Karen Gonzalez Rice

Transformative Coaching for Faculty and Staff in Higher Education: Powerful Tools to Address Institutional Challenges

Edited By Karen Gonzalez Rice, Susan Hrach, Kathryn E. Linder, and Katherine S. Maynard

This wide-ranging collection explores how to integrate coaching into higher education in ways that tackle some of the most pressing challenges facing institutions today. By embracing coaching as a powerful tool for growth and change, faculty and staff can navigate complexities, foster innovation, and cultivate thriving academic communities.

Drawing on the expertise of seasoned academic coaches, the authors provide a rich, multifaceted exploration of coaching’s potential to drive individual transformation and institutional success. With insights grounded in diverse roles and perspectives, the chapters showcase how coaching can empower faculty and staff at every career stage. From creating authentic connections and building resilience to promoting inclusivity and inspiring structural change, this lively book is packed with the practical tools, real-life examples, and thought-provoking reflection questions necessary to develop a core, functional understanding of coaching in higher education.

Transformative Coaching for Faculty and Staff in Higher Education: Powerful Tools to Address Institutional Challenges Book Cover. This book is edited By Karen Gonzalez Rice, Susan Hrach, Kathryn E. Linder, and Katherine S. Maynard for Routledge
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Workshop Series

We invite you to join our free coaching-inspired workshops from November 2025 to April 2026.  

With support for higher ed wellbeing, career deepening, productivity, pedagogy, and more, these opportunities for professional and personal development are led by the fabulous authors and skilled coaches.

Join the contributors of our new book in the Transformative Coaching Workshop Series.

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Table of Contents

Section 1: Foundations of Coaching

Introduction

  1. Coaching Fundamentals by Kathryn E. Linder
  2. A Guide to Training Programs and Pathways for Higher Education Coaches by Kathryn E. Linder
  3. The ABC and D of Identifying and Addressing Ethical Issues in Higher Education Coaching by Jessica Miller

Section 2: Growing Coaching Skills

  1. Getting Started: Putting Coaching into Practice as Educational Developers by Christine Moskell and Katherine S. Maynard
  2. Cultural Alignment in the Coaching Space by Anne Marie Edwards
  3. Faculty Coaching to Build Authentic Relationships by Elizabeth A. Norell
  4. Coaching Neurodivergent Clients on Campus by Elizabeth A. Norell
  5. Embodied Strategies to Develop Presence as a Coach by Susan Hrach
  6. Integrating Your Skills and Expertise into Established Coaching Practices Ethically by Laurel Iverson Hitchcock and Allison M. Curington

Section 3: Applying Coaching Skills to Specific Scenarios

  1. Co-creating Learning Spaces for the Future: A Coach Approach Framework by Jenn Wicks and Dana Wetherall
  2. A Partnership and Coaching Model for Teaching Observations by Jenny Hannah Moore
  3. Coaching for Productivity and Project Management by Kathryn E. Linder and Susan Robison 
  4. Chairing Faculty through Organizational Change: A Coaching Informed View by Sara Schley
  5. Reimagining Academic Writing through the Lens of Sustainable Productivity Coaching by Kate Henry

Section 4: Coaching for Specific Audiences

  1. Thriving in the Middle: How Coaching Can Empower Higher Ed Administrators by Kim Burns
  2. Coaching Faculty Through Professional Burnout in Higher Education by Rebecca Pope-Ruark
  3. The Complexities of Coaching in Student Affairs: A Unique Opportunity by Charles Klink, Gypsy Denzine, and Timothy L. Davey
  4. Coaching Instructional Designers and IT Professionals in Higher Education by Eric M. Stauffer
  5. Developing an Awareness of the Structural Barriers at Play for Women of Color Faculty: One Coach’s Perspective by Katherine In-Young Lee

