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2022 AMA Symposium for the Marketing of Higher Education

National Harbor, MD + Virtual

Thank You For a Great Conference!

It’s marketers like you who keep our higher education community growing and thriving.

We can’t wait to see you for next year’s event on November 12-15, 2023, in Chicago!


On-Demand Resources for Attendees

On-demand conference materials, including speaker slide decks and recorded keynote sessions, are available on the virtual platform through early May 2023.

Login Details

  1. Log in to the Attendee Hub via a desktop using the button above.
  2. Enter your name and email (the ones you were using for the event app).
  3. A verification code will be sent to you—enter the code to finish logging in.
  4. Select Schedule on the top menu bar, and select On Demand.

Note: The Attendee Hub is only accessible from a desktop.


The Essential Event for the Higher Ed Community

Connect with visionaries, leaders and up-and-coming innovators in the higher ed marketing community at the 2022 AMA Symposium for the Marketing of Higher Education.

With a 30+ year history, it would be hard to find an event that is as dedicated to connecting you with peers and solution providers to help solve today’s higher ed challenges.

Our program of peer-reviewed content will help you enhance your marketing strategy, build strong brands, improve your reputation, achieve enrollment success and maintain financial strength.


A Glimpse of What to Expect


In-Person

(November 6-8)

It’s all included. Your registration includes keynotes, breakouts, interactive workshops, roundtables and more. Plus, you can refresh at lively networking receptions and connect with solution providers at the exhibit hall.

AMA Member

$1,499

Non-Member

$1,699

What’s Included

  • 4 Keynotes
  • 4 Interactive Workshops
  • 24 Breakout Sessions
  • Roundtable Discussions
  • Networking Opportunities and Receptions
  • Full Exhibit Hall Access
  • On-Demand Access to Online Symposium Content

Online

(November 7-8)

Engage with a curated selection of virtual programming. This two-day virtual event will give you great insights into cultivating new thought leadership, as well as a look at the fundamentals and best practices.

AMA Member

$319

Non-Member

$469


What’s Included

  • Live-Streamed Keynotes
  • 2 Virtual Workshops
  • 16 Breakout Sessions
  • Digital Networking Opportunities
  • On-Demand Access to the Virtual Programming

Want to Register a Group?

Receive a 20% discount on registrations of 3+ attendees.


Keynote Speakers

Seth Bodnar

President of the University of Montana

Andrew Davis

Marketing & Customer Experience Keynote Speaker and Author

Reginald DesRoches

President of Rice University

Vincent Rougeau

President of Holy Cross

Alan Stein, Jr.

Keynote Speaker, Author and Performance Coach

Tania Tetlow

President of Fordham University

Shelley Willingham

VP, Business Strategy at The Diversity Movement


Conference Highlights

Peer-Reviewed Content

With a focus on innovative best practices, this event is programmed by a committee of your peers to make sure you get the most relevant learning.

Interactive Workshops

Join a deep dive workshop on topics including marketing communications, brand impact, analytics, project management, talent development and design thinking. 

Intentional Collaboration

Our popular roundtable discussions are back for in-person attendees. Pick a topic and join your peers to find solutions to the challenges you’re facing.

Spirit Day

Bring your favorite gear to wear and show your school colors. Spirit day is back and is always an attendee favorite!

New Research Insight Track

Get the latest research, curated by our event committee, to understand what’s coming next for our industry. These are live sessions for virtual attendees and available on-demand for in-person registrants. 

Solution Providers All in One Place

No event has more higher ed solution providers in one place. Cruise our exhibit hall and connect with companies that can help you broaden your impact.


Need to Convince Your Boss?

We know budgets are tight, and you’re watching every dollar spent. That’s why we’ve created this template to help you show your supervisor the value you’ll get from attending.


Senior Leader Experience (Invite Only)

The Senior Leader Experience is an intentionally programmed time where top institution-level campus marketers can share challenges, exchange ideas and make connections to build a lasting support system. Learn more.


Higher Ed Marketer of the Year Award

We’re excited to recognize individuals and teams who show extraordinary higher ed leadership. This award is brought to you by the AMA Foundation and Lipman Hearne.


COVID-19 Health and Safety Guidelines

Updated September 2022 and in effect until further notice

We know the value of connecting in person, and we’re committed to making it a safe environment for all attendees. We will follow federal and local guidelines to ensure a safe conference. The CDC and experts are helping people better understand their COVID risk, what actions to take if exposed and access to affordable tests. Given these updates, we are offering new options for meeting COVID safety guidelines outlined below.

The 2022 AMA Symposium for the Marketing of Higher Education no longer has a mask mandate, nor are attendees required to provide proof of vaccination or a negative COVID-19 test. Masks are optional for attendees. If wearing a mask will make you feel more comfortable while attending the symposium, please do so, but we will not require them.

For those traveling, please adhere to transportation mandates in airports, during air travel and while on public modes of transportation.

We strongly encourage you to understand your risks according to CDC Guidelines prior to attending.

We also recommend you familiarize yourself with the Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center’s COVID Policy, which has initiated higher level protocols for cleanliness standards.

The American Marketing Association is free to establish further limitations leading up to the 2022 AMA Symposium for the Marketing of Higher Education. If there are any changes to the COVID protocol, we will update this page. We thank you in advance for your understanding, flexibility and continued support. We look forward to seeing you!

If you are unable to join us in person for any reason, we encourage you to participate in the virtual portion of the event as we strive to provide an engaging and impactful experience both virtually and in person.


AMA Event Policies 

Sunday (All Times in EST) | National Harbor, MD

Interactive Workshop

Combining Marketing and Communication for Long-Lasting Brand Impact

Although they’re often blended together in the name of a single department, marketing and communication are distinct disciplines. Their essential skills, preferred channels and ultimate purpose often differ. What they have in common are the audiences they seek to impact or influence on behalf of a brand. Campuses need both marketing and communications professionals to collaborate to achieve institutional goals. Using University of Montana data from its ongoing strategic partnership with Campus Sonar, we’ll examine how audience insights, content repurposing and the marketing-communication continuum combine for maximum brand impact and memorability with the people you care about most.

Binti Harvey

Scripps College

HE Teresa Valerio Parrot

Teresa Valerio Parrot

TVP Communications

Jenny Petty

University of Montana

Katlin Swisher

Campus Sonar

Interactive Workshop

Data-Driven Analytics Presentation - Template You Can Use!

Are your marketing campaigns effective? Is your reporting streamlined? Could you quickly explain the efficacy of your programs? Find out how the St. Edward’s marketing team leveraged knowledge outside of Higher Ed to create a less-than-25-page executive summary that is digestible, easy to read and easy to update! We share our process so that you, too, can create amazing Data-Driven Analytics Presentations and wow your team. Learn about our turnkey approach that summarizes big wins, key stats, major takeaways and next steps across our marketing plan. Join our session to see the final product and share your own best practices!

Christie Campbell

St. Edward's University

Jennie Sutherland

St. Edward's University

Interactive Workshop

Getting the Most Bang for Your Marketing Buck with Project Management

As Higher Ed Marketers, you have to juggle multiple priorities in multiple media channels from stakeholders across your campus — all while balancing budgets, schedules, scopes and the quality of the products. How do you ensure you make the most of your and your team’s efforts? How do you reduce the frequency of rework, missed deadlines and routine last-minute changes? One way to become more efficient and effective is to implement a formalized project management process. In this workshop, led by a higher-ed-marketer-turned-project-management-expert, you’ll learn about the benefits of project management as a discipline, how to avoid common project pitfalls, what to look for in a best-fit project management information system, and hear a case study from a Higher Ed marketing department about how they successfully implemented and use project management on their campus. With this information in hand, you’ll be able to begin transforming your department into a project management powerhouse!

Lindsay Nyquist

Fort Lewis College

Erik Rueter

Erik Rueter

American Marketing Association

Interactive Workshop

Unleashing Potential: Talent Management and Career Development Strategies for Your Team – and You!

The market has gone through a whirlwind of a year, as individuals contemplate the next stages of their career journeys, whether within the organization or elsewhere. As higher education leaders, you have the opportunity to create a workplace environment that will attract top talent, engage your team and motivate individuals to stay.

Bringing best practices from across the field, we’ll review strategies around recruitment, retention and engagement, specifically for marketing and communications teams.

Through both presentation and collaboration with other attendees, you’ll walk away with tangible initiatives that you can implement with your team and in your own career journey.

During the last hour of this workshop, attendees are invited to have 1:1 confidential networking conversations with Julie and Vanessa. Bring a challenge you’re facing with your team, your resume for review, or an open-mind to talk about your career.

Julie Ried

Julie Ried

The Ward Group

Vanessa Theoharis

Vanessa Theoharis

The Ward Group

Interactive Workshop

Social Content Curated by Your Students: Why It Matters and How to Do It

Interns, student-workers, ambassadors, influencers. Whatever title you give them, students are extremely valuable teammates, collaborators and communicators. This workshop will help you work out how best to develop a solid student ambassadors program and make the most out of students’ unique voices and perspective in whatever capacity fits your needs and resources.

Anice Rodrigues Barbosa

Wheaton College

Yasin Id-Deen

UC Berkeley

Alex Mowrey

Alex Mowrey

University of Pittsburgh

Acacia O'Connor

Acacia O'Connor

University of Pittsburgh

Ashley Schroeder

Colorado State University

First-Timer Orientation

Welcome Reception

Monday (All Times in EST) | National Harbor, MD

Harnessing Mindfulness and Movement for Presence and Productivity

Start your morning with an interactive session packed with mindfulness and movement.

You’ll learn why intentional mindfulness and movement are beneficial (spoiler: research shows they work!), and how to integrate easy-to-do exercises throughout your day right at your desk. Designed to be performed without need for workout clothes or gear, these guided exercises help reduce stress and anxiety, hone your ability to focus, increase productivity and build resilience. Incorporate them into your daily routine – and even share them with your team – to collectively improve overall health, energy, inspiration and collaboration.

Participate on Monday, Tuesday or both: it’s the same session each day.

Holly Duncan

Converse University

Breakfast

Higher Ed Marketer of The Year Award Ceremony

Keynote: The Cube of Creativity—Why Adding Constraints Sparks Innovation, Action & Increases Enrollment

We’re burned out.

It’s been a looooong few years. We felt the constraints of working from home, virtual happy hours, and virtual classes. We’ve had to navigate COVID-19 communications while we work to attract new students. For some, all these constraints have us wondering if we’re doing what we want to do?

For others, these constraints became their fuel for growth and evolution. If the pandemic has taught us anything, it’s that constraints breed creativity.

In this exhilarating and inspiring 60-minute session, Andrew Davis will break down the five creative limitations you can add to any initiative to drive better outcomes.

You’ll learn how one non-profit turned its shutdown into millions of dollars in donations. Andrew will reveal how a small bet with massive restraints resulted in a best-selling book. He’ll show you how one business beat the pandemic by snooping through old SEC filings.

More importantly, you’ll walk away ready to apply intelligent constraints to your creative work: limitations that result in more innovation, less burnout, and significant success.

Are you ready to embrace the constraints?

Andrew Davis

Marketing & Customer Experience Keynote Speaker & Author

Reducing Digital Engagement Amnesia in Higher Ed

Digital Engagement Amnesia: The repeated engagements that you have with your constituents where you act as though each of those interactions is the first time you’ve engaged with them, even though you’ve been engaging with them you for months, years and sometimes decades. As marketers, we’ve all been guilty of this at some stage. Sending out batch-and-blast email, using static web content, or asking for the same information in a form that you’ve already captured before. It negatively affects how your constituents view your university brand and the outcomes you aim to achieve.

In this session, we’ll explore why the brand message of a University alone can’t overcome Digital Engagement Amnesia, how corporate marketers overcome it, and how marketers in Higher Ed can address it.

Rob Zaebst

Strategic Marketing Industry Advisor, Salesforce

Yield of Dreams

If you build it, they will come. Research shows that students apply to 12-15 colleges on average, causing many institutions to see a recent rise in applications. But not all institutions are seeing that rise translate to enrollment. The University of Pittsburgh, in partnership with MediaCross, will share how they swing for the fences during yield, building a multi-channel, highly personalized approach to engaging admitted students. You’ll gain insight into the tactics we’ve tested (including Messenger, Snapchat, TikTok campaigns and more) and how we use data for year-over-year optimization that continually leads to increases in enrollment.

Rashida Dinehart

MediaCross, Inc.

Molly Swagler

University of Pittsburgh

Turning the Ship: Rebranding While Navigating Towards Recruitment

AHOY! The seas were rough and the USS Iowa was headed into a falling student demographic storm. Batten down the hatches and come aboard to see how a partnership between Enrollment Management and Strategic Communications helped captain this large (ironically land-locked) public university towards safer waters through a new national brand strategy to attract students and position itself as a destination university. Learn how we developed a strategy anchored in recruitment, facilitated national high school focus groups to test brand creative, all while steering around campus politics and building campus buy-in.

Jessica Corliss

The University of Iowa

Scott Fiddelke

The University of Iowa

From Made to Making: Healing through Branding

The University of Montana has weathered a number of storms: a reputational crisis, a dramatic dip in enrollment and challenging political dynamics. Add deep-seated cynicism from internal stakeholders when it comes to branding and it was no surprise that the campus became more defined by its troubles than its deep history, service to the state of Montana or academic rigor. This session will focus on how brand building can bridge a painful past with a hopeful future through healthy coalition and community building, strong partnerships and a philosophy of inclusion while delivering an authentic, differentiated brand platform.

Jenny Petty

University of Montana

Kevin Tyler

SimpsonScarborough

Buffet Lunch and Networking

Infusing Student Voice Into Your Content Strategy

Students expect brands–and, by extension, their institutions–to be easy-to-understand, represent diverse viewpoints and be authentic in all communications. At the same time, higher-ed marketers find themselves responsible for managing more content channels and more communications than ever before. So, how can mar-comm pros overcome these challenges and deliver consistent, student-centered touchpoints? By embedding student voice into their content strategy. Presenters will share a framework for recharging your communication channels by collaborating with students, knowing their concerns, removing noise and keeping them on the path to success. Social media, content and creatives of all levels will find this presentation especially helpful, but all attendees can benefit from the material.

