — Kat Stefko, Interim Director of the Bowdoin College Library

  • "Elliot was an energetic speaker and phenomenal facilitator for our MSI Humanities Leadership Institute. He brought powerful clarity to the role enrollment management plays in student success and showed how to truly welcome, support, and connect students and their families. His interactive approach left our campus leaders inspired and equipped to increase enrollment, retention, graduation, and career success."

    – Marybeth Gasman, Distinguished Professor, Rutgers University, Graduate School of Education and Executive Director, Samuel DeWitt Proctor Institute for Leadership, Equity, & Justice & Rutgers Center for Minority Serving Institutions

  • "Elliot is at the top of our list when we are looking for a thought-leader on the future of learning, libraries, and student experience. He’s spoken at many of our conferences, led webinars, and participated in panel discussions. One of his many strengths is the level of engagement that he creates with an audience through his insights, questions, and advice. He’s a tremendous collaborator!"   

    – Kathleen Benton, Former Associate Director, Strategic Alliances, Society for College and University Planning

  • "Elliot participated in many of our workplace workshops and collaboration sessions. He informed and inspired these discussions in multiple ways, but in particular with a talk on the future of learning. It was full of great analysis and examples that got us thinking and almost immediately sparked ideas on how to collaborate with education and community partners."

    – Mary Davidge, Former Global Design Director, Real Estate and Workplace Services, Google

  • “Elliot has spoken at several of our conferences, and he has also taught several online courses for EDUCAUSE members on topics like student experience and learning technology. His sessions are always engaging, grounded in deep expertise, and give audiences examples, tools, and practical advice that help them make progress.”

    – Kathe Pelletier, Director, EDUCAUSE Teaching and Learning Program

  • “I’ve participated in several roundtables that Elliot facilitated to bring together Student Affairs professionals across institutions to think about the future. All these sessions really got us thinking together about our students’ needs, how they are changing, and how we need to change. Each was well-researched and prepared and was expertly facilitated.”

    – David Clark, Associate Vice-President for Campus Life, Emory University

  • "Elliot has given keynotes, led workshops, and participated in town halls at more than a dozen of our conferences. These sessions are consistently among the top-rated sessions by our audiences – and the most lively and engaging. He combines bold insights about the future of work and learning with practical advice, tools, and metrics."

    – Derek Westfall, President, Tradeline, Inc.

  • “We seek speakers who will get students to think expansively about their opportunities and resources, and honor their voices and experiences. Elliot achieved this and more… If you are looking for a speaker or facilitator that is really going to get people engaged, motivated, and inspired, then look no farther than Elliot Felix. One of our students said it best: ‘I liked how Elliot Felix framed the college and work experience as something you need to design. I never thought of it that way.’ ”

    – Alice Ginsberg, Director of Programs, Partnerships and Strategy at The Collective Success Network

  • "We are offering a new high-impact course called Communities of Practice. Elliot Felix joined one of our classes and led students through some reflective exercises that spurred conversations about their challenges and successes bringing to life the concepts of his book, which the students also got a copy of… This book has surely been a valuable resource for the students!"

    – Patience Lueth, Director of Foundation Studies, Minneapolis College of Art and Design

 

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