Higher Ed Pulse

For this week's Pulse Check, we revisit Devin Purgason's lightning session at the February Engage AI Summit, focused on adult learners. Devin, Vice President for Student Experience Marketing and Outreach at Forsyth Technical Community College, dives deep into how to connect with adult learners through AI-driven program recommendations and micro-pathways. - - - - Connect With Our Host: Mallory Will...

SimpsonScarborough’s Higher Ed CMO Study - - - - Connect With Our Host: Mallory Willsea  https://www.linkedin.com/in/mallorywillsea/ https://twitter.com/mallorywillsea About The Enrollify Podcast Network: The Higher Ed Pulse is a part of the Enrollify Podcast Network . If you like this podcast, chances are you’ll like other Enrollify shows too! Enrollify is made possible by Element451 — ...

For this week's Pulse Check, we revisit Brendan Henkel's lightning session at the February Engage AI Summit, focused on using AI for application fraud detection. Brendan, AVP of Solutions Engineering at Element451, gives a crash course in how AI tools can flag potential fraudulent applications and have colleges and universities avoid losing millions. - - - - Connect With Our Host: Mallory Willsea&...

Mallory Willsea sits down with higher education strategist and former RHB president Sam Waterson to unpack a critical—but often overlooked—dimension of enrollment marketing and ed tech partnerships: evaluating the company behind the product.  Rather than focusing solely on demos and deliverables, the conversation challenges higher ed leaders to examine corporate strategy, ownership structure, and...

For this week's Pulse Check, we revisit Head of Content at Element451 Erin Newton's lightning session at the February Engage AI Summit, focused on human-centered design session for ethical and user-friendly AI. She breaks down what it really takes to design AI experiences that users trust. Centered on the principles of transparency, tone, and accuracy, Erin explores how institutions can evaluate a...

Mallory sits down with Josh Dodson, VP of Performance Marketing and Analytics at BVK, to unpack one of the biggest questions in enrollment marketing today: what is actually driving enrollment? Their conversation challenges the false confidence many leaders place in dashboards, last-click reporting, and traditional attribution tools that were never designed to capture the full complexity of student...

For this week's Pulse Check, we're revisiting Brian Piper's lightning talk from the 2026 AI Engage Summit earlier this month. In just 15 minutes, Brian will teach you how to auto-generate custom reports, without coding or getting IT involved. Watch the session: https://youtu.be/gBmn05-IdRE - - - - Connect With Our Host: Mallory Willsea  https://www.linkedin.com/in/mallorywillsea/ https://twit...

Mallory Willsea sits down with Doug Gapinski, Account Director at 8th Light, to unpack the real story behind agentic AI. While LinkedIn hype suggests autonomous agents are replacing entire teams, Doug explains that the reality inside enterprise environments is far more nuanced. Agentic AI can unlock meaningful productivity gains—but only in the right contexts with clear guardrails and clean data....

Welcome to the 5th and final part of this Pulse Check series. In this episode, we turn to one of the most nuanced and hopeful findings in Ologie’s national study: across political identities, people want colleges and universities to be places for ideas, not ideologies. That sounds inspiring in theory. In practice, it raises harder questions. What does healthy dialogue actually look like on campus...

Mallory sits down with career strategist Robert Braathe to unpack the paradox shaping today’s workforce: nearly 80% of professionals don’t feel ready for the job market, while recruiters say they can’t find quality talent. Together, they explore how AI in hiring is reshaping career progression, what networking really means in 2026, and why impact—not titles—drives advancement. Related Links: In a...

In Part 4 of Pulse Check: The Reputation Rethink, we turn to one of higher education’s most important, and according to our research, most underserved audiences: alumni. Ologie’s national study revealed a striking insight: only 43% of respondents believe colleges and universities meaningfully benefit their alumni. Even more telling, most respondents hold college degrees themselves. These are alumn...

Today, listeners get an inside look at how one institution is moving from AI experimentation to structured implementation. Mallory sits down with Joe Manok, Vice President of Advancement at Clark University and founder of GlobalPhilanthropy.ai, to unpack how his team is building seven purpose-built AI agents with governance, budgets, and human oversight built in from day one. Rather than chasing h...