David Miller

University of Arizona

Ivy Morris

University of Arizona

Emily Stulz

University of Arizona

How to Get Students to Pay Attention to Your Unique Brand

We’re in the age of authentic, humanized and transparent marketing. Learn how your institution can earn the trust of students, present and future, by understanding what drives their decisions on a deeper level and personalize your outreach. We will hear from 3 speakers on the following topics:

Applying Awareness-Based Marketing to Your College Recruitment Strategy (Presented by Epicosity)

Modern student recruitment strategies require personalization in order to engage with target audiences. Awareness-based marketing strategies meet the students where they are and deliver valuable messaging unique to the student’s stage in the decision-making process

Be Authentic! The Importance of Keeping it Real (And How to Do It) (Presented by Digital Pulp)

Our research has consistently revealed that prospective audiences crave authenticity. The current generation of prospective students expect marketing gloss, but they’re trying to get below the surface and gain a deeper and more grounded understanding of the institutions they’re considering. When an institution is able to effectively communicate an authentic experience, the effect can be remarkable. In this session, we’ll explore what authenticity means for the current generation, its key elements, the ways an institution of higher education can be more authentic, and examples that demonstrate the difference.

5 Questions For Your Digital Agency Presented by Glacier (Presented by Glacier)

Digital marketing agencies are a dime a dozen and each one claims to be the best, so how can you make sure YOURS is delivering on its promises? Glacier’s worked exclusively in higher education for ten years and will tell you what questions to ask and, more importantly, what answers you need from your digital advertising partner. Audience trends, channels to leverage, and creative that gets engagement, that’s just the start! Join us as we delve deeper than CTRs and CPM’s and give you the tools to know if your digital partner is delivering what you need!

Sam Thorson

Growth Strategist, Epicosity

Gene Lewis

CEO + CCO, Digital Pulp

Brian Loube

President, Digital Pulp

Jamie Pragnell

Account Manager, Glacier

RIT Scores a Victory with a Game-Changing Strategy

There’s an abundance of data focused on the increasing role of games in the lives of college students—be it educational, experiential, or entrepreneurial. At RIT, we conducted a rigorous discovery process to understand the precise differentiation of games. This inventory of all things gaming revealed a strong breadth of offerings, depth of experience and a profound interconnectedness driven by culture, academics and outcomes. The result? A compelling positioning strategy and fun creative expression illustrating how and why students can make, study, publish and play games at RIT better than anywhere else.

Cassandra Nickels

Associate Vice President for Marketing Strategy Rochester Institute of Technology

HE Speaker Kin Sejpal

Kin Sejpal

University of Redlands

Brian Wetherby

Rochester Institute of Technology

Driving Successful EDI Strategy Through Effective Change Management Communications

As the world grappled with the murder of George Floyd, campuses across the country began to take a more comprehensive look at what inclusivity and equity truly meant in their communities. Spurred—in part—by the events of 2020, the leadership of the David Eccles School of Business and the University of Utah undertook a deep reimagining of what equity, inclusion and diversity means.

This conversation will explore the role that communications and marketing play in helping to develop a compelling vision of EDI, foster buy-in, create transparency, establish milestones and shift the conversation into one focused on proactive change.

Sheena McFarland

University of Utah David Eccles School of Business

Chris Nelson

University of Utah

Ashley Northington

RW Jones Agency

Sean Rossall

RW Jones Agency

Measuring and Improving Attention Capture and Maintenance

As the enrollment cliff approaches and as prospective students become more sophisticated, your website is more critical than ever before. Glitzy hero videos, trite animations and overblown content strategies alone won’t cut it any more. We’re not just competing with other schools’ websites, we are competing with a much more elusive challenger, one we know about but too often ignore: attention.

This session will offer attendees tools to measure and improve their marketing material’s effectiveness through the lens of neurodesign an emerging field of design practice that accounts for how our brains are wired to create designs that promote simplicity emote joy and drive action. As marketers we’ve always measured performance with several rulers or heuristics and the neurodesign measures we’ll share are a supplement not a replacement for these tools.

HE Speaker Deborah Kohl

Deborah Kohl

University of Baltimore

Andres Zapata

Founder and Executive Vice President, idfive

Break: Exhibit Hall

r/RedditReport: Utilizing Reddit to Engage Diverse Audiences

Affectionately known as the front page of the internet, Reddit offers millions of online communities for users (more than 52 million daily active users worldwide) to explore focused on specific interests, topics and trends. With the average Redditor spending 10 minutes or more on the platform per visit, users are eager to learn more and engage further with a variety of content. Learn how the University of Georgia utilizes this extremely popular platform to promote faculty research around the world, drive engagement to owned channels and build diverse audiences.

Rod Guajardo

University of Georgia

Insights From Today's College Students and Emerging Industry Trends

Data-driven marketing is enabling colleges to make better informed decisions to connect with today’s students. With access to clear, measurable and emotional identifiers, this information can help forecast your next marketing strategy to make the most impact. We will hear from 3 speakers on the following topics:

The State of the American College Student (Presented by Fuseideas)

Dennis Franczak, CEO of Fuseideas, and Erin Francis-Cummings, President & CEO of Destination Analysts, will present the findings from their annual national survey of prospective and current college students. In its second year of fielding, this timely research shares critical trends built upon benchmarks established in 2021, providing insights on students’ personal motivations for choosing an institution, as well as identifying key emotional and behavioral factors impacting students today in a post-pandemic society.

Audience Centric Marketing For Any Campus: Data and Insights from STREAM (Presented by Campus Sonar)

Campus Sonar’s consultants will review multiple years of industry trends data and provide insights to help marketing leaders make the case for increased digital/social investment, as well as suggestions specific to both large and small/medium campuses.

From A to Gen Z: Catering to the International Students of Today (Presented by Unibuddy)

In this session, we’ll share our machine learning-powered analysis of millions of messages that showcase what students truly care about, when discussions are happening, and how those topics differ based on individual demographics. We’ll also share success stories from our 500+ university partners to illustrate what all of this means for institutions like yours. Attendees will come away with a fresh, new perspective on the perspectives of Gen Z students, and a surefire method for their team to secure those insights autonomously.

Liz Gross

CEO, Campus Sonar

Alexa Yow

University Partnership Manager, Unibuddy

Dennis Franczak

Founder and CEO of Fuseideas

Erin Francis-Cummings

President & CEO of Destination Analysts

The CMO of the Future: The Chief Constituent Officer

What if higher ed considered an even broader strategic role for the chief marketing officer position that also led the advancement function and served as a “chief constituent officer”? This session will explore and make a case for this unconventional path as a logical direction for senior marketing leaders and their institutions. Three senior leaders who are serving or have served in such a role—coming from a marketing and communications background to lead an integrated advancement model—will provide insights on the value and opportunity it has unlocked for their institutions through a full-spectrum view of their constituents.

Mary Gresch

University of Washington

Binti Harvey

Scripps College

Rob Zinkan

RHB

The One KPI to Rule Them All

Every campaign needs a measurement strategy, but not all metrics are created equal. Valdosta State and other institutions found that keeping one particular key performance metric—cost per enrolled student—in the forefront of their measurement strategy allowed them to understand how their campaign performed at every step of the funnel. In this session, the Valdosta team, along with their partners at VisionPoint Marketing, will show how to accurately measure this crucial KPI and use it to guide and optimize your digital and traditional channel selection, messaging and creative choices throughout the life of your campaign.

Jamie Ballinger

University of Maine

Dana Cruikshank

VisionPoint Marketing

Roundtables

Join us for robust, peer-to-peer conversations on the most pressing topics for higher education marketers today. Enjoy all the benefits only possible with real-time, face-to-face connections and collaboration.

Keynote: Presidents' Perspectives on the Role of Marketing and Communications in Higher Education

More than ever before, presidents are relying on their marketing and communications teams, and especially their senior-most marcom officer, for insights and guidance to navigate the changing and increasing expectations for university leaders. A panel of presidents, moderated by Teresa Valerio Parrot, will discuss what comes next and how marcom can help them achieve their visions for the industry’s future.

The perspectives of these presidents are shaped by the historic firsts each represents. Seth Bodnar, University of Montana, is the first nontraditional president, Reginald DesRoches is Rice University’s first Black and first immigrant president, Vincent Rougeau serves as College of the Holy Cross’s first lay and Black president, and Tania Tetlow was selected as the first lay and woman president for Fordham University.

Seth Bodnar

University of Montana

Reginald DesRoches

Rice University

Vincent Rougeau

Holy Cross

Tania Tetlow

Fordham University

Networking Reception

Tuesday (All Times in EST) | National Harbor, MD

Harnessing Mindfulness and Movement for Presence and Productivity

Start your morning with an interactive session packed with mindfulness and movement.

You’ll learn why intentional mindfulness and movement are beneficial (spoiler: research shows they work!), and how to integrate easy-to-do exercises throughout your day right at your desk. Designed to be performed without need for workout clothes or gear, these guided exercises help reduce stress and anxiety, hone your ability to focus, increase productivity and build resilience. Incorporate them into your daily routine – and even share them with your team – to collectively improve overall health, energy, inspiration and collaboration.

Participate on Monday, Tuesday or both: it’s the same session each day.

Holly Duncan

Converse University

Breakfast

Keynote: How We Live the Values We Say Within Our Sphere of Influence

Is your university living the mission and core values that your teams’ are communicating? Is your diversity statement performative or are you faking it until you make it? Working hard to make it a reality but falling short with no real traction in your diversity, inclusion and equity initiatives?

Culture is under a microscope these days. Students, faculty, staff, donors – they all expect the institutions they support to have values that align with what’s important to them. So how can an institution with so many different stakeholders with different viewpoints and experiences determine when to speak up, when to take a stand, when to make a change or when to do nothing? Join me as I unpack this challenge that institutions are facing all over the country and how to fix it.

Shelley Willingham

The Diversity Movement

Roundtables

Join us for robust, peer-to-peer conversations on the most pressing topics for higher education marketers today. Enjoy all the benefits only possible with real-time, face-to-face connections and collaboration.

What Does 2022 Mean for Education in 2030

Education no longer has the luxury to simply speculate on the upcoming year. The tectonic shift of the last two years has demonstrated why we must look five, 10, even 20 years ahead to build for the future. What can we learn from tumult and disruption? How can education come out better for it? Google will share insights from third-party research and partnerships across the industry on how the value proposition of the learning institution must evolve as students become savvier and more outcome driven. In this conversation, and we will illustrate how education can:

  •   Elevate curriculum design and empower credential stacking
  •   Enhance the classroom and create unique learning experiences
  •   Expand access by investing in more robust digital infrastructure and functionality

Alexandra Eusner

Head of Industry, Education, Google

John Farrar

Industry Director for Education at Google

Claudia Howard

Head of Industry, Education at Google

Digital Storytelling for Higher Education

Storytelling plays a significant role in helping higher education institutions reveal and build their brand. As we recruit students or faculty, nurture relationships with alumni and donors, and raise awareness and esteem in the community and among our peers, we tell our stories in order to educate, inspire, engage, and move people to action. Using the recently launched interlochen.org as our chief example, presenters Voltaire Santos Miran and Katharine Laidlaw will discuss:

  • Principles of digital storytelling
  • The elements of a compelling and authentic story
  • Audience-specific storytelling guidance
  • Design and accessibility considerations
  • Measurement considerations

Katharine Laidlaw

Interlochen Center for the Arts

Voltaire Miran

Carnegie

Strive to Thrive: A Targeted Retention Marketing Strategy

With colleges and universities working harder than ever to recruit students, retention has become an increasingly important part of your marketing strategy. Even a small number of transferring first-year students impacts revenue, rankings and reputation. But the good news? University marketers have access to data to lead highly targeted campaigns to reach current students and help them stay at your institution. In this session, Creighton University shares how to implement a retention marketing campaign that lays the groundwork for a broader retention marketing strategy.

Frannie Schneider

Creighton University

Get Organized! Take Control of Your Communication Plan

This session will explore how in-house teams can use organizational tools and best practices to execute their strategy successfully. Learn how to set up a project management system that will work for your team– even with limited resources, budget, and people. We’ll discuss how using tools to manage your projects can boost productivity, leaving you space to excel creatively. You’ll walk away with:

  • Understanding how you’re going to execute your strategy is almost as important as the strategy itself
  • How to organize projects successfully with a small team (smaller doesn’t necessarily mean more manageable!)
  • Why a good process matters

Taylor Marx

University of Texas at Dallas

Roxanne Sides

Roxanne Sides

University of Texas at Dallas

Buffet Lunch and Networking

#LearnOnTikTok: Higher Ed Strategies

There is no question that TikTok has permeated global culture, impacting everything from slang to the top music charts. With more than 1 billion active users, it’s one of the top social media apps used by Gen Z and one of the fastest-growing brands for Millennials and Gen X. However, social media managers are struggling to catch up, as they must now add videographer and editor to their already long job description. With challenges unique to the platform, expert panelists will dive into which tools and strategies should be prioritized for both quick wins and long-tail results. From everyday organic posts to paid advertising to comprehensive campaigns, we’ll discuss learnings and best practices from a higher-ed perspective.

Victoria Mendoza

University of Southern California

Brent Reser

Washington State University

Katie Camacho Smith

Katie Camacho Smith

TikTok

Andrew Thompson

University of Utah

Digital Innovation and Equity in Higher Ed Branding

Is your digital presence accessible and lead nurturing? Understand where your online experience is lacking in usability and achieve quality user experience at every touchpoint of the digital process. We will hear from 3 speakers on the following topics:

Driving Better Digital Equity on Your Higher Ed Website (Presented by Monsido powered by CivicPlus)

Digital Equity is not just a new buzzword for web accessibility. Like many digital initiatives, it requires looking at a much bigger picture, including fostering a culture of awareness and action when it comes to making the website experience fair to everyone regardless of ability, location, device, and more. Join Brady Warren from Monsido, a leader in digital governance solutions, to learn more about what digital equity is, why it matters to students, parents, faculty, and administrators alike, where potential legislation currently stands on digital equity, and gain inspiration with practical tips on how to improve the equity of your website visitor experience.

