The Signal

In this week’s episode, Jeff Dillon sits down with Chris Meador, an AI coach and founder of Yes & Thinking, whose approach to AI adoption starts with people, not prompts. Chris brings a rare background: he trained as an actor at, spent nearly two decades helping organizations adopt what's new—leading brand and video solutions globally at Facebook during its shift to mobile and video, directing global product marketing for Xbox at Microsoft, and serving as VP of marketing at Wistia.

Chris argues that AI is the fifth big technology shift he's lived through, but it's fundamentally different because it's coming for everyone—not just the tech team. Every role, every person, will be impacted. He calls this the tension between "big AI" (frontier models, media hype, forces we can't influence) and "little AI" (the embedded tools we use every day that we can influence). The conversation we're having in the media is not the conversation we need to have on campus.

He offers a practical framework—Direct, Control, Own—for moving from abstract anxiety to concrete action. And he proposes a simple but radical idea: what if every faculty and staff member got two hours of guided play with AI? Not a training, not a policy, not another tool. Just time and space to explore, with someone there to help. That, he argues, is what actually unlocks adoption.

For any higher ed leader, manager, or faculty member wondering where to start with AI, this episode offers a grounded, human, and surprisingly fun approach.

Key Takeaways

The Signal Newsletter:
https://edtechconnect.com/newsletter

Seminar - What Does a University Website Look Like in 2030?

https://pantheon.io/events/webinar/what-does-university-website-look-2030

Find Chris Meador

LinkedIn                              

https://www.linkedin.com/in/chrismeador/

Yes & Thinking

https://yesandthinking.com/

And find EdTech Connect here:

Web: https://edtechconnect.com/

What happens when your website's most important visitor isn't a person—but an AI agent?

In this episode, host Jeff Dillon sits down with Kyle Fondren, Executive Director of University Web Strategy at the University of Alabama, where he leads UA's global web presence, its institutional design system, and AI enablement across the Division of Strategic Communications. Kyle built UA's web strategy function from the ground up, manages more than 20 mission‑critical institutional websites serving over 15 million visits a year, and brings a unique perspective from his time working with Alabama football—a place where the pace is relentless and the margin for error is thin.

Kyle shares the most "Kitchen Nightmares" moment of his career—a college web presence running on Adobe Contribute with 350 pages, countless sub‑subdomains, and no rhyme or reason to any of it. He and his team cut it down to 33 pages. The whiplash was real.

He also tackles the big question: with human traffic down 15–20% and bot traffic surging, how do you design for two audiences at once? Kyle's answer is duality. The deep, well‑structured content that AI agents crave doesn't need to be beautiful—it needs to be accurate and structured. The homepage, admissions page, and brand campaigns are where you reserve your visual firepower. The human experience and the machine experience are diverging—and great web teams will learn to serve both.

For any web leader, marketing strategist, or institutional leader trying to future‑proof their digital presence, this episode offers a clear, practical framework for what comes next.

Key Takeaways

The Signal Newsletter:
https://edtechconnect.com/newsletter

Seminar - What Does a University Website Look Like in 2030?

https://pantheon.io/events/webinar/what-does-university-website-look-2030

Find Kyle Fondren

LinkedIn                              

https://www.linkedin.com/in/kylefondren/

The University of Alabama

https://www.ua.edu/

And find EdTech Connect here:

Web: https://edtechconnect.com/

What does a historian trained in medieval manuscripts know about SEO and generative engine optimization? More than you might think.

In this episode, host Jeff Dillon sits down with Matt Russell, Director of SEO and Content at Inspira Education Group, an edtech company helping students navigate the road to medical school and college. Matt took a less traditional route into search—he earned a BA in history at Queen Mary University of London, where he also worked as a student admissions ambassador, and a master's in modern British history at Cambridge. That researcher's discipline—evaluating sources, interrogating context, understanding what information matters—turned out to be exactly what SEO demands.

Matt shares how he scaled Inspira's organic reach from 20,000 to over 400,000 monthly active users and grew their email community from 1,000 to over 120,000 subscribers. He explains the concept of "sign-up intent" keywords—queries where users want something so badly they'll trade their email for it—and how building genuine, expert-crafted resources (like a full-length MCAT practice test) fed a virtuous cycle of rankings, recommendations, and brand trust.

He also offers a grounded take on GEO (generative engine optimization) and AI visibility. The clicks may be declining, but the traffic that remains is more qualified. The question for universities isn't just "how do we rank?"—it's "how do we become the source behind the answer?"

For any enrollment marketer, SEO professional, or content strategist trying to make sense of a post‑AI search landscape, this episode offers a practical, evidence‑based playbook.

Key Takeaways 

The Signal Newsletter:
https://edtechconnect.com/newsletter

Find Matt Russell:

LinkedIn                              

https://www.linkedin.com/in/matthew-russell-9aa60a1b0/

Inspira Education Group

https://www.inspiraeducationgroup.com/

And find EdTech Connect here:

Web: https://edtechconnect.com/ 

 Jeff Dillon welcomes back Eytan Wurman, founder and CEO of CommonTime Pathways—the recruiting platform built on a simple, disruptive idea: creatives deserve the same recruiting pipelines athletes get. When Eytan and Jeff first talked about a year ago, CommonTime was just getting off the ground. Since then, the company raised $1 million from Yamaha and Reach Capital, expanded beyond music into theater and dance, and took the platform to the international stage at the ISME World Conference.

