beth wolfe & not the other charleston

Mar 12, 2020 | Admissions, Enrollment Management, Financial Aid

A photo of Beth Wolfe standing in front of a brick wallThis week, Lougan sat down with Beth Wolfe, the executive vice president for enrollment management at the University of Charleston in West Virginia. Beth’s 22-year career in education has ranged from teaching secondary English and chemistry to serving in a variety of higher education administrative roles. Lougan and Beth chat about how she got into higher education, her new role at University of Charleston and the magic of admissions visit days.

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Episode 126

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nikki massaro kauffman & failure is part of growth

Mar 5, 2020 | Web

This week on the show, Lougan chats with front-end web developer Nikki Massaro Kauffman. She develops open source web components to make Penn State University’s online courses accessible, media rich, and interactive. Nikki has always been passionate about teaching, and she translates that love into mentoring. Lougan and Nikki talk about the importance of mentorship, making mistakes and failure.

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Episode 183

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rj thompson & the politics of tenure

Jan 30, 2020 | Design, Faculty, Marketing, Social Media, Web

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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Episode 182

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jenna spinelle & the frozen fountain

Jan 23, 2020 | Communications, Podcasting, Public Relations, Social Media, Web

Jenna Spinelle is the communications specialist for the McCourtney Institute for Democracy at Penn State. She describes herself as a team of one, where she handles digital content and media outreach. She is also host of the Institute’s Democracy Works podcast which is produced in partnership with WPSU Penn State, Pennsylvania’s NPR station. Lougan and Jenna have a great chat about working her work hosting Democracy Works, podcasting and listening to audio books. Also, apologies for Lougan’s audio quality. We’ve had some issues with his microphone and are working to fix it. 

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Episode 181

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russell lowery-hart & empowering students to succeed

Jan 16, 2020 | Academics, Administration, Community Colleges, Financial Aid, Online Education, Student Affairs, Student Success, University President

This week we discuss the barriers faced by low-income students with Dr. Russell Lowery-Hart, president of the Amarillo College. In his time as president, he’s overseen significant increases in student retention and graduation rates while also working to make his institution an economic driver for the community and region. On the show, Dr. Lowery-Hart shares how Amarillo College made such radical change happen and the many opportunities for higher education to break tradition and adapt to a changing world.

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Episode 180

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