Why subscribe to The HELIOS Report
Higher education leaders do not lack information. They lack structured interpretation of the reports, surveys, federal rulemakings, and employer signals that accumulate in their “to read” piles:
A major foundation publishes a new framework for teaching and learning. Federal regulators redefine a key term that will influence financial aid and accreditation. A state board approves a new degree format. A survey of employers shifts the conversation about the skills students need.
Each development carries implications, but few arrive with guidance about their trade-offs, their opportunities, their impact in the aggregate, or how to fold them into conversations about institutional strategy.
The HELIOS Report exists to curate the information overload and position leaders to guide productive conversations about the implications for their organizations.
Our Mission
We created The HELIOS Report to strengthen institutional leadership at a moment when higher education requires steadiness, clarity, coherence, and optimism. We believe higher education can meet current pressures without abandoning its intellectual and civic commitments. That requires leaders who can interpret signals without panic, name trade-offs without defensiveness, and act with conviction grounded in evidence. The HELIOS Report exists to support that work.
Who The HELIOS Report is for
The HELIOS Report is a periodic executive briefing designed for readers invested in leading U.S. organizations of higher ed:
Boards of trustees, presidents, and their cabinet of vice presidents.
The “middle management” of colleges and universities such as program directors and deans.
The faculty who make decisions about academic programs and the future of teaching and learning.
The nonprofit organizations, foundations, workforce development agencies, employers and education technology companies that support and partner with higher education.
What The HELIOS Report Is
Each executive-level briefing focuses on a single theme. The typical format includes:
A concise summary of a tight selection of recent authoritative sources
An interpretive analysis that reads between the lines
Stakeholder-specific implications
Leadership guidance
Strategic questions to drive for cabinet and board discussion
How the reports are produced
Each report is developed with the support of HELIOS — Higher Education Leadership Intelligence Orientation System. HELIOS is a proprietary AI-assisted process that applies a defined set of analytical frameworks and strategic filters to generate usable insights for leaders in higher education, workforce development, and education technology. HELIOS is a joint project of Ilene Crawford Consulting and McGuire Editorial Consulting.
We designed (and continue to fine tune) HELIOS to apply ways of reading, lines of inquiry, and reasoning patterns that reflect our own collective 60+ years of experience in higher education. We use HELIOS to surface the patterns leaders need to see so we can map where they still have real agency.
We use HELIOS to process large volumes of policy, research, and market signals quickly. It accelerates ingestion and drafting within guardrails we continue to build and audit. Every HELIOS output, and the public reports derived from them, passes through human review grounded in decades of institutional leadership experience and professional writing and editing experience.
Ilene Crawford
Ilene is the founder and principal of Ilene Crawford Consulting LLC. A former provost and vice president for academic affairs, she is an executive coach for senior higher ed leaders and a consultant who helps higher ed organizations improve their organizational design and develop their leadership capacity. Prior to her administrative roles, she was a professor of English and women’s studies and a two-time Fulbrighter to Vietnam.
Robert McGuire
Robert has operated McGuire Editorial Consulting, LLC since 2013. With his team of writers and editors, he helps the higher education sector turn complex institutional challenges into field-leading authority and narratives that attract stakeholders and increase engagement. He has long specialized in education technology and online learning and in translating market and workforce signals into classroom-level teaching practices.
Subscribe to get full access to the newsletter and publication archives.
Stay up-to-date
Never miss an update—every new post is sent directly to your email inbox.
Join the conversation
Be part of a community of people who share your interests by participating in the comments section.
