Conference Hosts
Chris Coons
Chris brings more than 30 years of enrollment management experience to clients and has a proven track record of helping institutions increase new student and total enrollment. He has worked for five different small colleges and was chief enrollment officer for two of them.
After leaving the campus side, he joined Underscore, a dedicated Slate development and optimization company, as business development and enrollment consultant. After Underscore merged with Carnegie, Chris worked with several small colleges in helping them exceed new student enrollment goals.
Chris is an experienced facilitator for admissions trainings and workshops and brings to the team his unrivaled knowledge of enrollment best practices and enrollment strategy.
For the last 30 years, Scott has been an authority on market trends in the industry, with an unrivaled ability to anticipate the marketing needs of small colleges and universities across the country.
Scott was the founder of Underscore, a dedicated Slate development and optimization company, which became part of Carnegie in 2021. As Chief Development Officer at Carnegie, Scott started the Carnegie "Small College Initiative." You can listen to his podcast, "Small College Movement" and follow him on social channels.
Scott has worked with more than 300 small colleges and universities in his career in helping them achieve their marketing and enrollment goals.
Small College Movement Podcast
Small College Movement - YouTube
Keynote Speaker
Dr. Gary Daynes
Presidential Spotlight Presentations
Dr. James Moore
Dr. Grace Alexis
Higher education is navigating one of the most complex and consequential periods in its history. Declining enrollments, financialpressure, regulatory scrutiny, shifting student expectations, and a directchallenge to the value of the college degree are forcing leaders at every levelto make decisions under conditions of uncertainty.
This session examines what it truly means to lead when stability is no longer guaranteed.
Drawing from real-world institutional leadership and the frameworks introduced in her forthcoming book, Dr. Grace Alexis, who has led aninstitution through the brink of closure, explores how leaders can stop absorbing the crisis and start leading through it. Participants will explorewhat it takes to see institutional reality clearly, hold together undersustained pressure, think strategically when conditions are worst, move forwardwith intention and accountability, and grow through what the crisis produces inthem as leaders.
When the institution is in crisis, theory is a luxury. This session is not.
Dr. Peter Naccarato
What I plan to do in this presentation is to share lessons learned from my experience guiding MMC through this long transition from a “small college” to a “small campus” of a global university. Specific topics I expect to cover include: 1) anticipating the range of reactions to such an announcement across various constituencies (students and families; faculty and staff; alumni and donors, etc.); 2) negotiating the completing needs and priorities of those constituencies; 3) balancing a sense of obligation to one’s home institution with a responsibility for guiding it to a successful merger; 4) maintaining strong working relationships with colleagues across campus while forging new relationships with counterparts at the acquiring institution; 5) understanding and adapting to a shifting landscape over a long period of time; 6) projecting stability, continuity, and optimism throughout what will inevitably be a challenging transition.
My goal is to provide practical recommendations for leading one’s institution through transformational change – something that so many small colleges are facing in the ever-shifting landscape of higher education.
Dr. Susan Thomas
Dr. Anne Kenworthy
Conference Presenters
Amanda James
Post-pandemic, Winthrop University reimagined its playbook and soared! This session breaks down the strategic, three-year ascent that led to a jaw-dropping 45% increase in enrollment. We’ll cover the nitty-gritty of re-thinking academic collaborations, igniting program innovation to meet shifting student demands, and the power of a consistent story. Plus, learn how a partnership with College Bound Selection Services unlocked unique high school and transfer data, supercharging recruitment and boosting awareness. Don't just recover—rebuild stronger!
Anthony Jones
Austin Blair
For small colleges, every initiative—whether it’s enrollment growth, branding, or operational change—rises or falls on buy-in. The best ideas stall without a shared culture that embraces innovation and accountability. This session unpacks a real-world playbook for how to lead change in small, relationship-driven environments where every person matters and every voice carries weight. Drawing from the journey of merging two distinct colleges into one unified identity under OSF HealthCare, this session explores how to create alignment across departments, inspire trust, and sustain progress when resources are limited but relationships are everything. Participants will explore how to turn resistance into engagement and ideas into shared ownership through intentional communication, transparency, and culture-building.
