Inspired School Marketers Sparkcast

Mike Connor is President of Connor Associates Strategic Services and co-author of the NAIS book, Marketing Independent Schools in the 21st Century.  His latest e-Book, Pulling in the Same Direction, emphasizes everyone’s role in recruitment, retention, and fundraising. Earlier in his 30+ year career, Mike worked in nearly every position at independent K-12 schools. Connor Associates stakes its value on its experience with providing comprehensive services, including ensuring proof of ROI through Image Audits, Enrollment Feasibility Studies, Five-year enrollment Forecasts, Business Office Evaluations and Plans, and Strategic Marketing Plans. Connor Associates’ newest offering, administrative search, uses a unique approach to finding, training, and keeping the best people on your leadership team. After serving not-for-profit organizations for over 40 years Thom Greenlaw founded Creative Independents (CI) in 2012. CI serves not-for-profit schools, colleges, and other education-focused institutions finding creativ

Angela Brown is the Enrollment Marketing Leader, K-12 at Niche, where she's on a mission to help make K-12 admission and marcom professionals' lives easier. Before joining Niche, she was director of marketing and communications at Flint Hill School, a PK-12, co-ed day school just outside of Washington, DC. Angela joined Flint Hill in 2014 after spending 10 years focusing on B2B marketing communications. She is a member of the American Marketing Association, National Association of Independent Schools, and Association of Independent Schools of Greater Washington. In December 2020 she served as a judge for the InspirED Brilliance Awards, which honors marketing and communications work from PK-12 private schools around the world.  For show notes, visit https://www.inspiredsm.com/podcast

Kevin MacNeil of Metric Marketing applies his passion for sales, deep understanding of online marketing and audience conversion to help schools deepen their customer relationships and ultimately, improve their bottom line. Kevin has over 10 years of experience in advertising and digital marketing. As a graduate of the Asper School of Business, with majors in Entrepreneurship and Marketing, Kevin fundamentally understands the marketing processes that help drive and run any business.  For show notes, visit https://www.inspiredsm.com/podcast

In 2014 James Milford became the fourth Head of School at Maclay School, a co-ed school of about 1,000 students in Tallahassee, Florida. Prior to becoming the Head at Maclay James had a long tenure at Darlington School, a day and boarding school in Rome, Georgia where he served as Head of House, as an admission officer, he led the residential program, was the Director of Student Life in the Upper School, a teacher in the Upper School, and served as Associate Headmaster overseeing admissions, financial aid and communications. 

Mike Vachow is a Managing Director at Gowan Group, a full-service consultancy to independent schools based in Connecticut. Before becoming a consultant, Mike worked in independent day schools for 30 years. He began his career as an English teacher and coach at Isidore Newman School in New Orleans before moving on to administrative roles there. He continued in school leadership as a division director at Lake Forest Country Day School, for ten years as Head of Forsyth School in St. Louis, and as Interim Head at Peoria Academy. Mike also maintains his own consulting brand, Knuckleball Consulting, and he publishes a monthly newsletter called Ahead in the Count. Mike's consulting work has focused on enrollment strategy, strategic planning, governance, and leadership searches.

Dr. David Willows is Director of Advancement at the International School of Brussels, Belgium. David is also a regular blogger, presenter & trainer at international events and author of several books and articles in the field of international school branding, admissions, marketing and communications. Today, he is considered a leading practitioner in the field of advancement and continues to be involved in several global network organizations, helping to shape and define the future of the learning business.  Learn how his team is taking a new approach to the advancement model.

James Knapp’s experience ranges from higher education to local and national non-profits to his current role as the Chief Strategy Officer at The Cushman School in Miami, Florida. During his career and in his current role, James has led on many major projects, such as major gift fundraising, strategy, and implementation for everything ranging from endowments, scholarships, planned gifts, and top-level branding, as well as major multimillion-dollar infrastructure projects on multiple campuses. James has received many accolades over the years including being named a top leader in the country as a National Leadership Excellence Award Winner, as well as being named to the 40 under 40 list by the Florida Business Journal. James is a not only an intentional leader but also a focused and authentic relationship builder.

Antony Campitelli has spent 38 years marketing in the high-tech industry with the last 27 years in Silicon Valley. Prior experience includes Apple and Adobe, to startups. Antony’s mission is about building scalable products that are not just about solving problems but are fun to use. This is one of the key reasons he co-founded Enquiry Tracker with his brother Greg. Greg Campitelli is one of the most experienced marketing professionals in the educational system in Australia. He was a long-serving teacher, a Director of Development, and Board member at one of Melbourne Australia’s oldest colleges. He has worked with dozens of schools on marketing and enrolment plans, alumni engagement, and major capital fundraising appeals.  Now Antony and Greg run Enquiry Tracker, a cloud-based application that helps you manage enrollment inquiries, track demand, engage families, and make more informed decisions.

Emily Cretella is a strategic storyteller and content marketer. The owner of Cursive Content, Emily helps school marketers tell powerful stories that attract dream families, increase inquiries and enrollment, strengthen communities, and grow school influence. Prior to founding Cursive in 2012, Emily was the director of strategy at a Connecticut marketing agency, where she managed the execution of large-scale traditional and online marketing campaigns for clients ranging from schools and nonprofits to Fortune 500s. She now works solely with independent and private schools, colleges, and universities. 

Rick Newberry is the President of Enrollment Catalyst. Rick partners with school administrators to provide coaching and consulting in enrollment management and marketing systems, strategies, and solutions needed to reach their goals. The goal is to provide school leaders with effective marketing and enrollment strategies as well as staff accountability, direction, and results needed to grow their enrollment. Rick talks about the importance and value of word of mouth for private school marketing, enrollment, and retention.

