Laura A. Yaeger, Vice President, Higher Education Consulting
Chicago, Illinois
P (312) 583-8762
F (312) 583-8701
lyaeger@huronconsultinggroup.com
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Professional Profile
Laura is a founding member and the leader in Huron’s higher education practice and has been consulting in the higher education and healthcare environments for nearly 20 years. She has worked as a key business advisor to more than 50 premier universities, academic medical centers, healthcare organizations, and other non-profit research institutes.
Professional Experience
Laura specializes in helping research universities, academic medical centers, and hospitals improve their ability to manage the research enterprise. This includes areas such as strategic and financial planning, organizational design, operational performance improvement, information technology, clinical trials management, facilities and administrative cost recovery, and regulatory compliance.
Representative examples of Laura’s recent engagement experience include:
- Led comprehensive assessments of the research administration support structures at several leading research universities resulting in significant transformation in organizational design, business processes, and information technology. Provided leadership during the implementation of performance improvements to service levels, information provided to the research community, compliance with regulations, financial performance, and recovery of costs from sponsored programs.
- Served as the engagement leader for compliance reviews at more than 25 academic medical centers. Provided recommendations and training related to key fiscal and regulatory compliance topics areas including effort reporting, direct charging, cost transfers, cost sharing, service centers, human subject protections, animal subject protections, export controls, and conflicts of interest.
- Provided assistance to numerous universities, non-profit institutions, and independent research hospitals to prepare and negotiate facilities and administrative cost rate proposals and to implement procedures to increase cost reimbursement from external sponsors.
- Worked with several institutions to develop strategic, operational, and financial plans to support the vision for growth in the research enterprise. Assisted a major academic medical center and an independent research hospital with the development of a comprehensive operational and financial model that formed the basis for a fifty-year affiliation agreement.
- Provided leadership on several engagements to assess the institution’s ability to effectively leverage information technology investments to achieve operational goals. Reviewed organizational structures, roles and responsibilities, business processes, information technology deployment, and change management processes. Provided recommendations and developed a plan to help improve the quality and efficiency of administrative services provided to the academic community.
Prior to joining Huron, Laura was a partner in the higher education practice of Arthur Andersen LLP.
Education and Certifications
- Bachelor of Business Administration, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan
Speaking Engagements
- Laura is a frequent speaker at conferences sponsored by the National Council of University Research Administrators (NCURA), Society of Research Administrators (SRA), National Association of College and University Business Officers (NACUBO), and the regional cost accounting conferences (SECA, MECA, WECA, and NECA). She also has provided thought leadership on a variety of topics related to “Managing the Research Enterprise.”