Bettsy McKlaine
In an increasingly competitive higher education environment, graduate programs are under growing pressure to recruit, enroll, and retain students amid intensified competition and evolving student expectations. This session introduces the APP to CAP philosophy—from application through graduation—as a strategic, institution-wide framework that intentionally aligns Graduate Admissions, Undergraduate Admissions, Faculty, and key campus partners to support the full graduate student lifecycle. The session highlights how graduate admissions offices can leverage undergraduate admissions infrastructure, shared recruitment and communication strategies, and cross-functional collaboration to strengthen graduate pipelines and improve enrollment outcomes. Through real-world examples and scalable practices, participants will explore how coordinated efforts across admissions units and campus stakeholders can enhance recruitment, increase yield, and support long-term retention by centering the graduate student experience from APP to CAP.
Blaine Mannering
Let's work smarter, not harder when it comes to utilizing our resources for effective territory management. By pairing old-school recruiting strategies with current CRM capabilities, we are creating a dynamic duo. Join me as I offer a show-and-tell to the resources I've utilized both inside and outside of Slate in my recruitment efforts. Great information for counselors who are learning to manage a territory, or individuals that are supervising territory managers.
Brad Frazier
Together with my colleague, Dr. David Williams, we'll be speaking about our experience implementing a course-sharing partnership that enabled us to offer BS Computer Science and BA Cybersecurity degrees that would have been otherwise impossible for our small institution.
Bruce Cairnduff
Carin Smith
What can happen when an Admissions Office dedicates an individual solely to working with prospective student athletes and the coaches recruiting them? • Better-informed messaging to prospective students & their families. • Quicker, more efficient application processing. • Increased athlete application and deposit volume, leading to increased enrollment numbers overall. • Increase in New Tuition Revenue. • More individuals across the college working toward overall, shared goals. • Larger team rosters and increased success. This session will address all of the above as it’s being executed at Illinois Wesleyan University
Chris Besse
Chris Markle
Admissions and Advancement are two key revenue generators at most small colleges. Professionals in both areas must be relationship builders, curious and good listeners. Hear from a college administrator who has served as a Director of Admissions and a Senior Advancement Officer at Susquehanna University in Selinsgrove, PA.
David Mee
Change management is one of the most consequential skills a higher education leader can develop. Drawing on their decades of enrollment experience, Dr. David Mee will share how to move beyond top-down, “always right” management to self-aware, human-centered leadership. He will use real scenarios to frame practical strategies for embracing empathy when leading institutional change, including why “never laminating the plan” enables teams to adapt to the pace of change in real time.
David Williams
Together with my colleague, Dr. Brad Frazier, we'll be speaking about our experience implementing a course-sharing partnership that enabled us to offer BS Computer Science and BA Cybersecurity degrees that would have been otherwise impossible for our small institution.
Eddie Wright
In an era of increased scrutiny regarding the "ROI" of higher education, small colleges must bridge the gap between the classroom and the workforce to remain competitive. This session explores how a robust Corporate Partnership strategy serves as a powerful tool for recruitment, retention, and career outcomes.
We will discuss actionable strategies for integrating employer relations into the enrollment funnel, showcasing career outcomes to prospective families, and fostering industry alliances that support student persistence. Attendees will learn how to leverage their institution’s size to create personalized, high-impact career pipelines that drive institutional growth and student success.
Elizabeth Bleicher
This presentation is an overview of research into and strategies for combatting an unprecedented level of academic disengagement among COVID-era youth that spans from high school through college. The two strongest levers for influencing retention are purpose and belonging. The current crisis speaks to the need not only to guide students in developing individual purpose, but also faculty in communicating their own purpose and the relevance of their courses in students' intellectual, personal and professional development.
Fran Reed
In an increasingly competitive higher education environment, graduate programs are under growing pressure to recruit, enroll, and retain students amid intensified competition and evolving student expectations. This session introduces the APP to CAP philosophy—from application through graduation—as a strategic, institution-wide framework that intentionally aligns Graduate Admissions, Undergraduate Admissions, Faculty, and key campus partners to support the full graduate student lifecycle. The session highlights how graduate admissions offices can leverage undergraduate admissions infrastructure, shared recruitment and communication strategies, and cross-functional collaboration to strengthen graduate pipelines and improve enrollment outcomes. Through real-world examples and scalable practices, participants will explore how coordinated efforts across admissions units and campus stakeholders can enhance recruitment, increase yield, and support long-term retention by centering the graduate student experience from APP to CAP.
