Speaking
Higher Education Speaker and Workshop Leader
Accreditation, state licensure, and instructional quality—from someone who has sat in the dean’s chair and led the site visit.
Dr. Althia Ellis spent fifteen years inside the academic enterprise—most recently as Dean of Academic Affairs at a multi-program, multi-modality institution—before founding Clarion Academic Consulting. She has authored self-studies, prepared academic evidence, guided faculty through standards requirements, and met evaluators across the table.
Her sessions are built for practitioners. Participants leave with usable artifacts: a compliance calendar, a revised syllabus, or a reworked set of learning outcomes, rather than notes alone. Sessions are shaped around the institution booking them; an accreditation workshop for a leadership team preparing a self-study looks different from a faculty in-service on assignment design, and both are scoped in conversation before the date is set.
Signature Talks
Each session can be delivered as a keynote, a conference session, or expanded into a workshop. Topics are regularly adapted to an institution’s stage, accreditor, and audience.
Institutional Licensing & CIE Compliance
Florida CIE Licensure from the Inside — What the application actually asks for, and where first-time applicants stall.
Staying Licensed — The annual reporting, renewal, and recordkeeping obligations institutions routinely miss.
When Licensure and Accreditation Collide — Running two compliance calendars without duplicating the work.
Accreditation & Institutional Quality
Accreditation Readiness for Small and Independent Institutions — Sequencing a self-study across an academic year.
Writing Learning Outcomes That Survive a Site Visit — Turning aspirational program language into evidenced claims.
Teaching & Instructional Design
Higher Education in an AI-Driven World — Anticipating AI’s effects across academic operations, and what to do now.
Feedback That Changes Student Work — Comments students act on, without adding hours to grading.
Transparency in Practice: Applying the TILT Framework — Restructuring assignments to close equity gaps.
Leadership, Culture & Persistence
Leading with Cultural Intelligence — rawn from her published research on CQ and faculty leadership.
Persistence in Higher Education — The institutional habits that quietly erode retention.
Personal Branding for Academic Professionals — Articulating expertise across a scholarly career.
Audiences Served
Dr. Ellis speaks to groups that carry academic responsibility, whether that means a president’s cabinet, a room of adjunct faculty, or an international audience working on workforce development.
Institutional leadership teams — Presidents, provosts, deans, and compliance officers preparing for accreditation review, licensure application, or reaffirmation.
Faculty development and in-service days — Full-day and half-day sessions for teaching faculty on assessment, feedback, assignment design, and instructional transparency.
Higher education conferences and professional associations — Conference sessions and keynotes for organizations serving college and university professionals.
Accreditation and compliance convenings — Practitioner sessions for institutions navigating DEAC standards or state licensure requirements.
International development and workforce convenings — Sessions connecting education, vocational training, and economic development for multi-country audiences.
Business and professional organizations — Keynotes on leadership, cultural intelligence, and professional branding for chambers, women’s professional networks, and industry groups.
Graduate students and early-career professionals — Panels and sessions on career strategy, professional identity, and translating academic experience into outcomes.
Formats and Delivery
- Keynotes — plenary sessions and opening addresses
- Conference sessions — 45 to 90 minutes, concurrent or featured
- Half-day workshops — working sessions with participant artifacts
- Full-day workshops — in-depth, hands-on, for a single institution or cohort
- Multi-session series — sequenced professional development across a term or year
- Virtual delivery — webinars, virtual panels, and remote workshops
Travel from South Florida; available nationally and internationally.
Selected Speaking
Higher Education in an AI-Driven World — Eureka Business AI 2026 Conference (May 2026)
Beyond the Degree: Career Strategies — invited panelist, Nova Southeastern University (March 2026)
Africa Onboard Conference — workshop on vocational training and economic development, Dakar, Senegal (February 2026)
Global Trade Chamber, Women in Business Expo — Las Vegas and Miami (2024)
Faculty in-service and development series — San Ignacio University (2019–2024)
Broward College LEAD Professional Development Day (2018)
Florida Consortium for International Education Annual Conference (2017)
Credentials
- Ph.D. and Ed.S., Educational Leadership — Florida Atlantic University
- 15+ years in academic administration; Dean of Academic Affairs over 25+ programs and 100+ faculty and staff
- Authored DEAC self-studies and reports; led institutional evaluation team visits
- Published in American Behavioral Scientist and Education Sciences; author, Coming of Age at the Focal Point
- POD Network member; fellowship and grant application reviewer
Booking
To check availability or discuss a session, email althia@clarionacademic.com or call 954.707.7907. Sharing your event date, format, audience, and approximate group size in your first message will let us get to a real conversation faster.
Download the speaker sheet — a one-page overview with topics, credentials, and booking details, suitable for circulating to a program committee.