Experienced

Consultant

Dr. Tierini is an experienced consultant and postsecondary education professional with a demonstrated history of working in the higher education industry. Some of her skills include Postsecondary Education Policy, Research, Student Recruitment, Student Retention, Student Development, Leadership, and Collaborative Problem Solving. As an accomplished professional, Dr. Tierini has over 19 years of experience working on programs and projects aimed at achieving foundation, university, state, and federal government goals and initiatives. In addition to assisting clients with achieving institutional, organizational, state, and federal goals, she aids in the implementation of new initiatives, collaborative problem solving, guiding, and leading specialized projects as requested.

Consulting Services

Policy Analysis
Student Development
Leadership Development
Workshops

Recruitment and Retention
Program Evaluation
Program Development and Implementation
Research

Consistent Company Results

Dr. Tierini provided thought provoking, authentic and timely words of encouragement for our graduates as they prepared to enter a post-pandemic society. Student, faculty and staff attendees raved at Dr. Tierini’s ability to engage the audience and inspire them to dream. We are grateful for her inspirational words and look forward to having her back in the near future.

Christopher Clarke

Director-Office of Multicultural Student Affairs

University of Miami, FL

If you are looking for a top-notch consultant, look no further than Dr. Tierini. Dr. Tierini’s collaborative work style made her an amazing asset to have on the team. Reliable, amiable, and an effective communicator, Dr. Tierini is a consummate professional, and her work exudes excellence. It was an absolute pleasure working with Dr. Tierini, and should I need a consultant in the future, I will absolutely utilize her services again.

April White Henderson

Former Associate Executive Director

The Hunt Institute

I was fortunate to have hired Tierini as an educational consultant to observe the pilot delivery of a new biomanufacturing college course and to conduct focus groups with the students. Tierini is thorough, thoughtful, reliable, personable, and a great communicator - all the things you need for a role like this. She developed a great rapport with the pilot students and instructors and was able to obtain specific and highly-detailed qualitative and quantitative feedback that we will use to enhance the course experience.

Dan McClellan

Learning and Development Specialist III, The AvidXchange

Dr. T has been an exceptional leader on our ALP curriculum materials project. Dr. T conducted multiple rounds of focus group research and analysis with integrity. She has an innate knack for careful questions and intense listening skills. Her ability to relate to the various focus group subjects and find and isolate common themes is outstanding. These skills were essential in providing us with actionable information to develop the best product. In addition to the focus group research Dr. T acted as project lead, keeping our tasks and dates in line with the goals and timelines of our project. Dr. T is an efficient, thoughtful, professional and organized leader. I highly recommend her for any project.

Ellen Babb

Augustine Literacy Project

I worked with Tierini in the arena of enrollment services where she effectively met targeted goals with minimal direction. She always delivered the desired outcomes and exceeded expectations in this highly demanding and essential enterprise. Tierini built meaningful relationships with our clients and stakeholders (both external and internal) by actively listening to their needs and then provided value-added services to support and engage them. She is a dedicated education professional who easily manages multiple responsibilities while operating within ever-challenging and dynamic environments. One of the sources of Tierini’s success is her ability to work with individuals from all walks of life, helping them formulate their goals and realize their dreams. She is honest, trustworthy, dependable, unflappable, truly a model of integrity.

Anthony Britt

Former Director of Admissions

East Carolina University

Research & Publications

This study examines how loosely coupled university units collaborate in the achievement of institutional wide goals. Today’s higher education institutions are being asked to do more with less as resources have decreased and regulatory procedures have increased. Collaboration is being touted as a means to improve student learning, avoid redundant efforts and protect access and affordability. When considering that the future of higher education is noted to rely heavily on institutions’ ability to foster collaboration amongst its many components, it is vital that more data is collected that explains how collaboration happens at a loosely coupled university. To examine this phenomenon, this study utilized a qualitative case study methodology to explore the collaborative efforts of the faculty, staff, and administrators at a large state university during their acquisition of a grant which required the institution to infuse entrepreneurial principles throughout the institution.

The data collected for this study revealed that when considering how loosely coupled university units employ concerted action, five elements proved significant in the achievement of institutional goals. The processes and performance of the units, the collaborative processes of the group, the commitment of the units to the institutional goal, the presence, and management of conflict, and the presence of a superordinate goal delineate what constitutes collaborative goal attainment at this large, loosely coupled research university. The significance of these themes was determined by their congruence to the evidence gathered from reviews of the literature outlining group dynamics and collaboration in higher education. The findings of this study provide data that can aid institutions in engaging their loosely coupled units in collaborative action in the achievement of institution-wide goals.

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