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
Amy Bronson is associate vice president of advancement resources and strategic talent management at Boston University, where she is engaged in building and sustaining an outstanding team of advancement professionals who are undertaking an enormous challenge: the first comprehensive campaign in the history of the university.
She oversees the talent management program for a staff of 225 including 17 schools and colleges at the university. Encompassing talent acquisition, organizational and learning development, human resource management, finance and administration, she partners with colleagues across the university to ensure the advancement team is ready to meet the campaign challenge.
Prior to joining BU in September 2010, Bronson led the strategic staffing initiative for the "Light the World Campaign" at Boston College. Before joining BC in 2005, she was at Harvard Law School where her many roles included managing special events, curriculum planning and program administration for executive legal education, and as a fundraiser and administrator at Baker House Alumni Center. Her prior experience includes working for Tiffany & Co. in Chicago and Houston and teaching in Athens, Greece. With more than 20 years of advancement experience, she has served in leadership roles and presented at numerous conferences.
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, coaching leaders and supervisors, and designing training and professional development programs for 250 staff.
Alexis believes people should be engaged by their work and have the opportunity for continuous growth and development. During her more than 20 years of experience in higher education, Alexis has delivered educational experiences to hundreds of staff and students, led award-winning diversity and inclusion initiatives, and started two talent management departments. She is the founder of AKO Collective, a women's leadership development company that offers training to women and girls, and presents nationally on gender-related topics.
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 a certified StrengthsQuest Educator, Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) Practitioner, and TEDx Speaker.