People

Shelly Weiss Storbeck

Global Education Practice Lead and Managing Director

Education, Higher Education, Independent Schools, Leadership, Managing Directors, Practice Leaders

Shelly Weiss Storbeck serves as Global Education Practice Lead and Managing Director for Diversified Search Group, a role she assumed following Diversified Search’s 2020 acquisition of Storbeck Search. She launched Storbeck Search after 12 years as co-founder and managing partner of one of the leading firms in higher education executive search. Storbeck has one of the most widely recognized names in the education sector, having recruited senior leaders for many of America’s most prestigious colleges and universities.

Recently, Shelly has conducted presidential searches on behalf of Boston University, Michigan State University, Temple University, and the University of Pittsburgh, along with Carleton, Colorado, Haverford, Spelman, and Swarthmore Colleges. In her career she has conducted more than 500 searches, mostly CEO-level, for public and private universities, liberal arts colleges, independent schools, and nonprofit organizations.

Her prior positions in executive search include: Managing Director of the education practice of A.T. Kearney, an international search and consulting firm; and Senior Associate and Administrative Officer of the education practice at Korn/Ferry International.

Storbeck writes, speaks, and consults on issues relating to higher education across the United States. She contributed to a series of seminars and ultimately a book about the liberal arts, Remaking College: Innovation and the Liberal Arts (Johns Hopkins University Press). She currently serves on multiple advisory groups focused on developing leadership in education, including the Aspen Institute.

She has served as chair of the American Council on Education (ACE) Executive Search Roundtable and is a member of the ACE Women’s Network. In 2021, she received the ACE Donna Shavlik Award in recognition of her commitment to advancing women in higher education and ensuring women’s equitable representation across the leadership pipeline.

Prior to entering the search industry, Storbeck served as Assistant to the President for Educational Affairs at Haverford College. In that post, she gained experience in all senior administrative searches and chaired Haverford’s Middle States Accreditation Process. Storbeck taught English at the Baldwin School (Bryn Mawr, PA) and English and Religion at Phillips Academy (Andover, MA). She is a member of the Modern Language Association and is also a former member of the Yale Parents Annual Fund.

Education

AM, English
Bryn Mawr College

BA, English and Religion, Phi Beta Kappa
Dickinson College