Higher Ed Conversations

In this episode of Higher Education Coffee and Conversation, I have the pleasure of interviewing Dr. Kyle Dalpe, the president of Western Nevada College. With a fascinating background as a journalist, chief of staff, and vice president of instruction at various community colleges, Dr. Dalpe brings a wealth of knowledge to the table. We delve into topics such as college promotion, reaching rural co...

On this episode of Higher Education Coffee and Conversation, I am thrilled to have a close friend and esteemed colleague as my guest, Dr. Mark Browning. Currently serving as the CEO and President at Blue Mountain Community College in Oregon, Mark brings a wealth of experience to the table. Before taking on his current role, Mark made significant contributions in marketing and communications at pre...

We have an incredibly exciting guest on this episode of the podcast: Alex Wedderburn, a senior leader at Hootsuite, shares his expertise on this indispensable platform for social media management. For those unfamiliar, Hootsuite is our go-to tool at GradComm for efficiently managing and measuring the impact of our clients' social media accounts. The focus of today's discussion is Hootsui...

It’s an advice-packed episode as Lisa Takami joins me to discuss her new book , Women in the Higher Education C-Suite: Diverse Executive Profiles .  Lisa has helped organizations, both private and public, to build brand messaging by leveraging partnerships that foster learner and organizational success.  Her book is such a valuable resource for both women and men to learn from the stories of other...

It’s an exciting episode of Higher Ed Coffee and Conversation as we welcome our first-ever College President on the podcast!  Dr. Annebelle Nery is the President of Santa Ana College, where her strategic marketing approach has had an extremely impactful result.  In our conversation, we’ll learn how Dr. Nery has used a data-based approach to marketing to increase enrollment by double digits semeste...

Sometimes the most exciting opportunities can happen when you least expect them…and my guest today can certainly attest to that notion! Emily Zimmer, Marketing & Events Coordinator for DCTC, was enjoying her Thanksgiving when she found out that the President of the United States would be visiting Dakota County Technical College (DCTC) to promote the passing of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Bil...

In today’s world where seemingly everything has gone digital, the concept of a printed class schedule may sound like a relic of the past. However, my guests today are here to debunk this myth through the lens of a project we did right here at GradComm with our partners at North Orange Continuing Education (NOCE). Here to discuss the project is Jennifer Perez, Director of Campus Communications at N...

On this special episode of the podcast, I am joined by some of our amazing GradComm team members for a 2022 Year-in-Review.  I’ll speak to one of our Client Service Managers, Rocco, to learn what Mechatronics is and how our team utilized it to get impactful results for one of our clients.  Then I’ll catch up with our Creative Director, Michael, to hear why great spontaneity requires great preparat...

Episode 31: Media buying is a scary term for a lot of us, myself included!  That’s why we are extremely lucky to be joined by my guest Chuck Fetterly, who is an expert in all things media buying, to help us better understand this very important aspect of many marketing plans.  Chuck has spent the last two decades running and growing TEC Direct Media, Inc, a media buying company that has worked wit...

Episode 30:  What do you want to be when you grow up?  It’s a question we’ve all answered when we were young, but how many of us really knew what all of the options were back then?  The department of labor claims there are about 950 jobs that exist, some of them far beyond the imagination of a 5 year old.  My guest today, Dr. Kevin Fleming, is on a mission to broaden the imagination of people of a...

Episode 29: David Ogul is my guest on this episode of Higher Education Coffee & Conversation, an extremely talented award-winning writer and editor who I have been lucky enough to work with for the better part of 17 years.  David started his career as a freelance reporter working for organizations like the LA Times and Baltimore Sun.  Our relationship began when David covered a few stories at...

Episode 28: Award-winning children's author, produced screenwriter, and Graduate Communications' very own Sr. Communications Strategist are just some of the hats that Dr. Michael Mahin wears. On this episode of Higher Education Coffee & Conversation, Dr. Mahin and I address some of the important questions surrounding how we can do a better job as communicators and marketers to tell s...