How Smart Is Your AI, The Battle For Attention (Presented by Conext)

All technology today utilizes AI, but is yours smart enough to capture the attention of students and beat out your competitors? In this session, we will discuss what’s available and how you can increase your enrollments and productivity while keeping your employees happy by eliminating the things they hate doing.   

What Elephants Can Teach Us About Higher Education Branding. (Presented by Zillion)

Why are ownable brand ideas so elusive in higher education? I had a talk with the head of marketing at a Global Top 50 University in which I was told “there are no ownable ideas in higher education.” This struck me as quite a statement, that an institution that has made some of the world’s most amazing discoveries believes it has nothing ownable to say. It was also quite a surprise to me that I had, according to this head of marketing, not be doing what I actually had been doing for years.

Brady Warren

Senior Account Executive, Monsido

Mike O'Brien

CEO and Chief Developer, Conext

Brian MacDonald

Co-founder, CCO, Zillion

Managing The Intersection of Social Justice, Politics, DEI, and Your University's Brand

In the breakout session, Shelley will walk you through what’s needed to develop your DEI Branding framework that will guide your team when contemplating how to communicate responses to social justice issues as it affects your stakeholders. This framework will serve as a GPS when determining internal and external communication and identifying what action supports it. Ultimately, it integrates your institution’s DEI strategy into your overall brand strategy. The framework helps to analyze:

  • Brand values and stakeholder sentiment
  • An analysis of stakeholder impact
  • Partner identification and alignment

Shelley Willingham

The Diversity Movement

Catching Fire: How to Ignite Marketing with Experience

The #1 marketing opportunity in higher education today is a 360 degree brand experience. Every part of your institution that touches students along their journey matters to marketing and reputation. Every. Single. Interaction. There is no ad or message that could possibly substitute for a happy student-turned-fan who tells everyone they know about their experience. The potential payoffs for leveling up experience? Crushing your institution’s enrollment goals. Higher donations, demand, retention and reputation. This session will cover how marketers can lead cultural change, create a pilot program and build buy-in for institutional adoption.

ned jones

Ned Jones

Siena College

jason rich

Jason Rich

Siena College

katie szalda

Katie Szalda

Siena College

Allison Turcio

Siena College

Break: Exhibit Hall

Bittersweet: The Reese’s University Story and What It Means for Higher Ed Marketing

The Hershey company built an imaginary university around its beloved Reese’s peanut butter cups. Reese’s University included a robust website, TV ads, brand anthem videos, social media presence, inspired mascot (the Fighting Cuppies) and more. Hear the firsthand story of how RU came to be, and why it was so easy to mimic collegiate marketing in a way that made us both laugh and cringe. We’ll have a robust discussion of why differentiation and distinctive marketing is a challenge in general, especially in higher ed. We’ll also talk about what we all can do to break through the ceiling of sameness.

R. Ethan Braden

Purdue University and Purdue Global

Bill Faust

Ologie

Ryan Riess

The Hershey Company

Kristen Riggs

The Hershey Company

What Happens When a CMO Takes on Enrollment?

When La Salle University moved enrollment management under their CMO, it was the fourth VP to oversee the function in five years. At many institutions, the CMO has just made its way to a cabinet level position, often moving “out and up” after reporting to enrollment management. Now, some institutions are flipping the table with enrollment reporting to the CMO. Find out the good, the bad and the lessons learned along the way for this emerging organizational structure.

Kimberly Taylor-Benns

La Salle University

Angela Polec

La Salle University

Hope is Top Priority

In February 2020, the University of Maryland introduced a new leader in a time of remarkable disruption and uncertainty. This session will speak to the evolving role of the university marketing and communications team to; elevate the role of the president as the chief brand ambassador for a university, introduce best practices for purpose driven communications and media relations in the face of evolving societal issues, and share strategies for engaging internal and external audiences in a hybrid campus environment.

Katie Lawson

University of Maryland

Cynthia Martinez

University of Maryland

Drive Conversion in Meaningful Ways

By focusing on user experience and personalized marketing, you’ll find meaningful ways to approach content that will encourage engagement, build your marketing funnel on the right platforms and improve lead generation.

Bringing Teams Together: Working Collaboratively to Optimize Your Marketing Efforts and Crush Your Enrollment Goals (Presented by Net Natives)

We all dream of that perfect work environment. A collaborative experience where recruitment campaigns are optimized and tracked centrally, and marketing and admissions teams work together seamlessly to achieve their enrollment targets. Join the Net Natives team as we explore a variety of strategies to improve conversion rates, harness the full power of your CRM data, and increase buy-in and collaboration among your marketing and enrollment teams. We’ll also cover the challenges institutions face when it comes to high bounce rates and form abandonment, and will examine how these issues can impact conversion at the top of your funnel and the overall user experience. By the end of this session, you’ll be better equipped to improve lead generation and remove the blind spots in your pipeline, allowing you to maximize your marketing budget and transform your enrollment strategy.

Three Benefits of Using Personas in Your Digital Marketing

As students’ motivations have evolved over the course of the pandemic, colleges and universities have been challenged to change with them. Now, it is even more critical to identify opportunities within your enrollment funnel to meaningfully engage students—on their most used platforms—in a way that speaks directly to their motivations and preferences. In this session, we’ll share three key benefits to using personas—backed by our Prospective Student Mindsets™️ research—to help your team deliver the right message on the right channel at the right time.

Content is Broken. We Need a New Way. (Presented by element451)

We know the right ways to do digital marketing. Make it personal. Make it frictionless. Make it “authentic” and “engaging.” Why then do we struggle to give students experiences that are even slightly comparable to what consumer brands deliver? A hypothesis: We’re approaching content all wrong.

Our writers and designers meet weekly, at best. And worse, our writers, designers, and marketers don’t talk to our data team. And where are admissions in this equation? To do digital marketing right, we need a new way. Join us to learn how technology and teamwork will transform your content. We’ll explore:

  • Personalization-first content development
  • Behavioral-based campaigns
  • The language of tokens
  • Modular content building
  • Dynamic content
  • Bonus: AI copywriting

Meaghan Cahill-Dunn

Regional Director, Digital, Encoura

Ardis Kadiu

Founder & CEO, Element451

Jennifer Lonchar

Vice President, Strategy and Partnerships Net Natives

Keynote: Raise Your Game: How to Level Up Your Habits, Mindset and Focus

The number one investment you can make is the investment in yourself. To achieve a greater level of success, you must be intentional in developing yourself mentally, physically and emotionally. If you want more, you must become more.

The key to raising your performance and making a meaningful contribution to your institution lies in your ability to work towards mastery of the fundamentals during the Unseen Hours. This will help infuse you with energy and optimism and combat stress and burnout.

This can only be achieved by closing Performance Gaps (the gap between what you know and what you do). In this powerful program, Alan will share practical strategies to help you create better habits, develop a winner’s mindset and refocus your lens on what matters most.

Regardless of title or tenure, you will leave with actionable steps to:

  • Align your habits with your core values and beliefs
  • Heighten your Emotional Intelligence (EQ)
  • Learn to be present in the moment
  • Earn confidence while maintaining humility
  • Manage change and create a process for progress

Alan Stein, Jr.

Keynote Speaker, Author and Performance Coach

Closing Networking Reception

Seth Bodnar

University of Montana

Keynote Speaker

Seth Bodnar currently serves as the 19th president of the University of Montana where he works alongside students, faculty, staff and the community to ensure students from all walks of life and backgrounds have access to a quality education that prepares them for successful careers and lives as engaged, service-minded citizens.

Before coming to the University of Montana, President Bodnar was a senior executive at the General Electric Company, serving as its first-ever Chief Digital Officer and leading GE Transportation’s Digital Solutions business. Prior to GE, President Bodnar served on faculty at West Point where he taught economics.

President Bodnar graduated first in his class from West Point, received both the Rhodes and Truman scholarships, and earned two master’s degrees from the University of Oxford. President Bodnar had a distinguished military career, serving in the 101st Airborne Division and the U.S. Army’s First Special Forces Group. As a member of the Army’s elite Green Berets, he commanded a Special Forces detachment on multiple deployments around the world and later served as a special assistant to the Commanding General in Iraq.

President Bodnar is the son of two educators and the husband of a fifth-generation Montanan. He is very proud to be raising three kids in Montana, and he considers it a great honor to be working on behalf of public education in such a special place.

Andrew Davis

Marketing & Customer Experience Keynote Speaker & Author

Keynote Speaker

Andrew Davis is a bestselling author and internationally acclaimed keynote speaker. Before building and selling a thriving digital marketing agency, Andrew produced for NBC’s Today Show, worked for The Muppets in New York and wrote for Charles Kuralt. He’s appeared in the New York Times, Forbes, the Wall Street Journal, and on NBC and the BBC. Davis has crafted documentary films and award-winning content for tiny start-ups and Fortune 500 brands. Recognized as one of the industry’s “Jaw-Dropping Marketing Speakers,” Andrew is a mainstay on global marketing influencer lists. Wherever he goes, Andrew Davis puts his infectious enthusiasm and magnetic speaking style to good use teaching business leaders how to grow their businesses, transform their cities, and leave their legacy.

Reginald DesRoches

Rice University

Keynote Speaker

Reginald DesRoches is Rice University’s eighth president. He also serves as professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering, and professor of Mechanical Engineering. As president, DesRoches serves as the chief executive officer of the university and its 7,500 students, seven schools and more than 700 faculty. He previously served as Rice’s Howard Hughes Provost and William and Stephanie Sick Dean of Engineering. DesRoches’ primary research interests are in the design of resilient infrastructure systems under extreme loads and the application of smart materials. He has published approximately 300 articles and delivered more than 100 presentations in over 30 different countries. He also has mentored more than 30 doctoral students, many of whom hold faculty positions at top universities around the world.

A member of the National Academy of Engineering, DesRoches’ distinctive research record has been recognized for its impact and innovation. He is a fellow of the American Society of Civil Engineers and the Structural Engineering Institute. He received the Distinguished Arnold Kerr Lecturer Award in 2019, the John A. Blume Distinguished Lecturer Award in 2018, and the 2018 Earthquake Engineering Research Institute Distinguished Lecturer Award, one of the highest honors in the field of earthquake engineering. DesRoches is a member of the Academy of Distinguished Alumni in Civil Engineering at Berkeley and was recently named an honorary alumnus of Georgia Tech.

Vincent Rougeau

Holy Cross

Keynote Speaker

Vincent D. Rougeau, a nationally respected expert in legal education and Catholic social thought, became the 33rd president of Holy Cross in July 2021.

He previously served as dean of the Boston College Law School and the inaugural director of the new Boston College Forum on Racial Justice in America, a meeting place for listening, dialogue, and greater understanding about race and racism in America. Prior to his role at Boston College, Rougeau was a tenured professor of law at Notre Dame Law School, and served as their associate dean for Academic Affairs from 1999-2002.

Rougeau has written extensively on law and religions with a particular focus on Catholic social teaching and the law. His book “Christians in the American Empire: Faith and Citizenship in the New World Order” was released by Oxford University Press in 2008. His current research and writing consider the relationships among religious identity, citizenship, and membership in highly mobile and increasingly multicultural democratic societies.

A vocal advocate for change in legal education, Rougeau writes and speaks extensively on legal education reform. He is a former president of the Association of American Law Schools (AALS), and previously served as a member of the Executive Committee of AALS, and as chair of the AALS Deans Steering Committee. He has also served on the Council of the Boston Bar Association.

Rougeau received his A.B. magna cum laude from Brown University in 1985, and his J.D. from Harvard Law School in 1988, where he served as articles editor of the Harvard Human Rights Journal.

Alan Stein, Jr.

Keynote Speaker, Author and Performance Coach

Keynote Speaker

Alan Stein, Jr. teaches proven strategies to improve organizational performance, create effective leadership, increase team cohesion and collaboration, and develop winning mindsets, rituals, and routines.

In his corporate keynote programs and workshops, Alan shares real-world lessons, illustrated by powerful stories, so that every audience can immediately put new ideas into action. He has a passion for helping organizations create high-performance cultures, and his clients include American Express, Pepsi, Under Armour, Starbucks, Charles Schwab, Orangetheory Fitness, and numerous college athletic programs such as Penn State Football and UConn Men’s Basketball.

An acclaimed basketball performance coach, Alan spent 15 years working with the highest-performing athletes on the planet (including NBA superstars Kevin Durant, Stephen Curry, and Kobe Bryant). He transfers that knowledge to reveal how leaders and teams can utilize the same approaches in business that elite athletes use to perform at a world-class level.

The strategies from Alan’s book, Raise Your Game: High Performance Secrets from the Best of the Best, are implemented by corporate teams and sports teams around the country. His inspirational words are featured on a 12-foot mural outside the Penn State Football Training Center, so that players run past it on the way to practice every day.

Tania Tetlow

Fordham University

Keynote Speaker

Tania Tetlow became president of Fordham University in July 2022, where she is the first layperson and the first woman to hold the office.

President Tetlow was the 17th president of Loyola University New Orleans. She was the first woman and the first layperson to lead Loyola since the Society of Jesus founded the university in 1912. President Tetlow was also the fourth, as well as the youngest, woman to lead one of the 27 colleges and universities in the U.S. that make up the Association of Jesuit Colleges and Universities. She joined Loyola in August 2018 and during her tenure ushered in a new and exciting era at the Jesuit, Catholic university.

Under her leadership, Loyola successfully completed a turnaround after the most challenging period in its financial history, improving its bond rating and repositioning university finances through careful budgeting, increased retention, continued enrollment growth, and expansion of online, graduate, and professional programs. President Tetlow oversaw the completion of Loyola’s $100 million Faith in the Future campaign, the most ambitious fundraising campaign in its history.

