InspirED School Marketers SPARKCAST

Introduction This episode of the InspirED SparkCast discusses the 2022 Independent School Cost-Per-Enrollment Study produced jointly by the Enrollment Management Association (EMA), the National Association of Independent Schools (NAIS), and National Business Officers Association (NBOA) to make informed decisions around funding and support for enrollment efforts.  [Links above lead to the study. Yo...

Deb Baum is the Senior Director of Communications and Strategic Institutional Marketing at  The Bryn Mawr School , an all-girls PK-12 school in Baltimore, Maryland. Deb previously worked in communications and media relations roles at Gilman School, The Rhode Island Foundation, and Brown University. Deb also has a background in journalism, having spent three years as a news writer for WBZ-TV in Bos...

Jan Abernathy Jan Abernathy is the Chief Communications Officer at The Browning School and a member of the CASE Commission on Marketing and Communications and on the faculty of the CASE Academy. She was previously the Director of Marketing and Communications for the Elisabeth Morrow School and is the president of the New York City Independent Schools Communications Professionals group as well as a...

Dr. David Willows is co-founder and strategic director at [YELLOW CAR] , a training and consulting firm designed to help schools stand out. Between 2005 and 2022, he was Director of Advancement at the International School of Brussels, Belgium. David is widely regarded as one of the most innovative practitioners in the field, helping to shape and define the future of Advancement in schools. He was...

Colin Anson is the CEO and co-founder of Pixevety , a child image protection and photo storage solution that helps schools and parents manage and share photos and videos of children with state-of-the-art, real-time consent technology. With over 11 years of experience in the online media industry, Colin is a digital entrepreneur and a passionate advocate for children's digital privacy and safety. C...

H. Watson Jordan Ed D.   Watson is an author, a lifelong educator, and  a certified WHY.os trainer. His company,  The Resilience Initiative , promotes resilience around the world. Watson works with teams using the WHY Operating System to drive superior insight, understanding, and production. This algorithm guides the identification of individual and group zones of genius and explains how to levera...

Carrie Grimes is the Director of the M.Ed. in  Independent School Leadership at Vanderbilt University's Peabody College of Education and Human Development . Carrie is a Professor in the Department of Leadership, Policy and Organizations, and teaches across master's and doctoral programs at Peabody College. In addition to her teaching and scholarship, Carrie facilitates workshops and learning sessi...

Mike Connor Mike is President of Connor Associates and co-author of the NAIS book, Marketing Independent Schools in the 21st Century .  His latest e-Book, Pulling in the Same Direction , emphasizes everyone's role in recruitment, retention, and fundraising. Earlier in his 30+ year career Mike worked in nearly every position at independent K-12 schools. Today, Connor Associates has 16 Associates an...

Chris Pryor is president and founder of The Gowan Group . As a lifelong educator, strategist, and thought leader, Chris is in his third decade of independent school leadership. He has held leadership positions at independent schools such as Harbor Country Day, The Independence School, Hackley, Rye Country Day, and Tuxedo Park School and was actively involved with NYSAIS. Chris is a well-known spea...

  Dr. David Willows  is Co-founder and Strategic Director at [YELLOW CAR] , the world's leading experience strategy training and consultancy firm for schools. Between 2005 and 2022, he was Director of Advancement at the International School of Brussels, Belgium. During this time, he grew to be widely regarded as one of the most innovative practitioners in the field, helping to shape and define the...

Rebecca Malotke-Meslin is the founder of Pleasantly Aggressive Coaching & Consulting where she empowers women to take control of their leadership journey and ditch the habits holding them back. Rebecca combines a background in social research with 20 years of sales, marketing, communications, and school leadership to create a transformational experience for her clients. One of the many connections...

Deborah Janz has a passion and curiosity for international and corporate culture. This, combined with her experience with business, sales, and technology, created the foundation of IMPACT Marketing International in 2007. One of Deborah's first projects was a family business, providing safe and educational online experiences for young children. She geeked out daily on how to attract more paid users...

