Operational Excellence for MarCom
Embracing Operational Excellence at Illinois
I am pleased to share with you that Student Affairs has begun a transformative project emphasizing our commitment to operational excellence for our marketing and communications services (MarCom).
Operational Excellence (OpEx) is a campus-wide initiative to streamline, innovate and improve administrative services and processes at all levels. Our partners within the Strategic Project Management Office (SPMO) will be stewarding the Student Affairs MarCom project team through this experience.
Central to this effort lies our steadfast commitment to our departments and our MarCom professionals—a talented team whose passion and commitment are crucial to our success. This project will provide the insights we need to bolster MarCom's strategic alignment, optimize staffing and resources as well as to provide services in alignment with our Strategic Plan. Together, we will embrace this opportunity to grow stronger and achieve even more.
Danita M. Brown Young
Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs
Learn More About This Project
Project Overview
Organizational Need
The need for a redesigned service model in Marketing and Communications (MarCom) was identified as part of Operational Excellence and has the full approval and support of the Chancellor and the Provost. The MarCom Functional Design Team (FDT) worked with Huron, an external consulting agency, to develop a model for staffing MarCom departments to address certain pain points in the MarCom space. Key themes include low strategic alignment, suboptimal staffing models and uncoordinated resourcing. This template will be used as a starting point to further the development of staffing models that address the specific needs of the division. By adopting the chosen service model, Student Affairs will bolster strategic alignment, optimize staffing and resources and allow for improved service quality.
Project Objective
This project is limited to the development of two new staffing models for the Dedicated Service Team, from which the Vice Chancellor of Student Affairs will select the preferred solution. The objective of this project is to assemble a project team that will provide the models and information the Vice Chancellor needs to make an informed decision on the preferred model.
The following factors will be considered in the proposed solutions:
- Align services to a dedicated team and focus activities to strategic alignment
- Increase Student Affairs MarCom capacity and optimize spend
- Produce consistent service level amongst team members
- Reduce the duplication of work across Student Affairs MarCom
- Create MarCom roles to improve service quality
- Develop promotional career pathways for staff. This will include considerations about salary, avoiding compression, and other issues.
Project Charter
Our project charter has been approved by the Project Team. Download the Project Charter (PDF | 428 KB) to view details about our objectives, milestones and process.
Project Updates
This webpage will be updated with project details monthly. SPMO also provides project updates on their website.
April 3, 2025
Individuals will be charged to serve as members of MarCom Operational Excellence Project Team, an advisory governance committee, for the Office of Marketing and Communications (SAMarCom) in Student Affairs for a 1-year term.
The goal of SA MarCom is to advance the mission and strategic objectives of Student Affairs through division-wide marketing and communications efforts that successfully engage students, staff, parents, donors and other key constituents. The Operational Excellence Project Team will develop comprehensive plans to maximize efficiencies throughout marketing and communications to ensure successful completion of division-wide strategic and innovative initiatives.
Operational Excellence MarCom Project Team
Office of the Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs
- Bridget McClanahan, Member
- Chantelle Thompson, Chair
Auxiliary, Health & Wellbeing
- Chris Axtman-Barker, Member
- Mari Anne Brocker Curry, Member
- Jennifer (Jen) Carson, Member
- Dennis Cristina, Member
- Nichole Evans, Member
- Erik Riha, Member
- Alex Williamson, Member
Student Success, Inclusion & Belonging
- Brian Becker, Member
- Stephanie Cardoza-Cruz, Member
- Elise Heyde, Member
- Mark Stinson, Member
- Michael Warrell, Member
- Ryan Young, Member
May 9, 2025
The Project Team is finalizing the project charter. The target completion date is 5/12/2025. They also agreed to update the expected finish date to January 2026.
May 29, 2025
The Project Team has finalized the project charter. The team will discuss options for conducting a current state analysis of Student Affairs MarCom.
Milestones and Next Steps
- Discuss options for conducting a current state analysis of MarCom positions within Student Affairs.
- Determination of services provided centrally within Student Affairs MarCom.
June 30, 2025
The project team has confirmed the current state analysis facilitation approach. The team is currently working on the MarCom service catalog.
August 8, 2025
The structure for the service catalog is on track to be completed by the end of August. The leadership team is working with Stephen Kemp from SPMO to schedule the stakeholder focus groups.
Work Accomplished
- The primary categories for the service catalog have been determined.
- Draft email invitations have been written in preparation for the stakeholder focus groups.
Milestone and Next Steps
- Completion of the MarCom service catalog.
- Schedule focus groups and workshops for current state analysis.
September 15, 2025
- Service catalog draft work is scheduled to be completed in September
- Focus groups began September 10, 2025
- Added Sonya Holley, Executive Director for Human Resources for Student Affairs to the Project Team
October 2, 2025
Focus group sessions have been completed.
November 1, 2025
The service catalog draft has been completed by the project team.
December 2, 2025
- The project team is reviewing current MarCom resources in preparation to build out a current state organizational chart.
- The leadership team will begin planning the problems and solutions workshops after the first of the year.
January 9, 2026
The team has finished the resource inventory for Student Affairs MarCom and is now mapping documented skill sets to service catalog categories. Planning for problems/solutions workshops will begin in January 2026.
February 16, 2026
Review of current MarCom resources and organizational structure is ongoing and targeted to be completed by end of February 2026. The project leadership team is working with Organizational Consulting to plan the issues/solutions workshops. These workshops are tentatively scheduled for the third week of May 2026. The Expected Finish Date has been updated to 6/30/2026 to provide ample time for review of the workshop results.
April 13, 2026
- The resource review was completed in February.
- The MarCom organizational chart is being developed and will be completed prior to the Issues/Solutions workshops. NOTE: The chart will reflect current state.
- The Issues/Solutions workshops have been scheduled for May 13 and May 20.
- Workshop participants have been confirmed.
- Workshop development is underway.
Title
Operational Excellence MarCom Project Team
Operational Excellence is a campus-wide initiative to streamline, innovate and improve administrative services and processes at all levels.
Project Team
