Be an agent of positive change in post-secondary education.

Gain the skills and confidence you need to lead a team, manage a crisis, or chart a strategic new course for your institution.

Fill out the Inquiry Form

Post-secondary leaders bear, in part, the weight of the success and reputation of their institutions. 

Equip yourself—and your leaders—with the skills to help your team and institution thrive.

  • Individuals

    Are you or a member of your team looking to become a more effective leader? 

    Enhance skills, clarify roles and expectations, and develop leadership skills with one-on-one coaching.

    Inquire

  • Teams

    Are you looking for ways to strengthen your team?

    Group coaching will help equip your team with tools and processes to build cohesion as you work toward your shared objectives.

    Inquire

  • Institutions

    Are you looking to implement institutional changes?

    Guidance around strategic planning, organizational restructuring, organizational culture, crisis management, and more is available. 

    Inquire

Dru’s extensive experience in post-secondary leadership gives you a unique advantage.

As a coach and leader, Dru Marshall, PhD, has held significant roles in high-performance sport and post-secondary education. Dru is a nationally recognized academic leader with over 30 years post-secondary sector experience, including a ten-year stint as Provost and Vice President at the University of Calgary. In addition to her academic career, Dru also had a significant career in high performance sport, coaching both the junior and senior Canadian women’s national field hockey teams. As a result of these experiences, Dru has a well-deserved reputation as a strong team leader, team builder, and mentor.  

Dru has been recognized as one of Canada’s WXN Top 100 most powerful women and as one of the most influential women in sport and physical activity in Canada by the Canadian Association for the Advancement of Women in Sport and Physical Activity. For her work in high performance sport in Canada, she was awarded the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal. Dru credits her coaching experience for helping shape her unique executive leadership style.

In recognition of her role in educating people, Dru was given the name—Chickadee Song Woman—by Piikani Elder Reg Crowshoe. In the Blackfoot/Piikani culture, chickadees represent a learning society. To celebrate an accomplishment, a female chickadee gave the society a song to document an individual’s achievement. As a nod to this significant honour, Dru chose the inclusion of a chickadee in her branding. 

To date, the leaders Dru has served are affiliated with the following institutions
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  • "With broad experience, Dru provides exceptional service, offering personalized strategies and unwavering support. Her expertise and genuine commitment to my success have greatly boosted my confidence. I highly recommend her coaching to anyone looking to reach their full potential."

    Miriam A. M. Capretz, Ph.D., P.Eng., Associate Dean, Research,Faculty of Engineering, Western University

  • “It has been my privilege to work with Dr. Dru Marshall over the course of several sessions in preparation for a new leadership challenge. As someone who has occupied leadership roles for much of my career, I undertook leadership coaching as a way to strengthen my skills and hone my reflective practice. Under Dru's guidance and as a result of her incredible expertise and experience, however, I was able to do so much more. I examined aspects of my leadership role that I had not yet considered and left my sessions feeling more confident, more prepared and better positioned to conceptualize my work in new ways.”

    Dr. Amy Burns, Interim Dean, Werklund School of Education, University of Calgary

  • “Working with Dru has been a tremendous asset as I strive to give my best in the complex role of Provost & VP Academic. She has helped me with specific strategies to build a more cohesive team, provide constructive feedback more easily, and cultivate diverse colleagues for leadership roles. Her deep experience with strategy formation and execution has been invaluable. I highly recommend Dru as a uniquely skilled leadership consultant and coach for academic administrators at all levels.”

    Lisa Philipps, Provost and Vice President Academic, York University

  • “Having an accomplished postsecondary leader such as Dru Marshall to consult with has been a game changer for me. Dru is kind, and generous with thought and insight. She is also discerning, challenging (in a good way!), and able to listen and advise with precision and clarity. She stays current with patterns, trends and literature and draws upon her experiences as a faculty member, leader, and provost to guide my work as a new Dean in a relevant and timely manner. Importantly, Dru is skilled at leading me to my own answers; her guidance is not to show me her way, but to help me find my way. This demonstrates Dru's commitment to and respect for diversity in thought as well as in identity.”

    Yasmin Dean, Dean, Education and Social Work, Thompson Rivers University

  • “I have worked with Dr. Dru Marshall Consulting Inc. for the past two years and the professional support and guidance that she has given me, and the executive, has been invaluable. We have benefited significantly from her vast experience and expertise, especially related to organizational and leadership development.”

    Jacqueline Ottmann, President, First Nations University of Canada

  • “Dru Marshall is one of the few consultants in the higher education landscape who combines first-hand experience as an executive leader at a U15 university with data-driven research into trends and challenges in our sector. She excels equally in strategic planning, leadership development, and coaching. Our organization’s leaders have benefitted immensely from her experience and expertise.”

    Florentine Strzelczyk, PhD, Provost & Vice-President (Academic), Western University

  • “I had the distinct pleasure of working with Dr. Dru Marshall on developing a strategic plan for our new division. In an all-day session, Dru led a process that allowed us to identify our values which framed our strategic planning guidelines. Her deep knowledge of higher education, organizational and change management was instrumental in helping us cultivate a plan that is visionary and people-centered with clear actionable goals. Our plan will set us up for great success.”

    Amoaba Gooden, PhD, Vice President for the Division of People, Culture and Belonging, Kent State University