This episode of the SparkCast is not about school marketing. It's not about attaining and retaining students. It's not about social media. It's about the Pechersk School International in Kyiv, Ukraine. It's about the story of the attack on the school by the Russians in February 2022… the story of the school's leaders' perseverance and resilience…the story of how the international private school co...

Penny Abrahams is a senior consultant at Independent School Management , better known as ism.  Penny first joined ism in 2010 as a member of the Advancement Academy's founding faculty. As a Senior Consultant, she specializes in marketing communications, enrollment management, and development. Her experience in these areas comes from working in private and independent schools and other non-profits...

Aubrey Bursch, founder and CEO of Easy School Marketing , is passionate about supporting small private schools to increase enrollment, retention, and revenue by designing and executing marketing strategies that work for them. As the daughter of lifelong educators and a mom of two independent school students, she combines her passion for schools with her 20+ years of marketing and development exper...

Lauren Campbell is the Publications Manager at Cretin-Derham Hall , a Catholic high school in St. Paul, Minnesota. She manages digital communications, the biannual alumni magazine, and the Student Apprentice program. (which is what we're going to be talking about today.) She previously worked in communications for a local nonprofit and a community bank. Lauren is focused on using the power of comm...

Dr. Andrew T. Weller is the Dean of Enrollment and Strategic Marketing at St. Stephens & St. Agnes School in Alexandria Virginia. Previously he was the Director of Admissions for Avenues: The World School, the Executive Director of Advancement at Ridley College (Canada) and the Director of Admissions at Chestnut Hill Academy in Philadelphia. Andrew was a board member of the East Bay School for Boy...

Dr. Carrie Grimes is an Assistant Professor of the Practice in the Leadership, Policy, and Organizations department and also serves as the Director of the Independent School Leadership Master's program at Vanderbilt University . She completed her Ed. D. in Leadership and Learning in Organizations, where her research focused on social identity and community within school settings. Carrie's career h...

Alex Magay has been an independent school educator and fundraiser for nearly twenty-five years. For the first decade of his career he was a full-time teacher and basketball coach at The Winchendon School while serving as a member of an admissions team that grew enrollment from one hundred and eighty students to two hundred and fifty.  As the Dean of Community Life at Winchendon, he created the sch...

Mike Connor is President of Connor Associates Strategic Services and co-author of the NAIS book, Marketing Independent Schools in the 21st Century.  His latest e-Book, Pulling in the Same Direction, emphasizes everyone's role in recruitment, retention, and fundraising. Earlier in his 30+ year career, Mike worked in nearly every position at independent K-12 schools. Connor Associates stakes its val...

Angela Brown is the Enrollment Marketing Leader, K-12 at Niche, where she's on a mission to help make K-12 admission and marcom professionals' lives easier. Before joining Niche, she was director of marketing and communications at Flint Hill School, a PK-12, co-ed day school just outside of Washington, DC. Angela joined Flint Hill in 2014 after spending 10 years focusing on B2B marketing communica...

Kevin MacNeil of Metric Marketing applies his passion for sales, deep understanding of online marketing and audience conversion to help schools deepen their customer relationships and ultimately, improve their bottom line. Kevin has over 10 years of experience in advertising and digital marketing. As a graduate of the Asper School of Business, with majors in Entrepreneurship and Marketing, Kevin f...

In 2014 James Milford became the fourth Head of School at Maclay School, a co-ed school of about 1,000 students in Tallahassee, Florida. Prior to becoming the Head at Maclay James had a long tenure at Darlington School, a day and boarding school in Rome, Georgia where he served as Head of House, as an admission officer, he led the residential program, was the Director of Student Life in the Upper...

Mike Vachow is a Managing Director at Gowan Group, a full-service consultancy to independent schools based in Connecticut. Before becoming a consultant, Mike worked in independent day schools for 30 years. He began his career as an English teacher and coach at Isidore Newman School in New Orleans before moving on to administrative roles there. He continued in school leadership as a division direct...