Podcast
Higher Ed Pulse
Hosted by Mallory Willsea · EN
Higher Ed Pulse is your weekly no-fluff guide to AI in higher ed. Higher ed leaders are expected to master AI overnight. But let’s be real — no one has time to sift through every headline, hot take, or research report.
That’s why every Monday, we break down what actually matters — fast, clear, and to the point.
Want to sound like the smartest person in the room? You’re in the right place.
Higher Ed Pulse is hosted by Mallory Willsea and is a proud member of the Enrollify Podcast Network.
62episodes
Episodes
Newest firstAll episodes
Pulse Check: Understanding The Modern Student Journey — Pt. 3
4d ago00:34:10Tap to summarizeIn Part 3 of this Pulse Check series, host Faton Sopa sits down with Stephanie Geyer, associate vice president for marketing and brand strategy at the University of Montana, to explore the evolving student journey. The conversation challenges the common practice of organizing university websites around institutional bureaucracy rather than student decision-making, emphasizing that digital strategies must prioritize the user's perspective. Guest Name: Stephanie Geyer, AVP of Marketing and Brand Strategy, the University of Montana Guest Social: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stephanie-geyer-553a862/ Guest Bio: Stephanie Geyer has spent more than thirty years in higher ed marketing. She spent nearly two decades scaling higher education digital services at Ruffalo Noel Levitz, then advised campuses as a consultant and acting chief marketing officer at Modern Campus. She now runs it herself as Associate Vice President for Marketing and Brand Strategy at the University of Montana. She holds an MBA certificate from Tulane University and a Bachelor of Arts in Mass Communication from Bloomsburg University of Pennsylvania. - - - -Connect With Our Host:Mallory Willsea https://www.linkedin.com/in/mallorywillsea/https://twitter.com/mallorywillseaAbout 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 — The AI Workforce Platform for Higher Ed. Learn more at element451.com. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
Transcribe →What Your Chief of Staff Knows That You Don't
1w ago00:33:52Tap to summarizeLindsay Nyquist, Chief of Staff at Occidental College, and Dr. Miriam Merrill, Chief of Staff at Hamilton College, join Mallory to discuss the inaugural Chief of Staff Summit, where 50 higher-ed chiefs of staff met at Colorado College in Colorado Springs for closed-door, case-based peer problem solving. They explain the chief of staff role varies widely by president and institution, often centering on supporting decision-making, execution, and human impacts. Summit topics included cabinet politics, crisis leadership, managing up without formal authority, board relations, burnout, career trajectories, strategic planning, and AI. Register for Next Year’s Chief of Staff Summit: www.chiefofstaffsummit.org - - - -Connect With Our Host:Mallory Willsea https://www.linkedin.com/in/mallorywillsea/https://twitter.com/mallorywillseaAbout 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 — The AI Workforce Platform for Higher Ed. Learn more at element451.com. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
Transcribe →Pulse Check: Understanding The Modern Student Journey — Pt. 2
2w ago00:39:14Tap to summarizeIn Part 2 of this Pulse Check, Understanding the Modern Student Journey, host Faton Sopa is joined by guest Robert Kadar to dismantle the outdated reliance on traditional marketing funnels in higher education and highlight a critical industry misalignment. Guest Name: Robert M. Kadar, Senior Director of Marketing, Yeshiva University Guest Social: https://www.linkedin.com/in/robertkadar Guest Bio: Robert Kadar is a higher education marketing leader with more than fifteen years of experience across marketing strategy, communications, enrollment, fundraising, media relations, and organizational leadership. He combines strategic thinking, data-driven analysis, and hands-on marketing expertise to strengthen institutional brands, drive enrollment growth, and improve return on investment. Throughout his career, Robert has managed complex marketing initiatives, large-scale teams, and significant budgets across higher education institutions and advertising environments, including one of the largest universities in the United States. His work focuses on using research, data, and insights into student behavior to develop more effective and meaningful approaches to higher education marketing. - - - -Connect With Our Host:Mallory Willsea https://www.linkedin.com/in/mallorywillsea/https://twitter.com/mallorywillseaAbout 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 — The AI Workforce Platform for Higher Ed. Learn more at element451.com. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
Transcribe →Higher Ed's Hero Cycle
2w ago00:31:09Tap to summarizeMallory hosts Higher Ed Pulse with guest Jenn Hayes, Associate Dean for Marketing & Communications at Cardozo School of Law in New York, to discuss higher ed’s recurring “hero” cycle: hiring passionate leaders to rebuild broken systems, celebrating visible wins, and then losing them to burnout. Related Links: New CUPA-HR Survey Results Shed Light on Employee Retention in Higher Education CMOs Are Staying in the Job (Slightly) LongerKnowledge loss induced by organizational member turnover: a review of empirical literature, synthesis and future research directionsTribal knowledge - Wikipedia Breaking the Cycle of Hero Culture in OrganizationsHero cultures: what they are and how they are created - - - -Connect With Our Host:Mallory Willsea https://www.linkedin.com/in/mallorywillsea/https://twitter.com/mallorywillseaAbout 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 — The AI Workforce Platform for Higher Ed. Learn more at element451.com. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
Transcribe →Pulse Check: Understanding The Modern Student Journey — Pt. 1
3w ago00:34:38Tap to summarizeIn the debut episode of this new Pulse Check Series, Understanding the Modern Student Journey, host Faton Sopa sits down with higher education marketing strategist Kristin Nichols to unpack the rapidly evolving landscape of college discovery. The conversation highlights a major shift in how prospective students form their initial impressions of institutions. While schools once relied heavily on their websites to control the narrative, students are now discovering colleges through AI tools like ChatGPT, Reddit, and various online communities long before they ever visit an official institutional site. - - - -Connect With Our Host:Mallory Willsea https://www.linkedin.com/in/mallorywillsea/https://twitter.com/mallorywillseaAbout 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 — The AI Workforce Platform for Higher Ed. Learn more at element451.com. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
Transcribe →Who Owns AI Search?
