SPARC
The University of Arizona

Partnership Architecture · Confidential

Building the Coaching Institution

A Partnership Architecture for the University of Arizona

A SPARC Executive Development and Consulting Brief · April 25, 2026

Prepared for

01  |  Where We Are

What conversation has surfaced.

At the Provost's referral, SPARC currently delivers executive coaching to senior leaders at UofA in a developmental — never performance — frame. Coaching is engaged either when a leader is emerging from a difficult review or when the institution is investing in a leader's growth. The work is doing what coaching does well.

Conversations across the spring with Chief Human Resources Officer Helena Rodriguez, the HR team she gathered in early March, and Director of Learning and Talent Development Ashley Kurtz have surfaced a shared diagnosis: UofA does not currently have the internal infrastructure either to prevent the conditions that surface remedial coaching, or to deliver coaching as an institutional service. The architecture below addresses both gaps — and extends the resulting capability into institutional reach.

The first gap is upstream. The second is downstream.
02  |  The Four Parts

A coherent, interlocking partnership architecture.

Part 01 · The Foundation

Executive Coaching (in place)

The current services contract continues. Developmental, confidential, never performance-framed. The senior-leader cases that warrant external coaching will continue to be served this way. This part anchors the relationship and the credibility the rest of the architecture builds on.

Part 02 · The Developmental Layer

A Vertical Leader Development Pathway

A preventive layer that builds the leaders coaching has been compensating for. Vertical leader development is different from horizontal leadership development — the former is about building capacity to lead, the latter about adding skills. Most leader development programs only do the latter. The components:

The outcome is a pipeline of leaders who are being developed — not just managed — and who carry coaching skills as part of how they lead. Over time, the volume of remedial external coaching needs declines.

Academy of Executive Coaching accreditation

AoEC + ICF
Accredited

Part 03 · The Internal Capacity

An Internal Coach Training Program

A critical mass of trained coaches embedded across UofA to deliver professional coaching as an internal service. Harvard and a small group of peer R1 institutions have built this successfully. SPARC certifies and trains the internal corps through accredited curricula — the Coaching Skills Certificate, the Coaching Tools Certificate, and the Practitioner Diploma in Executive Coaching. UofA owns and operates the corps. SPARC remains available for senior-level coaching, complex situations, and ongoing professional coach practice supervision and continuing development of the internal coaches. UofA institutionalizes what it now buys.

Academy of Executive Coaching accreditation

AoEC + ICF
Accredited

Part 04 · The Institutional Reach

Extending Coach Training to Two Distinct Institutional Channels

The internal training pathway becomes a public program through two separate institutional channels — each with its own audience, governance, and revenue model — sharing the SPARC training infrastructure and the internal coach corps:

  • Eller Executive Education, within the Eller College of Management — opens coach training to MBA candidates, EMBA students, and other executive-track learners as an enhancement to their degree or executive program.
  • Continuing & Professional Education, at the University level — opens the same training to working professionals, alumni, and community learners outside the degree-seeking population.

Either pathway can be activated independently; both can run in parallel. One practical point: SPARC's training pathway is already accredited by the Academy of Executive Coaching (AoEC) and the International Coaching Federation (ICF). Both Eller Executive Education and Continuing & Professional Education would launch with accreditation in place from day one — no separate institutional accreditation process required for either pathway.

NYU, Brown, Rice, and other peer institutions are already adding coach training as an enhancement to their MBA and executive education portfolios. Outcomes for UofA: it strengthens both Eller's executive development portfolio and CPE's professional learning portfolio; it builds Arizona's institutional brand as a coach-developing university; and it begins to generate revenue that can offset the cost of Part 3.

03  |  How the Four Parts Interrelate

The architecture becomes self-sustaining at scale.

PART 01 · FOUNDATION Executive Coaching Developmental, never performance-framed PART 02 · DEVELOPMENTAL LAYER Vertical Leader Development Strengths · EI · LCP · Leader Teams · Coaching Skills PART 03 · INTERNAL CAPACITY Internal Coach Training Program Critical mass of trained coaches across UofA PART 04 · INSTITUTIONAL REACH Eller Executive Education Eller College of Management Continuing & Professional Education University level SUSTAINING REVENUE INTERNAL COACHES EACH STEP BUILDS ON THE ONE BELOW  ·  SHARED TRAINING INFRASTRUCTURE  ·  SINGLE INTERNAL COACH CORPS

Each step builds on the one below. Parts 3 and 4 share the same training pathway, the same coach corps, and the same accreditation — running for two distinct audiences.

Parts 1 and 2 extend the developmental frame across the full leader pipeline — less reactive, more preventive. Parts 2 and 3 work together so that every leader is gaining coaching skills and every leader has access to internal professional coaching when warranted. Parts 3 and 4 share the same coach training pathway, run for two audiences, on shared infrastructure — building internal capacity and a public program from the same investment.

What emerges is a self-sustaining leadership development ecosystem owned by UofA, with SPARC as designing partner, certifying body, and senior-level coaching resource.

The institution moves from buying coaching to owning a coaching capability.
04  |  Proposed Next Step

A one-and-a-half to two-day institutional visit.

Scheduled at the Provost's invitation, to:

  • Meet with the stakeholders engaged across the spring conversations and any additional voices the Provost identifies (Eller College of Management leadership and Eller Executive Education, Continuing & Professional Education, Faculty Affairs)
  • Scope each of the four parts against UofA's specific institutional context
  • Build phased cost and sequencing together

SPARC brings the architecture, the institutional benchmarks, and the certifying capacity. UofA brings the institutional knowledge. The output is a phased roadmap UofA owns.

Prepared by

Dr. Mathew Johnson, Ph.D., PCC

Co-CEO, SPARC · Head, AoEC US

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

Co-CEO, SPARC · Director of Program Development