Tippi Polo

Tippi Polo is an educator and facilitator who specializes in organizational design and change management in academic settings. Her primary focus at SMU is to help members of the SMU Meadows community to identify and implement best practices to ensure the optimal educational experience for students and to facilitate positive change to ensure the ongoing success of SMU initiatives and alumni.

Ms. Polo has worked in higher education administration for more than a decade, in both public and private institutions. She most recently served as the Sr. Academic Affairs Coordinator for American University Washington College of Law in Washington, D.C., where she was responsible for the evaluation of faculty teaching and all processes related to the hiring, evaluation, promotion and compensation of adjunct faculty (a cohort of over 500 members). Her most notable accomplishments in that role include her redesign of official protocols in response to the unionization of adjunct faculty and her successful implementation of the first electronic course evaluation process on the American University campus.

Ms. Polo also has an extensive background in the visual arts, including art handling and gallery management, festival coordination, product design and archival framing. She co-owned a fine art business for more than 20 years and has shown her own work in Pennsylvania, New York and Washington, D.C.