LEADERSHIP

“Nancy brings significant programmatic breadth and depth from a variety of institutional settings.  She is extremely good at seeing the big picture and making priority judgments.  A real strength is in analysis of complex issues from several viewpoints, creating alternative positions for consideration, and help policy decisions evolve.  Nancy can help folks facing substantive decisions to move towards agreement.”

Dr. John Moore
Managing Director Emeritus
Technology-Enhanced Learning and Online Strategies
Virginia Tech

“Nancy has two impressive capacities in vision:  the ability to see how things will unfold and fit over an extended period, and the ability to see a collection of activities as a portfolio dedicated to an overall goal.  She is the consummate director of a myriad of programs or efforts, and even while excelling at an overall view, she never loses sight of the details.  Nancy has the unique ability to design pilots that answer the right questions for scaling and transferability.”

Denice Heller Wardrop
Executive Director, Chesapeake Research Consortium
Founding Director, Penn State University Sustainability Institute

Nancy Franklin, Ed.D.
Principal and Co-Founder

Dr. Nancy Franklin, Principal of Franklin Solutions, consults with leaders of higher education, government, and community on strategic initiatives, innovation, and change agendas.  Through Franklin Solutions, she has been engaged with higher education-community partnerships associated with regional development and community-building; has obtained funding for and managed several economic and workforce development initiatives; has been on the forefront of technology-enabled faculty development; has managed multi-institution partnerships; and has led strategic planning efforts and implementation teams.

Previously Dr. Franklin led strategic initiatives at Virginia Tech, Penn State, and Indiana State University, subsequent to early career private sector marketing experience with IBM and ROLM. 

She has more than 20 years of experience in institution-scale university-community engagement.   She co-founded a unique higher education institution in Danville, Virginia, the Institute for Advanced Learning and Research (IALR), which was recognized with numerous regional and national awards.  At Penn State she founded the Sustainable Communities Collaborative (SCC), a partnering infrastructure supporting institution-wide student engagement with community-identified sustainability challenges. 

Dr. Franklin currently serves on the board of trustees for Meadville Lombard Theological Institute in Chicago, IL.  She has been active in several national networks focused on public engagement, including the Association of Public and Land-Grant Universities (APLU) Commission on Innovation, Competitiveness, and Economic Prosperity and Council on Engagement and Outreach, the Engagement Scholarship Consortium, Transformative Regional Engagement Networks, and the Academy of Community Engagement Scholarship.  

She has researched and written about large-scale, transformative university engagement in regional contexts, agile collaboration, distance education, and is the author of fifteen publications including the book, Strategic Doing:  Ten Skills for Agile Leadership.

Education and Certifications

Learn more about Nancy Franklin.

Contact Nancy Franklin.