Prior to joining Loyola, President Tetlow served as senior vice president and chief of staff as well as the Felder-Fayard Professor of Law at Tulane University, where she was a strategic adviser to President Michael Fitts. As a law professor, President Tetlow’s research helped persuade the Department of Justice to reimagine its regulation of constitutional policing. She also directed Tulane’s Domestic Violence Law Clinic for which she raised millions of dollars in federal grant funds.

Before her career in academia, President Tetlow was an associate at Phelps Dunbar, litigating complex commercial transactions. She also served as an assistant United States attorney, prosecuting everything from violent crime to fraud cases.

President Tetlow graduated cum laude from Tulane University with a Bachelor of Arts degree in American studies and is a magna cum laude graduate of Harvard Law School, where she earned a Juris Doctor degree and was a Harry S. Truman Fellow. A Catholic who was born in New York and grew up in New Orleans, President Tetlow has deep family ties to the Jesuits and to Fordham, where her parents met as graduate students in the late 1960s.

Shelley Willingham

The Diversity Movement

Keynote Speaker

Shelley Willingham is an entrepreneur, marketer, business strategist, and Certified Diversity Executive. She currently leads the business strategy and partnership efforts at The Diversity Movement, which she joined in August of 2020.

Shelley began her work in diversity In 2003 when she founded the National Organization for Diversity in Sales and Marketing (NODSM), a company focused on helping corporate America recognize the increasing purchasing power of diverse segments. Additionally, NODSM helped organizations effectively market to these groups without using stereotypes or being offensive. Some of her clients included Merrill Lynch, Young & Rubicam, Allstate Insurance, American Family Insurance, and Turner Broadcasting. Because of her success in the diversity space, Shelley was asked to partner with FORTUNE Magazine on a special diversity section in 2006.

Outside of her work at The Diversity Movement, Shelley owns Douglas Alexandra, a digital marketing and brand activation firm focused on helping entrepreneurs and small businesses. Shelley also shares her expertise by speaking at various non-profit and business events and facilitating sales trainings, marketing workshops, and leadership conferences. She’s also a frequent on-air contributor to CNBC and MSNBC and contributor to Forbes.

She’s been a featured presenter at the Fuqua School of Business at Duke University, the Kenan-Flagler School of Business, and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She’s delivered keynote presentations to several flagship organizations including, Allstate, Merrill Lynch, GE, various women’s business groups, and leadership summits globally.

Shelley is a graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and earned her master’s degree at Northeastern University. Shelley is active in the community as a board of visitors member for The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, advisory board member for the Alexander YMCA, and DEI advisory group member for the American Marketing Association, member of Jack and Jill of America, and Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc.

Jamie Ballinger

University of Maine

Anice Rodrigues Barbosa

Wheaton College

Anice Rodrigues Barbosa graduated from the University of Rhode Island’s Harrington School of Communication and Media with dual degrees in public relations and communication studies. In her early career, Anice worked for a full-service marketing firm as a social media manager to develop community-building digital strategies for companies large and small.

She joined Wheaton College in 2014 as the alumni communications coordinator and later transitioned to social media manager where she crafted and executed the social media strategy across all platforms. Recently, she was promoted to digital marketing director where she leads web and social media strategy teams.

Kimberly Taylor-Benns

La Salle University

Kimberly Taylor-Benns, Ed.D. serves as Assistant Vice President of Enrollment Management at La Salle University in Philadelphia. Dr. Taylor-Benns oversees the areas of Admissions, Enrollment Operations and Financial Aid. Previously serving as Associate Provost at Lincoln University, PA, she led Admissions, Financial Aid, Veterans and Registrar, implementing strategies to increase and sustain enrollment from 2015-2021. Kimberly also served in various enrollment areas at Temple University and Community College of Philadelphia. In addition, Dr. Taylor-Benns has presented at regional conferences and served on higher education panels. Kimberly is a three-time graduate of Temple University: she holds an B.A. in Communications, a M.A. in African American Studies and an Ed. D. in Higher Education Administration and Leadership. Her dissertation a pragmatic “ Exploration of Faculty and Administrators’ Perception of Enrollment Management Components at a Historically Black College and University”. Kimberly is a member of Zeta Phi Beta Sorority, Incorporated.

Aaron Blau

VP of Education, Primacy

Aaron leads the Higher Education practice at Primacy, where he is responsible for helping make college and university partners successful. Before working at education-focused agencies, Aaron worked for the University of Iowa in digital marketing leadership roles in athletics and academics.

R. Ethan Braden

Purdue University and Purdue Global

R. Ethan Braden serves as Executive Vice President and the Chief Marketing and Communications Officer at Purdue University and Purdue Global. Ranked as one of the Top Ten Most Innovative Schools in America by US News and World Report for four consecutive years, Ethan leads the system in the persistent pursuit of the next giant leap by passionately positioning, promoting and protecting the Purdue brand and portfolio worldwide.

In October 2021, Fast Company Magazine selected Purdue University as one of its inaugural “Brands That Matter,” a list honoring companies and organizations that authentically communicate their mission and ideals and give people compelling reasons to care about them, according to Fast Company editors. The only university and the only Indiana entity named a Brand That Matters, Purdue was selected alongside other iconic brands including Nike, 3M, McDonald’s, Ford and Yeti.

In 2020, the American Marketing Association recognized Ethan as ‘Marketer of the Year’ and Purdue University’s central marketing and communications team as ‘Team of the Year’, both for higher education.

Previous to Purdue, Ethan worked for Eli Lilly & Company for over a decade where he served in a variety of senior marketing and sales leadership roles in the U.S. and globally, building, launching and managing some of Lilly’s and the pharmaceutical industry’s most successful and life-changing, billion-dollar brands.

Kelsey Bronski

Perkins School for the Blind

Kelsey brings the entrepreneurial mindset she developed at Babson College to everything she does. As a marketer, she’s always asking, “how can this be better?” At Perkins School for the Blind, she leads the marketing effort for Perkins Access, the digital accessibility consulting team that is making the digital world a more inclusive place, one digital experience at a time. When she’s not breaking down accessibility barriers, you can find her on Peloton’s leaderboard.

Meaghan Cahill-Dunn

Regional Director, Digital, Encoura

Meaghan Cahill-Dunn is a member of the digital team and secures new partnerships with institutions and helps execute digital campaigns from media planning, copy and creative advisement, optimization recommendations and analysis. Ms. Cahill-Dunn comes to the table with over 15 years of experience in media sales and marketing experience spanning broadcast, digital and experiential, holding positions at CBS Radio, Monster.com as well as positions at publishers and agencies in business development. She has been responsible for securing relationships with major institutions and brands to create and execute thoughtful and impactful campaigns nationally. Ms. Cahill-Dunn received her BA in Journalism from Dominican University and lives in Chicago, Illinois.

Christie Campbell

St. Edward's University

Christie Campbell, Vice President for Marketing and Communications at St. Edward’s University, joined the university in 2012 as Associate Vice President of Marketing with experience in education, non-profit and technology. Her expertise includes implementing integrated marketing strategies and successfully developing talented teams. At St. Edward’s, Christie oversees the marketing, communications, government and community relations and chairs the university planning council and external advisory board to increase engagement, attract resources and achieve the university’s strategic goals.

Jessica Corliss

The University of Iowa

Jessica Corliss is the Creative Director at the University of Iowa—creating a vision for the Iowa brand and leading a talented team of creatives to bring it to life. She has ten years of experience in higher education that spans big and small institutions, with prior experience in healthcare marketing and brand development. With a background in graphic design, Jessica likes to spend her free time designing stationery or doodling on her iPad. She is a proud graduate of Texas State University and the mother of two girls who always keeps her on her toes.

Dana Cruikshank

VisionPoint Marketing

Dana Cruikshank is the Vice President for Market Strategy at VisionPoint Marketing. Dana brings to our clients a rich portfolio of diverse experiences in marketing and media. At Virginia Tech, he guided communications and marketing for a $60 million grant funded by the U.S. Army to promote STEM education and helped develop branding strategies for the university’s Continuing and Professional Education office. He previously worked as an associate producer creating the Discovery Channel’s international websites and served as a strategic communications advisor to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. As a senior media officer at the National Science Foundation, he created strategies and content explaining nanotechnology, cybersecurity and other subjects.

Yasin Id-Deen

UC Berkeley

Yasin Id-Deen has spent the last fifteen years in the digital space, primarily focusing on social media marketing and communications, spending most of those years in higher education. Bouncing from one university to the next, starting at the University of Michigan, then Stanford Graduate School of Business, then Samuel Merritt University and now at UC Berkeley–creating sustainable and innovative social media strategies along the way while making stops in some obscure places, like a NASCAR team; Roush Fenway Keselowski Racing, and a storage company; yes, even your storage space has a place on social media. Throughout his career, he has held many roles from coordinator to content-creator, content manager and strategist; and now as the Director of Social Media at UC Berkeley.

Grant De Roo

Founder and Principal, ADV Market Research and Consulting

As ADV’s founder and principal consultant, Grant designs, executes and delivers market research solutions for clients. Grant believes in the transformative power of a college education, and has spent his career in higher education as both a practitioner and consultant. Before founding ADV, Grant was the Director of Research & Strategy at an education-focused marketing agency. Before that, Grant worked in admissions at Elon University.

Rashida Dinehart

MediaCross, Inc.

Rashida Dinehart is MediaCross’ Director of Client Service and has supported the strategy and relationship with the University of Pittsburgh for more than two years. Rashida uses her 10+ years of marketing and agency experience with various industries to anticipate shifting market trends and quickly provide thoughtful, unprompted strategic recommendations that integrate effective traditional and digital approaches with all of MediaCross’ higher education clients.

Holly Duncan

Converse University

As the Vice President of Marketing and Communications at Converse University, Holly Duncan oversees the day-to-day and strategic management of marketing and advertising, website design and content, social media, media relations and crisis communications. She came to Converse in July 2019 to strategically guide the 130+-year-old historically women’s institution through its rebranding process as it announced plans to admit men into its undergraduate residential cohort and change its name from College to University. Her mission-driven, customer-focused and data-powered approach has proven successful in guiding organizations towards relevancy, sustainability and profitability. Her 16+ year career spans corporate, nonprofit and agency settings with concentrations in brand marketing, consumer marketing and strategic partnerships. Holly earned her MBA from Emory University’s Goizueta Business school where she was a Social Enterprise Fellow with an emphasis on sustainable business and women’s initiatives. She is currently pursuing her EdD in Professional Leadership at Converse.

Alexandra Eusner

Head of Industry, Education, Google

Alexandra Eusner is currently Head of Industry, Education at Google, supporting Higher Ed institutions in reaching their goals and expanding education access to students across the globe. Previously, she was a Strategy and Insights Manager where she led research efforts to drive cutting edge insights and thought leadership to help 100+ clients identify their strongest growth opportunities. Before Google, Alexandra spent her career in advertising at PHD and Mullen Mediahub agencies, designing the most creative and effective media strategies for various clients including Harry Winston, MailChimp, VH1 and National Geographic Channel. She earned her Bachelor of Science in Advertising from Boston University.

Alexandra resides in Manhattan with her husband and rescue pup.

Kristen Everett

Associate Creative Director, Director of Content and Digital at Mindpower Inc

Kristen Everett is Mindpower’s Associate Creative Director. She supports the creative strategy for all Mindpower’s clients and oversees the agency’s content and digital projects – from major web redesigns to story collection to creative content development to social media strategy. She helps clients think smarter about content and shape the strategy for bringing brands, campaigns and stories to life across all platforms. In her spare time, she can be found making her way through stories (podcasts, books, shows, movies) and Atlanta’s ample food scene.

Laura Martin Fedich

Echo Delta

With more than 30 years of higher education enrollment experience, most recently as a vice president of enrollment, Laura knows exactly what it takes for colleges and universities to attract and retain right-fit students. Laura graduated from Western Michigan University with a bachelor’s degree in public relations and journalism, and a master’s degree in public administration.

An expert on building enrollment teams and processes, she’s a staunch advocate for admissions professionals and provides empathetic and personal coaching for those at all levels of experience in admissions. In her role as senior vice president of enrollment consulting, she advises our clients on best practices in enrollment management strategy including campus visits and events, marketing, and operational structures.

Scott Fiddelke

The University of Iowa

Scott is the Director of Communications and Marketing for Enrollment Management at the University of Iowa and oversees marketing for admissions, campus visits and financial aid. He has a bachelor’s degree in Communications from the University of Iowa. Before the University of Iowa, Scott led digital web strategy at the University of Arizona. Scott has professionally done communications and web marketing for K12 and higher education since 2000. When he is not convincing students to apply to the University of Iowa, he enjoys spending time with his wife and 5-year-old son. Scott also likes making balloon animals and is a Mentos aficionado.

Leila Franchi

AVP Marketing and Communications, University Relations at Pace University

Leila Franchi is AVP Marketing and Communications, University Relations at Pace University. As brand ambassador and chief stakeholder and collaborator on the rebranding, Leila oversees brand implementation across the institution’s owned, earned, and paid marketing and communication platforms working with a team of diverse communicators from the University’s six schools and colleges, and multiple departments including the President and Provost offices, student engagement, enrollment and admissions, career services, and public affairs. Leila is an avid series, movie, and documentary streamer, and enjoys traveling to far away places whenever possible.

Erin Francis

Destination Analysts

Erin Cummings, President & CEO of Destination Analysts, is at the forefront of developing research solutions that marry technology, big data and market research to assist industries with deepening the understanding of consumer decision processes and measuring ROI. Erin provides clients with the intelligence they need to best market themselves. Prior to joining Destination Analysts, Erin held the positions of Senior Marketing Officer at Amtrak, where she was responsible for the marketing and advertising of Amtrak’s routes in the western United States, and Marketing Manager at the San Francisco Convention & Visitors Bureau, in which she directed and implemented the destination’s marketing programs and promotions. As Managing Partner of Destination Analysts, Erin has planned and facilitated marketing studies and national consumer research for numerous clients across a wide range of topics, including marketing, website usability research, branding research, customer experience and satisfaction research, economic impact studies, ROI and conversion research.

