Our People

George Kaludis, Ph.D., Chairman and President, has more than 40 years of diverse higher education experience in strategic planning, executive/governance relationships, economic system design, executive team building, organizational development, and finance and management. Before founding Kaludis Consulting in 1977, he served as Director of Planning and Evaluation at the State University System of Florida and Vice Chancellor for Operations and Fiscal Planning and Associate Professor of Management at Vanderbilt University. Dr. Kaludis has held several national leadership positions in higher education, including serving on the National Commission on the Financing of Postsecondary Education and as Chairman of the National Center for Higher Education Management Systems. He holds BA and MEd degrees from the University of Maryland and a PhD degree from Florida State University.

Barry M. Cohen, Senior Vice President, has more than 40 years of experience in higher education and industry, including 38 with the firm, consulting with a diverse set of colleges and universities. His experience spans strategic planning; resource acquisition and allocation; organizational and operations assessment; systems and process appraisal and redesign; and communications, marketing and institutional positioning. Before joining Kaludis Consulting in 1979, Mr. Cohen held several positions in the Office of Public Affairs at Baylor College of Medicine and served as Executive Director of Marketing and Corporate Development for ARA Health Facilities, Inc., the long-term care and retirement-housing division of ARA, Services, Inc. He holds BS and MA degrees from The University of Texas at Austin.

Robert Donaldson, Ph.D., Consulting Vice President, has more than 40 years of experience as a higher education executive and internationally known scholar. Before joining Kaludis Consulting in 2004, he served President of Tulsa University and Fairleigh Dickinson University, and Provost of Lehman College, City University of New York. He also served as Associate Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences and professor of Political Science at Vanderbilt University. Dr. Donaldson has been a tenured faculty member at four universities, and is active in international relations and political science scholarly circles. He has consulted in the areas of strategic planning and academic planning, and also developed and negotiated numerous international educational partnerships and conducted national higher education plans (e.g., management education in post-Soviet Russia). He holds AB, AM, and PhD degrees from Harvard University.

Erik Nielsen, Ph.D., Consulting Vice President, has more than 35 years of experience in higher education as an executive and faculty member. Before joining Kaludis Consulting in 2012, he served as president of Franklin College of Switzerland for 17 years. Prior to Franklin College, he served as Vice President for Academic Affairs at the University of Evansville and as Dean of the Humanities and Arts at Trinity University. He was Chair of the Department of Classics at Bowdoin College and served as Director and Professor-in-Charge at Stanford University's Intercollegiate Center for Classical Studies in Rome. Trained in Classics and Near Eastern archaeology, Dr. Nielsen has directed an ongoing archeological excavation in Tuscany for the past 30 years. He has been a leader in higher education, having served as president of the Association of American International Colleges and Universities and on the Board of Directors of The Council of Independent Colleges. Dr. Nielsen has consulted with international universities on strategic planning, academic planning, and institutional management. He holds BA and MA degrees from S.U.N.Y., Buffalo and a PhD from Bryn Mawr College.

Ann J. Olsen, Consulting Vice President, has more than 40 years of diverse higher education, health care, and consulting experience. Prior to joining Kaludis Consulting in 2021, she served as Director of Compliance and Policy for Vanderbilt Health Affiliated Network (VHAN), comprising some 60 hospitals, 13 health systems, and hundreds of physician practices and clinics throughout Tennessee and beyond. As part of a Vanderbilt University Medical Center-provided (VUMC) management team, Ms. Olsen supported development and periodic updates of VHAN’s policies, including those governing collection and use of network members’ clinical data and implementation of information systems and technology to serve the network. Previous representative assignments include Senior Mediator and Program Manager for Meridian Institute, Director of HCA Healthcare Information Technology & Services’ Security Competency Center, Director for Information Management Planning at VUMC, and Vice President for a successful consulting and software development venture. She holds a BA degree from Rice University and MBA and MA degrees from Vanderbilt University. She was also a Bridgestone Fellow and interdisciplinary PhD candidate in environmental management at Vanderbilt.