Jack DeRochi
In July 2025, Shepherd University made a strategic decision to build online program capacity internally rather than partnering with an Online Program Manager. One year later, Provost Jack DeRochi will share the unvarnished story of what it takes to transform online operations from the ground up. Attendees will hear candid insights on both successes and setbacks from the first year, including: • How Shepherd structured the work and allocated responsibilities across existing staff • Which quick wins built momentum and which initiatives took longer than anticipated • The unexpected challenges that emerged once implementation began • The true cost of building versus buying, beyond just dollars Rather than presenting a polished case study, this session offers practical lessons for institutions considering similar paths. We'll discuss the organizational readiness required, the capacity questions leadership must answer honestly, and the implementation approach that allowed progress without perfect conditions. This presentation is designed for presidents, provosts, and academic leaders exploring alternatives to traditional OPM partnerships or working to strengthen existing internal operations. Whether you're just beginning to consider building in-house capacity or already in the midst of your own transformation, you'll leave with actionable insights drawn from real implementation experience, not just strategic recommendations.
Jared Smith
Mapping out enrollment processing to be able to effectively market, recruit, admit, and onboard the most students regardless of the size of the team. Identifying ways to think outside of the box when the team is stretched thin and goals need to be met.
Jerry Wallace
Attendees will experience the "Ace the Mighty" book tour program featuring the main character from the book of Ace the Prez Pup. The children's book authored by Dr. Wallace to increase literacy and build student perseverance, exploded into a full book tour in the region as well as Ace becoming a local star. The audience will learn about multiple community connection activities including a full length and mini documentary, employee engagement initiatives and partnering with local businesses to improve student experience. At the conclusion of the presentation, attendees will be motivated to evaluate their current community initiatives and explore new strategies to increase brand awareness.
Jess Snover
Joe Morris
Small colleges are confronting a convergence of existential pressures: the 2026 enrollment cliff, rising student acquisition costs, and a global erosion of institutional trust. At the same time, most institutions continue to rely on low-yield paid media strategies while leaving their most credible asset, faculty expertise, largely untapped as a driver of visibility, authority, and demand. This session presents a high-leverage, earned-media strategy that transforms faculty expertise into an institutional Enrollment Magnet. Rather than treating faculty as passive brand representatives, the model positions them as active public content experts whose media presence functions as a 24/7 trust signal to prospective students, parents, donors, and grantmakers. In an era of ad-blind digital natives, a professor providing expert commentary on regional or national media operates as a powerful third-party validator, one that paid advertising cannot replicate or afford. Drawing on a proven, systematized approach developed at Mercyhurst University, the presenters demonstrate how “hidden star” faculty can be identified and prepared for public-facing roles, and how others, across applied, international, and practice-based disciplines, can be coached into media-ready experts. This includes the use of readiness diagnostics, message discipline, and translation training that converts complex scholarship into high-velocity public commentary without compromising academic integrity or institutional reputation. The session makes the business case explicit. Using Advertising Value Equivalency (AVE) and earned-media analytics, the presenters show how a single three-minute national media segment can generate well over $150,000 in equivalent marketing value, while simultaneously driving organic search dominance through high-authority backlinks, increasing yield for prestige programs, and accelerating donor and grant engagement through a campus-wide Halo Effect. Critically, this approach acknowledges the operational reality of small colleges: few have the internal bandwidth to design, train, and manage faculty media pipelines on their own. Participants will learn how this work can be externalized, structured, and governed through formal faculty-media agreements that clarify expectations, protect brand alignment, and ensure that media engagement serves institutional, not individual, outcomes. Designed for presidents, provosts, enrollment and marketing leaders, advancement professionals, and communications teams, this session offers a disciplined, ROI-driven blueprint for converting intellectual capital into enrollment momentum and institutional authority. In a shrinking market, visibility is validity—and small colleges that train faculty to own the news cycle don’t just market programs, they define the conversation.
