Heather Fryer, PhD, ACC, BCC

I help clients achieve success on their own terms within the challenging realities of the higher ed landscape.

Heather draws upon her supervisory experiences as a department chair and executive editor of an international interdisciplinary journal to help her clients find positive, constructive approaches to their unique challenges in bringing out the best in individuals, teams, and academic units.  

Heather helps mid-career faculty revitalize their careers by restoring their connection to the passion and purpose that first sparked their dedication to their academic fields. Academia is rough terrain that many faculty navigate alone. It’s natural to adopt habits like overworking and people (or institution)-pleasing to cope with early career stresses without realizing the cost of shifting focus from their true aspirations. These habits take root over time, giving life to self-undermining behaviors like perfectionism, impostor syndrome, chronic dissatisfaction, and disengagement.  

Drawing from the evidence-based methods in positive psychology, insights from cognitive behavioral theory, the proven effectiveness of coactive coaching, and her knowledge of best practices in academia, Heather guides her clients in reorienting their career trajectories toward their true aspirations, aligning their goals with professional benchmarks, charting a path to productivity and fulfillment, and taking continuous steps toward this new standard of success. Every coaching conversation celebrates successes, provides accountability for taking each next step, quiets the inner critic, and keeps forward momentum building by setting the next clear, achievable goal. This process of self-inquiry, reframing perspectives, and experimenting with new ways of working—and being—builds the skills and resilience faculty need to reach for the high bar, sustain work-life balance, adapt to emerging challenges in the academic workplace, and transform setbacks into opportunities for innovation, reinvention, and renewal over the course of their careers.   

Heather came to coaching with 20 years’ experience as an endowed professor of history, journal editor, documentary filmmaker, TEDx speaker, museum exhibition planner, former department chair, and interdisciplinary program director who wants academics everywhere to flourish for the good of the world.  

She holds a PhD in history from Boston College and is board-certified in life coaching through the Institute for Life Coach Training. She recently retired from Creighton University where she was a full professor. 

Testimonial

“These are hard times to be a college professor, let alone a human with many interests. The pandemic has hit us all hard, and its ramifications on educational circles are still being felt. Indeed, some of the after-affects are yet to be felt. At a time when I found myself floundering at mid-life in a job that has changed dramatically at an institution of higher learning where I have been for over twenty years, Heather was remarkably adept at helping me see my own personal mission of education. She was able to help me see that my different interests, which I saw as disparate and isolated from each other, were in fact all related to my educational vision for students. Heather helped me see the innate connections between my love of knowledge creation, personal creativity, and engagement with my discipline. Heather has helped me articulate and embrace my emphasis on access as the first aspect of engagement. This acknowledgement has helped me to continue to hone my teaching practice in the classroom, expand my scholarship, and develop creative projects in line with my educational mission. I am indebted to Heather for her guidance. She listens. She observes. And she will help you make the connections you need to see your road forward.” – Gretchen K. McKay, Ph.D. Professor of Art History, McDaniel College