Carolina Espinal

Virginia Commonwealth University

Carolina Espinal is Vice-Rector of Virginia Commonwealth University and Founding Principal of Mozaic Strategies, an advisory focused on creating more inclusive cultures in and outside the workplace. As an advisor to leaders in political, advocacy and corporate organizations, Ms. Espinal develops strategies for communications, stakeholder engagement and thought leadership. Her expertise in Diversity & Inclusion, Public Affairs, and Reputation Management, combined with a passion for community, are the hallmarks of her solution-focused approach. Most recently, Ms. Espinal was a senior advisor at Brunswick Group, a strategic communications advisory, where she led the Inclusion & Diversity practice. She began her career working on behalf of communities of color at Unidos US and later leading the NAACP’s national civic engagement policy platform. Ms. Espinal received a B.A. in Foreign Affairs and Latin American Studies from the University of Virginia, and an Ed.M. in Administration, Planning, and Social Policy from Harvard University.

Bill Faust

Ologie

Bill is Senior Partner and Chief Strategy Officer at Ologie. Bill works with colleges and universities to help them uncover market insights and effectively evolve their brands. With a unique background in design and business, he spends most of his time developing strategies that positively impact reputation, enrollment and institutional advancement. He has worked with a wide range of institutions including Purdue University, Grinnell College, University of Florida, University of Pittsburgh and Capital University. Before joining Ologie, Bill spent 12 years at global branding agency Fitch Worldwide, his last as North American CEO, where he oversaw more than 300 consultants in offices from Boston to Seattle. Early in his career, he held marketing roles with PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) and Eastman Kodak Company. He holds a bachelor’s degree in design from The Ohio State University and a Masters in Business Administration from The Fisher College of Business.

Dennis Franczak

Fuseideas

Dennis Franczak, Founder and CEO of Fuseideas, is an innovative strategist who helps businesses solve problems through strategy, creative, technology and media. With a degree in Higher Education Administration, Dennis has not only worked at Boston College and MIT, but has been a leading marketer in higher education, working with clients such as Virginia Commonwealth University, UNC Greensboro, Georgetown University, Norfolk State University, UT Arlington, William Paterson University, and Northeastern University, to name a few. Before starting Fuseideas, he was partner and Senior Vice President at RDW Group where he built its interactive division. Dennis began his career as an officer in the United States Air Force, managing multimillion-dollar research and development projects. Dennis is a prominent speaker at conferences across the country on topics of deep interest to organizations trying to manage and thrive in a world of continuous marketing disruption.

Jennifer Gray

Stanford University, Stanford Center for Professional Development and Stanford Online

Jennifer has been with the Stanford Center for Professional Development for 14 years, leading its digital marketing team to generate enrollments for Stanford Online professional and graduate programs. She is passionate about using humor and authenticity to make real connections between Stanford Online and its learners.

Mary Gresch

University of Washington

Mary Gresch is Senior Vice President for Advancement at the University of Washington, leading the UW’s development, alumni and stakeholder engagement, and marketing and communications functions. Mary joined the UW’s leadership team in 2013 as Chief Marketing and Communications Officer (the title changed to Vice President for Communications and Marketing). Mary provided critical leadership during the “Be Boundless” campaign, which closed in June 2020, having raised the University’s profile, engaged thousands of alumni and community stakeholders and to which more than half a million donors gave $6.3 billion. Before the UW, she served as Director of Foundation Communications and then Associate Vice President for Strategic Communications and Marketing at Washington State University for seven years. She then launched and operated her own consulting firm, working with higher education institutions across the country on strategic communications, brand development and advancement strategy until joining the UW in 2013.

Liz Gross

CEO, Campus Sonar

Liz is the founder and CEO of Campus Sonar. She specializes in creating entrepreneurial social media strategies in higher education. She has more than 15 years’ experience in higher ed and strategic social listening programs and is the author of two indispensable guides for higher ed: The Higher Ed Social Listening Handbook and Fundamentals of Social Media Strategy: A Guide for College Campuses.

Rod Guajardo

University of Georgia

Rod Guajardo is the Director of Integrated Media Communications at the University of Georgia. In this role, he manages media relations efforts for the university and leads a team of communications professionals and editors to tell UGA’s story through earned, shared and owned media opportunities. Guajardo joined UGA after working in the University of Mississippi’s (Ole Miss) Marketing and Communications office, where he served as the Director of News and Media Relations. Previously, he worked for nearly ten years in the newspaper industry, serving as the editor of the Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal in Tupelo and news editor of The Natchez Democrat in Natchez, among other positions and publications in Alabama and Georgia. Originally from Birmingham, he received his bachelor’s degree in journalism from Auburn University and a master’s degree in integrated marketing communications from Ole Miss.

Binti Harvey

Scripps College

Binti Harvey is Vice President for External Relations and Institutional Advancement for Scripps College. Binti is a seasoned relationship builder, strategist and change manager with a significant record of accomplishment empowering leaders, teams and institutions to successfully advance reputational and financial goals. In her role as chief fundraising and marketing and communications officer, she is responsible for developing and executing programs to amplify Scripps’ brand, increase philanthropic support and deepen constituent engagement to advance the College’s mission. Binti’s career has encompassed legislative affairs, public relations and community engagement experience in educational, governmental and nonprofit organizations. Binti earned her B.A. in sociology from University of California, Los Angeles and an M.S. in public policy from the University of Southern California, and she has served as a volunteer and presenter for numerous organizations including the American Marketing Association, the Council for the Advancement and Support of Education and Academic Impressions.

Tom Hayes

Xavier University

Tom Hayes is the Dean of the Williams College of Business and Professor of Marketing at Xavier University. In his forty-six years at Xavier, he also served as Chair of the Marketing Department and Director of Institutional Advancement. Tom was a founding partner of SimpsonScarborough, a full service marketing and branding company in higher education. He founded the AMA’s Symposium for the Marketing of Higher Education. He was on the local chapter board for ten years and served as VP twice on the national board of the AMA in the Services and Marketing Management divisions. Tom has won CASE’s Crystal Apple award for speaking excellence and has had two books published by CASE receiving of the Alice Beeman Award for scholarship excellence in its field . He also published a book, Marketing Professional Services , with Philip Kotler in 2002.

Grant Heston

Virginia Commonwealth University

Since arriving at VCU in 2021, Grant oversees marketing, branding, communications, events, social media and special projects. VCU is home to 29,000 students and, combined with the health system, has 23,000 employees and an annual budget of more than $4 billion. Before VCU, Grant spent more than 12 years in several roles at the University of Central Florida (70,000 students), including serving as vice president for Communications and Marketing and Chief of Staff to the President. Grant has an undergraduate degree in Journalism from the University of Florida and an MBA from the University of Central Florida. He has written professional and personal stories that have been published in The Washington Post , Sports Illustrated , The Chronicle of Higher Education and more.

Katie Jensen

University of St. Thomas

Katie Jensen is Associate Vice President of Insights and Analytics at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, MN. Her work at St. Thomas has ranged from examining prospective students’ enrollment journeys, refining marketing messages through consumer feedback, and guiding the institution’s Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Climate survey. Before St. Thomas, Katie spent 13 years studying the consumer motivations behind food purchase decisions and applying those insights to various audiences and brands, including Quaker, Yoplait, Pillsbury and Cascadian Farm. Katie holds a BS in Marketing with an emphasis in Marketing Research from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

ned jones

Ned Jones

Siena College

Ned Jones is the Vice President for Enrollment and Marketing at Siena College, where he has worked for over 30 years. He leads the Admissions, Financial Aid and Marketing teams, which are constantly reinventing and rejuvenating strategies. Under his leadership, Siena has achieved stable enrollment in the face of declining demographics and an increasingly competitive marketplace. Ned serves the community in a variety of roles including past president of the Capital District Counseling Association and the New York Counseling Association, delegate to the National Association for College Admission Counseling and as a board member for La Salle Institute in Troy, NY.

Ardis Kadiu

Founder & CEO, Element451

Ardis Kadiu combines his extensive technology and higher-education experience to lead Element451. The student engagement CRM grew out of his passion for creating solutions that help admissions teams focus on building relationships with prospective students rather than managing software. Element451 relieves colleges of the limitations and usability issues that come with technology that either wasn’t designed for higher-ed or hasn’t kept pace with advances in technology and user experience. Ardis holds a BS in Computer Engineering, an MS in Digital Media and an MBA from New York University’s Tandon School of Engineering.

HE Speaker Deborah Kohl

Deborah Kohl

University of Baltimore

With over four decades of research experience in brain-behavior relationships, Dr. Kohl puts her training (MD and Ph.D.) to work every day as she studies the relationship between the brain and user behavior. Dr. Kohl earned her Ph.D. in Experimental Psychology, with a specialization in cognitive neuropsychology, from The Johns Hopkins University, and currently teaches user interface and interaction at the University of Baltimore.

Katharine Laidlaw

Interlochen Center for the Arts

An Emmy-winning producer and brand strategist, Katharine Laidlaw led transformative rebranding initiatives at two of the most prestigious and prolific arts education institutions in the world. As the vice-president for strategic communications and engagement at Interlochen Center for the Arts, she developed a new brand strategy, creative platform, and a digital advertising / nurture campaign that generated triple digit inquiry increases and a ten fold increase in applications for Interlochen Arts Camp and Interlochen Arts Academy. She also led development of Interlochen’s new visual identity and award-winning website.

Prior to Interlochen, Laidlaw served as the Chief Marketing Officer at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts (UNCSA), where she oversaw marketing, communications, public relations and brand management. As CMO, she was the driving force behind a comprehensive rebranding effort, including creative direction, visual identity, messaging, taglines, and strategy for institutional positioning, recruitment, and the successful “Powering Creativity” comprehensive campaign. She was responsible for UNCSA’s multifaceted award-winning advertising, which garnered 18 awards from the Higher Education Marketing Report, three CASE Awards, and three awards from the Collegiate Advertising Awards. In Fall 2017, she launched a new recruitment campaign after which inquiries on the website doubled, applications increased +30%, and deposits increased +90% year over year.

Laidlaw started her career in commercial theatrical production, first at Fox Theatricals in Chicago and later Waxman Williams Entertainment in New York. Her credits include eight Tony nominated productions, the Broadway premiere of a Pulitzer prize-winning play, in addition to several West End, Off-Broadway, and regional productions. Laidlaw also has served as a panelist for the National Endowment for the Arts, and a corporate sponsorship consultant for Broadway. Her brand marketing experience includes positions with The Coca-Cola Company and Hanesbrands, Inc.

Laidlaw received her B.A. (Honors) in English from Davidson College, and a M.B.A. with a concentration in marketing from UNC-Chapel Hill.

Sagi Langer

CMO, Ben-Gurion University

Sagi Langer is CMO at Ben-Gurion University, responsible for Brand management, marketing strategy and student recruitment. In addition, he is a frequent speaker on industry-related topics. Sagi holds a bachelor’s degree in economics, a Master’s degree in economics from the Technion Israel Institute of Technology and an MBA from Haifa University. He lives in Israel with his wife, their three children, a dog and a cranky cat. In his spare time, Langer loves to run and to perform as drummer with his rock band.

Katie Lawson

University of Maryland

Chief Communications Officer with 15+ years of communications and public relations experience, Katie Lawson serves as the Chief Communications Officer at the University of Maryland. In this role, she upholds and advances the reputation of a top-ranked public research institution while serving as a spokesperson and leading media relations and social strategy. Lawson works closely with the president to amplify executive voice and communicate presidential priorities to the campus community and higher education stakeholders. Before joining the university in 2013, Lawson served as Vice President at Widmeyer Communications, a Finn Partners Company. She led large-scale public awareness campaigns on behalf of foundations, the federal government and corporations on diverse topics, including career pathways, bullying prevention and teaching standards. In previous roles, Lawson supported communications at DC Vote, the Ohio House of Representatives and the Pittsburgh Downtown Partnership.

Jennifer Lonchar

Vice President, Strategy and Partnerships Net Natives

Jennifer has been in the higher education space for over 14 years and worked with hundreds of institutions. She is passionate about strategy and helping her partners find their strategic voice and direction, in a world of noise and competition. Jennifer’s breadth of knowledge spans all areas of marketing and recruitment for undergraduate, graduate, and non-traditional learners, but also includes specialty audiences such as transfer and international. Jennifer was on the forefront of digital marketing in higher education over 12 years ago and has continued to be a pioneer in the field when it comes to digital strategy and innovation. Jennifer studied Elementary Education at the University of Iowa and holds a bachelor’s degree in Applied Behavioral Science from National Louis University.

Cynthia Martinez

University of Maryland

Cynthia M. Martínez is the Senior Director for Brand Marketing at the University of Maryland. She joined the Office of Marketing and Communications in 2016. From strategy to creative media placement, she works hard to protect the Maryland brand and position the university as one of the top research institutions in the country. Cynthia leads the development and execution of all university-wide promotional campaigns. In addition, she is responsible for Maryland Day, the university’s annual grassroots event that welcomed 86,000 people to campus in 2019. Before Maryland, Cynthia led marketing efforts for 12 NBCUniversal Telemundo affiliates with ZGS Communications. She previously worked at Cox Media Group and GFR Media. She graduated from the University of Central Florida with a B.A. in radio and television and earned her MBA from the University of Baltimore.

Taylor Marx

University of Texas at Dallas

Taylor Marx is a marketing specialist covering all things print, digital and social. Though still a bit new to the higher education space, she has worked with small businesses in the past to help with everything from managing assets to managing people. She has a knack for the ability to see the bird’s eye view and the minute details of a project. The best process is one you’ll actually use– whether we’re talking nighttime routines or communication plans.

Kevin McClure

Kevin McClure

University of North Carolina Wilmington

Kevin R. McClure, Ph.D. is a higher education scholar and leader with nearly 15 years of experience across student affairs, academic affairs, and faculty leadership. He is an expert in higher education management, finance, and leadership, particularly at regional public universities.

