September 12, 2022 — Washington, DC
The Council of Independent Colleges announces that Matt Trainum will be the inaugural Vice President of Networks and Strategic Partnerships starting in late September. Trainum is currently a senior consultant for strategy at Credo, a higher education consulting firm focused on strategy and student success by transforming student outcomes.
“Dr. Trainum brings a passion for serving independent higher education, a record of accomplishment in strengthening individual institutions, and long experience in creating and sustaining revenue generating projects,” CIC President Marjorie Hass said.
The Vice President of Networks and Strategic Partnerships is a new position for CIC, reporting directly to the president. The new position is focused on strengthening and expanding CIC’s current networks, which include: the online course sharing consortium, NetVUE, the tuition exchange program, and the State Council Network. Trainum will work closely with CIC staff and with member presidents and other campus leaders to identify new opportunities for developing networked solutions to sector-wide challenges. While at Credo, Trainum worked with governing boards, presidents, and cabinets to lead and manage strategic planning projects at institutions across the country. He also led campus communities on innovation and change readiness conversations, looking at the structures needed to support a new era of higher education.
“The committees that met with Matt were impressed by his energy, vision, and strategic insight,” Hass said. “He is both a thinker and doer.”
Over the last 6 years, Trainum has worked with 100 campuses and groups on strategic planning, change management, and innovation. He has been on the ground of dozens of CIC member campuses, meeting with presidents and senior leaders to discuss top challenges and opportunities in the higher education sector. Prior to working at Credo, Trainum served in multiple leadership roles at the George Washington University and as adjunct faculty at American University.
Trainum received a doctorate from the George Washington University in human and organizational learning with a focus on disruptive innovation, and how leadership teams manage through tumultuous change. He also has a master’s degree in educational administration from Texas A&M University and a bachelor’s degree in history from James Madison University.
“Institutions can remain fiercely independent and gain tremendous benefit from collective action,” Trainum said. “The work of CIC is as both convener and catalyst, amplifying conversations and fueling change.”
The Council of Independent Colleges (CIC) is an association of more than 700 nonprofit independent colleges and universities, state-based councils of independent colleges, and other higher education affiliates, that works to support college and university leadership, advance institutional excellence, and enhance public understanding of independent higher education’s contributions to society. CIC is the major national organization that focuses on services to leaders of independent colleges and universities and state-based councils. CIC offers conferences, seminars, publications, and other programs and services that help independent institutions improve educational quality, administrative and financial performance, student outcomes, and institutional visibility. It conducts the largest annual conferences of college and university presidents and of chief academic officers in the United States. Founded in 1956, CIC is headquartered at One Dupont Circle in Washington, DC.