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The Operator-in-Residence

Your last three consultants
left you a plan.
You're still waiting on the results.

For presidents, provosts, and CFOs who need a growth strategy implemented, not explained.

The Education Strategist embeds as your Operator-in-Residence.

Start with the Diagnostic →
See the Turnaround →

The playbook that got
you here won't get you
through this.

The growth strategies that worked a decade ago no longer hold. Tuition-dependent institutions are facing compounding pressure on enrollment, finances, and quality — with leadership teams that were never built to carry this much at once.

Who this is for

The President

  • • The board wants answers I don't have.
  • • Our model is broken, and I know it.
  • • I don't want this to be my legacy.

The Provost

  • • The mission is intact but the model isn't.
  • • Faculty don't trust the direction.
  • • Fewer students, same expectations.

The CFO

  • • We're spending to grow and it isn't working.
  • • I can't find margin that isn't already gone.
  • • Every budget cycle is a harder conversation.

Each one knows what needs to happen. None of them has the capacity to make it happen alone.

A New Kind of Engagement

Delivers a plan and leaves. The Operator-in-Residence delivers an installed growth architecture and stays embedded long enough to operate it.

The Consultant

Optimizes the funnel. The Operator-in-Residence redesigns programs, pricing, and unit economics. The marketing problem in higher education is almost never a marketing problem.

The Marketing Agency

Extracts the revenue. The Operator-in-Residence works on a fixed monthly retainer, builds infrastructure the institution owns outright, and engineers her own scheduled handoff.

The OPM

Offers counsel. The Operator-in-Residence works alongside your cabinet, owns the outcome, and is accountable to the result, not just the recommendation.

The Advisor

Meet the Operator-in-Residence

A fractional role for institutions that need capacity, momentum, and measurable progress.

01
Reads the Model

Full diagnostic before a single recommendation

Financials, enrollment data, marketing spend, program economics, projections, learner demand, and the current cost of staying the course.

02
Builds the Strategy

A growth model the institution can actually run

The growth model, portfolio choices, pricing logic, learner pathways, unit economics, and maximizing Learner Lifetime Value.

03
Implements the Strategy

Still in the room when the hard decisions get made

Decisions made, priorities sequenced, systems built, teams aligned, and progress moving inside the institution.

Proof, Not Promise

Before this became a model, it was a turnaround. A complex university portfolio was carrying the familiar symptoms of a broken growth model: enrollment projections that did not match reality, marketing spend that was not converting efficiently, staffing built for a much larger operation, unclear program economics, and no credible path to break-even. Maya spent 18 months rebuilding the model from the unit economics up. The work focused the portfolio, corrected the growth assumptions, improved marketing efficiency, redesigned the operating model, and created a more sustainable path forward. These are the results.

Financial Impact Annual operating losses — reduced dramatically.
Marketing Efficiency Marketing spend — cut significantly while enrollment held, then grew.
Enrollment Growth New student growth — sustained and compounding year over year.
Student Retention Fall-to-fall retention — more than double the industry average.
Conversion Lead-to-enrollment rate — more than 2x the industry gold standard.
Sustainability Break-even timeline — accelerated by four years.
Read the Full Case Study →

One engagement to understand the problem.
One to solve it.

Step 1

The Open-Books Diagnostic

For leaders who need the truth fast.

A focused engagement that gives the president, provost, CFO, and board an operator-grade read of where the institution stands, what the current model is costing, and what the next 90 days require.

Engagement length Start here when the institution needs clarity before committing to the full rebuild.
Begin Here →
Step 2

The Mandate

For institutions ready to build and implement the growth strategy.

A 12-month embedded engagement where Maya serves as Fractional Chief Growth Strategist, working with the president and cabinet to build the growth model, sequence the work, and create measurable progress inside the institution.

Engagement length When the conversation shifts from what needs to happen to who is going to make it happen.
Explore the Mandate →

The Next Step

Get a clear read on what is slowing you down.

The Open-Books Diagnostic gives you an operator-grade view of where the institution stands, what is blocking progress, and which growth priorities need attention first. In four to six weeks, the institution gets a clear assessment of the model, the constraints, the opportunities, and the first 90 days of work required to create movement.

If you are ready to move, it credits in full toward the Mandate.

Insights
The Sum of Ambitions Is Not a Strategy
The Sum of Ambitions Is Not a Strategy

Complex institutions do not need smaller ambitions. They need one organizing logic. This piece explains how multi-unit colleges and universities can narrow to a real strategy by choosing what holds them together, what should stop consuming attention, and which future actually deserves resources.

If You Don't Have Strategy, You'll Spend an Hour Talking About Koi Fish
If You Don't Have Strategy, You'll Spend an Hour Talking About Koi Fish

Without strategy, every cut becomes a fight. Every donor request becomes an hour-long debate. Every decision exhausts your leadership team. Here's why institutions that don't make clear choices about where they compete waste time on things that don't matter — and what to do instead.

Growth Strategy for Higher Ed Didn't Exist. So I Built It.
Growth Strategy for Higher Ed Didn't Exist. So I Built It.

What happens when the smartest people in the room cannot agree on what growth means? A personal story about higher education, institutional strategy, and building a discipline that did not exist.

What the NFL and Women’s Sports Reveal About Higher Education Growth
What the NFL and Women’s Sports Reveal About Higher Education Growth

Higher education leaders often assume growth requires finding new audiences. A better question is whether demand is already there, but hidden by how institutions package, communicate, and deliver learning. Drawing on the NFL’s global strategy and the rise of women’s sports, this episode shows how growth actually happens—and what leaders need to change to capture it.

What The NFL And Women’s Sports Can Teach Higher Education About Growth
What The NFL And Women’s Sports Can Teach Higher Education About Growth

Higher education leaders often assume growth requires finding new audiences. A better question is whether demand is already there, but difficult to see or convert. Drawing on the NFL’s global strategy and the rise of women’s sports, this episode shows where growth actually lives and what institutions must change to capture it.

Who Is Actually Competing for Your Students Right Now?
Who Is Actually Competing for Your Students Right Now?

The biggest threat to traditional higher education isn't a competitor institution. It's a 19-year-old on YouTube with more daily influence over a student's financial thinking than an entire faculty. Here's what the data says, what it means for enrollment strategy, and what leaders need to do about it.

Read the Thinking Behind the Work