The Learning Alliance

FIT has retained The Learning Alliance for Higher Education (TLA) to facilitate 2020: FIT at 75. TLA is a provider of educational research and leadership support services to accredited, non-profit, two- and four-year colleges and universities. A consortium of nationally known researchers and consultants from public policy centers and universities, it was founded by the University of Pennsylvania and is the successor to the Pew Higher Education Roundtable.

TLA serves higher education institutions by providing senior administrators with timely access to expertise, current research, and market data. It aims to strike a balance between academic pursuits and the realities of the market by coupling the academic communitys traditional leadership skills with the kind of expertise that focuses on markets, technology, and management practices.

The organizations that form The Learning Alliance include higher education research centers at Stanford University, the University of Michigan, and the University of Pennsylvania; major organizations that have focused on public policy and institutional practice; as well as for-profit enterprises.

For more information about The Learning Alliance for Education, please visit their website at www.thelearningalliance.info.

The Learning Alliance Team

Over the course of the academic year, many FIT faculty, staff members, and administrators will work with the following professionals from The Learning Alliance for Higher Education (TLA):

Bob Zemsky, who will lead the team, is TLAs chair. He is the former director of the University of Pennsylvania's Institute for Research on Higher Education, and served for a decade as the university's chief planning officer. He also chaired both the Pew Higher Education Roundtable and the Knight Collaborative.

Bill Massy was founding director of the Stanford Institute for Higher Education Research and served for more than a decade as Stanfords chief financial and administrative officer. He is an international expert on resource allocation and education quality audits in higher education. For the past five years, he has been president of the Jackson Hole Higher Education Group.

Joan Girgus is currently professor of psychology and chair of the Committee on Women Faculty in Science and Engineering at Princeton University. Formerly, she served as dean of the college of Princeton University.

Patricia Burch is the managing principal of The Stillwater Group and a trained facilitator specializing in strategy development, academic planning, and student services. She has more than 20 years of experience in higher education, including more than ten years at Columbia University, where she was budget director for the School of Arts and Sciences.

Ann Duffield is senior consultant and leader of the Communications and Planning Group at Marts & Lundy. Prior to joining the firm in 1999, she worked for 25 years at the University of Pennsylvania, where she was associate vice president of university relations. She has also served as associate director of the University of Pennsylvania's Institute for Research on Higher Education and as program director of the Higher Education Roundtable.

Susan Shaman is director of special projects at the Peach Bottom Group and a guest lecturer in the Executive Doctorate in Higher Education program at the University of Pennsylvania.

James Galbally is at the Peach Bottom Group, and has served at the University of Pennsylvania since 1983, where he is a member of the faculty of The Wharton Schools Management Department and the Graduate School of Educations Higher Education Division.