SPARC · EXL Partner

SPARC and Extension:
A Partnership Built for What the Work Actually Requires

For Extension leaders navigating complexity — from the director's office to the institution's strategic future. SPARC has partnered with the Extension Foundation and Extension member institutions including the University of Vermont, Virginia State University, the College of the Menominee Nation, and the University of Arizona.

Executive Coaching Cohort Programs Consulting Strategic Advising

"Some leadership challenges are too complex for the org chart."

Extension directors carry a particular kind of complexity. They answer to land-grant mission and institutional politics simultaneously. They lead across disciplines, counties, and communities — often with limited authority over the very people the work depends on. They are expected to build leadership capacity inside a system that was not designed to make that easy.

That is the room SPARC works in. We don't deliver a report and hand you the keys. We work alongside Extension leaders and their institutions as thinking partners, development architects, and strategic advisors — for as long as the work requires.

How We Work With Extension Partners

1

Executive & Leadership Coaching

One-on-one, confidential coaching for Extension directors, associate directors, deans, and senior leaders. We work with the whole leader — not just the role. Our coaches are Ph.D.-credentialed practitioners certified at the PCC level by the International Coaching Federation, with deep experience in higher education and mission-driven institutional contexts.

We draw on CliftonStrengths, Leadership Circle Profile 360, Kegan Subject-Object, Immunity to Change, and somatic approaches — selecting tools based on what the leader and the moment actually require.

Individual Confidential ICF PCC Certified LCP 360 CliftonStrengths

2

Cohort Programs — Open Enrollment & In-House

For institutions ready to build leadership capacity across tiers — not just at the top. Our cohort programs develop the shared language, reflective habits, and vertical capacity that individual coaching alone cannot reach.

Programs are available as open enrollment for individual leaders across institutions, or designed in-house for your team. Formats include executive leader development, strengths-based culture programs, coach-as-leader development, and custom programs designed around your institution's specific challenges and strategic moment.

Open Enrollment In-House AoEC Accredited Cohort-Based

3

Consulting & Strategic Advising

For institutions navigating a significant transition — a new director, a reorganization, a strategic planning cycle, a board challenge, or a sustained culture shift. We work in executive-sponsored partnerships at the President, Provost, Dean, and Board Chair level. Our engagements include organizational strategy and change management, facilitation, board development, executive conflict resolution, and executive 360s.

Strategy is a discipline, not a deliverable. We stay in the room as long as the work requires.

Organizational Strategy Change Management Board Development Facilitation Executive 360

Within Extension & Land-Grant Institutions

Where SPARC Has Worked

Extension Foundation

National · EXL Partner

University of Arizona

Land-Grant · Cooperative Extension

University of Vermont

Land-Grant · Extension Member Institution

Virginia State University

1890 Institution · Extension Member Institution

College of the Menominee Nation

Tribal College · Extension Member Institution

What Makes This Different

Executive-Level Entry

We work where the decisions are made

SPARC works in executive-sponsored partnerships — at the President, Provost, Dean, and Board Chair level. Our engagements are not program-level add-ons. They are institution-level commitments, designed to produce change that holds after we leave.

Presence

We get in the room — and stay there

We are willing and prepared to be on-site for extended periods. We know that being in-person matters — that you cannot understand the feel of an institution through a screen. While we work virtually when that serves the work, physical presence is a deliberate part of how we partner.

Your Partners

The Founders

Dr. Mathew Johnson, Ph.D., PCC

Co-Founder & Co-CEO

Dr. Johnson is an ICF Professionally Certified Coach and a globally recognized leader who has held CEO and senior executive roles across regional, national, and global organizations. He brings that executive experience directly to his work as a coach, strategic advisor, and organizational consultant.

His work is grounded in a deep commitment to equity, sustainability, and institutional transformation. He has partnered with organizations worldwide to develop strategies that support equitable, sustainable growth — and has produced fundamental change in fiscal sustainability, organizational structure, and culture in every leadership role he has held.

Ph.D. PCC · ICF Formerly Dean · Brown University

Dr. Shannon O'Neill, Ph.D., PCC

Co-Founder & Co-CEO

Dr. O'Neill is an ICF Professionally Certified Coach and an accomplished, award-winning higher education leader. She has led the founding, development, and growth of major organizational initiatives in regional, national, and global contexts, serving in roles including Executive Director for Workforce and Professional Education, University Dean, and founding Director of a University Center for Women.

She brings a practitioner's understanding of what it means to build something from the inside — and what it takes to sustain it when the institutional environment shifts.