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Full-Spectrum Leadership
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Rebecca Sherrick, Ph.D.
Senior Advisor
Chicago IL USA
Get in TouchAs a Senior Advisor in WittKieffer’s Leadership Advisory solution, Rebecca Sherrick, Ph.D. leverages decades of leadership and service within higher education to counsel presidents and other senior administrators on navigating their work and enhancing their effectiveness. She draws upon particular success as a turnaround agent in several higher education settings to help today’s leaders imagine and implement the innovative strategies vital to strengthening institutions. She finds personal and professional meaning in this work as she gives back to the industry that shaped her life.
Rebecca served more than two decades as President of Aurora University in Aurora, Illinois, stepping down in 2023. Early in her tenure, she stabilized institutional finances and facilitated development of the university’s inaugural strategic plan that eventually resulted in a dramatic expansion of the campus, the renovation or construction of new facilities, and the development of restricted endowments to support hallmark initiatives. Vital to the transformation was a distinctive enrollment model that fueled rapid growth and opened the institution to new student populations.
Rebecca launched her career as a history professor at Carroll University in Waukesha, Wisconsin, where she earned tenure and promotion, served two terms as elected president of the faculty, and created a women’s studies program. She joined the senior administration to direct the institution’s first strategic planning process. Later, she championed the transition from a traditional admissions strategy to an innovative enrollment management philosophy rooted in emerging best practice. As the college rebounded from a financial crisis, she served as Provost and guided the first phase of its pioneering emphasis on blending the health sciences and liberal arts.
Throughout her career, Rebecca championed service beyond the campus and was involved in leadership at a long list of community organizations, activism in higher education associations, and engagement on state commissions and boards. She is a passionate gardener with a soft spot for wheaten terriers. When not focused on higher education, she returns to her roots as a historian, blending scholarship with travel and a newfound enjoyment of historical fiction.
Distinctions
Lincoln Academy of Scholars
Woman of Distinction Award
Urban League Lifetime Achievement Award
Lincoln Academy of Scholars Woman of Distinction Award Urban League Lifetime Achievement Award Doctor of Humane Letters, honoris causa, Illinois Wesleyan University
Education
Ph.D., American History, Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois
B.A., History/Secondary Education, Illinois Wesleyan University, Bloomington, Illinois