Canada’s Strategic Enrolment Management & Marketing Conversation

Alex Usher is the President of Higher Education Strategy Associates. He is an internationally recognized expert on a range of fields within higher education, including student financial aid, quality measurement, rankings and public financing. He also has wide experience in strategic planning at both the institutional and system level.

Alex is the lead author of the annual higher education almanac The State of Post-Secondary Education in Canada and the co-author of the premier statistical handbook on global tertiary education: World Higher Education: Institutions, Students and Funding His internationally read (and free) daily intelligence e-mail, One Thought to Start Your Day, has over 15,000 subscribers. He also regularly engages with fans and critics alike on Twitter (@alexusherhesa).

Prior to founding Higher Education Strategy Associates in 2009, Mr. Usher served as the Director of Educational Policy Institute Canada and prior to that he was the Director of Research and Program Development at the Canada Millennium Scholarship Foundation. He holds degrees from McGill University and Carleton University.

When Alex is not thinking about post-secondary systems and outcomes, he can be found raiding used bookstores for their most eccentric titles, cheering for Toronto FC, or obsessing about sumo.

Alex Usher is the President of Higher Education Strategy Associates. He is an internationally recognized expert on a range of fields within higher education, including student financial aid, quality measurement, rankings and public financing. He also has wide experience in strategic planning at both the institutional and system level.

Alex is the lead author of the annual higher education almanac The State of Post-Secondary Education in Canada and the co-author of the premier statistical handbook on global tertiary education: World Higher Education: Institutions, Students and Funding His internationally read (and free) daily intelligence e-mail, One Thought to Start Your Day, has over 15,000 subscribers. He also regularly engages with fans and critics alike on Twitter (@alexusherhesa).

Prior to founding Higher Education Strategy Associates in 2009, Mr. Usher served as the Director of Educational Policy Institute Canada and prior to that he was the Director of Research and Program Development at the Canada Millennium Scholarship Foundation. He holds degrees from McGill University and Carleton University.

When Alex is not thinking about post-secondary systems and outcomes, he can be found raiding used bookstores for their most eccentric titles, cheering for Toronto FC, or obsessing about sumo.

Allie Bear is a seasoned marketing and communications strategist with a proven track record in developing and executing integrated plans. With over ten years of experience in the higher education sector, Allie has been instrumental in attracting and converting prospective students through compelling marketing campaigns and communications plans.

As an "all-in" professional, Allie is dedicated to uncovering challenges, consulting with stakeholders, and co-creating solutions that engage audiences and advance strategic goals. She excels in leading cross-functional teams and has successfully collaborated with future students, current students, faculty, and staff.

Currently serving as the Manager of Marketing and Communications Strategy, Allie leads a team of five specialists in communications, digital engagement, and graphic design. Her role focuses on attracting prospective undergraduate students to consider Laurier as their top-choice university. Working closely with the integrated recruitment and admissions leadership team, Allie develops data-informed enrolment strategies and ensures a seamless journey for each student through the enrolment funnel.

With a strategic mindset and creative flair, Allie continuously develops innovative approaches that capture attention and differentiate organizations in a competitive landscape.

For more information on Allie's accomplishments and expertise, please visit her LinkedIn profile.

Andrew is the Co-Founder and CEO of Circuit Virtual Tours, a virtual visit platform that supercharges recruitment outcomes. He leads a team to craft experiences that showcase the best aspects of colleges and universities. The best part of his job is working with institutions to identify new ways that Circuit can support current and future students as they transition to post-secondary.

Andrew has provided strategic, communications, marketing, branding (and more) counsel to colleagues and clients for more than 24 years. At Humber, Andrew leads a team of Marketing, Communications, Creative Services and Analytics enthusiasts who Bring It to their work Humber by telling the college’s many compelling student, faculty and partnership stories across multiple platforms to many audiences. Andrew co-chairs the MarCom Guild and is a member of Colleges Ontario communications and marketing advisory groups. Prior to working at Humber (one of his alma maters), Andrew worked at two different global public relations firms in Toronto.

Andrew is eagerly awaiting his call to the Hockey Hall of Fame, knows the pen (and keyboard) is mightier than the sword, listens to the Dave Matthews Band and likes to chill with Charlee (the cat) and Lucy (the dog).