3w ago00:32:50Tap to summarize2026 AI Search Trends: Brand (In)Visibility Brief Mallory is joined by Andrea Gilbert and Mike Bell from Everspring to discuss their latest AI search trends report. The report finds big brand universities can be cited in AI overviews on non-branded searches as low as 1%, while smaller private schools see higher citation rates, driven by useful, specific content (e.g., career center pages) rather than brand campaigns. They discuss how reduced AI visibility affects enrollment and revenue, budget allocation challenges, and why AI rewards context, substantiation, and diverse formats. - - - -Connect With Our Host:Mallory Willsea https://www.linkedin.com/in/mallorywillsea/https://twitter.com/mallorywillseaAbout 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 — The AI Workforce Platform for Higher Ed. Learn more at element451.com. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
Transcribe →Pulse Check: Funnel Vision: One Campus, Two Markets — Part 4
4w ago00:54:18Tap to summarizeIn this 4th and final episode of Funnel Vision, Rishab Malhotra sits down with Valpo’s LeAnn Hughes and Rosa Alvarado to discuss how their team turned around a decade of enrollment decline through strategic leadership, trust, and a focus on core value. - - - -Connect With Our Host:Mallory Willsea https://www.linkedin.com/in/mallorywillsea/https://twitter.com/mallorywillseaAbout 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 — The AI Workforce Platform for Higher Ed. Learn more at element451.com. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
Transcribe →The Dashboard is the Last Place Your Enrollment Problem Shows Up
4w ago00:30:06Tap to summarizeMallory is joined by Megan Cabrera, Director of Strategic Enrollment Management at Okanagan College, about an enrollment trap she calls “residual momentum,” where funnels look stable after marketing spend is cut, then collapse years later. Megan recounts pulling investment from a long-time feeder market during a budget crunch; applications initially held steady, but after partner institutions became degree-granting competitors, yield dropped from 25–50 students to 3–5. They discuss why dashboards lag reality and what earlier signals to watch, including engagement velocity, market penetration, conversion quality, competitor visibility, and relationship health with high schools. Megan argues for integrated, cross-department KPIs to fix handoffs, shares a digital check-in system built with IT to improve service and capture friction-point data, and cautions that AI and CRMs worsen problems without connected systems, data governance, shared definitions, and clear ownership. Related Links: Structuring Transfer Enrollment for Student SuccessHigher Education Marketing Alignment: Why Breaking Down Silos Is No Longer OptionalHigher Ed Marketing’s Next Role: Student Experience - - - -Connect With Our Host:Mallory Willsea https://www.linkedin.com/in/mallorywillsea/https://twitter.com/mallorywillseaAbout 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 — The AI Workforce Platform for Higher Ed. Learn more at element451.com. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
Transcribe →Pulse Check: Funnel Vision: One Campus, Two Markets — Part 3
Jul 900:48:43Tap to summarizeIn Part 3 of Funnel Vision, host Rishab Malhotra welcomes Anna Esaki Smith, author and co-founder of Education Rethink, to examine the critical state of higher education. Moving past the usual focus on demographic cliffs, they discuss the systemic health of colleges, framing the industry's condition as a need for urgent care rather than a simple checkup. Anna and Rishab explore the root causes of current challenges, including self-inflicted issues like rising tuition costs, administrative bloat, and the complex data game of merit aid discounting. Anna introduces her book, Make College Your Superpower: It's Not Where You Go, It's What You Know, advocating for a shift in student focus from brand prestige to skill acquisition. This transition is essential as the global economy shifts toward knowledge-based employment and AI integration. The conversation expands to the global demographic crisis, comparing the U.S. to Japan’s struggles with an aging population, and analyzes how institutions must adapt to survive. They forecast a future defined by consolidation, mergers, and a stronger alignment with workforce needs. Despite the bearish climate, both remain optimistic, arguing that these challenges provide a unique opportunity for institutions to become more resilient, innovative, and deeply responsive to the evolving needs of students. - - - -Connect With Our Host:Mallory Willsea https://www.linkedin.com/in/mallorywillsea/https://twitter.com/mallorywillseaAbout 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 — The AI Workforce Platform for Higher Ed. Learn more at element451.com. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
Transcribe →Higher Ed's Fundraising Model Is Broken
Jul 600:40:21Tap to summarizeHoward Heevner, co-founder of the National Alumni Survey, argues the core problem with institutional giving isn’t debt, apathy, or generations rejecting philanthropy—82% of alumni gave or volunteered last year—but a “30-point cliff” between 87% who love their education and only 17% satisfied with the post-graduation relationship. Alumni who feel their priorities are extremely well known give about $500,000 lifetime versus under $4,000 when they don’t, highlighting the cost of not listening. Heevner critiques transactional, forced-choice fundraising and warns technology and AI can make outreach more efficient but not more trustworthy. 2026 National Alumni Survey Results - - - -Connect With Our Host:Mallory Willsea https://www.linkedin.com/in/mallorywillsea/https://twitter.com/mallorywillseaAbout 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 — The AI Workforce Platform for Higher Ed. Learn more at element451.com. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
Transcribe →