Section 5: Coaching the Career Lifecycle

  1. Facilitating Faculty Acculturation: A Coaching Approach by Kimberly J. Hale
  2. Fostering a Coaching Mindset and Culture with Academic Department Chairs by Gypsy Denzine and Whitney Sherman Newcomb
  3. Coaching through a Career Curveball by Rebecca Campbell and Gypsy Denzine
  4. Walking the Tightrope: Coaching Faculty Clients Who Decide to Leave the University by Chinasa Elue
  5. A Call for Enoughness at Mid-Career by Brooke Anne Hofsess
  6. Legacy Coaching for Late-Career Faculty by Mary Carney

Section 6: Group, Team, and Peer Coaching Models

  1. Unlocking Potential: Group Coaching as a Strategic Tool to Enhance Organizational Effectiveness by Harry L. Price
  2. Bringing a Coaching Mindset to Educational Development by Leslie Ortquist-Ahrens
  3. Cultivating a Coaching Culture: Improving Faculty Readiness for Boundary Spanning Collaboration via Team Coaching by Jennifer W. Purcell and Misty Grayer
  4. Developing Signature Coaching Capacities to Invigorate Organizational Growth by Diane E. Boyd and Benjamin K. Haywood

Conclusion by Karen Gonzalez Rice, Susan Hrach, Kathryn E. Linder, and Katherine S. Maynard

Editors

Karen Gonzalez Rice is Professor of Art History at Connecticut College, USA.

Susan Hrach is Director of the Faculty Center for the Enhancement of Teaching and Learning and Professor of English at Columbus State University, USA.

Kathryn E. Linder is Associate Vice Chancellor for Academic Innovation and Strategy at the University of Colorado Denver, USA.

Katherine S. Maynard is Director of the Teaching and Scholarship Hub at the University of Richmond, USA.

Reviews

What if the most transformative tool in higher education isn’t another initiative, but a better question? This compelling volume shows how coaching—rooted in deep listening, presence, and curiosity—can unlock meaningful change across our campuses. Whether you’re an experienced or new coach in academic leadership, educational development, or career services, you’ll find fresh insights for supporting growth, navigating conflict, and cultivating more humane, effective institutions. More than a manual, this rich collection offers invitations to rethink how we lead, how we support others, and how we show up—in our institutions and in ourselves.

Michael Palmer, Professor & Barbara Fried Director, Center for Teaching Excellence, University of Virginia, USA

Transformative Coaching provides a comprehensive set of tools helpful to higher ed professionals across a range of faculty and staff roles and responsibilities. Chapter authors provide a complex and nuanced understanding of challenges and opportunities for coaching in the contexts of higher ed. The book offers guidance for those new to coaching as well as those looking to deepen their approaches to coaching faculty, staff, or student colleagues. Whether readers focus on key chapters or read cover to cover (highly recommended), they will find thoughtful explorations of the skills, frameworks, and mindsets that make powerful coaching experiences possible.

Deandra Little, Associate Provost of Faculty Affairs and Professor of English, Elon University, USA

This book felt like a conversation I’ve been waiting to have. It brings together many thoughtful voices, people who know higher education from the inside, and offers practical insights into how coaching can support real, systemic change.

I appreciated the recognition of how coaching already lives in our day-to-day work across higher education, and found the chapter on educational development especially resonant given my own experience working with faculty.

Throughout the volume, the writing is clear and grounded, with welcome attention to ethical practice, equity, and sustainability.
Whether you are just starting out or well into the work, you will find something valuable here.

Isabeau Iqbal, Senior Educational Developer, Centre for Teaching, Learning and Technology, University of British Columbia, Canada; Professional Certified Coach with the International Coaching Federation 

What a joy to see the publication of this book and the timing couldn’t be better! This edited volume will find welcome readers among faculty, staff, and leaders at colleges and universities. The authors demystify coaching and share the myriad ways in which the practice has the potential to not only transform the lives of individual faculty and staff members but also transform academia and humanize the work that we do. Never has there been a more crucial period in higher education for making the case for coaching.

Mary L. Churchill, Associate Dean and Professor of the Practice, Boston University, USA

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