Larenda Mielke

Larenda Mielke is a Senior Vice President in the Higher Education division of Kaufman Hall’s Strategic and Financial Planning practice. She has extensive leadership experience in higher education in the areas of strategy, curriculum and program development, accreditation, strategy execution, financial modeling, business development, managerial communication, lifelong learning, and online, executive, continuing, and hybrid education.

Prior to joining Kaufman Hall, Ms. Mielke served as Associate Provost at Southern Methodist University (SMU). In that role, she was responsible for the entrepreneurial formation and branding of online/hybrid education university-wide, including governance, strategy, financial modeling, research, approvals, and project management, while leading a team of 30+. She also led a large Continuing Education division.

Ms. Mielke previously served as Senior Director of Executive Education at the University of Virginia (UVA) Darden School of Business, where she was instrumental in increasing executive education’s impact nationally and internationally. At the Washington University Olin Business School in St. Louis, she served as Associate Dean and Managing Director for the EMBA program in Shanghai, China, bringing that program to a ranking of No. 6 in the world. She has taught in the areas of managerial communication, medical and research writing, English as a Second Language, team communication, and presentation skills—both traditionally and online—for more than 20 years.

Ms. Mielke has consulted with multiple universities around the world, and worked directly with organizations such as Cargill, the World Bank, MAS Holdings (Sri Lanka), Aluminium Bahrain, and NAMIC, among many others. A regular presenter at higher education conferences, Ms. Mielke has spoken in multiple countries, and given interviews and written articles for professional publications in the U.S. and China.

Ms. Mielke holds an M.B.A. from the Olin Business School at Washington University in St. Louis, an M.A. in Cross-Cultural Education from Wheaton College, and a B.S. in Biology from Indiana State University.