van nguyen, olivia perry & a spotlight on community colleges

A photo of Van Nguyen and Olivia PerryMany of the episodes on this show focus on traditional, four-year universities, but community colleges have the same responsibilities when it comes to social media, enrollment management, and many other aspects of higher ed. 

This week, we welcome Van Nguyen and Olivia Perry of Schoolcraft College just outside Detroit, to talk about the challenges and the opportunities of working at a community college. We also talk about how the pandemic impacted community college staff and students and chat about plans for commencement and how to pull off ceremonies that honor students and their achievements in a safe way. 

Van Nguyen is the Chief Marketing & Communications Officer at Schoolcraft College; Olivia Perry is the school’s Marketing and Events Coordinator. 

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liz gross & tuning out the noise

Dr. Liz Gross returns to the show to talk with Jenna about what’s happening at Campus Sonar, the company she founded to help organizations throughout higher ed harness the power of social listening. We talk about how social listening has changed during the pandemic, how going to conferences outside higher ed helped Liz see what our industry was lacking, how to run a growing organization that’s entirely remote, and much more.

Liz is a recognized expert, data-driven marketer, and higher education researcher. She specializes in creating entrepreneurial social media strategies in higher education and has a passion for teaching, which she brings to colleges and universities as the founder and CEO of Campus Sonai. She’s also an award-winning speaker; you might have seen her at SXSW, SXSW EDU, the American Marketing Association Symposium, the Carnegie Conference, the Council for the Advancement and Support of Education, or one of many other conferences inside and outside of higher ed. 

She received a Ph.D. in Leadership for the Advancement of Learning and Service in Higher Education at Cardinal Stritch University, a master’s degree in educational policy and leadership from Marquette University, and a bachelor’s degree in interpersonal communication from the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point.

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corynn myers & the watermelon bowl

Like a lot of us, Corynn Myers is basically working two jobs right now. She’s serving as the lead on all of the University of Michigan’s COVID-related communications and managing a team that’s part of Michigan’s in-house creative agency. It’s a lot, but she handles it all with poise and made time to talk with us about how thinking like an agency has helped her team thrive and bring big results in enrollment marketing.

We also talk about how Corynn and her family are copying during quarantine and why running is not for everyone, no matter how much we might want it to be right now. Corynn also talk about how working from home has impacted her productivity for better and her diet for worse — something else many of us can relate to right now!

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rj thompson & the politics of tenure

Headshot of RJ Thompson on a grey backgroundThis week on the show, we sat down with RJ Thompson, the associate director of student engagement in the College of Business Administration at the University of Pittsburg. RJ’s career in higher education has been in an interesting one. He’s always had a passion for teaching students, and has worked as a both an adjunct and a tenured professor. We talk about RJ’s long career as a professor and why he decided to move from faculty to staff. We also chat about Star Trek: Picard, but no worries. We don’t talk spoilers. 

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martin sickafoose & alumni relations is more than just football

This week we talked alumni relations with Martin Sickafoose, the vice president of digital marketing at the Purdue Alumni Association. Martin talks about the different ways Purdue reaches out to their many thousands of alumni and the challenges of communicating to such a large audience. You don’t want to miss this episode.

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