Kelli Rainey
As higher education institutions face mounting financial pressures and evolving student needs, the alignment between strategic finance and student success has never been more critical. This session explores how institutions can move beyond siloed decision-making to intentionally integrate financial strategy with student outcomes. Drawing on insights from NACUBO’s student success work, participants will examine practical frameworks, data-informed approaches, and cross-campus partnerships that link resource allocation to student success priorities. Attendees will leave with actionable strategies to better align budgeting, planning, and investments with institutional mission and student achievement.
Learning Objectives:By the end of this session, participants will be able to:
- Articulate the connection between financial decision-making and student success outcomes.
- Identify data-informed strategies to align resource allocation with retention, completion, and equity goals.
- Apply approaches to foster cross-campus collaboration and integrate student success priorities into budgeting and planning processes.
Lauren Sciocchetti
Big ideas often stall when they meet the complexities of campus culture and competing priorities. This session provides a candid look at how Ursinus College leveraged rigorous institutional research and external market data to move APEX @ Ursinus from an aspirational concept to a fully operational, data-driven strategy. We will explore the practical challenges of implementation, from navigating internal skepticism and breaking down long-standing silos to aligning diverse campus partners under a unified vision. Participants will gain an inside look at our methodology and the infrastructure required to scale an initiative that reimagines the liberal arts by explicitly linking specific educational experiences to career outcomes. By examining both our early wins and the friction points we encountered, we offer a realistic framework for using research to drive institutional change and building a sustainable roadmap for the student lifecycle.
Maisha Williams
Small colleges face unprecedented financial pressures—enrollment volatility, tuition discount dependencies, shrinking liquidity, and rising costs. Yet many non-finance leaders lack the financial literacy to partner effectively with their CFO. This session equips enrollment, student affairs, academic affairs, and advancement leaders with the fluency needed to become strategic partners in institutional sustainability. Part 1: Financial Literacy for Small College Leaders (15 minutes) Drawing from the Small College Imperative and College Stress Test frameworks, this segment covers: ● Understanding the small college financial model: Why small institutions are uniquely vulnerable to enrollment shifts and how fixed costs limit flexibility ● Key metrics your CFO balances: Net tuition revenue per student, discount rate trajectory, days cash on hand, operating margin, debt service ratios, and liquidity runway—understanding what your CFO navigates when making decisions and how your portfolio impacts these drivers ● Financial red flags: What 3-year enrollment declines, rising discount rates, structural deficits, and shrinking cash reserves signal about institutional health ● Pathways forward: Understanding strategic options—right-sizing, program optimization, merger/partnership, mission evolution—and financial implications of each Leaders will leave understanding critical metrics their CFO balances, vocabulary to ask better questions, and ability to recognize early warning signs demanding collaborative action. Part 2: Panel Discussion - Finance as Strategic Partner (25 minutes) Three consultants with combined experience across dozens of small colleges—representing finance, enrollment, and student success—explore how cross-functional partnership drives outcomes: ● Enrollment Strategy & Financial Partnership: How leaders collaborate on discount strategy, class composition modeling, and net tuition optimization—moving beyond budget requests to shared ownership of revenue targets. ● Student Success Investment & ROI: Building business cases for retention interventions in tight budgets, demonstrating financial partnership beyond resource requests, and navigating recruitment versus retention investment decisions. ● Strategic Decision-Making Under Constraints: How leaders bring solutions rather than requests to budget conversations, what shared ownership of financial health looks like, and making mission-centered decisions under financial pressure. Panelists will share real examples highlighting successful partnerships and common pitfalls. Part 3: Audience Q&A (10 minutes) Open discussion for attendees to raise questions about financial partnership. Audience Takeaways: ● Fluency in the financial metrics that matter most for small colleges ● Understanding of how their decisions impact the financial drivers their CFO balances ● Framework for engaging CFOs as strategic partners, not gatekeepers ● Real examples of cross-functional collaboration that drives enrollment and student success while maintaining financial sustainability.
