Strategic plan 2017 booklet

STRATEGIC PLAN 2017-2022

A Historical Perspective At the direction of SCO’s Board of Trustees, a new Strategic Planning process began in the fall of 2016. The college worked with consultants from Credo, a leading organization which assists academic institutions with the strategic planning process.

In October 2016, the Strategic Planning Committee – consisting of members of SCO’s President’s Council, leadership team, Board of Trustees, and student representation – met at a two-day retreat in which the group explored ideas for what could be achieved over the next five years.

Three mission-centric themes were outlined in a process that was repeated by small groups of SCO’s faculty and staff members who gave input about initiatives to fit the overarching themes. Those college-wide ideas were reviewed and prioritized by three different theme teams working in early 2017.

Once the theme teams finalized their prioritization, the Strategic Planning Team reviewed and refined goals and initiatives to develop the final plan for presentation and approval by the Board of Trustees in May 2017.

The New Plan SCO’s Strategic Planning Committee was charged with developing the long-term strategic plan to guide the college over the next five years. The committee responded to this challenge by proactively formulating and refining the vision that will meet the needs of the college’s primary stakeholders.

In recent years, the college has achieved considerable success with recruiting and educating top qualified optometry students.

Likewise, the college’s fiscal foundations remain strong. The greatest opportunity to solidify SCO’s future direction relates to increasing the college’s stature and making the case that SCO’s positive impact on the community merits increased philanthropic support, both at the local level and in terms of engaged alumni and ophthalmic partnerships.

SCO’s work within the Memphis community correlates to the need for demonstrating institutional impact, both to millennial students who desire to understand the importance of their career and life choices, as well as to alumni and community partners who recognize the value that SCO brings to the education of our students and to the patients served through our mission.

Setting a Course for the Future Mission: The mission of Southern College of Optometry is to lead the profession by: • Educating the best possible healthcare providers; • Promoting lifelong learning and • Fostering a personal commitment to service.

Vision: Educating the finest optometrists with a vision for leadership and service. We see results from our potential.

Themes: Three primary themes define the new strategic plan: • Moving from Student to Professional • Leveraging Fiscal Strength • Strengthening Relationships within Memphis

Theme 1 –

Moving from Student to Professional Southern College of Optometry will develop future-oriented applicant pipelines to recruit top applicants focused on their academic, professional, and personal development. The college will matriculate candidates with the best potential to succeed as contemporary optometrists and actively engaged alumni who recognize and appreciate SCO’s role in their transformation from student to professional.

Theme 2 –

Leveraging Fiscal Strength With a commitment to being good stewards of its resources, SCO will prioritize and implement initiatives to plan and prioritize expenditures, revenue, and donations which support the college’s ability to reduce institutional debt and promote program affordability to students.

Theme 3 –

Strengthening Relationships within Memphis SCO will enhance collaboration with community partners which foster the college’s culture of service. The SCO story and the college’s institutional expertise will be shared more broadly with the greater Memphis community.

The mission of Southern College of Optometry is to lead the profession by: • Educating the best possible healthcare providers • Promoting Lifelong learning and • Fostering a personal commitment to service

The missio is to lead t

• Educating • Promoting • Fostering a

VISION CHANGING LIVES STAKEHOLDERS “How will know that we are meeting the goal? and “What is the impact of meeting the goal to those we serve?”

ENGAGED GRADUATES

INSTITUTIONAL DEBT REDUCTION AND STUDENT AFFORDABILITY

RESOURCES “What are the resources (input and output) needed”

INCREASED ALUMNI SUPPORT INVEST IN PEOPLE

CAMPAIGN INVEST IN OUTREACH

MEMPHIS PARTNERSHIPS

INCREASED COMMUNITY PARTNER SUPPORT INVEST IN MARKETING AND SPACES

INTERNAL PROCESSES “What is the infrastructure needed to accomplish the goal?”