Eytan shares the big realization that reshaped CommonTime's mission: they weren't just helping music kids connect with scholarships—they were repositioning the artist as the center of an AI‑enabled future. He explains why music faculty are the most underutilized recruiters on campus, why they're already visiting high schools and adjudicating festivals, and why Common Time simply makes them 20 times more effective.

He also offers a brilliant analogy for two‑sided marketplaces: they're like middle school dances. Everyone's on the wall, no one wants to touch each other. CommonTime created the dance floor, set up the DJ booth, and then had to figure out how to get people to dance. The answer? The snowball dance. Get one college and one kid to talk, then another, then another—until everyone sees it's safe to join in.

For anyone thinking about enrollment innovation, creative talent, or what higher ed looks like in 2050, this episode is a must‑listen.

Key Takeaways

The Signal Newsletter:
https://edtechconnect.com/newsletter

Find Eytan Wurman:

LinkedIn                              

https://www.linkedin.com/in/eytanwurman/

CommonTime Pathways

https://www.ctpathways.com/

And find EdTech Connect here:

Web: https://edtechconnect.com/

In this episode, host Jeff Dillon welcomes Melanie Moran, Vice President and Senior Strategist at Mackey Strategies, who spent nearly two decades at Vanderbilt University—rising to Associate Vice Chancellor for University Relations—and recently completed an 18‑month stint as interim head of athletic communications. She's seen campus and athletics communications from every angle: as a writer, a strategist, a leader, and an outsider brought in to bridge two worlds.

Melanie shares what surprised her most about athletics communications: the sheer volume, the round‑the‑clock pace, the 17 sports, the live broadcasts, and the massive, always‑on audience. She explains why operational separation makes sense—athletics needs to move fast—but why brand and strategy can never be siloed. The university's name is on the jerseys, and the best operations work hand in glove.

She also offers advice for crisis leadership. The best leaders don't panic. They create space to understand what really happened. They're willing to hear information they don't like. And they understand that trust is the currency of a crisis—the goal isn't to survive tomorrow's news cycle, it's to protect the institution's reputation for the next decade.

For anyone in communications, athletics, or institutional leadership trying to navigate an increasingly complex media landscape, this episode is essential listening. 

Key Takeaways 

The Signal Newsletter:
https://edtechconnect.com/newsletter

Find Melanie Moran:

LinkedIn                              

https://www.linkedin.com/in/melaniemoran/

Mackey Strategies

https://mackeystrategies.com/

And find EdTech Connect here:

Web: https://edtechconnect.com/

What if the reason your enrollment strategy keeps stalling has nothing to do with the plan—and everything to do with the culture?

In this episode, host Jeff Dillon sits down with Austin Blair, Dean of Admissions and Marketing for both St. Francis Medical Center College of Nursing and St. Anthony College of Nursing, part of OSF Healthcare. Austin also coaches high school football, and that experience shapes everything about how he leads. He draws a direct line between coaching a team and building an enrollment operation: both are about creating belief, creating the experience before results, and understanding that talent rarely overcomes a bad culture.

Austin shares the story of uniting two distinct nursing college cultures—one in Rockford, one in Peoria, two and a half hours apart—with different histories, different demographics, and different ways of doing things. He explains why "buy‑in" is too small of a goal and why shared ownership is the real objective. He walks through his CULTURE framework: clarify the why, understand the terrain, listen before launching, turn committees into coalitions, use data as a mirror, reinforce through relationships, and empower shared ownership.

He also makes a provocative case against buying prospect names—a strategy he abandoned not out of philosophy, but out of necessity when his marketing budget was only $40,000. What he discovered was that relevance beats volume, and relationships beat lists.

For any enrollment leader, president, or marketing team trying to move a stalled strategy forward, this episode offers a practical, football‑tested framework for putting culture first.

Key Takeaways

The Signal Newsletter:
https://edtechconnect.com/newsletter

Find Austin Blair:

LinkedIn                              

https://www.linkedin.com/in/austin-w-b-63a306a6/

OSF HealthCare

http://osfhealthcare.org/

And find EdTech Connect here:

Web: https://edtechconnect.com/

What if the biggest problem in higher ed marketing isn't technology, budget, or even strategy—but the fact that we assume students make rational decisions when they're actually driven by emotion, bias, and the simple need to feel like they belong?

In this episode, host Jeff Dillon welcomes Si Elliott, founder of Fabrics, a customer experience consultancy that applies behavioral science to how organizations design experiences and relationships. Si also runs Diversity, a creative agency in Nottingham, England, and guest lectures at three universities—including the Communication University of China. He brings a rare outside perspective to higher ed, challenging institutions to stop designing around the needs of the organization and start designing around the experience of the person.

