Faculty
Mike Barzacchini
Mike Barzacchini has worked in marketing communication and public relations for more than 25 years and has served as a CASE volunteer in various capacities more about 15 years. For the past 22 years, he has served as director of the Marketing Services Department at Harper College, where he developed Harper's first branding campaign and leads the college's integrated marketing, web, and social media initiatives.
Along with his higher education experience, Barzacchini has developed communication campaigns for healthcare providers, state government agencies, manufacturers and consumer service companies. Whether delivering a workshop, writing copy for a direct marketing project or planning a campaign, his work is guided by the following three principles: access, usability and relevance.
Ashley Budd
Ashley Budd is director of marketing operations for alumni affairs and development at Cornell University. She is based in Saratoga Springs, N.Y., working remotely for the university as a content strategist and campaign project manager for the division. Known for her creative and innovative marketing campaigns, Budd is one of the most influential voices in education marketing and fundraising.
Prior to joining the digital team at Cornell, Budd spent more than five years at her alma mater, Rochester Institute of Technology, where she led social media strategy for undergraduate admissions. She is author of the popular newsletter Ashley in Your Inbox and speaks regularly before international nonprofit groups.
Social:
Twitter: @ashley_budd
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ashleybudd/
David J. Gibson
David Gibson is vice president for communications and marketing at Middlebury, where he leads public affairs, marketing, internal and crisis communications, branding, web strategy, social media, creative services, storytelling across platforms, and print and mail operations. He has three decades of experience advancing the interests of mission-driven institutions and has built programs clarifying their value in the world and bringing deeper engagement with stakeholders. He has held staff positions at Hampshire, MIT, and Dartmouth; was vice president of strategic communications for the international consulting firm Grenzebach Glier and Associates, advising clients in the cultural, health care, education, and charitable sectors; and has led creative teams specializing in campaign communications. At Cornell, he and his staff won two Sibley Magazine of the Year Awards. As its former managing editor, he helped Yankee earn its first National Magazine Award nomination for reporting. He speaks widely about the profession and has served on the faculty of CASE’s Summer Institute in Communications and Marketing since 1997.
Liz Gross
Liz Gross is a data-driven researcher and scholar who specializes in creating entrepreneurial social media strategies in higher education. Her professional super power is to embolden colleges and universities and help them launch modern market research strategies using social listening. Teaching is her passion and she brings that to colleges and universities as the founder and CEO of Campus Sonar, a specialized social listening agency that matches high-value social media intelligence and engagement opportunities to organizational strategic initiatives.
Gross has more than 15 years' experience spanning the private and public sector including Great Lakes Higher Education Corporation, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and University of Wisconsin-Waukesha. She received a doctorate in leadership for the advancement of learning and service in higher education at Cardinal Stritch University, a master's degree in educational policy and leadership from Marquette University, and a bachelor's degree in interpersonal communication from the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point.
Social:
Twitter: @lizgross144
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lizgross
Matthew V. Jennings
Matt Jennings is the editor of Middlebury Magazine, a quarterly periodical published by Middlebury College. Under his guidance, Middlebury Magazine won numerous national awards for general excellence, editorial content, and design; has been cited by education associations and journalism foundations for excellence in higher education reporting; and received national plaudits for its 2012 redesign by renowned creative director D.J. Stout.
Jennings has twice co-chaired the CASE Editors' Forum and regularly conducts conference workshops and webinars on editorial best practices. He also co-directs the Middlebury Fellowships in Narrative Journalism and is a member of the American Society of Magazine Editors. In January, he spent two days cloistered in a room with 24 other magazine professionals, judging the best feature writing in American magazines (and ultimately voting on the National Magazine Award in this category). It was as close to nirvana as he'll ever get.
Dayana Kibilds
Dayana (Day) Kibilds is a strategist at Ologie, a marketing and branding agency built for education. She’s been working with higher education institutions worldwide for over a decade, pushing them to use their communications as tools for equity and access. She’s an international keynote speaker on enrollment marketing, email strategy, productivity, and stakeholder management, and she’s the host of Enrollify’s Talking Tactics podcast. Day co-authored Mailed It! with Ashley Budd, a book about email to be released in August 2024.
Rick Smith
Rick Smith has more than 30 years’ experience in higher education, healthcare administration, public relations, crisis communications training, marketing, business development and television news. He currently serves as the senior vice president of advancement and chief development officer for the Kentucky College of Art + Design (KyCAD).
Previously, he served as vice president of external relations and development and later the interim vice president of institutional advancement, athletics and alumni relations at Kentucky State University.
In 2005, Smith was named the vice president of community relations and marketing at Southeast Alabama Medical Center, where he served for five years before joining the senior leadership team at Ephraim McDowell Medical Center, where he served as the senior vice president and chief marketing officer.
Amy Bronson
A national leader and award-winning pioneer in the field of Talent Management, Amy has spent 25 plus years contributing to the success of fundraising both on the frontline and behind the scenes. She has a remarkable ability to help development professionals make the right career moves and achieve success for their organization's mission. She has touched the lives of hundreds of professionals, and her impact can be seen by the increasing level of professionalism in the advancement industry as well as through the success of the institutions that she's worked for, which include Harvard Law School and Boston College. Currently managing talent, finance, and operations for a team of 270, Amy has served in leadership roles and presented at numerous conferences and other professional organizations both locally and nationally. She helped create the award winning Amplify Gender & Equity Leadership Initiative, CASE’s Competencies Model, and the CASE Academy. A graduate of the University of Michigan, she lives in Milton, MA.
Alexis Kanda-Olmstead
Alexis serves as the Director of Advancement Talent Management at Dartmouth College where she helps people maximize their potential to achieve organizational priorities. Her responsibilities include shaping the overarching strategy for talent management and designing employee engagement, professional development, and DEIB initiatives for more than 300 staff.
During her 25+ years of experience in higher education, Alexis has worked in Academic Affairs, Student Affairs, and Advancement. She has delivered educational experiences to faculty, staff, and students; led award-winning diversity and inclusion initiatives; and started two talent management departments. She joined Dartmouth College six years ago after a 20-year career at Colorado State University in Fort Collins, CO.
Alexis leads the Amplify Gender Equity & Leadership Initiative that was founded with seed money from the CASE D1 Venture Fund. The program empowers gender-diverse staff in the Advancement profession to create change at the personal, leadership, and organizational levels. In addition, she has garnered CASE Circle of Excellence Awards in Talent Management and DEIB for Amplify, the Dartmouth antiracist training program, and the diversity strategy at Colorado State University.
Alexis also is the founder of AKO Collective, a leadership development company that works with women in male-dominated fields like STEM and Finance and is a former TEDx Speaker.
Alexis holds a bachelor's degree in organizational studies from the University of Michigan, a master's degree in college student personnel from Bowling Green State University, and a certificate in organization development from Colorado State University. She is certified in StrengthsFinder and Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI).