Higher Ed Conversations

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...

Episode 14: Want your voice to be heard by senior leadersat your institution? Power Minds CEO Margo Turner says the best approach is to think about the issue from their perspective and learn how what you are advocating fits in with what they need to accomplish for the organization. The self-described serial entrepreneur believes the same shift in perspective would serve academic institutions well...

Episode 13: I don’t know about you, but one of the things I’ve missed most during the pandemic is going to sports events. Whether it’s cheering on my son and his teammatesor attending a pro sports game, I feel a real sense of excitement and community that’s hard to find elsewhere. Colleges and their surrounding communities have felt this loss as well, and it’s interesting to think about what role...

Episode 12: If you’re one of the many people who would rather avoid confronting someone with criticism or bad news, then you need to check out this episode of Higher Ed Coffee and Conversation featuring acclaimed speaker and author Sarita Maybin.  A former college administrator, Sarita has shared her wisdom about the power of positivity and how to make difficult conversations more effective all ov...

Episode 11: This month’s Higher Education Coffee and Conversation podcast features Aubrey Kuan Roderick, who first came to the U.S. as an international student and now is the program manager for International students at College of San Mateo. She speaks about recruiting to an  unknown community college system and how COVID has impacted community college international students. Her program is in th...

Episode 10: This Episode of Higher Ed Coffee and Conversation features two special guests, Dr. Nora Kenney, coordinator of Palmor College's Transition Program and Santos Rosado, a student who paroled in March of 2020. Transitions is a "Corrections to College" Program  that helps previously incarcerated individuals adjust to a college campus and successfully begin or resume their hig...

Episode 9: Dr. Dilcie Perez has led her college's implementation of amazing student support services and programs, including the Village, which provides safe and secure housing and support services to students who face housing insecurity.  Her work at Cerritos College has focused on serving students with dignity and respect and has resulted in equity and student support efforts that have impr...

Episode 8: Mark Evilsizer has served as a community college trustee for nearly 20 years. He meets all the ideal requirements of being a trustee: dedication to education and community service, a desire to improve the community he lives in, an optimistic and servant leader attitude, and a true passion for community colleges. In this episode, we discuss what it is like to be a trustee, how you deal w...

Episode 7: “Historically, higher education institutions have viewed students through a simple lens - traditional students enrolling in college straight out of high school or older students entering later in life. The simple truth is that students are changing, and colleges must also change to serve and market better."   These true words were written by Daniel Ramirez, director of public relat...