The Higher Ed Geek Podcast

AI transformation in higher education depends on something less flashy: modern infrastructure, accessible data, and processes that actually work. Murtaza Masood, Vice President for Public Sector and Higher Education Strategy and Go-to-Market at Box, discusses the infrastructure and staffing pressures facing colleges and universities—and how institutions can use cloud modernization, automation, and AI to eliminate redundant work and free people to focus on higher-value priorities. 

He shares compelling examples from Augusta University and Duquesne University, while making the case for a mission-first approach to modernization: start with the outcomes an institution needs to achieve, then work backward to identify the processes, information, and technology needed to get there.

Guest Name: Murtaza Masood - Global Managing Director, Public Sector | Box
Former Government CIO & GovTech CTO | Public Sector Transformation Leader

Guest Social: LinkedIn

Guest Bio: Recognized by Government Technology as one of the nation’s Top 25 Doers, Dreamers, and Drivers, Murtaza Masood is an accomplished public sector executive and strategic technology leader with deep experience driving modernization across all levels of government.

As Global Managing Director for Public Sector at Box, Murtaza leads the company’s mission to help governments, education institutions, and public organizations reimagine how they deliver services through secure, intelligent content and AI-powered collaboration.

A former government CIO and Director of Operations at Los Angeles County, the largest local government in North America. Murtaza has led large-scale digital and organizational transformation from inside government and as a senior consultant advising public leaders. His career spans leadership roles in government, government technology startups and consulting—overseeing modernization initiatives that improved transparency, citizen experience, and operational efficiency across complex agencies.

Today, he brings this inside-out perspective to his work with governments worldwide, guiding them to modernize with clarity, speed, and measurable impact. A frequent speaker and advisor on public sector innovation, Murtaza is recognized for bridging technology, policy, and purpose to build the next generation of digital government.

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Connect With Our Host:
Dustin Ramsdell
https://www.linkedin.com/in/dustinramsdell/

About The Enrollify Podcast Network:
The Higher Ed Geek 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.

Study abroad is a high-impact experience, but too many students who want to participate never make it through the process. Brooke Roberts of Via TRM discusses new data on where students drop out of the study abroad funnel and why cost, while an important barrier, isn't the whole story. She explores how cumbersome applications, duplicated information, limited resources, and other forms of friction can prevent students from participating—and how institutions can use data, technology, and more intentional touchpoints to make study abroad more accessible.

Guest Name: Brooke Roberts - Senior Vice President of Global Strategy and Engagement at Via TRM

Guest Social: LinkedIn

Guest Bio: Brooke Roberts is Senior Vice President of Global Strategy and Engagement at Via TRM, a leading software platform powering global experiences across higher education, and the founder of Inside Study Abroad, a career development platform and podcast for global education professionals. With over 20 years of experience leading global learning initiatives, Brooke has held leadership roles at Podium Education, Johnson County Community College, GoAbroad, CISabroad, the University of South Dakota, and others. Her work spans strategic growth, operations, program development, and brand strategy, focusing on advancing access to high-impact global experiences. She holds a BA in International Relations from Northeastern University and an MA in Higher Education Administration from Bowling Green State University. And yes, Brooke studied abroad in college (semesters in Switzerland, France, and England).

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Connect With Our Host:
Dustin Ramsdell
https://www.linkedin.com/in/dustinramsdell/

About The Enrollify Podcast Network:
The Higher Ed Geek 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.

AI is forcing higher education to rethink what learning actually means—and how technology should support it. Dr. Marco Krcatovich of Cengage discusses the risks of cognitive offloading, why AI should function more like a coach than an answer machine, and how institutions can build better policies and practices around its use. He also explores the growing importance of workforce readiness, stronger partnerships between institutions and ed tech companies, and AI's potential to make learning more personalized, relevant, and engaging.

Check out Cengage’s 2025 Graduate Employability Report!

Guest Name: Dr. Marco Krcatovich - Sr. Dir. of Research & Outcomes at Cengage

Guest Social: LinkedIn

Guest Bio: Dr. Marco Krcatovich II, Senior Director of Research & Outcomes at Cengage, is a scholar‑practitioner with over 20 years in higher education leadership who bridges academia and industry to connect campus strategy, policy, and market insights into actionable partnerships. His experience prior to Cengage includes academic and administrative roles at the University of Michigan, University of Pennsylvania, Boston University, and Governors State University in Illinois. His scholarship tackles remote work environments, the role of administrative staff in college student success, and secondary/postsecondary data systems and reporting. He currently resides in Chicago, IL. 