Bethany S. Jones, Ph.D., Senior Consultant, has more than 40 years of experience in domestic and international education. Dr. Jones has particular expertise in the education of women in the Middle East, quality assurance and accreditation, higher education reorganization, entrepreneurship education, faculty performance reviews, curriculum development, and preparation of engineers for international practice. Before joining Kaludis Consulting in 2010, she held faculty appointments and administrative positions at Cleveland State University, the University of Delaware, Southwest Missouri State University, and then served as Vice President for Academic Affairs at James Madison University. Dr. Jones' Middle East experience includes serving as Dean of the College of Humanities and Social Sciences at the UAE University in Al-Ain and as Advisor to the Executive Affairs Authority of Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, providing policy guidance and strategic implementation in university-industry relations, creation of new universities, building a knowledge economy, and financial management of higher education initiatives. She holds a BA from Chestnut Hill College and MA and PhD degrees from Case Western Reserve University

John C. Cavanaugh, Ph.D., Consulting Vice President, has more than 30 years of experience as a higher education executive and association leader. Prior to joining Kaludis Consulting in 2020, he served as President and CEO of the Consortium of Universities of the Washington Metropolitan Area. Previously, he served as Chancellor of the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education and president of the University of West Florida. A leader in higher education policy and innovation, Dr. Cavanaugh serves as vice chair of the Board for the Council for Adult and Experiential Learning (CAEL), and secretary of the Board for Marygrove College. He is board past-president of the Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools, and has served as a Commissioner of both the Middle States Commission on Higher Education and the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges. He holds a BA degree from the University of Delaware, and MA and PhD degrees from the University of Notre Dame.

Richard Dean, M.D., Senior Consultant, has more than 40 years of diverse experience as a faculty member, vascular surgeon, funded investigator, administrator, and senior executive in academic medicine. He became President Emeritus of Wake Forest University Health Sciences in 2007, and remains on the Faculty of the Wake Forest School of Medicine and is a consultant to the Piedmont Triad Research Park. Prior to joining Kaludis Consulting in 2007, Dr. Dean served Wake Forest University for 20 years in a series of increasingly responsible positions that included department chair, chief of surgery, medical school senior executive, in 2001, President and CEO of Wake Forest University Health Sciences. Before Wake Forest, he served as professor and chief of Vascular Surgery at Vanderbilt University. Dr. Dean has held leadership positions for a long list of academic and medical organizations, including the Association of Academic Health Centers, American Board of Surgery, American Board of Plastic Surgery, and National Library of Medicine. He also has been chairman of the board of the Piedmont Triad Research Park. He holds a BA from VMI and an MD from the Medical College of Virginia.

Christine K. Cavanaugh, Ed.D., Consulting Vice President, has more than 30 years of experience in corporate, healthcare, and higher education sectors. Prior to joining Kaludis Consulting in 2021, she has been a consultant and certified Executive Coach focused on leadership development, transitions, performance improvement, and teamwork with senior administrative and faculty clients. She teaches for University of Maryland Global Campus (UMGC) in the Human Resource Management program in employment law and training and development. She teaches research and directs dissertations in the Immaculata University higher education doctoral program. She is certified as a Senior Professional in Human Resources (SPHR), Certified Performance Technologist (CPT), and Associate Certified Coach (ACC) and is certified to administer various assessments tools from CCL, Hogan, and the MBTI. Previously, she was an administrator at George Washington University and the University of West Florida and worked as a Marketing Executive for IBM. Dr. Cavanaugh serves as chair of the Board for American Association of University Administrators (AAUA). She holds a BS degree from the University of Maryland, College Park, and MBA and EdD degrees from the University of West Florida.

Gerald Whittington, Consulting Vice President, has more than 40 years of diverse higher education experience. Prior to joining Kaludis Consulting in 2019, he served as Senior Vice President for Business, Finance and Technology at Elon University. During his tenure at Elon, total enrollment more than doubled and the physical plant grew to more than 3 million square feet. Previously, Mr. Whittington was the Vice President for Business and Finance at Agnes Scott College and served in the administrations at the University of Virginia, Duke University, and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He is an in-demand speaker and consultant on the topics of higher education finance, institutional planning and construction and serves as a Finance and Administration evaluator for SACS. Mr. Whittington received the Distinguished Business Officer Award, the highest national award from the National Association of College and University Business Officers (NACUBO) and is featured as a leading architect of institutional change and improvement in George Keller’s Transforming a College: The Story of a Little-Known College’s Strategic Climb to National Distinction. He holds a bachelor's from UNC-Chapel Hill and an MBA from Duke University.

William H. Ballard, Consulting Vice President, has more than 40 years of experience in higher education and corporate finance and administration. His experience spans strategic financial planning; resource allocation and budgeting; debt financing and management; facilities construction; risk management; and financial systems/processes assessment and redesign. Before joining Kaludis Consulting in 2020, Mr. Ballard served as Treasurer and Vice President for Financial Affairs at Ohio Northern University. He previously served as Controller and then Vice President for Finance and Administration at Centenary College of Louisiana. Prior to entering higher education, Mr. Ballard held several corporate finance and administration positions with Reliant Energy Group, Allegheny & Western Energy Corporation, and Mountaineer Gas Company. Mr. Ballard began his career as a senior audit manager at an international accounting firm working in multiple industries. He holds BA and MBA degrees from The Ohio State University.