Dr. McClure currently serves as the Wendy and Dell Murphy Distinguished Scholar and Associate Professor of Higher Education at the University of North Carolina Wilmington. He also serves as the Director of Public Engagement at the Alliance for Research on Regional Colleges, a research center housed at Appalachian State University dedicated to the study and advancement of regional colleges.

Throughout the pandemic, Dr. McClure has written viral articles on the academic workplace in his columns in The Chronicle of Higher Education and EdSurge. Dr. McClure is a frequent guest on podcasts, sought-after expert for popular media articles, and invited speaker for campuses and professional organizations. For the next three-years, he is collecting original data and writing a book on building more caring universities.

Sheena McFarland

University of Utah David Eccles School of Business

Sheena is the Director of the Marketing + Communications team and guides the strategy and marketing campaigns for the David Eccles School of Business. She is also an Adjunct Instructor in the Department of Marketing and Department of Management at the Eccles School. Sheena joined the Eccles School in January of 2015. For the decade before joining the university, Sheena was a reporter and editor at The Salt Lake Tribune, covering topics ranging from education to government to astronomy. She earned her Master of Public Administration and Doctorate of Educational Leadership & Policy at the University of Utah in December 2019. She graduated from the University of Utah with a B.A. in communication and minors in French and biology teaching. Sheena enjoys traveling, having already visited all seven continents but knowing there are plenty of other countries to explore and spending time with her family.

Victoria Mendoza

University of Southern California

Victoria Mendoza has led the University of Southern California’s social media marketing since 2019 and has almost 20 years of digital marketing and communications experience. She’s passionate about audience-focused storytelling and promoting diversity, inclusion, and equity within content strategy. Victoria has won multiple awards for her social media campaigns from PR News, the Association of Media & Publishing, and more, and is often found speaking at industry events and conferences. She’s a mom of two boys who will eventually be her in-house experts for social media trends.

David Miller

University of Arizona

David Miller has split his career between marketing agencies and higher-ed, working at the intersection of communications, content, and creative strategy to guide breakthrough work. As Executive Director of Content Strategy and Brand Voice at the University of Arizona, his team oversees flagship and admissions social media strategy, email marketing, web content, and more, from the prospect funnel through the college transition and ultimately to graduation. In his spare time, he likes to spend time with his wife, golf, make tortillas, and take his dog, Garth, for walks.

Voltaire Miran

Carnegie

Voltaire Santos Miran founded mStoner in 2001 with Michael Stoner. Before mStoner joined Carnegie, Voltaire served as the CEO and the head of client experience. Voltaire works with our clients’ teams to forge and sustain transformative, memorable and incredibly effective partnerships. Volt has spent more than a decade in development and alumni relations, working on print publications, alumni magazines, capital campaigns and website launches. A natural storyteller, he enjoys teaching others how to effectively tell their brand story, empowering colleges and universities to forge transformative, memorable and successful connections with their audiences. His expertise in information architecture, content strategy and governance moves institutions from a project mindset to a process mindset, with powerful results.

Ivy Morris

University of Arizona

Ivy Morris is a Digital Content Strategist for the University of Arizona, where she has successfully created numerous student voice-oriented websites, emails, and more for current and future Wildcats. With a long track record of digital expertise and content knowledge, Ivy has developed countless strategies to improve the student journey and empower students for a lifetime of success.

Alex Mowrey

Alex Mowrey

University of Pittsburgh

Alex Mowrey is currently Content Strategist for the University of Pittsburgh’s main social media channels in the Office of University Communications and Marketing. Previously, Alex spent seven years overseeing strategic content and media for University Admissions, including growing and leading its successful social media ambassador program. Alex is also a talented photographer working for a wide range of clients including the NFL, MLB and Pitt Athletics. He graduated from Slippery Rock University with a degree in Communication, Emerging Technology and Multimedia.

Chris Nelson

University of Utah

Chris Nelson is the interim chief marketing and communications officer for the University of Utah, filling the role previously held by William Warren for ten years. Before being named interim CMCO, Nelson served as the university’s communications director and chief spokesperson. Throughout his 25-year career at the university, Nelson has held several senior roles in strategic communications, marketing and fundraising, including: assistant vice president for public affairs at the University of Utah Health and executive director of the University of Utah Hospital Foundation. He holds a master’s degree in public administration, bachelor’s degrees in mass communication and political science, and a graduate certificate in integrated marketing communications—all from the University of Utah.

Cassandra Nickels

Associate Vice President for Marketing Strategy Rochester Institute of Technology

Cassandra Nickels is RIT’s Associate Vice President for Marketing Strategy, where she leads the university’s marketing strategy, branding, and intelligence. She works closely with college and divisional marketers to achieve strategic goals for their respective areas. Before serving in this role, Cassandra was the Director of Marketing for RIT’s College of Science. She led first-of-its-kind marketing and advertising campaigns that elevated awareness of the college and its programs, leading to a one-year increase in enrollment of 35%.

Before coming to RIT, Cassandra held marketing and communications roles in K-12, educational technology, adult education organizations, and non-profit, private, and start-up companies.

Cassandra graduated from SUNY Brockport and earned her Master’s degree in Strategic Communications from American University in Washington, DC.

Ashley Northington

RW Jones Agency

Ashley Northington develops marketing communication strategies that live at the intersection of engaging storytelling and transformative policy, programming and practices. A veteran communicator, much of her career has been focused on shaping narratives that champion equity and activate positive change. She joined the RW Jones Agency in 2020 after 10 years as the founder and director of DENOR Brands + Public Relations.

At DENOR, Ashley built a diverse client base that included nonprofit organizations, government entities, K-12 school districts, and colleges and universities. There, she developed a speciality in serving the needs of HBCU and other minority serving institutions.

Before starting DENOR, Ashley worked as an education policy analyst for the Bureau of Governmental Research and as Press Secretary and Public Information Officer at the Louisiana Department of Education. Her communications career also includes education and government reporting for The Tennessean, USA Today, Associated Press and The Shreveport Times.

Lindsay Nyquist

Fort Lewis College

Lindsay Nyquist is the Director of Marketing & Communications at Fort Lewis College, a small public liberal arts college in Durango, Colorado. She oversees all marketing operations at FLC — including web, design, video, photo, social media, PR and advertising — and a team of talented professionals that make it all happen. Her “why” is helping students from underserved communities obtain a college education. She holds a BA in English, communication, and art and an MS in higher education administration, and serves on the CASE ‘Value of Higher Education’ Steering Committee. She also is a board member for A Thousand Summers and chair of the United Way of Southwest Colorado.

Acacia O'Connor

Acacia O'Connor

University of Pittsburgh

Acacia O’Connor (they/them) is a writer, audio/video content producer, and social and digital media marketing expert with diverse communications and journalism expertise including brand management and crisis communications. Currently, they oversee social strategy as the University of Pittsburgh’s Executive Director of Social. Previously, they were the Columbia University’s first-ever Director of Social Media. They hold degrees from Columbia Journalism School, the University of Rochester and Vassar College.

Jamie Oleksik

Jaime Oleksik

Carnegie

Jaime Oleksik is AVP of Strategic Marketing at Carnegie. Jaime is passionate about client partnerships and has an affinity for finding unique solutions to enrollment challenges and audience outreach. With more than a decade of experience in recruitment and enrollment marketing, she has held roles in undergraduate admission, international student recruitment and visit programming at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC) prior to joining the Carnegie team.

Dallin Palmer

HALDA, LLC

Dallin Palmer is the Cofounder and President of HALDA. He has worked in the field of recruitment marketing within Higher Education since 2012 when he was stationed in Beijing and served as the Director of China Recruitment at Chegg. Dallin’s company now helps over 100 institutions across the United States better understand their website visitors, the student journey, and how to best convert anonymous website traffic into qualified leads. HALDA’s Smart Forms can be seen on college and university websites across the country as they display relevant offers of value to the right students at the right time.

HE Teresa Valerio Parrot

Teresa Valerio Parrot

TVP Communications

Teresa often says her husband is her true love and her alma mater was her first love. She describes her job as truthfully sharing excellence and genuinely owning mistakes because she knows that honesty is present in all sound proactive and crisis outreach. Teresa has spoken on behalf of nearly every acronym in higher education’s alphabet soup. In 2014, she was awarded the Crystal Apple for Teaching Excellence by CASE and she is proud to return to the committee for AMA’s Symposium for the Marketing of Higher Education. In addition, she serves as founding co-editor and contributor to the Inside Higher Ed blog, Call to Action, and has by-lined pieces for the industry’s leading publications. Teresa earned a bachelor’s and a master’s degrees from the University of Colorado. She holds accreditation in public relations from PRSA and is pursuing a doctoral degree from the Simmons School of Education at Southern Methodist University.

Jenny Petty

University of Montana

Jenny Petty left the corporate world where she worked with some of the world’s biggest brands, including Dolly Parton, Harley Davidson, and The Ellen DeGeneres Show, and joined the world of higher ed marketing almost a decade ago. As the Chief Marketing Communications Officer at the University of Montana, Jenny is passionate about raising the profile of the marketing function within higher ed and modernizing how we market to prospective students. She was a driving force behind The World Needs More Cowboys campaign at the University of Wyoming and the Montana Made. Montana Making. campaign at the University of Montana. Jenny graduated from the Reynolds School of Journalism at the University of Nevada and has a Master’s degree in Organizational Leadership from Gonzaga University, where her studies focused on the intersection of Servant Leadership and the marketing profession. She’s the host of “The Servant Marketer,” podcast.

Carrie Phillips

University of Arkansas at Little Rock

Dr. Carrie Phillips is the Chief Marketing & Communications Officer at UA Little Rock, where she is charged with telling the university’s incredible story. She considers herself part creative and part analyst but fully curious to solve challenges in higher education. She successfully defended her dissertation at Texas Tech University, where she studied how regional public universities use marketing efforts to mitigate the enrollment cliff. Before joining UA Little Rock, she worked 14 years at Arkansas Tech University, where she led a brand study, the first comprehensive brand campaign and oversaw collateral development for the current comprehensive campaign. Carrie is a member of the American Marketing Association and holds the Professional Certified Marketer credential. She is also a member of the District IV Cabinet for CASE and UCDA. Finally, she is a puppy mom to Eleanor Belle—a 10-pound maltipoo.

Halleli Pinson headshot

Halleli Pinson

Ben-Gurion University

Halleli Pinson (BA, TAU; MPhil, PhD, Cambridge University) is associate professor at the School of Education at Ben-Gurion University. Pinson is a political sociologist of education, and her main interest is with the changing role of schooling in the age of globalization. She has three main research areas: citizenship education in conflict-ridden societies and the impact of political populism on education policy; State education responses to global migration, especially educational policies and school practices in relation to the integration of asylum-seeking children; and gender patterns of participation in STEM fields. She is the co-author of Education, Asylum and the ‘Non-Citizen’ Child, and a co-editor of Citizenship, Education and Social Conflict and the Edward Elgar Handbook on Education and Migration (forthcoming). She is currently the Presidential Advisor on Gender Equity and the deputy-head of the School of Education at BGU. She is the former president of the Israeli Comparative Education Society. She is also a member of the editorial boards of the British Journal of Sociology of Education and Race Ethnicity and Education

Angela Polec

La Salle University

Angela Polec, Ed.D. serves as Vice President of Enrollment, Marketing, and Communications at La Salle University in Philadelphia. Dr. Polec leads the development and management of the University’s brand and oversees strategic communications, digital strategy, marketing, media relations, University events and enrollment management. Previously, she oversaw branding, enrollment marketing, digital strategy, and strategic communications as the executive director of marketing and communications at Montgomery County Community College. She also served as the director of marketing at Temple University. Dr. Polec has presented at several national conferences and has co-authored an article and book chapter on the use of predictive analytics in student success initiatives. She holds an M.S. and a B.B.A. in marketing from Temple University and an Ed.D. in Higher Education Management at the University of Pennsylvania, with her dissertation focusing on the role of the chief marketing officer in higher education.

Brent Reser

Washington State University

Brent Reser has spent his entire career in higher education social media. He is currently in his third year as the social media strategist at Washington State University, where he develops the organic and paid strategies for the institution’s flagship accounts. Prior to WSU, Reser spent six years leading the social media program at Coastal Carolina University. He started his career at the University of Montana, where he managed the athletics department’s social media presence.

jason rich

Jason Rich

Siena College

Jason Rich is Siena’s Vice President for Strategy, Communications and Outreach/Chief of Staff. As second officer to the President, he is responsible for designing, organizing and guiding the strategic initiatives of the College and the priorities of the President to ensure transformative student experiences, operational efficiency and effectual external relationships. He occupies a leading role in the development, implementation and assessment of the College’s Strategic Plan, identifying opportunities and empowering employees across the organization to reimagine possibilities and realize goals. As Siena’s senior most communications executive, he develops and directs the College’s communications strategy. He earned his bachelor’s from Siena in finance in 1998 and a master’s in educational leadership and policy studies from Boston University in 2020.

Julie Ried

Julie Ried

The Ward Group

Julie Ried brings more than twenty-five years of experience in marketing and communications to The Ward Group, a retained executive search firm specializing in senior-level positions in marketing and communications. Since joining TWG, Julie has grown and led the higher education and non-profit practice areas. She has served on the Steering Committee for the AMA’s Symposium for Marketing in Higher Education and has spoken frequently on “best practices” in marketing and communications, and how to evaluate and attract “best in class” talent to disruptive and growing categories. Beyond higher education, Julie has successfully managed searches in healthcare, museums, and health and human services organizations. Julie’s marketing career began with The Advertising Club of Greater Boston, a professional trade organization for the marketing and communications industry. At The Advertising Club, Julie was responsible for developing their professional development program and built a multi-functional educational track to serve the growing training needs of the industry’s entry-mid level marketing and communications professionals. This included developing career counseling and mentoring programs to support the students. Julie also held various positions in marketing, account management, and business development roles with growing Boston agencies with a portfolio of clients in consumer brands, technology, and financial services.