Clint Thiessen (he/him) works as the Student Recruitment Officer, Engagement at Red River College Polytechnic, where he has celebrated over 19 years of Higher Ed experience within recruitment, admissions and event planning.

Described as a detailed-oriented, passionate and forward-thinker, Clint continues to enjoy his work assisting future students on navigating their way into the post-secondary world. Whether Clint is connecting with future students, college staff, or external stakeholders, he leads all initiatives with optimism, care, and direction. Most recently, Clint has participated in RRC Polytech’s SEM Planning on creating a guided and enthusiastic path for the future of the College.

Outside Clint’s professional pursuits, you can almost always find him either catching a hockey game, camping with his family, or counting down the days until his next hot vacation.

Daniel Goulard is a Student Recruitment Officer from Nipissing University, specializing in Ontario high school applicants. He is a Nipissing University graduate with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science and a minor in Marketing. Building a foundation for a budding career at Nipissing, he has worked in areas like Residence, Academic Advising, Facilities and as part of the Nipissing University Student Union in addition to having three cycles worth of experience in Student Recruitment.

Dr. Joe Stokes is the AVP International and University Registrar at Ontario Tech University in Oshawa, Ontario, Canada, where he is also an award-winning professor (adjunct) in the Faculty of Education. Joe is the past Chair of the Ontario Universities’ Council on Admission, and the Ontario University Registrars’ Association, and has led work across the post-secondary sector on, Internationalization, governance, strategic enrolment management, and student retention and student success.

Dr. Stokes’ research interests include International student mobility, strategic enrolment management, leadership psychology, and higher education policy and governance. In the last 3 years, Joe has led groups that have attracted over $1.3 million in research funding including leading the creation of Ontario’s international study brand, and the development of a competitive internationalization toolkit for the province’s post-secondary system. His most recent publications focus on international student mobility in the pandemic era, and strategic enrolment management in a time of global disruption.

Felipe Matoso (he/him) is a marketing strategist with an engineering degree in the back pocket. His marketing work at RRC Polytech spans international education, research and partnerships, fundraising, and, in particular, domestic student recruitment for the past three years.

Hailing from Brazil, Felipe brings a strong engineering background and years of project management experience to his role. These skills have been instrumental in crafting data-driven, results-oriented strategies and tactics throughout his marketing career in Canada. Notably, he leads the in-house development of the college's current domestic recruitment strategy.

Beyond his professional pursuits, Felipe enjoys spending his free time exploring dog parks in the company of his beloved 130lb furry friend.

Graham Donald is one of North America’s leading experts on attracting, recruiting, and engaging students and graduates.

He founded Brainstorm Strategy Group Inc. in 2003 to focus on improving students’ school-to-work transition by advising and training both the employers that hire students and the educators who support their career development on campus.

His clients have included KPMG, PwC, University of Toronto, Deloitte, GE, McGill University, HSBC, UBC, Rutgers University, Kraft, and many others.

He chairs several conferences annually including the Campus Recruiting Forums in cities across Canada and the USA; the Canadian Career Development Summit; and, the Strategic Enrolment Marketing & Management Forum. He also speaks regularly at conferences across the US and Canada.

Graham Donald is a firm believer in the value of a general arts education and makes use every day of the skills he developed pursuing a double-major in English and Literary Studies. He received both his BA and MBA from the University of Toronto.

Haley Prentice is the Community Marketing Manager at The SchoolFinder Group, where she oversees the planning and execution of all marketing activities. She helps create campaigns that support client acquisition, events, and overall brand strategy. She has a BA in Communication Studies from Wilfrid Laurier University.

The SchoolFinder Group is designed to help students find schools, programs, scholarships and careers, and to help institutions recruit students from all corners of the world, using a variety of tactics that include lead generation, marketing, and in-person events.

As Registrar and Associate Vice-President, Strategic Enrolment, Janene Christiansen leads the Registrar's office and plays a vital role in George Brown College’s efforts to provide equitable and accessible educational pathways for all students. She ensures academic policies, systems, data, and processes are in place for the college to deliver the highest quality academic programming, reduce barriers and provide the optimal student experience.

