Higher Ed Social

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, 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. 



It's vacation time, so we're taking a break this week. In the mean time, enjoy Lougan and Jackie's episode with Andy Shaw! We'll be back next week. 

Get ready for a VERY lively episode this week. Lougan and Jackie talked with the hilarious Andy Shaw, director of enrollment communications at York College of Pennsylvania. Andy loves his job because he makes stuff that get students to come to his college. He also teaches a class about comedy for freshmen to help them build confidence in public speaking. Andy is a new father, and that’s become a very important part of his life. He has an upcoming book titled The New Mom’s Guide to New Dads which helps new mom’s understand the minds of new dads. We talk about that and his experiences being a dad!

Kelsey Ryan the coordinator of fraternity and sorority life at University of Memphis. After deciding that pharmacy school wasn’t for her, she chose a career in student affairs working with fraternity and sorority life. Kelsey is a true advocate for Greek Life on campus, and we discuss how Greek organizations contribute to the community and how a few bad apples can tarnish the good work of others.

Shanna Carmack is the director of residence life for Carson-Newman University in east Tennessee. In this week’s episode, we talk to Shanna about getting acclimated as a new director in her first year at a university and how much a mentor can make a difference to an up-and-coming administrator. Shanna also lends us some insight on what it’s like to raise a child—in a residence hall!

Coby Dillard is the coordinator for veterans and military services at the University of California Santa Barbara. Coby began his career in the Navy as a yeoman, and after leaving the Navy, he decided to take advantage of his post 9/11 G.I. Bill benefits at Tidewater Community College. There he began his career in higher ed as a work study student. Coby transitioned to UCSB last year, and has been working to rebuild their programs for student veterans. We had a great discussion about what makes student veterans special, and how he works to support their needs.

For our second international episode we sat down with Melissa Mae Cheater, the digital content manager at Western University in London, Ontario, Canada. Melissa is also the founder of #PSEWEB (Post Secondary Education Web), a Canadian offshoot of the Higher Education Web Professionals Association here in the US. During the show, we chat about the differences between student life in the US and Canada. Melissa also shares her thoughts on how departments across campus can better work with their communications teams to celebrate success.