Ryan Riess

The Hershey Company

Ryan is currently the Vice President of Brand Strategy and Creative Development of The Hershey Company and is the creator, leader and visionary of C-Sweet Studio, Hershey’s first in-house agency. Ryan created C-Sweet Studio to harness the knowledge, passion and speed he knew an internal team would provide. The Studio has become a competitive advantage for Hershey providing new growth via strategic, effective, and efficient creative services across the marketing spectrum. Ryan approaches the creative with the mind of a brand director and the heart of a creative. Ryan and C-Sweet Studio have continued to expand in scope and influence by taking over creative development and oversight of full-scale national promotions. Ryan holds a BA from Harvard College and both an M.Ed. and M.B.A from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Kristen Riggs

The Hershey Company

Kristen is Senior Vice President and Chief Growth Officer of The Hershey Company and oversees the company’s growth strategy, including the consumer intelligence and strategy team, strategic growth platforms, marketing excellence functions, innovation, research and development, and The Hershey Experience. Her focus is to accelerate the company’s enterprise growth. Riggs is a dynamic Hershey veteran with marketing, sales, and commercial operations experience leading billion-dollar businesses across brand marketing and sales. She has a proven track record of transforming operations and cultures to drive growth and profitability. As Vice President and GM of Commercial Planning, she led U.S. Volume Planning and Integrated Business Management along with a range of commercial strategic planning responsibilities. Riggs holds an MBA from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s Kenan-Flagler Business School and a Bachelor of Science degree from Purdue University.

Ronny Roitman

Ronny Roitman

Strategy and Marketing Manager, Ben-Gurion University

Ronny Roitman is the Strategy and Marketing Manager of the Academic Departments at Ben-Gurion University (BGU), Israel. Her role includes building the strategy and marketing plans and supervising their implementation in the various media types. She is also responsible for designing and conducting the University’s Marketing Research, deriving insights and conclusions to produce data-based practices. Ronny holds a B.A and an MBA from BGU. Before her role at BGU, she was the Head of the Marketing and Sales Departments in a cultural institution and the Marketing and Resource Development Manager at a leading NGO.

Jennifer Roos

University of St. Thomas

Jennifer Roos (she/her) is the Director of Web Development and Strategy for the University of St. Thomas in Minnesota. She is responsible for the web strategy for the University’s public-facing websites as well as the intranet, and led the web team to create sustainable processes and best practices focused on visitor needs and expectations. Prior to entering the world of higher education, Jennifer spent nearly 20 years working for technology companies, managing US and global sites created for prospects, customers, partners and employees. She holds a BA in Business from Stephens College in Columbia, Missouri.

Sean Rossall

RW Jones Agency

As CEO of RW Jones, Sean is our senior-most public relations counselor. During his two-decade career, he has played an integral role in counseling clients and helping them to implement full-scale strategic communications programs and issues management initiatives. With a lifelong passion for education, Sean works closely with presidents and executive leaders to think strategically about their institutions and their role in shaping their institutional narratives and contributing to the public discourse in a meaningful way. Before joining RW Jones, Sean led the crisis and media relations practice at one of Los Angeles’ largest and oldest PR and public affairs firms. In this role, he connected clients’ PR and political strategies in ways that supported their sometimes-disparate demands. Sean received his master’s in PR from the University of Southern California’s Annenberg School for Communication and his BA in politics and history from Occidental College.

Erik Rueter

Erik Rueter

American Marketing Association

Erik Rueter, PMP, PMI-ACP (he/him pronouns) has worked for tech start-ups, colleges and universities, a Grammy®-award-winning production company and healthcare organizations. He has been a public policy analyst, a professional photographer, a marketing and public relations director and, currently, as senior project manager at the American Marketing Association. He has co-authored two papers on health inequity in oncology nursing, lectured at Boston and Emerson Colleges and been a guest speaker on diversity and inclusion at, among others, Medtronic, VSP and the San Antonio Spurs. His educational background is as diverse as his professional one with a BA in neuroscience, college-level diplomas in digital design and Irish studies and, most recently, MicroMasters in Design Thinking and Project Management through Rochester Institute of Technology and certification in diversity and inclusion from eCornell. He lives outside of Pittsburgh, PA with his husband and two dachshunds, enjoys running marathons, playing video games and speaking his truth to whoever will listen.

Frannie Schneider

Creighton University

Frannie Schneider joined Creighton University in 2021 as the senior director of marketing, bringing more than 15 years of marketing and content strategy experience in higher education. Her expertise includes positioning teams for a constantly evolving marketing landscape. At Creighton, Frannie leads all marketing functions focused on driving growth, student retention and managing the university’s reputation. She holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the Missouri School of Journalism.

Ashley Schroeder

Colorado State University

Ashley Schroeder is the Assistant Director of Social and Digital Media at Colorado State University. She has worked on CSU’s award-winning Social and Digital Media team since 2013, and aids in executing the social media strategy for the university and elevating CSU’s brand and reputation on nine social media platforms. She enjoys creating unique and meaningful interactions with social media communities, work that has helped the team win a Webby Award and become a Shorty Awards honoree. Ashley earned her bachelor’s degree from CSU in Journalism and Technical Communications and her master’s degree in Communications and Media Management in 2020.

HE Speaker Kin Sejpal

Kin Sejpal

University of Redlands

Kinnari “Kin” Sejpal is the Vice President of Marketing and Communications/Chief Marketing Officer at University of Redlands where she oversees brand management, enrollment marketing and communications and digital teams. Before joining Redlands, Kin served as the Associate Vice President, Marketing and Creative Services at Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT). Among her many accomplishments there, Kin developed RIT’s brand strategy and launched its first national reputation campaign.

Kin started her career in the U.S. by joining Purdue University’s Office of Marketing and Media where she held progressively responsible roles in the areas of advertising, marketing strategy and marketing intelligence.

Dedicated to advancing higher education and the importance of marketing in shaping the perception of our industry, Kin serves in prominent positions with CASE (Council for Advancement and Support of Education) and AMA (American Marketing Association).

Kin has an M.B.A in Marketing and Strategic Management, and an M.A. in Communications from Purdue University.

Rebecca Shineman

Rebecca Shineman

York College Pennsylvania

Rebecca Shineman is the Executive Director of Marketing at York College of Pennsylvania. She is responsible for leading college-wide strategic marketing efforts, including brand stewardship, advertising and content strategy. With more than 14 years of marketing experience, she started her career in various corporate roles before finding a home in higher education. Rebecca, a graduate of Boston College, is passionate about cross-team collaboration, thinking outside the box, and lifting teams to tenaciously pursue goals.

Roxanne Sides

Roxanne Sides

University of Texas at Dallas

Roxanne Sides is a graphic designer, marketing director and project management enthusiast and has led teams through website redesigns, print and email marketing campaigns. She has won several awards, including CASE Gold and Silver, HOW Magazine Gold and a GDUSA Magazine Silver award. Her motto is that a good process produces good work. Develop a good process. Do good work.

Sandy Silver

Stanford University, Stanford Center for Professional Development and Stanford Online

Sandy brings a wealth of industry experience to the Stanford Center for Professional Development, including almost a decade marketing Intuit’s Quickbooks and consulting for clients that included Symantec and Kabam. An expert at looking at everything from the customer’s perspective, Sandy is now fully focused on building cross-organization customer experience initiatives that drive customer delight.

Jarrett Smith

Echo Delta

Jarrett Smith is SVP of Strategy and a partner at Echo Delta, a full-service enrollment marketing firm for higher education. He’s also the host of The Higher Ed Marketing Lab podcast, which explores the intersection of enrollment and marketing through interviews with expert practitioners from both inside and outside higher education. As the former president of a social media marketing agency, Jarrett has spoken at dozens of industry conferences on a regional and national level. On a day-to-day basis, he provides strategic advice and counsel to nearly all of Echo Delta’s roster of clients.

Katie Camacho Smith

Katie Camacho Smith

TikTok

Katie is the Head of Education at TikTok, working with educational advertisers from Higher Edu, EduTech and Life Long Learning Brands to empower their knowledge of the TikTok platform’s powerhouse. She manages a team of Brand Solution Managers & Customer Solution Managers in the Education vertical at TikTok. She have over 15+ years of experience in digital marketing, and has been at TikTok since 2020. Previous to TikTok, Katie worked at RetailMeNot and Zappos.com. “I am super excited to merge the TikTok audience with the future of Education.”

Rebecca Stapley

STREAM Product Marketing Manager

Rebecca has a passion for research-driven higher ed marketing and enrollment strategies with a strong foundation in community building and audience-centered approaches. With over a decade of industry experience, she has a proven track record for aligning strategies with institutional goals and values.

Emily Stulz

University of Arizona

Emily Stulz has spent her career in higher ed social media, manning the helm of flagship social accounts through brand updates, crisis situations and viral moments. As the Director of Social Media for the University of Arizona, she oversees the flagship and enrollment accounts and provides guidance and support for social media professionals across campus, working to create a cohesive university-wide presence on social media.

Jennie Sutherland

St. Edward's University

Jennie Sutherland helps lead Marketing for St. Edward’s University – a top-ranked private liberal arts university in Austin, Texas. Her primary focus is on driving innovative solutions and creating exceptional customer experiences. With 20+ years of strategic marketing experience and 10+ years of people management experience on both the agency and client-side, she’s had the privilege of partnering with outstanding organizations such as St. Edward’s University, Texas A&M, Dell, HP, Verizon, Michelin, Toyota, Pennzoil, Genentech, the US Air Force and more. The marketing team is responsible for the Recruiting, Retention, Branding, CRM, email automation, social, analytics, web, PR, etc., for the University. We are a small but mighty team! In a previous life, Jennie thinks she must have been a motivational speaker – she’s enthusiastic, loves exclamation points and adores emojis. When she can’t get on stage (improv), she writes and keeps checking things off her bucket list!

Molly Swagler

University of Pittsburgh

Molly Swagler fulfills a working leadership role in enrollment management to help students connect with the innovative community found at the University of Pittsburgh. She oversees undergraduate and international recruitment, transfer and strategic initiatives, visitor engagement and marketing. Molly began her work in higher education as a public affairs specialist and branched into teaching at universities in Florida and Georgia. In addition, she taught for two years in Ukraine and spoke at the U.S. Embassy in Kyiv’s symposium, “Framing Public Policy in the U.S.” More than 20 years ago, Molly started her career as a journalist. Today she lives in Pittsburgh with her family, where they spend a great deal of time in search of laughter.

Katlin Swisher

Campus Sonar

Katlin Swisher is a senior strategist at Campus Sonar. She is dedicated to using data and storytelling to help campuses build trust with their audiences, support strategic planning and branding efforts, and inform organizational change. During her decade of on-campus experience, she led initiatives and programming in enrollment management, orientation and transition, and marketing communications. She holds a Doctor of Philosophy and Master of Arts in higher education administration and a Bachelor of Science in journalism. She also teaches media and leadership studies and has presented research at numerous national conferences, including the American Educational Research Association, Association for the Study of Higher Education, and National Rural Education Association. In her spare time, you can find her hiking in West Virginia’s beautiful state parks and traveling the world as a clarinetist with the West Virginia University Alumni Band.

katie szalda

Katie Szalda

Siena College

Katie Szalda has been Director of Admissions at Siena College since 2015. She has led the admissions team in entering new markets, engaging with a new generation of students, getting the wider campus community involved in recruitment efforts and the redevelopment of admissions programs. She was selected for Siena College’s Excellence in Administration award in 2019 and Capital District Counseling Association’s Counselor of the Year in 2021. Katie has an MBA from Sage College of Albany and a bachelor’s degree in marketing from Siena College. She is a board member for Roman Catholic Diocese of Albany Schools.

Vanessa Theoharis

Vanessa Theoharis

The Ward Group

Vanessa Theoharis brought nearly fifteen years of integrated marketing experience when she joined The Ward Group in 2021, a retained executive search firm specializing in senior-level positions in marketing and communications. Previously, she consulted with clients in higher education and nonprofit institutions to develop integrated marketing solutions that leveraged marketing technology to unlock business value and data to drive decisions. Before joining TWG, Vanessa built and led the digital marketing business line at OHO Interactive, a digital agency that specializes in higher education and healthcare marketing solutions, and prior to that, she directed all College-wide digital and content initiatives as a member of the marketing leadership team at Babson College. During both experiences, she is most proud of her efforts recruiting and establishing teams of contemporary, dynamic marketers who delivered immense, measurable value for mission-driven organizations. Vanessa has spoken at dozens of higher ed conferences and summits, including AMA Higher Ed. Vanessa holds a bachelor’s degree in business from Babson College and a master’s degree in integrated marketing communications from Emerson College.

Andrew Thompson

University of Utah

Andrew Thompson Landerghini grew up in Chicago but left the big city and the flat land for the mountains and the greatest snow on earth in Salt Lake City. A University of Utah journalism major, Andy wrote and edited for the Daily Utah Chronicle throughout school, after which he was hired by the University’s Marketing and Communication department.

There he cut his teeth working as a copywriter and account executive for various university clients, including the athletics department. He also oversaw a multi-year institutional marketing campaign called “Ski the U” that targeted prospective out-of-state students who liked to ski and snowboard.

But as social media grew in prominence, Andy’s role moved that way, and now his entire day is filled concepting, cultivating and creating social media content for the University of Utah and its institutional accounts. For the last decade-plus, he has worked with students and his marketing and communications peers to promote their endeavors, achievements, research and initiatives to a broader audience.

Allison Turcio

Siena College

Allison Turcio is Assistant Vice President for Enrollment and Marketing at Siena College. She leads college-wide marketing, market research and enrollment communications efforts. Her work has won numerous awards and has been presented at High Ed Web, American Marketing Association’s Symposium for the Marketing of Higher Education and other conferences. Allison was selected for the Albany Business Review 40 Under 40 and Siena College’s Excellence in Administration award in 2020. She is working on her doctorate degree at Northeastern University and holds a master’s in Communications and bachelor’s in English.

