Based in Pittsburgh, Jillian Williams dedicates herself to serving organizations in academic medicine and the health sciences in identifying truly transformative leaders. She draws upon vast experience in higher education and academic medicine to provide expert counsel, helping to guide leadership searches through their various challenging phases. Jillian prides herself in being collaborative, communicative, and resourceful in matching organizations with exceptional executives to meet their strategic needs. Jillian joined WittKieffer following a stint as higher education strategy and operations senior associate for Huron Consulting Group. Prior to that position, she was senior director for operations management for Carnegie Mellon University. In this role, she functioned as the chief of staff to the vice president for operations, providing daily confidential briefings and counsel. She also directed business operations for the VP including strategic initiatives, executive communications, divisional infrastructure, and effectiveness efforts for the division of 800+ staff encompassing eight departments. She was integrally involved in hiring and staffing, including the divisional leadership team. Previously, she was assistant administrator for the UPMC Heart and Vascular Institute, serving as the second in command to the executive administrator, and providing financial, operational, and strategic counsel. Jillian held several other prior roles at UPMC and the University of Pittsburgh, including having responsibility for clinical operations, project coordination for a medical student course, and providing research support to the cancer institute. At one point she helped establish the Pet Therapy Palliative Care program at UPMC Montefiore and Presbyterian and led the first team to visit patients.