Jennifer Scott Mobley, Ph.D.
Executive Coach, Higher Education Leadership Consultant, Director of Mentoring & Professional Development, Grove City College
Jennifer is a leadership and executive coach who helps higher education leaders and institutions cultivate the mindset and skill set needed to thrive in an ever-changing world. Informed by approximately 20 years of progressive experience as a higher education leader, Jennifer’s coaching, training, and research focus on the key leadership competencies that higher education leaders need in order to break down silos and build strong collaborations and cultures where everyone can flourish. She works extensively with deans, provosts, and vice presidents as they navigate change in higher education and the next steps in their careers.
Jennifer holds a Ph.D. in Communication from Ohio University, and she has held a variety of leadership positions in academic and student affairs throughout her career, including program director, department chair, and assistant dean. In addition to her work as a coach, Jennifer is an experienced trainer of professional development programming for emerging and senior leaders in higher education, ranging from department chairs to provosts. Jennifer’s research has been featured in several journals, including The International Journal of Appreciative Inquiry, Communication Studies, and The Journal of Applied Communication Research, among others.
Jennifer has also worked with numerous clients in education and business, including the Tennessee Higher Education Commission, Microsoft, GE Aviation, Bloomsburg University, and Middle Tennessee State University. She serves as a coach for the University of Tennessee’s Executive Leadership Institute and an executive coach for the President’s Executive Leadership Academy at TCAT Knoxville. She brings those experiences, as well as her training and practice as an organizational communication professor and consultant, to synthesize best practices and approaches in a new paradigm about what it means to be an effective leader in 21st-century higher education.
As a Gallup-certified strengths coach, Jennifer uses strengths-based and design-thinking approaches to support leaders and teams in the successful pursuit of strategic and transformative initiatives. A core of her coaching philosophy is providing clients with the evidence-based frameworks and communication strategies needed for leading change and building successful collaborations in higher education. Ultimately, Jennifer combines a proven track record of higher education leadership with a variety of advising, consulting, and coaching approaches to ensure that each leader has a custom process to help them achieve their highest professional and institutional priorities.