Kevin Tyler

SimpsonScarborough

Kevin Tyler is an Account Director at SimpsonScarborough and the host of the Higher Voltage, a podcast covering the defining topics of higher education marketing & leadership. In his role at SimpsonScarborough, he works with institutions across the country to use insights, trends, and research to develop smart and beautiful creative campaigns that meet campus goals. Kevin earned his bachelor’s degree in poetry from the University of Pittsburgh and has experience in politics, government, non-profit, charter schools administration, branding agencies, corporations, and institutions. A kindness enthusiast and tattoo collector, Kevin abides from two lessons from his father: “There’s always enough money for a book” and “never miss an opportunity to say nothing.”

Justin Vogt

Fuseideas

Brian Wetherby

Rochester Institute of Technology

Brian Wetherby is RIT’s Assistant Director of Product Marketing/Creative Writer. Along with copywriting and developing creative campaign concepts, Brian crafts marketing positioning briefs that articulate what makes RIT rare, relevant, and recognizable, in areas such as New Economy Majors and Games. Before RIT, Brian held marketing roles at Syracuse University and Keuka College and spent nearly ten years working in film and television production in Los Angeles, CA. Brian graduated from the State University of New York at Oswego, earning degrees in English Writing and Communications. He received an MA in Television, Radio, and Film from Syracuse University, S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications. Recently, Brian completed the Executive Master of Business Administration at RIT, Saunders College of Business, earning an EMBA.

Matt Williams

Brand Federation

Matt is one of three Managing Partners of Brand Federation, a marketing and brand strategy consultancy headquartered in Richmond, Virginia. Prior to joining Brand Federation, he was CEO of The Martin Agency, one of the world’s most creative advertising agencies. As Martin’s CEO, Matt managed relationships with world-class brands like GEICO, OREO, UPS, Discover Financial, and Walmart. Under Matt’s leadership, Martin was recognized as the One Show Creative Agency of the Year, won the first-ever Effie Award for Sustained Success for its work for GEICO, and was named to Ad Age’s Creative Innovators List four times. Matt is also a Visiting Clinical Professor at William & Mary and a contributing author of the book, Kellogg on Branding . He has served on non-profit, publicly traded, and association boards. Matt holds an undergraduate degree in marketing from William & Mary and an MBA from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University.

Alexa Yow

University Partnership Manager, Unibuddy

Alexa is a University Partnerships Manager at Unibuddy, based in the New York City office. She connects with universities to understand how the student’s voice plays a role in their enrollment strategy and to see how Unibuddy’s engagement platform can strengthen their recruitment efforts. Before joining Unibuddy, she worked at an EdTech company that empowers student-athletes in their recruitment process. She graduated from and played soccer at Columbia University in New York City.

Rob Zaebst

Strategic Marketing Industry Advisor, Salesforce

Rob is the former Director of Digital Strategy at Michigan State where he worked in the Central Marketing and Communications office. He also has a corporate marketing background, most recently serving as VP of Digital Strategy and Marketing Technology at TrueBlue, Inc.

He is currently an Industry Advisor at Salesforce, providing context and perspective around how to plan, develop and implement Digital Marketing Strategy for universities across the country.

Andres Zapata

Founder and Executive Vice President, idfive

Andrés ensures progress through communication based on connection, understanding, and clarity. He has led interactive projects for clients such as The Johns Hopkins University, Cornell University, the University of Maryland, and Colgate University. In addition to leading idfive, Andrés teaches User Experience and Interaction Design at the Maryland Institute College of Art. Andrés received the American Marketing Association’s “4 Under 40 Emerging Leaders” award, has an MBA from Johns Hopkins, and is pursuing a Doctorate in Information and Interaction Design.

Rob Zinkan

RHB

Rob Zinkan is Vice President for Marketing Leadership at RHB, a higher education firm. Rob joined RHB in 2019 after more than 20 years in higher education administration focused on reputation enhancement, resource development and the breaking down of organizational silos. He spent 17 years at Indiana University in various senior roles, from campus-level vice-chancellor (leading an integrated advancement model) to system-wide associate vice president. Rob holds a doctorate from Creighton University, a master’s from Xavier University and a bachelor’s from Wabash College. Rob is co-author of the 2021 book What Makes a Strategic Plan ‘Strategic’? , and he contributes to Inside Higher Ed’s “Call to Action” blog. A recent AMA Symposium for the Marketing of Higher Education committee member, Rob also teaches graduate courses in both strategic communications and higher education leadership.

Sam Thorson

Growth Strategist, Epicosity

As a growth strategist, Sam’s top priority is always your bottom line – and how to leverage data and insights to drive strategy and creativity. He’s a silo-smashing collaborator who elevates marketing projects by digging in to understand your school, students, and competition. He oversees all higher education strategies at Epicosity, but his true passion is to think beyond the here and now to focus on what’s next – especially when it comes to digital and social media. When he’s not applying insights to strategy for killer campaigns, Sam enjoys creating sports videography for local teams and spending time with his wife and two boys on their farm in Southeast South Dakota.

Gene Lewis

CEO + CCO, Digital Pulp

Gene began his career in digital marketing at the dawn of the internet, and his fascination with the experiments and puzzles of the early web bloomed into an obsession with digital media. It’s a focus that is fundamentally driven by his love of technology, a passion for clarity in communication and the power of engagement. Gene now leads the agency’s creative force – and is celebrated as a thought leader by his peers in the industry.

Brian Loube

President, Digital Pulp

Brian Loube has been making new media in NYC for over 30 years, producing everything from websites to computer games to interactive education. In 1990, he founded R/GA Interactive, one of the country’s top interactive agencies, and later he spearheaded digital teams at Imaginary Forces, Sesame Street and AOL. All this earned him a deep knowledge of design, education, marketing, CRM, user interaction…and a lifelong passion for creating magical experiences.

Dennis Franczak

Founder and CEO of Fuseideas

Dennis Franczak, Founder and CEO of Fuseideas, is an innovative strategist who helps businesses solve problems through strategy, creative, technology, and media. With a degree in Higher Education Administration, Dennis has not only worked at Boston College and MIT, but has been a leading marketer in higher education for the last 16 years. Dennis has spoken at conferences across the country on topics of deep interest to organizations trying to manage and thrive in a world of continuous marketing disruption.

Erin Francis-Cummings

President & CEO of Destination Analysts

Erin Cummings, President & CEO of Destination Analysts, is at the forefront of developing research solutions that marry technology, big data and market research to assist industries with deepening the understanding of consumer decision processes and measuring ROI. Erin has planned and facilitated marketing studies and national consumer research for numerous clients across a wide range of topics, including marketing, branding, customer satisfaction, economic impact studies, ROI and conversion.

John Farrar

Industry Director for Education at Google

As the Industry Director of Education at Google, John is a trusted partner and adviser to top education institutions and leaders to transform their digital footprint. Raised by two public school teachers turned professors, John has witnessed the immense opportunities and challenges within traditional education. He brings that passion to the table as he helps CEOs, college presidents and deans strategically innovate to solve their toughest challenges and adapt to meet the needs of their evolving student population.

As an avid thought leader, John has been featured in Forbes, the mainstage of ASU GSV, the Carnegie Conference, and as a frequent guest host on The EdUp Experience podcast talking about why we must first focus on student outcomes, build a “well-traveled” bridge between employers and education, and embrace digital transformation. You can also find him on his YouTube channel, ManifestED, where he and his team interview the movers and shakers of the education ecosystem.

Before joining Google, John was President and General Manager of Brand.net, a programmatic display platform in San Francisco. He spent the majority of his career at Valassis Communications, Inc. in several capacities, including Vice President of CPG Sales and Senior Vice President of Digital Strategy/M&A. John earned his Master of Business Administration from Notre Dame and his Bachelor of Arts from Hillsdale College where he was named “Graduate of the Last Decade.” (Many years ago ;-))

John lives with his wife and two daughters in Northern California. Outside of work, John trains for triathlons and geeks out over college sport. He also co-founded a retro barber shop in historic downtown Chicago with his long-time friend.

Claudia Howard

Head of Industry, Education at Google

Claudia Howard is currently Head of Industry, Education at Google, supporting Higher Ed and Ed Tech companies reach their business goals. Previously she was a Sr. Account Executive supporting government partners, working closely with many of the civilian service agencies, most recently leading the COVID-19 Vaccine Public Education Campaign with the Department of Health and Human Services. Before Google, Claudia spent her career in television and entertainment in various marketing positions at The Weather Channel, FOX Sports, and Warner Bros. Discovery (formerly Turner). She earned her MBA from Emory University’s Goizueta Business School and a Bachelor’s degree in Journalism & Mass Communication from the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill.

Claudia resides in Silver Spring, Maryland with her husband and two young sons.

Brady Warren

Senior Account Executive, Monsido

Brady Warren is a Senior Account Executive at Monsido powered by CivicPlus. Brady has background in sales, and enjoys speaking and educating organizations on the important of an accessible and inclusive website experience.

Mike O'Brien

CEO and Chief Developer, Conext

Michael (Mike) O’Brien is passionate about innovation. He is currently the founder and CEO Mingle, LLC whose properties include Conext.me & Postings.com. Postings.com enables companies to distribute job postings and manage candidates in the cloud, while saving up to 60% on their recruitment advertising. Conext improves business insight and electronically streamlines communication with students, graduates and employers.

In 2012, Mingle was recognized as the 6th fastest growing company in San Diego and 673rd fastest growing company nationwide by Inc, 500|5000. The company also made Inc 500|5000 list in 2013 and 2014.

Mike is an investor and advisor to Understand.com, RehearsalVRP and LawVeritas.com. Mike is currently a Board Member of the Pacific Southwest BBB. Mike is an advisor and investor to crypto asset fund Luna Capital, LLC.

Prior to Mingle, Mike was a co-founder and the CEO of financialaid.com, a pioneer in providing college finance solutions online. Founded in 2000, financialaid.com became one of the most successful student loan companies in the U.S., capitalizing on Mike’s direction and innovative Internet marketing strategies. financialaid.com funded more than $1 Billion in student loans each year. At financialaid.com, Mike conceptualized and created CampusDirt.com (at the time, the number one online college search engine), RateYourCampus.com (online feedback community) and CampusClix.com (a college social networking website). In October of 2004, Mike sold financialaid.com and properties to Education Lending Group (now Student Loan Xpress) which in turn was purchased by CIT (NYSE: CIT) for $400MM in January 2005.

Utilized as a media expert in higher education finance and Internet marketing, Mike has been interviewed by numerous national television and print news media — including The Wall Street Journal, CNBC, NBC Nightly News, Fox News Network, the Chicago Tribune and Kiplingers.

Mike received a Bachelor of Science degree in Marketing from California State University, Fresno. In 2006, he was recognized as Entrepreneur in Residence in 2006 at his alma mater. In 2007, he was on the Fresno State Alumni Association Board. In 2015, Mike was recognized as a finalist for the Most Admired CEO’s in San Diego by the San Diego Business Journal.

Brian MacDonald

Co-founder, CCO, Zillion

Brian is a creative leader with a long history of award-winning work in print, broadcast, digital, and social media channels. He brings his consumer-packaged-goods background to many higher education brands, including UW/Madison, NYU, Cornell, Emory, Johns Hopkins, University of Massachusetts, University of Surrey. Colgate, Bradley, and Brandman. Previously at Ogilvy & Mather, Brian worked on global consumer brands such as Dove’s campaign for Real Beauty, American Express’ Realize the Potential campaign, Hellmann’s, KFC, Magnum Ice Cream, and Scotiabank. And at Leo Burnett, Brian worked on a wide array of brands across the local/global spectrum, including P&G’s laundry portfolio, Kellogg’s snack foods and cereals, Wrigley’s gum and mints, and Visa.

Jamie Pragnell

Account Manager, Glacier

Jamie Pragnell has worked in the higher education marketing space for over 5 years. During that time, she has had the opportunity to strategize, build and execute marketing campaigns for some of North America’s top institutions. In her role at Glacier, Jamie works directly with over 40 higher ed institutions annually, running a multitude of campaigns with goals ranging from increased enrollments to brand lift. Jamie utilizes her experience and knowledge to deliver customized campaigns for any objective.

Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center

201 Waterfront Street
National Harbor, MD 20745
Phone: (301) 965-4000

Room Rate

$249.00 single/double occupancy per night (excluding taxes and applicable fees which are currently 18%, but are subject to change).

Additional guests can be added for $20.00 per person, per night.

A $27.00 Resort Fee will be added to the guest room rate per night. The Resort Fee includes (amenities subject to change):

  • Hotel-wide high-speed wireless internet access
  • Sunrise Yoga
  • 24-hour access to the fitness center
  • Access to the indoor Jr. Olympic-sized pool
  • Transportation on the National Harbor Circulator Bus
  • 2 bottles of Aquafina water in-room
  • Complimentary cookie or fruit at Potomac District Café & Market
  • Welcome drink for 2 people
  • Up to 20 B&W photo copies at FedEx

Reserve online or call (301) 965-4000 and reference American Marketing Association Symposium for the Marketing of Higher Education.

Please reserve your overnight accommodations early as there are a limited number of AMA special rates available. The discount rate cut-off date is October 21, 2022.

Please know that any hotel room booked outside the AMA negotiated block may not be eligible for the discounted rate. Those reservations may also have a different cancellation policy and will not be eligible for reimbursement in the case of event cancellation.

 

Area Attractions, Events and Tourism

 

ADA

The AMA is committed to providing equal access to our meetings for all attendees. If you are an attendee with a disability and require program accommodations, please contact the AMA Support Center at (800) AMA-1150. A member of our staff will ensure that appropriate access arrangements are made. If you have specific disability-related needs for your hotel sleeping room, please be sure to communicate those directly to the hotel when you make your reservation. In an effort to provide the highest quality of service to all attendees, we require that details of all access requests be communicated to our office at least 14 days in advance of the beginning of the meeting.

 

 

 

Thank You to Our Sponsors

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2022 AMA Symposium for the Marketing of Higher Education

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