He explains why the technology amplifies whatever process is already there—good or bad—and why "marketing is better with psychology." He also breaks down three behavioral biases that could change how enrollment teams communicate: the curse of knowledge, social proof, and peak-end rule. And he offers a simple but powerful challenge to any president or CIO: put on a pair of trainers and a hoodie, walk around campus anonymously, and just observe. Change your shoes.

Key Takeaways

The Signal Newsletter:
https://edtechconnect.com/newsletter

Find Si Elliott:

LinkedIn                              

https://www.linkedin.com/in/si-elliott/

Fabricx

https://fabricx.agency/

And find EdTech Connect here:

Web: https://edtechconnect.com/

What happens when a veteran TV writer—whose credits include The Wonder Years, Dawson's Creek, and Disney's Tarzan—decides to build a film school inside North America's largest soundstage complex? You get a model that challenges nearly every assumption higher ed has about where learning happens, who should teach it, and what students actually need to succeed.

In this episode, host Jeff Dillon sits down with Jeffrey Stepakoff, founder of the Georgia Film Academy and now President and co-founder of the Trilith Institute. Jeffrey has spent 40 years in entertainment, has over 1 million books in print, and has built two groundbreaking programs that bridge the gap between academia and industry. The Georgia Film Academy grew to serve 2,500 students a year across 30 institutions, helping grow Georgia's film production spending from $2 billion to $4.4 billion during his tenure.

Now at Trilith, Jeffrey is taking the model further—launching "Semester at Trilith," a 15-week, 15-credit immersive program that drops students into a working studio environment. He argues that in an era of AI abundance, the most valuable thing we can teach isn't craft—it's taste, critical thinking, and the ability to discern what stories actually deserve to be told.

For anyone in higher ed wrestling with questions of workforce relevance, industry partnerships, or the future of experiential learning, this episode offers a bold, practical, and deeply human vision. 

Key Takeaways 

The Signal Newsletter:
https://edtechconnect.com/newsletter 

Find Jeffrey Stepakoff:

LinkedIn                              

https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeffreystepakoff/

Trilith Institute

https://trilithinstitute.org/

And find EdTech Connect here:

Web: https://edtechconnect.com/

What if the real crisis AI has exposed in higher education isn't student dishonesty, but the fact that we've been treating final papers as evidence of thinking—when AI can now simulate that thinking in seconds?

In this episode, host Jeff Dillon sits down with Michael Leggs, who has taught English at St. Paul College for 21 years and is the founder of Smartlby, an AI‑powered revision tutor designed to help students strengthen their writing through guided reflection—without writing for them. Michael brings a rare perspective: he's not a technologist or an administrator talking about AI in the abstract. He's the person reading the papers, watching students struggle, and redesigning assignments in real time.

Michael argues that detection software is a triage response, not a long‑term solution. The deeper problem is that our curriculum and assessment models were already fragile—AI just made it visible. He explains why surveillance tools create environments of mistrust, why revision should be treated as evidence of thinking, and how tools like Smartlby can guide students through a Socratic dialogue about their own writing without ever rewriting a single sentence.

For any faculty member, department chair, or academic leader trying to figure out what actually works in the AI era, this episode offers a grounded, practical, and deeply human perspective. 

Key Takeaways 

The Signal Newsletter:
https://edtechconnect.com/newsletter 

Find Michael Leggs:

LinkedIn                              

https://www.linkedin.com/in/mikeleggs/

Smartleby

https://smartleby.com/

And find EdTech Connect here:

Web: https://edtechconnect.com/

Jeff talks to Raffi DerSimonian, VP and Chief Strategy Officer at ERI, a digital agency that has been building for colleges and universities since 2005. Raffi came up on the institutional side—alumni relations at Becker College, then marketing and communications at Maine College of Art—before moving to the agency side. He brings a rare combination: deep empathy for campus dynamics and a strategist's eye for what actually moves the needle.

Raffi shares the story behind ikiGuide.ai, a tool that takes the Japanese concept of Ikigai—the intersection of what you love, what you're good at, what the world needs, and what you can be paid for—and turns it into a guided college search experience. Instead of handing a student a list of programs, ikiGuide gives them a path and the reasoning behind it, pulling in not just curricular offerings but also clubs, activities, study abroad, and stories of students and alumni who have walked similar paths.

The conversation also tackles the shifting role of the college website in an AI-driven discovery landscape. Raffi argues that with nearly half of prospective students now consulting AI before visiting a website, the site's purpose is no longer to provide facts—it's to provide a "vibe check," a sense of connection, and evidence that a student can see themselves there. He also offers a sobering challenge to institutions: if your differentiators sound like they could apply to any school in America, it's time to go back to the drawing board.

Key Takeaways 

The Signal Newsletter:
https://edtechconnect.com/newsletter

Find Raffi DerSimonian:

LinkedIn                              

https://www.linkedin.com/in/raffi-dersimonian-5099233/

ikiGuide

https://www.eridesignstudio.com/ikiguide/

And find EdTech Connect here:

Web: https://edtechconnect.com/