Dr. Olaf "Ole" Jorgenson joined Almaden Country Day School in San Jose, CA as head of school in 2008. Before ACDS, he worked as a school leader and teacher in public, private, and international schools since 1987.  Beyond his role as a head, Ole volunteers as a trustee at Gateway School in Santa Cruz and serves as a Field Instructor for the Klingenstein Center at Teachers College, Columbia University, where he also sits on the Center's Advisory Board. His publications and presentations center on instructional leadership, science education, and parenting. Ole lives in San Jose with his family.

Founded in 2010, Tara’s agency, Design TLC, specializes in WordPress websites and digital marketing for small schools, enrichment programs, camps, and education-focused nonprofits. Tara combines her marketing and technical experience with the perspective of a parent whose children attended both public and private schools, and participated in various camps and enrichment programs. In this podcast, Tara talks about SEO basics and what every private school should be doing to increase their Google ranking. 

Mishel Gantz is the Director of Enrollment at Synapse School in Menlo Park, California, a small independent school that fully integrates an emotional intelligence program and a robust constructivist curriculum. Prior to that Mishel was the Chief Experience Officer at Watershed School, a grade 6-12 forward-thinking, intentionally small, independent school in Boulder, Colorado. There she was responsible for driving Watershed’s enrollment and bringing their student body to full capacity. She developed this through a deliberate, relational strategy with a plan to differentiate the school’s unique style and mission.

Tom Olverson serves as a consultant for RG175, a firm doing executive searches as well as highly personalized leadership and governance consulting to schools, based on the values of integrity, inclusivity, knowledge, and flexibility. Tom and all of the members of the RG175 team are personally and professionally experienced in recognizing, promoting, and sustaining leadership at both the executive and governance levels in schools.

Simon Noakes is the founder and CEO of Interactive Schools, a UK-based global organization focused on school marketing and communications in the US, Europe, Middle East, Africa and Australia. Simon’s global experience & passion for strategic marketing, thought leadership, future-thinking, new technology & human-centered engagement is transforming schools around the world. The firm specializes in bespoke creative experiences including responsive school websites, parent communications, social media training and influence, and digital marketing strategies. Interactive Schools won a 2018 Brilliance Award for Charlotte Preparatory School's (US) website. Learn more about Simon and Interactive Schools at www.interactiveschools.com and on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.  

Private school marketers hear the warning signs loud and clear. If private schools want to thrive, not merely survive, they need to innovate and become something so great that parents can’t ignore them. They need to be so outstanding, parents will be standing in line with their children to get in. Enter The Mastery School of Hawken as one road to innovation that has great promise. Scott Looney joined Hawken School as its 10th head of school in July 2006. Since that time he’s worked to advance the school with a variety of forward-focused initiatives that have earned national recognition. His belief in student-centered and authentic learning has fueled each effort including the founding of the Mastery Transcript Consortium in 2017 and the new Mastery School of Hawken, which will welcome its students in August 2020.  Terry Dubow has served as Hawken’s Director of Special Projects since 2015, a role that has allowed him to develop strategic messaging and positioning for the launch of the Mastery Transcript Consor

Private school marketers hear the warning signs loud and clear. If private schools want to thrive, not merely survive, they need to innovate and become something so great that parents can’t ignore them. They need to be so outstanding, parents will be standing in line with their children to get in. Enter The Mastery School of Hawken as one road to innovation that has great promise. Scott Looney joined Hawken School as its 10th head of school in July 2006. Since that time he’s worked to advance the school with a variety of forward-focused initiatives that have earned national recognition. His belief in student-centered and authentic learning has fueled each effort including the founding of the Mastery Transcript Consortium in 2017 and the new Mastery School of Hawken, which will welcome its students in August 2020.  Terry Dubow has served as Hawken’s Director of Special Projects since 2015, a role that has allowed him to develop strategic messaging and positioning for the launch of the Mastery Transcript Consor

Trevor Waddington is an educational entrepreneur with 17 years of experience working in independent schools as a teacher and admissions administrator including St. John’s Episcopal School, Christ Episcopal School, and Green Acres School, all in Maryland as well as Hill Top Preparatory School in Pennsylvania. He is s past president of the MAESA (Mid-Atlantic Episcopal Schools Association) Board of Directors. On the business side, Trevor is the founder of DCschoolHUB and NYmetroSchools, and is the Founder and Principal at Truth Tree Consulting, a full-service firm that works with independent schools in the areas of admission, marketing, brand development, and financial operations. These three companies fall under the umbrella of TYW Education Group.

Angelo Otterbein was President and founder of Silverpoint, which he started in 1996. Silverpoint grew to include over 300 independent schools from all over the world. In 2013 the company merged with Finalsite, Inc. where Angelo now serves as Chief Innovation Officer, involved in product strategy, business development, digital strategy and website consulting. Kealan Duffy is the UK Production Manager for Finalsite, overseeing the designers and developers in the UK office to deliver innovative and engaging websites to clients across the globe. Kealan has a strong passion for audience-driven web design and has been working closely with schools since 2009 to understand their needs and lead the creative direction of their projects.

Patrick F. Bassett began his career in 1970 as a teacher, coach, and dorm parent at Woodberry Forest School (VA), followed by two headships—Stuart Hall in Virginia and Pomfret School in Connecticut. Pat served as the president of ISACS—the Independent Schools Association of the Central States—from 1993 – 2001, and then as president of NAIS from 2001 to 2013. After leaving NAIS he co-founded Heads Up Educational Consulting that provides strategic, operational, governance, and programmatic guidance and consultation to educational enterprises. Now, after 48 years in the independent school business, Pat recently announced his retirement from the industry. Rob talked with Pat about his career that spans 48 years and dedicated to private schools, his big takeaways about the industry then and now, and how schools can thrive in the future.