Episode 27: Theft, embezzlement, cyber attacks - oh my!  In this episode of Higher Education Coffee & Conversation we’re talking about the many different types of crises that can arise at any school, at any moment.  But don’t panic!  My guest today, Scott Summerfield, Principal of SAE Communications and crisis communication expert is going to share his knowledge on navigating through even the...

Episode 26: We’re going meta this time with a podcast episode all about podcasting!  When Lauren Milbourne and Christopher McGuinness were challenged with creating a podcast for the president of Allan Hancock College, they undertook important strategy and planning work before executing their vision. This approach resulted in a lot of success for their communications team, the president, and the sc...

Episode 25: If your school is thinking about launching an app, or already has one and you want to make sure it is designed to be effective, you won’t want to miss my super informative conversation with Niall Adler, Director of Marketing at Mission College in Santa Clara, California. Niall led a nine-month process to build an app that has proven to be a useful tool for students and college communic...

Episode 24: The volatile mix of alumni pride and shifting cultural sensitivities makes changing mascots a thorny challenge for schools and their communities.  My guest on this episode, Jennie McCue, lived through each tricky step of that process recently as Director of Marketing and Communications at Saddleback College in Mission Viejo, California.  Jennie has many enlightening and entertaining le...

Episode 23: Brad Phillips is a numbers guy, but he’s the first to tell you they won’t help you persuade your audience unless you use them the right way. “In the end human beings don’t remember numbers. They remember how they feel. So, it’s really important that you pick just a couple of key data points and focus on telling a story using the data.” Brad spent many years using data himself to help s...

Episode 22: If digital marketing is an essential piece of your student recruitment strategy but you aren’t sure what NAP, EAT, PPC or SEM stand for, you’ll want to listen carefully to my guest today who has great tips to make sure you are optimizing the impact of this approach.  Chris Barton is the Chief Product Officer at Gannet USA, and has run countless digital marketing campaigns over his two-...

Episode 21: “Websites which try to be everything to everybody may end up being nothing to nobody.”  That’s just one of the many great insights learned in the trenches of higher ed communications by today’s guest Karen Norton, executive director of Integrated Marketing and Communications at Bunker Hill Community College in Boston. Karen’s deep experience in web design and content strategy has been...

Episode 20: Hundreds of community colleges across the nation have committed to the Guided Pathways approach to boost completion rates and student success, but there are various challenges to building a program and keeping stakeholders on board.  In this episode, I’m so happy to bring you a wisdom drop from Renee Craig-Marius, formerly the vice president of Student Services at Reedley College and n...

Episode 19: One of the most valuable projects I’ve done involved hiring “secret shoppers” to pose as students so they could check out colleges known for their marketing prowess and learn what they do so well.  On this special episode of Higher Education Coffee & Conversation, you’ll listen-in to a webinar presentation I recently did with Tony Teng, Dean of Advanced Technology and Applied Scien...

Episode 18: Today I talk to actor, producer, writer and director Andres Orozco who has taught Screen Arts and Communications at Pepperdine University for 20 years. Andres is also the co-founder and co-owner of the award-winning production company Novelas Educativas, which creates culturally-relevant digital content across all platforms. We talk about his approach to creating authentic content and...

Episode 17: “I was born to do public relations,” says my guest Nancy Marshall, and being an admirer of her work for many years, I’d have to agree.  Running her own successful marketing and PR agency for three decades is pretty good proof, too. As you’ll hear in this episode, Nancy is a natural communicator with an infectious positivity, so it’s easy to see why she’s been able to build the kind of...

Episode 16: To celebrate the one-year anniversary of Graduate Communications becoming an agency, I thought it would be fun to interview some of my team members about their most interesting, challenging and rewarding projects and have them share lessons learned with you.  From strategic use of Tik Tok to managing major media buys, there are lots of useful tips to absorb in this episode as these ama...

Episode 15: You have what you think is a great story: a first-generation student dreams of getting a college education, gets into your school, works hard and graduates. But to master storyteller and former Hollywood writer Andy Goodman, the reaction from the audience is likely to be ‘who cares?’ “What makes stories interesting are the things that surprise us. If someone tells you a story and you k...