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Matthew Angerson
Mapping out enrollment processing to be able to effectively market, recruit, admit, and onboard the most students regardless of the size of the team. Identifying ways to think outside of the box when the team is stretched thin and goals need to be met.
Megan Rolf
Post-pandemic, Winthrop University reimagined its playbook and soared! This session breaks down the strategic, three-year ascent that led to a jaw-dropping 45% increase in enrollment. We’ll cover the nitty-gritty of re-thinking academic collaborations, igniting program innovation to meet shifting student demands, and the power of a consistent story. Plus, learn how a partnership with College Bound Selection Services unlocked unique high school and transfer data, supercharging recruitment and boosting awareness. Don't just recover—rebuild stronger!
Susan Johnson
Small colleges and universities rely disproportionately on a limited number of high-impact faculty and academic leaders whose influence extends well beyond the classroom. These individuals drive program development, external funding, student success, and institutional stability, yet many institutions lack intentional frameworks for developing and sustaining this talent over time. Reciprocal, intentional stewardship—rooted in servant leadership, succession planning, and human capital theory—offers a scalable, values-aligned approach for addressing this gap. This session positions talent stewardship as the deliberate integration of mentoring and coaching with accountability and advocacy, enacted through a long-term commitment to individual growth and institutional continuity. Drawing on servant leadership principles, stewardship reframes leadership responsibility as care for people and purpose, emphasizing the leader’s obligation to cultivate others’ capacity, agency, and professional judgment. From a succession-planning perspective, stewardship aligns individual career trajectories with institutional needs, ensuring leadership depth, continuity, and resilience in resource-constrained environments. From a human capital lens, sustained stewardship maximizes return on institutional investment by supporting talent development that endures beyond specific roles, contracts, or organizational boundaries. Presented through two complementary perspectives—the Steward Leader and the Stewarded Professional—the session examines how intentional stewardship operates across career stages and institutional contexts. A longitudinal academic case example illustrates how mentoring and coaching, when embedded within a stewardship framework that includes accountability and advocacy, can persist through periods of leadership transition, fiscal constraint, and organizational recalibration. Rather than anchoring development to a single position or moment, stewardship prioritizes loyalty to the individual’s long-term career trajectory, supporting growth within an institution when pathways exist and facilitating informed repositioning when conditions evolve. Participants will gain practical guidance for operationalizing stewardship as a leadership practice, including how to identify faculty and staff whose development yields disproportionate institutional impact, how to teach leaders to enact stewardship intentionally, and how to embed stewardship within succession planning efforts. Designed for presidents, provosts, deans, and senior campus leaders, this session offers a realistic, evidence-informed framework for building leadership capacity that serves both individuals and institutions over time.
Tom Kook
I recently participated in a podcast on The Higher Ed Marketer to talk about marketing a small faith-based university. While there certainly are budget constraints, schools can make a big impact in the market if they are super clear on their mission and are willing to lean into it. I would tell the story of how we abandoned the cookie cutter approach to enrollment (suggested by an outside consultant before I was hired) to adopt a high-touch, relational approach to recruiting that has led to three straight years of total enrollment growth and our best new student enrollment in over a decade.
Virginia Lunde
In small colleges, enrollment teams push for speed and competitive advantage while registrars safeguard academic integrity and institutional policies—creating natural tension that can slow student service and hurt enrollment. This session brings together both perspectives to explore how technology can bridge this divide.
Jay Fedje from DegreeSight and Virginia Lunde, Registrar from Gordon College (a new DegreeSight partner) will present a dual-perspective case study on transforming the transfer student experience. Attendees will gain insight into how automated transcript evaluation and degree planning technology can simultaneously accelerate enrollment processes and support rigorous operational standards.
Through real examples and implementation insights from Gordon College, participants will learn how small institutions can compete for transfer students by delivering transparency and speed without sacrificing accuracy or control. The session addresses the critical challenge facing small college leadership: how to grow enrollment while maintaining the quality and precision that defines institutional excellence.
Ideal for enrollment leaders, registrars, academic affairs administrators, and institutional leaders seeking to align competing priorities and improve transfer student recruitment and retention.