Isabella Bank Institute for Entrepreneurship

During his First 100 Days event, Central Michigan University President Neil MacKinnon highlighted the need to strengthen and enhance the university’s efforts to complete numerous large-scale initiatives as part of its five-year strategic plan. Today, as part of the move to better align resources with strategic priorities and to enhance institutional effectiveness, MacKinnon announced the establishment of the University Transformation Office.

“Strategic Priority Four challenges us to adopt a culture of continuous improvement and to adopt best practices that ensure our institutional health and sustainability,” MacKinnon said. “The University Transformation Office will provide guidance, direction and support services for major projects and undertakings to help us better steward our limited resources as we work toward achieving all our strategic goals.”

Darcie Wilson, who will serve as the university’s first chief transformation officer, said the UTO will offer more than just project management services – although she said that is something the team will provide. 

“We can help campus partners align their initiatives with university priorities to ensure they receive the right resources, and we can help them identify solutions for workflow and operations that help them complete projects on time and within budget,” Wilson said. “As a team, our goal is to help every division and department work with greater speed, efficiency and impact.”

Among the supports the University Transformation Office will offer are:

Building a results-driven team

Wilson said many colleges and universities have adopted transformation offices in recent years to support the increasing need for project management and organizational change. New university-wide initiatives at CMU, such as strategic enrollment management and Innovation and Online’s strategic plan implementation, can benefit from the support the new office can offer, she said.

“One of our first priorities as a team will be to assess our current landscape and identify the tools and frameworks needed to make an immediate impact on some of our most important projects,” Wilson said.

The University Transformation Office will be led by Wilson, who was tapped by President MacKinnon to serve as the unit’s first senior officer and approved for the position in accordance with the university’s search waiver policy. 

“Darcie Wilson brings vast corporate and academic project and portfolio management experience to this role,” MacKinnon said. “In her prior role as deputy chief information officer at CMU, she worked with senior leaders campus-wide on numerous initiatives; those relationships will be vital to the success of this new unit.”

Over the next several months, Wilson will build the UTO team to include project managers and business process and change management analysts.   

“The UTO will leverage existing staff expertise for several of these roles,” Wilson said. “Instead of starting from scratch, we will build a future-focused, results-driven team.”

Next steps

MacKinnon and Wilson said the University Transformation Office will immediately begin working with senior leaders to identify priority projects and initiatives. Wilson said she also would create a mechanism for campus partners to request support from the UTO team.

“This is an exciting time to be at CMU, and we’re looking forward to working collaboratively across campus to attain our goals,” she said.