3 Questions for Ryan McCallum, Regional VP, Civitas Learning

Ryan McCallum and I worked closely together during his time at Dartmouth. Recently, Ryan started a new role as regional vice president at Civitas Learning. I asked if Ryan would answer my questions about his new gig, and he graciously agreed.

Q: For those of us who don’t know about Civitas Learning, how does the company work with colleges and universities? What are your main products and services, and who are the major players in that ecosystem?

A: I like to say that Civitas Learning is fundamentally a data science company that’s not just surfacing insights, but helping deliver institutionwide alignment and action through our platform. We partner with institutions to apply their own data to the student outcomes that matter the most. That shows up as institution-specific predictive modeling rather than generic industry benchmarks.

Right now, colleges are spending heavily on student success, but a lot of them are experiencing what we call the “student impact gap”—a frustrating disconnect where these investments in advising services and intervention initiatives just aren’t improving retention or completion rates. We help close that gap. Instead of relying on generic industry benchmarks, we build institution-specific predictive models tailored to a school’s unique data, evaluating thousands of variables in real time to proactively identify which students are struggling and what interventions actually work. For someone like me, who has spent years in portfolio management, knowing what programs are actually working is huge. It helps drive investment towards impactful solutions.

I’m excited to talk about two solutions in particular:

1. The Student Impact Platform: This is our all-in-one solution that embeds actionable analytics into where work is already happening. It gives leaders deep insight into multiple student outcomes (persistence, completion, career readiness) and equips teams with the tools they need to coordinate proactive advising, academic planning and targeted outreach. People get into the education industry because they are well intentioned, and this platform is the tool that helps them deliver.

2. The Data Lakehouse: I maybe should have led with this one. This solution is the reason I wanted to work for Civitas Learning. This is a huge differentiator for us. It acts as an intelligence layer that unifies fragmented campus data—from the SIS, LMS, multiple CRMs and more—into one secure, cloud-hosted foundation. We’re talking structured and unstructured data. It gives institutions a single source of truth and an embedded AI assistant to run natural-language queries, all without requiring a massive IT overhaul. Institutional leaders have the vision, but all too often the data they need to achieve it sits in these disparate systems. Lakehouse can bring that all into one actionable interface. And when I say “actionable,” I mean actionable by anyone. Lakehouse opens up access to data. It’s powerful that people across the institution, not just the technical teams, can engage with and explore student data in real time. That reduces the burden on IE/IR teams and IT, among others.

The major players in this space—EAB, Ellucian, Element 451—are solid at what they do. Most are built around workflow management and CRM-style interactions: organizing outreach, tracking contacts, managing caseloads. That’s useful to a point. But workflows without insight only get you so far. You can build the most efficient advising operation in the country and still miss the students who need you most—because you’re working from generic benchmarks instead of your own data.

That’s the gap Civitas Learning is built to close. Our models are institution-specific—built on a school’s own historical data, evaluating thousands of variables to surface which students are at risk and what interventions actually work at that institution. That’s why you’ll often see us working alongside these other tools rather than replacing them. Our value proposition is different: we’re not managing the workflow, we’re informing the judgment behind it.

Q: You and I worked together at Dartmouth, where we collaborated on the business development, financial aspects, contracting and vendor management with external partners for online nondegree (certificate) programs. How does your experience working at a university influence how you think about your new role at Civitas Learning? Where do university/company partnerships often go wrong?

A: Simply put, in higher ed, change management is hard. It’s everything. If the solution requires a massive change management campaign or major infrastructure transformation, adoption is going to be tough. That’s another reason I believe in Civitas Learning’s approach. For the value it creates, it’s as low-friction as possible. For example, we had a customer’s time to value in six weeks. Pretty incredible.

Also, the Civitas Learning team that directly engages with institutions are all former higher ed leaders, so there is authentic, practical experience available to our partners.

Another thing I learned while working in higher ed is that institutions can be incredibly siloed. Every professional school may have its own P&L, and you are most certainly operating in a very complex data environment. That could look like multiple instances of CRMs, a stand-alone SIS or LMS, and definitely different approaches to student affairs across the entire institution.

That experience influences my approach at Civitas Learning because I know that you can’t just drop a piece of software into these environments and expect it to solve systemic challenges. For example, I experienced firsthand that trying to build a centralized data lake from scratch is a massive, disruptive infrastructure lift that rarely gets off the ground because different departments won’t easily give up their data. That’s what I like about our Lakehouse product, because these silos don’t have to tear up the foundation to get the impact the larger institution is looking to deliver. Instead, we are putting a roof over the existing systems to unify that intelligence. That is a shift in approach that allows institutions to get value much faster and at a much lighter lift.

As for where university/company partnerships go wrong, it usually happens when vendors treat the relationship as a transaction. I have no interest in being a transactional vendor. My goal is for an institution to look at Civitas Learning as a trusted adviser and ultimately a strategic partner. An institution is partnering with Civitas Learning to help achieve positive student outcomes. If we keep that goal in mind, then we are sharing in the success of our relationship.

I’ll say just one last thing on this. Bad systems beat good people every time. If a vendor isn’t sharing the goal of solving these complex institutional challenges, then you just bought “shelf-ware.” We aren’t interested in that outcome.

Q: What advice do you have for early and midcareer professionals looking to move into more senior roles at universities and ed-tech companies? What are the credentials, networks, skills and habits that you see as critical along a leadership trajectory? Reflecting on your career, what experiences and learnings have been most impactful in your professional journey?

A: Great question. My biggest piece of advice is to value relationships. Over my 24-year career—whether I was a client executive at Dell, running product at ACT, doing the start-up thing or working in the Ivy League—any success I’ve had always came back to building deep, trusting relationships with leaders and teammates. If you’re in sales, stop selling features and start helping your customers solve problems. Maybe you have the right solution and maybe you don’t. If you value the relationship, you aren’t going to steer them wrong.

In terms of habits and skills, know who you are and what you want professionally. Be brutally honest with yourself about what types of roles give you energy. And make sure that you’re always bringing energy to your team in your role. Be in service to your team and to your customers.

And finally, stay curious and embrace being a beginner again. If you want to move into a leadership role in ed tech or higher ed, you have to be willing to constantly learn, adapt and check your ego at the door.