Higher Education Change Management

For Leaders Addressing Highly Sensitive Topics

Complex Issues

In this moment, executive officers in academia are up against significant and intricate challenges. Leaders are struggling with how to optimally maintain alignment with institutional values, balance the needs of various constituencies, and comply with state and federal requirements, all while under the persistent expectation to do more with less. 

With 20+ years of experience navigating sensitive, compliance-related issues, Seven & Nine is attuned to the needs of higher education leaders. In recent months, clients have been sharing that they’re:

  • Feeling uncertain about how to navigate institutional risk while also supporting the best interests of their communities,

  • Experiencing faculty/staff retention issues due to folks feeling overburdened/undercompensated, treated unfairly, and/or frustrated with the climate,

  • Worried about how to effectively implement and support efforts to promote community, enhance well-being, and reduce systemic biases that result in patterns of underperformance. 

These concerns are common, but the needs of your campus are unique.

Seven & Nine Services

Facilitation of effective change management strategies aligned with your goals and values, incorporating lenses of compliance and culture.

Change Management

Complex Issue Advising

Experienced, candid and confidential discussion sessions around specific issues, prompting the generation of new ideas and appropriate solutions.

Case Consultation

Expert advice for responsibly navigating challenging cases that require knowledge of relevant laws and policies.

Culture Audits

Objective, external reports on themes across individuals’ internal perceptions of the organizational climate and recommendations for further exploration.

Individualized, confidential, and non-judgmental coaching for executives leading organizational change.

Executive Coaching

Opportunities Exist

Amy Circosta, Founder of Seven & Nine

Higher education is such a unique subculture. At its best, academia supports inspiring energy synergistically elevating innovative ideas; it also often involves high demands and insufficient resources.

Research shows that over half of attempted strategies fail, and a big part of the reason is that we tend to create solutions to the wrong problem. Before spending loads of time and resources on major change initiatives, let’s work together to:

1) Accurately identify the root issue,

2) Apply efficient and effective strategies toward that issue, and

3) Do so while ensuring compliance and judiciously avoiding red flags.

Seven & Nine creates space by supporting leaders to confidently move through or around the productivity barriers they’ve identified. Small shifts can have an exponential impact.

We are here to help you achieve your goals in alignment with your values and strategic priorities.



Seven & Nine clients find significant value in our work together, both in the optimization of what currently exists and in the benefit realized by making their faculty, staff, students, and stakeholders feel heard.

Seven & Nine Offers

Seven & Nine adds an objective perspective to your leadership circle that not only deeply understands the culture of academia, but also offers expertise on organizational culture and maintaining institutional compliance.

Necessary Perspective

Working with Seven & Nine is unlike other consulting firm relationships. Seven & Nine’s Founder, Amy Circosta, seamlessly embeds herself within your leadership team, offering candid, confidential, and continuous guidance throughout your change management priorities. Amy leads change initiatives from start to finish, taking something tricky that you’re working on, identifying paths to your desired outcomes, and ensuring critical lenses have been considered.

Embedded Approach

Seven & Nine is honored to serve as an objective, reliable, and non-judgmental sounding board for leaders as they negotiate highly sensitive issues. As such, Amy provides additional capacity through trusted, peer-level counsel and support.

Non-Judgmental Support

How Seven & Nine Helps

  • Resources & Reputation

    During a time of reorganization, an institution engaged Seven & Nine for an informed, objective perspective on optimizing internal equal opportunity case management processes. Upon leadership’s implementation of strategies collaboratively developed with Seven & Nine, the institution remains in compliance and has gained trust within the campus community by providing its quality services in a more timely manner.

  • Academic Excellence

    For a client seeking enhance academic excellence specifically in STEM departments, Seven & Nine facilitated a comprehensive self-assessment project across multiple internal colleges, and worked with institutional leaders to create a resulting action plan that was nationally-recognized and intentionally designed to reduce bias and meet specific parameters set by state laws.

  • Student Success

    With the benefit of a wealth of institutional data, Seven & Nine helped to make the data more accessible to faculty and staff. Along with institutional leaders and data experts, Seven & Nine created opportunities for recruitment- and retention-focused professionals to engage with data and with one another, discover insights through disaggregation, and identify areas of strength and challenge around which to design strategies.

  • Strategy & Innovation

    Given their positions, institutional leaders know that it can be difficult to obtain the objective feedback they need for strategic decision-making. As a trustworthy and neutral partner, Seven & Nine has offered leaders access to valuable qualitative data and insight into patterns and trends, while maintaining confidentiality. With this benefit, Seven & Nine has supported leaders in designing and implementing malleable and sustainable strategic plans that guide forward growth.

  • Campus Culture & Shared Governance

    Based on a leadership-identified priority, Seven & Nine conducted a thorough assessment of institutional sexual misconduct prevention and response efforts, with attention to civil rights compliance (notably, Title VI, Title VII, Title IX). Seven & Nine identified and prioritized strategies for implementation, and leaders report increased awareness and effectiveness of systems.

About Seven & Nine

Amy brings decades of experience in higher education administration and consulting, blending her expertise in law and psychology to drive meaningful change, working creatively within and around the red tape. From spearheading award-winning initiatives to resolving nuanced conflicts and avoiding costly litigation, Amy’s leadership ensures institutions not only meet compliance requirements but supports a culture in which faculty, staff, and students can thrive.

Amy evaluates internal systems, designs policies related to anti-discrimination, offers training on compliance and institutional culture-related strategies, and has extensive experience in preventing and addressing sexual violence on campuses. Amy’s passion lies in the customization and implementation of relevant change management, organizational psychology, and policy frameworks to achieve identified goals.

Prior to founding Seven & Nine, Amy served within higher education institutions in roles including: Interim Vice Provost for Institutional Equity & Diversity, Associate Vice Provost for Equal Opportunity, Title IX Coordinator, ADA Coordinator, and University Ombuds.

Amy is also Co-Founder of HF+C, a joint project with Chrysalis Network that is specifically dedicated to eliminating sexual harassment within higher education communities.


Amy Circosta, JD, Founder

Why “Seven & Nine”?

Title VII of the Civil Rights Act and Title IX of the Education Amendments are two of the laws Amy works with most foundationally. Amy’s kids also happened to be those ages at the time she incorporated the business (time flies!).

What Seven & Nine Clients Say

  • “I highly recommend Amy Circosta for her exceptional expertise in workplace compliance, leadership, and change management. Her ability to foster a culture of respect and align teams with organizational values has been instrumental in driving meaningful transformation. With a strategic and analytical approach, she empowers organizations to engage in dialogue and create inclusive environments that thrive on integrity and collaboration.”

    Vice President for the Division for Access, Compliance and Engagement Tracey Robinson, West Chester University of Pennsylvania

  • "Amy and her collaborators deeply understood our specific needs and helped us identify specific, actionable strategies to enhance existing safety efforts on campus."

    Chancellor Brian Cole, University of North Carolina School of the Arts

  • “Amy is a sharp and genuine thought partner. I felt supported and more confident in my leadership strategy given the smart, insightful perspectives Amy brought to the table.”

    Vice Provost Sheri Schwab, North Carolina State University

Contact Seven & Nine

Interested in working together?

Please submit the online form or reach out to Amy directly at amy@sevenandnineconsulting.com or (919) 740-0924.

Messages are confidential.