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Connect With Our Host:
Dustin Ramsdell
https://www.linkedin.com/in/dustinramsdell/

About The Enrollify Podcast Network:
The Higher Ed Geek 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.

Higher education can’t predict every disruption—but it can prepare to respond without compromising the student learning experience. Kim Arnold, Director of the Teaching and Learning Community Program at EDUCAUSE, discusses the shift from instructional continuity to instructional resilience and why institutions need to build the capacity to maintain quality learning through disruptions ranging from cyberattacks to rapid advances in AI. 

She also explores the disconnect between students’ expectations for AI in their future careers and employers’ growing demand for AI competency, including how institutions can help learners demonstrate those skills. Her advice for higher ed leaders: stay curious, build connections, bring students into the conversation, and learn from the experimentation already happening across the sector.

Guest Name: Dr. Kimberly Arnold - Director of Teaching & Learning Program at EDUCAUSE

Guest Social: LinkedIn

Guest Bio: Dr. Kimberly Arnold is the Director of Teaching and Learning Program at EDUCAUSE, where she leads efforts to advance community inspired, data-informed, teaching and learning across the higher education landscape. She is a nationally recognized thought leader with two decades of experience shaping transformative strategy at the intersection of academic innovation, digital ecosystems, and learner success.

Prior to joining EDUCAUSE, Dr. Arnold served as Distinguished Director of the Learning Analytics Center of Excellence at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, where she led institutional efforts to modernize teaching and learning infrastructure, advance responsible data practices, and promote technological innovation to optimize the teaching and learning environment through a student-centric lens.

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Connect With Our Host:
Dustin Ramsdell
https://www.linkedin.com/in/dustinramsdell/

About The Enrollify Podcast Network:
The Higher Ed Geek 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.

Higher education is navigating an era of rapid change and disruption, but institutions can’t respond to everything at once. Nicole Muscanell, Senior Researcher at EDUCAUSE, returns to the show to discuss how colleges and universities are adapting to AI and digital transformation, including growing scrutiny around data privacy, security, tool adoption, and redundancy. 

She also explores why students are becoming more skeptical of AI even as they continue to use it, the challenges faculty and staff face in keeping up with emerging technology, and what leaders can do to break out of reactive cycles. Her advice: assess where you are, prioritize what matters most, and create the space to think proactively about what comes next.

Explore all of Nicole’s and her colleagues' excellent research here.

Guest Name: Dr. Nicole Muscanell - Senior Researcher at EDUCAUSE

Guest Social: LinkedIn

Guest Bio: Nicole Muscanell serves as a researcher at EDUCAUSE. She holds a Ph.D. in Social Psychology and has more than a decade of experience in higher education, including roles in research, instruction, and academic advising. Her recent work explores faculty and student technology use, workforce issues, data and analytics, and emerging trends shaping teaching, learning, cybersecurity, and privacy in higher education.

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Connect With Our Host:
Dustin Ramsdell
https://www.linkedin.com/in/dustinramsdell/

About The Enrollify Podcast Network:
The Higher Ed Geek 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.

What can acting, professional poker, and a nonlinear career teach us about the future of higher education? Christina Lindley, Founder & CEO of VPRG Consulting, shares her unconventional career journey and the transferable skills that shaped her approach to business, strategy, risk, and partnerships. She also discusses how AI is changing enrollment and student decision-making, why institutions need to rethink how they stay relevant to Gen Z and Gen Alpha, and the emerging potential of gamification as a tool for engagement, rewards, and revenue.

Make sure to check out some of her current education partners, which include ScholarshipOwl, StudentChoice.org, & Besitos/KashKick.

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Connect With Our Host:
Dustin Ramsdell
https://www.linkedin.com/in/dustinramsdell/

About The Enrollify Podcast Network:
The Higher Ed Geek 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.

In this bonus episode recorded as part of our virtual EDUCAUSE 2026 coverage, Dustin speaks with Ryan Lufkin from Instructure, about the inaugural EdTech Top 40: Inside the U.S. Higher Education Digital Learning Stack. Based on aggregated LTI launch data, the report offers a data-driven look at how institutions are actually using educational technology—and where the biggest gaps and opportunities remain. They discuss why enterprise-wide access to AI tools like Gemini, Copilot, Claude, and ChatGPT doesn't necessarily translate into meaningful course-level adoption; the importance of training, support, and implementation; and what an average of 28 unique LTI tools says about the complexity of today's ed tech ecosystems.

