The start of the academic year is upon us! We hope you’re enjoying welcoming students both new and old to your campus. Because of all the craziness (and a random trip to Oregon), we’re rebroadcasting our episode with Lisa Catto. It’s a great episode, so check it out.

We hit the big 5-0 with Lisa Catto, Director of Social Media and Media Relations at Western Oregon University. Because she’s in Oregon and Lougan loves it, we talk about Portland…a lot. That includes public transit, ramen noodles, and the fact that it really is awesome despite what Portlandians say about it. With the new year starting, all of us are thinking about upcoming conferences, and we discuss why they’re awesome, how to be a newbie, and other great benefits. We close the show talking about social media groups, from faculty to students!

This week, we welcome back the amazing Chris D’Orso. Since he was on the show back in 2015, Chris has move to SUNY College at Brockport where he is now the associate director of undergraduate admissions. The move for him was a positive change, as it’s allowed him to reconnect with his passion of working in undergraduate admission. You’ll also find out about something really big that’s been happening in Lougan’s life and why the podcast has been a little inconsistent lately. A HUGE thanks to Chris and Jon for being so supportive.

This week, Lougan chats with Dr. Toby Stapleton, the dean of graduate and continuing education programs at Salve Regina University in Rhode Island. We chat about the rise of hybrid professional graduate programs and the many innovative programs at Salve Regina. At his previous institution, Toby lead a technology incubator which has become a global leader in marine (blue) technology. We also discuss his work there and the future of this growing field. 

Ravi Jain from Boston College joins us on the show this week! Ravi serves as the Senior Associate Director of Digital Media & Web at Boston College. We talk with Ravi about being selected as an inaugural INBOUND2019 Fellow and his upcoming talk at INBOUND 2019. Ravi tells us more about why he’s become a short form video evangelist and how he uses micro-storytelling to tell the story of the different “cities” at BC. We also discuss why vinyl sounds better and the fun and agony of designing email templates.

This week, Dave Eng returns to the show! Since his first episode, Dave has finished his doctorate and serves as a clinical professor & educational technologist at New York University’s School of Professional Studies and a professor of practice of table top game design at Troy University. We chatted with Dave about his research into table top gaming, the future of voice technology and Lougan’s tendency to not throw away things. We also discuss escape rooms and the fundamental differences between puzzles and games.