3 questions for UM Suzanne Dove

We last interviewed Suzanne Dove in September 2024, when she served as Assistant Vice President for Strategy and Innovation at Bentley University. In May of this year, Suzanne began serving as Chief Education Solutions Officer for the Center for Academic Innovation (CAI) at the University of Michigan (UM). Now, a few months into her new role, I thought it would be a good time to reach out to Susan.

Q1: Please introduce your new job. What does the Office of Chief Education Solutions do? Where does your role fit within CAI and UM as a whole?

one: At the Center for Academic Innovation, my role as the inaugural Chief Education Solutions Officer (or CESO) is to open up new horizons for learning innovation for the Center and help the University of Michigan achieve the next level of educational impact. I do this by building sustainable strategic partnerships that enable us to meet the workforce and talent development needs of external organizations.

CAI has long been known for delivering carefully designed, University of Michigan faculty-led online courses to millions of learners and thousands of organizations. This breadth gives us an advantage: Our team develops the tacit knowledge and processes to build and scale successful programs, from MOOCs on platforms like Coursera to UM online degree programs, to innovative short courses and the integration of advanced technologies into hybrid, online and residential learning.

Michigan Online gives us more flexibility and we can go further. We are positioned to work directly with organizations in need of a high-quality workforce and talent development, and provide features that both learning and development leaders and adult learners value, such as cohort-based learning, live sessions with U-M faculty, and customized content.

As with any new leadership role, a big part of my job is identifying strategic priorities and establishing the right operational structure. Just as important, if not more important, is building strong collaborative relationships between the three overlapping circles.

The first is CAI itself, which is a community of experts in online learning, project management, marketing, media production, edtech, and more who, as I build the Education Solutions team, enable us to collaborate with external partners and make relevant products tailored to their needs. The second is UM leaders and faculty, many of whom are excited about expanding the university’s reach to non-degree learners and appreciate how our team brings market insights and industry relationships. The third circle are external organizations that are serious about upskilling their employees and challenging the status quo of professional development and work-based learning. The partnerships that interest me most are those that challenge us to design innovative learning solutions that benefit learners, their organizations and universities. To achieve a thriving workforce in a rapidly changing environment, we need to act boldly.

Currently, my day-to-day focus is on working with other teams within CAI to accomplish three things: building a strong partner channel, ensuring a good fit between partners’ needs and CAI’s offerings, and ensuring that we can efficiently deliver these solutions through Michigan Online. There’s a pretty big operational component to any new endeavor and I’m really excited about it right now – that’s what keeps me going in the morning! For example, how can we leverage generative AI to enhance traditional partnership development practices? What new insights can we derive by mining existing data from an organizational perspective? ETC.

Q2: I have known you for many years and I know that you work hard to become a leader in academic innovation. What was it about this particular role at the University of Michigan that inspired you to make this big professional (and personal) move?

one: The University of Michigan’s Center for Academic Innovation (CAI) has earned a reputation as a national leader in shaping the future of lifelong learning. I can’t imagine a better place to take the next step in my career. I am grateful for the support of my family and friends – they are an invaluable source of encouragement and are almost as excited about the move as I am! From the beginning of the interview process, I could tell that my new colleagues at CAI take organizational culture seriously, and the CAI team went out of their way to provide a warm welcome when I was hired, provide specific guidance to help me succeed, and have been incredibly helpful as I moved to Ann Arbor.

I’ve always enjoyed the challenge of honing an impactful idea, taking it from concept to development and experimentation to scale and sustainability. As I settled into the role, I found that the “inside” of CAI matched the external image I had developed before joining the organization. I have been impressed by the strong leadership vision and strategic thinking of my colleagues on the centre’s senior leadership team, and by the interest in ideation and experimentation, deep expertise and operational excellence of the various teams that make up the centre.

The CESO role was created out of a clear commitment to a philosophy that has taken root at many U.S. universities over the past few years: Institutions of higher education should serve not just degree-seeking students but also the workforce development needs of our region and the talent development needs of broader external organizations. The problem is that universities tend to be decentralized, and coordination between different units with overlapping tasks can be difficult. So when it comes time to execute on that vision, success may happen in your pocket, but solutions at scale may be out of reach. I feel energized by the opportunity to serve in the CESO role at CAI, where scale and global reach are part of our core value proposition.

Question 3: What career advice do you have for other non-teaching educators interested in moving into leadership roles? What skills, experiences, and networks have been most valuable to you throughout your career in higher education?

one: We already discussed the importance of mentors and sponsors in our last conversation, so I won’t repeat the topic. Another important lesson is to maintain your network. I know the word “network” often has transactional connotations, which may be off-putting to community-focused, mission-driven people. But really, I think about the network of academic innovators that I’ve been lucky enough to work with as a community or a network where the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. Here are some strategies I’ve found useful when investing in this network:

• Are there any former colleagues with whom you are no longer in contact? Set monthly or quarterly reminders to reach out to three people you’ve worked with in the past (the holidays are the perfect opportunity to connect and let someone know you’re thinking of them!). Share an article or joke that reminds you of them, ask for their help in a small way and offer your help in return, ask them about something important in their life, or just let them know you’re thinking of them.
• Cross-functional committees or cross-agency organizations or meetings are a great way to meet people and hear perspectives you wouldn’t normally encounter. Sometimes, some people discover a common interest and want to continue the conversation outside of the committee or meeting. Can you take action to help make this happen? Maybe you’d like to collect the email addresses of people who want to continue the conversation, and maybe you’d even like to organize some virtual meetings so the group can get together. These types of small but visible investments will be valued by your peers and help you build your network.

This year, two of my most cherished academic and innovative colleagues passed away suddenly. They are two people I turn to to help me hone an idea, offer support when I feel frustrated, or share the excitement of a successful experiment. I miss them every day and it reminds me of the importance of community, not just for learners, but for learning innovators. So I guess my best career advice today is, keep nurturing your network.