Can You Make It Pretty?

Terri Giltner is NCMPR's 2025 Petrizzo Award winner, which recognizes a career of achievement in community college marcom and PR. Terri was CMO at the Kentucky Community & Technical College System for nearly 20 years, and she discusses the importance of data-driven marketing and how to market your marketing department to ensure it has a seat at the leadership table.

Self-care has become such a buzzword in recent years, it's tough to look at the concept beyond drinking enough water and going for a walk. But in the last year, it’s become even more important for higher ed employees, who’ve seen their industry get really complicated: With the dismantling of the DOE and the canceling of billions in funding for research and key programs that support students, c...

How do you know when to jump on a trending audio? How can students help with a college's social media strategy? What happens when colleagues can't understand why you don't want to put their flier on Instagram? Sarah Hernandez Herman, NCMPR's 2025 national Communicator of the Year winner and Arizona Western College's director of content strategy and development, shares tips, tri...

Patrick Stone remembers feeling a little out of his depth when he attended his first NCMPR conference in 2011. He was new to the field and attending with two long-time industry pros. Fourteen years later, he is president of NCMPR. In this episode of "Can You Make It Pretty?", Patrick discusses being new to the industry, the importance of new members to NCMPR, why marketers need to make t...

For the last two years, South Puget Sound Community College in Washington has won District 7’s gold Medallion Award in Government or Community Relations Campaign. Kati Sagawa, SPSCC’s director of marketing & communications, discusses their most recent win, for the Billy Frank Junior Statue Project. The artist made the statue on campus, and it will be displayed in Washington D.C.

Marcom and PR is an industry full of creatives, and District 6 member David Steiman – who worked in the film industry before winding up at Pasadena City College in California – talks about his path to marketing director. He chats with guest host Andrea Rangno, director of marketing & public relations at Golden West College in California. This episode was taped live at the District 6 conference...

How can managers keep small teams engaged? How can they help staff avoid burnout? Dana Shaffer, senior creative manager for Purell, chats about leading small teams, plus how to oversee a major marketing plan pivot. This episode was recorded live at NCMPR's District 3 conference in Cleveland on Sept. 27, 2024; and it features guest host Jeff Julian, NCMPR's 2023-24 president.

The College of Lake County in Illinois won Best in Show at the 2023 Paragon Awards with “The Path to Better Care,” a graphic novel that promotes CLC’s healthcare programs. Marketing analyst Jessey Prugh and graphic designer Maddy Asma – who wrote and designed the novel, respectively – share how they did it and the community’s response. NOTE: CLC's enrollment in PATH-eligible programs saw a 36%...

Dr. Keith Curry, president and CEO of Compton College in California, discusses why DEI is everyone's job on campus, how to work with employees who don't want to take on the task -- and why it was so great for students when Kendrick Lamar popped up at this year's graduation ceremony.

Lisé Freking oversees the marcom staffs at two different Minnesota colleges: Dakota County Technical College and Inver Hills Community College. She's also NCMPR's 2024 national Rising Star of the Year. Lisé shares project management and multitasking tips, and how to get a seat at your college's leadership table. We also meet the new cohost of "Can You Make It Pretty?", Emily...

St. Philip's College in Texas is the nation's only Historically Black College and Hispanic-Serving Institute. Adrian Jackson, St. Philip's director of marketing and strategic communications, shares how the college stays prepared to deal with a crisis – and how it jumped into action when it received a racially motivated bomb threat last year.

Virginia Moreland has been with Tennessee Board of Regents – The College System of Tennessee since 2012, and she attended her first NCMPR national conference the following year, in New Orleans. In 2025, the conference will return to New Orleans, for NCMPR's 50th anniversary – with Virginia as NCMPR president. In this Meet the President episode, Virginia shares why she's focused on getting...