ACADEMIC AND PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT

ROBUST ADVANCEMENT OPERATION

SHARING THE SCO STORY

ORGANIZATIONAL CAPACITY “Do we have the right people and programs in place?”

ENROLLMENT PIPELINES

A CULTURE OF GIVING

A CULTURE OF SERVICE

on of Southern College of Optometry the profession by:

the best possible healthcare providers g Lifelong learning and a personal commitment to service

MOVING FROM STUDENT TO PROFESSIONAL

LEVERAGING FISCAL STRENGTH

STRENGTHENING RELATIONSHIPS WITH MEMPHIS

Strategic Initiatives These themes reflect input from SCO’s community and indicate the strategic vision for providing optometric education to our students, the primary stakeholder in our mission. Within these themes can be found initiatives that reflect SCO’s values and strategies for:

• Developing a robust enrollment pipeline to recruit the best-qualified students, • Providing the academic and clinical training to transform students into optometric physicians, • Creating engaged graduates who recognize the role that SCO played in their education and the importance of serving others, • Working to counteract student indebtedness by making SCO affordable without sacrificing quality, • Increasing alumni and community philanthropic support, and • Growing awareness and appreciation at the local level for SCO’s unique position in Memphis as one of the nation’s leading optometry colleges.

Initiatives are designed to take no more than 1-2 years maximum to achieve and will be prioritized for implementation. Research needed before beginning initiatives should never take more than 60 days before proceeding, with the exception being a large research project than can be broken down into 4-8 week segments as progress is monitored.

The Strategic Planning Team identified priorities with the general rule being that no more than two initiatives in an area would be undertaken at a time in order to accomplish larger objectives.

Next Steps A data collection steward will assist in monitoring progress on the plan, helping to clear obstacles to that arise and to assist with making any necessary plan adjustments as needed for a working, flexible strategic plan.

The Strategic Planning Team will remain in place for the plan’s duration, with memberships reviewed every two years. The Strategic Planning Team may re-prioritize initiative priorities at any time and determine the area to best accomplish an initiative at the college.

BOARD OF TRUSTEES

STRATEGIC PLANNING COMMITTEE

BOARD CHAIR

VP for Institutional Advancement

Cristie Upshaw Travis, MS

J. Bart Campbell, OD ’87

BOARD MEMBERS

2016 - 17 SGA President - Student Rep

Kristin K. Anderson, OD

Amanda Brewer-Lord, OD ’97 Douglas C. Clark, OD David Cockrell, OD ’81 Steven L. Compton, OD ’78 Brian L. Jones, MBA

VP for Academic Affairs

Mary Nethaway Chase, ’18 Lindsay M. Elkins, OD ’07

Director of Academic Programs

Ann Z. Fields

VP for Human Resources

Joseph H. Hauser, MBA

VP for Student Services

Jim R. Hollifield

Ryan H. Powell, OD ’02

Director of Communications

James D. Sandefur, OD ’65

Aaron M. Kerr, OD ’98

Carla D. Sanderson, PhD

Faculty Chair

Carrie E. Lebowitz, OD ’06

Dave Sattler

Director of Academic Support Services

A. L. Spivey, III, OD ’67

Chris W. Lievens, OD, MS

Stuart Thomas, OD ’84

Chief of Staff

Leticia W. Towns, FACHE Terry L. Tucker, OD ’84 Christopher W. Wroten, OD ’02

ALUMNI COUNCIL REPRESENTATIVE Larry Otten, OD ’77

Pamela E. Moss, MS Director of Assessment

Dean M. Swick, MBA Exec. Director of Information Services

James E. Venable, OD ’89 VP for Clinical Programs

Christine M. Weinreich, JD Director of Grants & Community Engagement

FACULTY REPRESENTATIVE Aaron M. Kerr, OD ’98

STUDENT REPRESENTATIVE Blair Flint, ’19

David L. West, CPA VP for Finance and Administration

Ryan H. Powell, OD ’02 Board Member

Carla D. Sanderson, PhD Board Member

As of Published Date: 7/2017