In this episode of Pulse Check: The Reputation Rethink , we turn to two areas where public skepticism about higher education becomes more pronounced: money and local community impact. Ologie’s national study revealed that most people believe colleges and universities provide value to society, but when the conversation shifts to how institutions are funded and how they show up in their communities,...

In this episode of Higher Ed Pulse, hosted by Mallory Willsea, listeners hear directly from a senior marketing major navigating AI in higher education in real time. Mallory sits down with Sydney Yund, a University at Albany student, to unpack what it means to prepare for entry-level roles in an AI-powered workforce. From prompt engineering assignments to AI screening job applications, this convers...

People believe research matters. What they don’t always see is how it shows up in their lives. In this episode of Pulse Check: The Reputation Rethink , host Dayana Kibilds digs into one of the clearest findings from Ologie’s national study: across politics, geography, and education level, the public overwhelmingly agrees that research — especially in STEM and medicine — is higher education’s most...

Mallory Willsea sits down with Emma Jamieson, Marketing Manager at Centennial College, to explore how her team has operationalized user-generated content (UGC) into a full-fledged strategy—not a side hustle. Emma reveals how UGC isn’t just performing well; it’s outperforming traditional branded ads in engagement, conversion, and trust. In a world flooded with AI-generated polish, this episode is a...

Higher education’s reputation is being shaped by a familiar set of headlines: rising costs, political pressure, campus conflict, layoffs, and closures. It’s the story we keep hearing, and it’s loud. But in this episode, we ask: is that the story most people actually believe? In the first episode of this five-part Pulse Check series, host Day Kibilds is joined by Doug Edwards, Chief Strategy Office...

Mallory Willsea sits down with Ardis Kadiu, co-founder of AI Idea Lab and former CEO of Element451, to explore why 2026 is poised to be the breakout year for agentic AI in higher education. Unlike traditional AI tools that assist with tasks, agentic AI can now plan, execute, and deliver outcomes autonomously. They unpack how this shift will impact student communication, operational workflows, and...

In the final part of this Pulse Check series, Carrie Phillips sits down with Jeff Ebbing for a practical, no-nonsense conversation about AI from a community college perspective. Jeff shares what it really looks like to think about AI when “doing more with less” is the daily reality, including what’s worth trying, what’s not, and how to bring skeptical colleagues along without overselling the techn...

Mallory Willsea sits down with Jaime Hunt — founder of Solve Higher Ed and former cabinet-level CMO — to discuss why more institutions are turning to fractional marketing leadership instead of hiring full-time CMOs. As the role of marketing in higher ed has evolved rapidly, many campuses are struggling to keep up with growing demands. This episode explores the tension between expectations and real...

Carrie Phillips chats with Alice Maxwell to discuss how AI intersects with student-centered work. As someone who leads a marketing and communications team within student affairs, Alice shares how she’s thinking about AI through the lens of trust, communication, and bringing people along through change. They talk honestly about skepticism, what’s working, and how to use AI without losing the human...

Mallory Willsea sits down with Dr. Claire Brady, President of Glass Half-Full Consulting and author of the upcoming book AI with Intention: The Leadership Guide for Higher Education . Together, they unpack how artificial intelligence is quietly but rapidly becoming default infrastructure across college campuses — not through flashy rollouts, but through everyday, often invisible workflows. If you’...

Carrie Phillips sits down with Irene Borys from Augustana College to explore the emotional and cultural dynamics of AI adoption in higher education. Rather than focusing on the tech itself, they delve into the deeper fears, questions, and resistance that AI stirs up — and how higher ed leaders can guide their institutions through this change with empathy, intentionality, and strategy. This convers...

In the 100th episode of Higher Ed Pulse, host Mallory Willsea reunites with Seth Odell, CEO of Kanahoma, and Zach Busekrus, Founder of Enrollify, for a reunion-style retrospective packed with spicy takes, hard truths, and actionable wisdom. This milestone conversation explores what aged well, what flopped, and how higher ed marketers should be thinking about strategy, AI, and student trust in 2026...

Carrie Phillips is joined by Janelle Holmboe, Chief Enrollment and Marketing Officer at McDaniel College, for a powerful conversation at the intersection of AI, innovation, and organizational leadership. This episode goes beyond the tools and tactics—it’s a masterclass in how to restructure teams, rethink priorities, and redefine innovation in higher ed. If you're a leader trying to manage change...