Maya Ranchod Kirkhope
Vice President, Senior Consultant, and Senior Executive Coach
Maya.Kirkhope@academicsearch.org
Maya Ranchod Kirkhope joined Academic Search 15 years ago and has served as a senior consultant working on executive searches both domestically and internationally. She has specialized in presidential searches at religiously affiliated institutions. Maya also serves as Vice President at Academic Search and leads the firms’ signature service of Transition and Onboarding support for new executives. Furthermore, she serves as a Senior Executive Coach and is Gallup-certified coach. Maya has been active in leadership development initiatives, and in particular, has worked for many years on various projects that have supported women advancing to executive level positions.
Prior to joining Academic Search, Maya spent a decade working in university governance and worked extensively with presidents and boards of trustees across the country. She previously worked at the Association of Governing Boards, where she was responsible for the leadership, management, and marketing of its Board Education and Consulting Service. The portfolio of services offered included presidential search, transition, and assessment, as well as strategic planning and development. Maya also provided a workshop service for presidents and governing boards, sponsored by the Association of Catholic Colleges and Universities, which dealt with issues related to institutional governance, mission and identity. She conducted in- depth interviews with presidents and board chairs to develop specialized workshops that addressed specific institutional needs, recruited and trained facilitators, and evaluated the effectiveness of this service for Catholic institutions. As well, Maya worked for the Center for Higher Education Transformation in South Africa, where she was responsible for developing the first governance project in the country.
She earned her bachelor’s degree from Ohio Wesleyan University and a master’s degree in education from Columbia University.