Guest Name: Ryan Lufkin - VP of Global Academic Strategy at Instructure

Guest Social: LinkedIn

Guest Bio: Ryan Lufkin is the VP of Global Academic Strategy at Instructure (makers of Canvas, the leading education technology used by schools across the country). Ryan has been working with colleges and universities in the educational technology space for over 20 years, beginning with Utah-based start-up Campus Pipeline, the first html portal for higher education. He has worked for large ERP solutions like SungardHE and Ellucian helping evolve those systems to the Cloud, driven mobile adoption in teaching and learning technology, and developed curriculum for both corporate and higher education institutions. Ryan has helped lead Canvas’ evolution from an LMS to a full learning management platform to support the challenges facing colleges and universities of all sizes.

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Connect With Our Host:
Dustin Ramsdell
https://www.linkedin.com/in/dustinramsdell/

About The Enrollify Podcast Network:
The Higher Ed Geek 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.

Strategic planning in higher ed can easily become a long, complicated process that produces a rigid document that no one ends up really using. In this episode, Dr. Sarah Holtan, Associate Provost at Carroll University and host of the Get Down to College Business podcast, shares how her institution approached strategic planning as a collaborative, data-informed, and adaptable process. She discusses building a representative core team, narrowing dozens of ideas into a few signature commitments, using AI to identify themes, separating strategy from operations, and creating an action plan that can evolve as circumstances change.

Guest Name: Dr. Sarah Holtan - Associate Provost at Carroll University

Guest Social: LinkedIn

Guest Bio: Sarah Holtan, PhD, is an Associate Provost and Professor of Communication at Carroll University. She is the host and producer of an award-winning podcast, Get Down to College Business, which explores the intersections among business, operations, and higher education. The goal is to highlight lessons from various industry and college leaders on how to improve higher education. She co-owns construction-supporting businesses and serves on several boards to stay connected to local industries in southeast Wisconsin. Her favorite job is being a mom to her two children.

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Connect With Our Host:
Dustin Ramsdell
https://www.linkedin.com/in/dustinramsdell/

About The Enrollify Podcast Network:
The Higher Ed Geek 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.

Higher education is currently navigating a “polycrisis” of enrollment pressures, financial uncertainty, digital transformation, AI, infrastructure challenges, and more. In this episode, Tracey Swift, editor-in-chief of Higher Ed Risk Magazine, explores all of this and makes the case for rethinking risk management as a strategic tool for institutional resilience. She shares why leaders need to move beyond reactive crisis planning, embrace enterprise risk thinking, and use risk management to make smarter decisions about innovation, technology, finances, and the future of their institutions. 

Guest Name: Tracey Swift - Editor-in-Chief at HigherEdRisk

Guest Social: LinkedIn

Guest Bio: Tracey Swift is a risk management and insurance executive with 20+ years leading risk strategy across Fortune 500 corporations and higher education institutions. She is currently the Editor-in-Chief of HigherEdRisk, a publication that provides higher education leaders and boards with actionable risk intelligence to strengthen institutional resilience. Previously, Tracey served as Executive Director of Risk Management at Arizona State University, overseeing enterprise risk and insurance programs. Earlier in her career, she held corporate risk management and commercial insurance brokerage roles across consumer products, telecommunications, and financial services.

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Connect With Our Host:
Dustin Ramsdell
https://www.linkedin.com/in/dustinramsdell/

About The Enrollify Podcast Network:
The Higher Ed Geek 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.

What happens when higher education loses sight of its purpose—and what would it take to rebuild public trust? Teege Mettille, author of College Is Broken and host of the companion podcast, discusses the forces driving skepticism about higher education, from misleading college pricing and unrealistic enrollment expectations to institutions losing touch with their mission. He shares insights from interviews with more than 100 people and offers practical ideas for moving forward, including more sustainable budgeting, greater transparency, and a “high-tech, high-touch” approach to enrollment that puts students back at the center.

Guest Name: Teege Mettille - College Admissions Expert, Author & Speaker

Guest Social: LinkedIn

Guest Bio: Teege Mettille spent more than twenty years inside admissions and enrollment management at small private Midwest institutions, finishing at the vice president level, and now writes and speaks as a reformed insider critiquing the systems he helped build. He is the author of College Is Broken, The Admissions Counselor Malaise, and The Signal Solution (with Geoff Baird), and co-hosts the Admissions Directors Lunchcast with Nathan Ament. A first-generation college student himself, he runs Class 101 Waukesha-Brookfield, where he works directly with southeastern Wisconsin families on the college search. He is rarely seen without a bow tie.

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Connect With Our Host:
Dustin Ramsdell
https://www.linkedin.com/in/dustinramsdell/

About The Enrollify Podcast Network:
The Higher Ed Geek 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.