ashley budd & the digital ecosystem

Ashley Budd is the Director of Digital Marketing in Cornell University’s Advancement Division, but works remotely from her home in upstate New York. We chat about the positives and negatives about working remotely, Slack and all. Ashley and her team are closing a large website redesign, and she discusses their approach to a smarter and more personal experience for Cornell alumni.

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sandra files & the punch line

We’ve kicked off the new year with Sandra Files, Digital Support Specialist at The Johns Hopkins University. The university is closing in on reaching its $5 billion campaign goal, and Sandra chats about what it’s like to fundraise for such a large amount of money for positive change. Sandra works specifically on leveraging separate social media presences to tell effective stories, and collaborates with her team to tell those stories through text, video, photography, and more.

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cassie allen & the free roaming rabbit

Cassie AllenEpisode 62 is filled with Geneseo and Albany pride, thanks to Cassie Allen, Assistant Director for Phoneathon and Young Alumni Giving at Siena College. Jackie and Cassie are both Geneseo alumnae living in Albany, so we chat a lot about both topics. Now that phoneathon is over, Cassie is back to a normal work schedule, and talks about what she’s been up to with her new-found free time. We talk about podcasts aside from our own, as well as Cassie’s rabbit, George. Jackie and Cassie also compare stories about times they’ve been mistaken for students on campus, something that makes Lougan feel old.

 

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brian proffer & the commercial break

12358136_10105954398594303_179749701_nEpisode 45  is with Brian Proffer, Assistant Manager for University Activities Board at Michigan State University. We start by chatting about the thing that’s most important in life – binge-watching television shows on Netflix. Brian is watching, and tweeting about his journey through the Friends series. At MSU, Brian works with students to fundraise for a programming budget; a unique challenge considering no student fees are allocated to campus programming. Brian shares the successful events on campus that act as fundraisers, and some just for fun! We give a shoutout (a few of them) to Alaina Wiens, reminding us how small the field of higher education really is. We wrap the show with a discussion about something else that’s really important to life: bacon, breakfast and…Amazon Prime Now.

 

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anna mahalak & our first periscope

308084dEpisode 36 is with Anna Mahalak, Coordinator of Planning and Outreach at George Washington University. Anna is a part time graduate student in GWU’s Higher Education Masters Program, and through her new position, gets an interesting glimpse at marketing, fundraising, and student affairs simultaneously. We talk about having senior leaders on campus having a strong presence on social media, such as GWU’s vice provost and dean of student affairs, whose Twitter presence is known throughout the college community. As we know, social media has the potential to greatly impact a large fundraising campaign, and Lougan and Anna swap ideas from recent initiatives they’ve tried out. We spiral down the rabbit hole of social media on campus, discussing commencement, Snapchat, and finally, Periscope.

 

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Videos of Cool Stuff:

Bruins4Bruins

The Periscope

Kerry Washington’s Commencement Speech