“Higher education is in the midst of turbulent, yet innovative times. Institutions that engage in innovation congruent with changing environmental conditions as well as learner needs and expectations will emerge from this decade more viable and relevant than ever before.”
Dr. Jim Black is the president and CEO of SEM Works and an internationally recognized expert in enrollment management and change management. He has published a monograph titled, Navigating Change in the New Millennium: Strategies for Enrollment Leaders, and four books, The Strategic Enrollment Management Revolution, considered to be a groundbreaking publication for the enrollment management profession, Gen Xers Return to College, Essentials of Enrollment Management: Cases in the Field, and Strategic Enrollment Intelligence. Among his other published works are numerous articles and book chapters including a feature article in College & University, Creating Customer Delight; a chapter, Creating a Student-Centered Culture, for a book on best practices in student services published by SCUP and sponsored by IBM; a chapter on enrollment management in a Jossey-Bass book on student academic services; as well as a bimonthly feature in The Greentree Gazette.
Dr. Black is the founder of the National Conference on Student Retention in Small Colleges and cofounder of the National Small College Admissions Conference and the National Small College Enrollment Conference. He formerly served as the director of AACRAO’s Strategic Enrollment Management Conference.
Black was honored as the recipient of the 2005 AACRAO Distinguished Service Award and in 2012, he was selected as the Alumnus of the Year for the Higher Education and Student Affairs graduate program at the University of South Carolina. He has been interviewed by publications such as The Chronicle of Higher Education, Converge Magazine, The Enrollment Management Report, The Lawlor Review, and was interviewed for AACRAO’s Data Dispenser. Black also was featured in an international teleconference on enrollment management sponsored by The Center for the Freshman Year Experience at the University of South Carolina, and a PBS broadcast on “Blending High Tech and High Touch Student Services.” In 1999, Jim Black was named an IBM Best Practices Partner, one of only twenty-three in the world. He was invited by The College Board to Heidelberg, Germany, to evaluate the APIEL Exam and most recently was invited to lead conferences on enrollment management and student services in the United Kingdom and the Netherlands.
Dr. Black has served on the boards of several technology companies and has consulted with companies such as Microsoft, Blackboard, and the SAS Institute. Higher education clients have included over 400 two-year, four-year, public, and private institutions.
Jim earned a B.A. in English education and M.A. in higher education administration from the University of South Carolina, as well as a Ph.D. in higher education curriculum and teaching from The University of North Carolina at Greensboro. His doctoral experience provides our clients with unique perspectives into innovative pedagogical, curricular, and program opportunities that impact enrollment outcomes. Leveraging his educational background along with his many years as an associate provost, dean, and faculty member in a higher education environment, Dr. Black will provide
