This issue of SEM Quarterly continues our series by female SEM leaders. Across Volume 6 of SEMQ, we are featuring the lessons learned by some of the leading SEM executives in North America, all of whom are women. For many years, women have been underrepresented in executive roles.  While this is changing, there is still much work to be done before we achieve gender equity in the C-Suite of SEM.  This month, Jody Gordon, a pioneer in SEM in British Columbia, shares five insights on leadership from her stellar career across several colleges and universities in her home province. This issue also features case studies and research articles by women in the profession. While a few men made the issue, we are proud to publish the contributions of so many women to our field.

Volume 6, Issue 3 continues with a field case by another female SEM leader, Diane Walleser of Borough of Manhattan Community College (BMCC). Dr. Walleser is a recipient of the SEM Award of Excellence and has served several large community colleges in the United States. Her case study examines change management, one of the most important and under-researched areas of SEM. As one of AACRAO’s Core Competencies for SEM, this is an area that enrollment leaders must master, often through trial and error. Walleser’s contribution here is significant in growing our understanding of how change management applies to our profession.

Following this theme of culture and change, Irlanda Price and Brier Albano examine techniques to encourage participation in the SEM planning process. This is perhaps the most discussed area of SEM planning, as many enrollment leaders struggle to gain the participation and buy-in of academic colleagues. We know that getting them on board is essential to the successful implementation of any SEM plan yet we seem to speak different languages when it comes to the SEM planning process. Price and Albano provide practical advice for anyone writing or revising a SEM plan.

Because academic partnerships in SEM are so vital to its success, we offer not one but two research articles on this topic in this issue. Dr. Jason Trainer, formerly of the University of North Dakota, shares his qualitative research on a dual-level approach to establishing a “shared sense of responsibility for enrollment outcomes.”  This is another and likely more elegant way of discussing “faculty buy-in” for SEM. His article is the result of a study he conducted on faculty partners in his previous institution, and the resulting insights will help enrollment managers better understand their faculty colleagues’ point of view on enrollment issues.

Volume 6, Issue 3 offers a fifth article. Our new format allows us greater flexibility in the number of articles we can provide, so consider this a “bonus” article in more ways than one. Four stars of our profession, Dr. Jerry Lucido, Dean of the Rossier School of Education at USC, Dr. Don Hossler, currently teaching at USC in his “retirement” (his academic and research credits are far too long for this sentence), Dr. Katie O’Dowd, Project Director at WPS-Educational and Psychological Assessments (and former director of Rossier’s Ph.D. program and enrollment research), and Dr. Robert Massa, former SEMO at Johns Hopkins, among other stops in his long and distinguished career, offer their research on a professional body of knowledge for our nascent SEM profession. Perhaps we are now advancing beyond what Stan Henderson called “the brink of a profession” to a nascent one in their eyes. Their research aligns with AACRAO’s work on competencies and proficiencies, and offers deeper insights into these areas. Besides, this all-star team could write out the Los Angeles phone book, and I would probably read it.  We are grateful for their ongoing research and contributions to our developing field.

Here’s to your reading pleasure and continued intellectual growth,