Janene brings a wealth of experience leading teams in areas such as admissions; assessment; convocation; fees and scheduling; financial aid; systems and reporting; and registration and audit. Throughout her career she has demonstrated an unwavering focus on ensuring policies, systems and processes improve the student experience and help learners succeed and flourish.

While she started her career at George Brown as an operations manager in the Registrar’s office in 2003, Janene spent more than a decade in a range of registrarial leadership roles at other post-secondary institutions. She returned to George Brown as Registrar and AVP, Strategic Enrolment in 2022.

Prior to her return, Janene was Deputy Registrar at Sheridan College where she led the Enrolment Services team across three campuses. Her team members nominated her for the Sheridan Inspirational Leader Award — an important nod to her leadership during the pandemic and to her qualities as a people leader.

She also held progressive leadership positions in the Registrar’s office at Humber College, including Manager, Fees, Audit, Reporting, and Scheduling; Associate Registrar, Fees, Reporting, Scheduling and ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) Student Team Lead; and Associate Registrar, Student Systems and Reporting. She earned a President’s Distinguished Administrative Staff Award in 2014 for her work on the migration from Humber’s home-grown Student Information System to Banner and for her leadership in other areas.

Janene holds a Bachelor of Science in Computer Science and Psychology from the University of Western Ontario.

Jen has worked in the Office of the Registrar in both a small community college and a university. A passionate advocate for the student in student systems, Jen strives to reduce barriers to student success through efficient and positive interaction with the OREG and student systems.

Jennifer Porter holds a B. Comm. (Co-op) (Hons) from Memorial and an MBA from York University.

Through her 20+ years with Memorial University, Jennifer has been a Planning Analyst with the Centre for Institutional Analysis for a few years before moving to the Office of the Registrar. She worked as an Assistant Registrar supporting the Schools of Nursing and Pharmacy as well as an Associate Registrar for both Registration and Enrolment Services and Academic Advising. She began as Deputy Registrar in 2012.

During her downtime, Jennifer enjoys spending time at her cabin with her two children and husband and participating in a variety of water-based activities.

Kirk is a founder of Customer Relationship Index Inc. (CRi) and has worked with nearly every client over the company’s 19-year history. The common thread running through the work of Kirk and his colleagues in market research is a relentless focus on generating concrete recommendations for clients built on a strong foundation of in-depth analysis and synthesis.

After completing his Bachelor of Science in Biological and Medical Sciences at the University of Toronto, Kirk discovered that his initial plan to pursue a doctorate in Medicine was not for him. He became an entrepreneur in the marketing, design, communications and research sectors and hasn't looked back.

Over the last 40 years, Krrk has worked with amazing organizations including Royal Bank of Canada, Merck Frosst, BDC, Brookfield, Air Canada, Alcan, IBM, almost every major developer in Toronto & Montreal as well as 61 Canadian universities and colleges.

Nina Bilimoria Angelo joined Unibuddy in 2021 as Chief Marketing and Strategy Officer. In this capacity, Nina supports the global expansion of Unibuddy’s unique peer-to-peer platform that allows institutions to help students make crucial decisions about where to go to school, what to major in, and how to make the most of their higher ed experience. Prior to joining Unibuddy, Nina led teams at Top Hat, Pearson, and HP and advised Fortune 500 companies as a management consultant. A seasoned higher ed leader, Nina specializes in strategy creation, product conceptualization and testing, positioning and messaging, brand advocacy, and generally bringing order to chaos.

Richard brings 14 years of direct experience in community outreach, relationship building, and providing educational support to various students from underserved communities throughout the GTA. Examples include building and maintaining relationships with Toronto Community Housing (TCH), MP’s Office (Bill Morneau), Regent Park Community Health Centre, Empowered Squared, Toronto District School Board, the Pathways to Education program and most recently representing Queen’s on the Tri-Business School Collaborative. As the Manager of Access and Inclusion with the Undergraduate and Recruitment team, Richard is responsible for the implementation and execution of the Undergraduate and Recruitment (UAR) EDII Task Force recommendations. Formed in August 2020 the UAR RDII Task Force was created to address challenges of equity, inclusion and diversity faced by Black, Indigenous and racialized students. Under his portfolio Richard oversees the First-Generation Student Admissions Pathway and the Queen’s Equity Ambassador Program. Both initiatives focus on increasing access and awareness to post-secondary by engaging with equity deserving and racialized students to reduce barriers to demystify and some of the barrier’s they encounter. Richard is also currently acting as the Vice Chair for the Standing Committee, Equity, Diversity and Inclusion with the Ontario University Registrars Association (OURA).