One way Rowan College at Burlington County (RCBC) in New Jersey is keeping employees engaged and boosting morale is through its annual report. It’s an important document, but not always the snazziest. Greg Volpe—RCBC’s executive director of strategic marketing and communications—discusses why the college has turned its annual report into a puzzle ... and tarot cards ... a calendar ... a cassette t...

Community colleges are full of great stories that represent a diverse student body. How can the college's marcom team find those stories? How can they tell those stories without falling back on tokenism, tropes or stereotypes? Sally Cameron, an NCMPR president emeriti and former vice president of college communications at Bristol Community College in Massachusetts, and Liz Cooper, associate di...

Chelsea Hayes is the marketing communication specialist at New Mexico State University Alamogordo, and she's a staff of one. She shares her tips for small teams, including how to set boundaries and advocate for more help.

Three topics that come up A LOT in marketing, especially at community colleges: Too many boring meetings. Dealing with clients who think they're marketers. How to handle creative burnout. Chris and Jenny Schell are the co-founders of Design Rangers, a Colorado Springs design firm that specialize in camps (not meetings), asserting your expertise in marketing, and tips to keep yourself engaged w...

Four NCMPR president emeriti, who have a combined 103 years of marketing and communications experience at community colleges, discuss how they stay excited about the job, how to beat imposture syndrome, how marketing can get a say at the college president's table and a whole lot more. NCMPR's 2023-24 president Jeff Julian guest hosts this episode, which was recorded live in St. Charles, Mi...

Saddleback College wanted to launch a targeted digital marketing campaign, and it wanted to ensure it got the details and audience right. As an HSI – Hispanic-Serving Institution – the California college needed to speak its audience's language, both literally and figuratively. Jennie McCue, Saddleback's executive director of marketing and communications, talks through how it selected its v...

How can you get the most bang for your budgeting buck with your vendors? And build the best relationship so you're not stuck in the awkward position of having to break ties with your vendor? With experience on both sides of the college/vendor relationship, Cheryl Broom – CEO of GradComm and former community college marketer – shares some tips for community colleges to ensure a fulfilling, frui...

In college, Fiona Lytle thought she was going to be a dentist. Like so many community college marketers, though, her path changed. Today, Lytle is the chief communications officer and legislative liaison at the Colorado Community College System. She's also NCMPR's 2023 Communicator of the Year. Fiona shares how she got into her current job role, some tips for marketers on working with gove...

Identifying something that is unconscious can be tricky. How can we even pick out a problem if we don't realize it's happening? TaChelle Lawson – president of FIG Strategy & Consulting out of Las Vegas and a diversity, equity and inclusion trainer – discusses unconscious bias: What is it? How does it affect our relationships and our marketing? And how can we address it? Here's a hi...

Before he found himself as Harper College's chief of staff, NCMPR's 2023-24 president worked in marketing, yes. He also worked in construction, in radio, for the American Library Association, and filing taxes in a cat-filled basement. Jeff Julian, whose résumé also includes "former co-host of Can You Make It Pretty?," chats about how NCMPR continues to help him do his job better...

To maximize professional leadership potential, it's about personal growth. You can't succeed without a team whose strengths complement yours. It also helps to have a support network who's got your back. These are some of the takeaways of the 2022-23 cohort of NCMPR's Leadership Institute. A trio of new graduates--Laura Inlow, marketing and public relations manager at Lewis & Cl...

We’ve heard it a lot: Areas outside marketing don’t really know what we do. One way they get around that at Cape Cod Community College in Massachusetts is to approach areas like admissions and enrollment and say, “You tell us the stats.” By brainstorming with Student Services, marketing ensures the message focuses on the right students – and what they care about. Our guests are Patrick Stone, Cape...

S4, E2: In September 2021, Duolingo, the world’s most popular language-learning platform, had 50,000 TikTok followers. As of late January of this year, it had 5.7 million. That increase is due in large part to Zaria Parvez, Duolingo’s global social media manager and one of Forbes’ 30 Under 30 in social media last year. Zaria is this year's closing keynote at NCMPR Under the Sun. She shares how she...