Ryan Snowdon is the Strategic Enrolment Management Lead in the Faculty of Arts and Science at Queen’s University. In this role, Ryan guides the faculty in all matters of enrolment and retention including the development of transfer opportunities and pathways. Ryan has over 10 years of experience working in Undergraduate Admissions at Queen’s where he was integral in developing a First-Generation Pathway while continuing to oversee key initiatives such as the Indigenous Admission Policy and admission to upper year and online programs. Ryan has presented on transfer options and processes at several conferences and colleges throughout Canada and the United States.

Sean Williams has over 25 years of experience in marketing and communications. His marketing shop – Dashboard Marketing – specializes in the area of #HigherEd. He and his team have worked with institutions across Canada and in the US in areas such as institutional branding, recruitment marketing, student retention, student housing, social media management, digital engagement, and market research.

Over the last 15+ years, he has worked with a wide variety of institutions in a mix of roles. Sean was on contract with StFX University as their Director of Communications and Marketing. He has also led a mix of marketing and student engagement projects with Holland College, Dalhousie University, Grenfell Campus MUN, and the University of Regina. During this time, he also worked as a marketing consultant with US-based SEM Works and Ruffalo Noel Levitz. He’s is currently aligned with Academica Group as a Branding & Marketing Strategist, and through this relationship, has worked with NIC, VCC, NCC, Georgian College, Athabasca University, University of Regina, York University and Western University.

He’s a frequent guest speaker at conferences and post-secondary institutions and offers his time as a mentor for student-based startups and entrepreneurial-focused organizations (i.e. Dalhousie IdeaHUB, DMZ, Enactus, Volta, etc.). Sean is a graduate of TMU (formerly Ryerson) and holds a BAA in Media Arts. You can find out more about his company at www.dashboardmarketing.ca

Shoshannah Bennett-Dwara is a Recruitment Representative in the First-Generation Portfolio for Admission and Recruitment at Queen's University. She works directly with underrepresented communities in the GTA to assist in navigating the process of obtaining a post-secondary education. She has spent 4+ years working in EDII work through enacting policy and enforcing change through her role as Undergraduate Trustee to the Queen's University Board of Trustees as well as through Vice-President of the Queen's Student Diversity Project, Co-Chair and Co-Founder of the Queen's University Advocacy Coalition, and Chief of Sponsorship on the Queen's Black Premedical Association, among others. She has an overarching goal to express, validate, and ensure that the perspectives and ideas of marginalized groups are readily discussed and actively pursued to promote diversity, inclusion, and equity at Queen's and beyond.

Shoshannah has won various accolades that speak to her passion in furthering the above aim, including the Agnes Benidickinson Tricolour Award, the highest tribute that can be paid to a student for valuable and distinguished service to Queen's University in non-athletic, extracurricular activities. She looks forward to expanding her reach in the coming years and truly cultivating courageous change.

Susan Kates has been in academia for over 10 years, teaching business-related topics, and is currently the Program Coordinator for the Entrepreneurial Enterprise Business Management Post-Grad program. Susan also ran the Internship Program at Centennial College for over 7 years bringing a personalized approach to finding opportunities for students looking for real-world experience. With a background as a marketing leader, she brings a keen understanding of process and people management. Susan has founded a business, focused on marketing innovation. Her business experience has brought her into contact with fields like food, retail, hospitality, senior care, and computing software. Susan has an MBA and a Master's in Innovation and Entrepreneurship with certificates in Disruptive Technology, Marketing Innovative Products, and Design Thinking. She is also a DBA candidate focusing on Innovation and Entrepreneurship.

Tyler Levesque is a Student Recruitment Officer from Nipissing University, specializing in Canadian domestic high school applicants. Prior to joining Nipissing University’s Recruitment Team, Tyler amassed years of experience in the fields of film production, media arts, youth programming, and public library service. He holds his Bachelor of Arts degree in Liberal Arts from Nipissing University, as well as an Advanced Diploma in Digital Cinematography from Canadore College.