The Signal

Jeff Dillon

With more than 570,000 downloads, The Signal is the podcast for higher education’s innovative leaders.

Hosted by Jeff Dillon, The Signal cuts through the noise to bring you the strategic indights needed to reshape how institutions recruit, support, and retain students. Every Friday, we sit down with the practitioners and technology builders who are actively defining the next decade of campus life.

Why Higher Ed Leaders Listen:
In one of the most consequential periods for academia, we move past the hype to focus on Human-Centered Innovation. Our episodes feature deep-dive interviews with guest experts focusing on the "real work" of institutional evolution.

Core Topics & AI Strategy:

* Artificial Intelligence: Practical AI adoption, governance, and the "Human in the Loop" mindset.

* Enrollment Marketing: Modern recruitment strategies and GEO (Generative Engine Optimization).

* Student Success: Data-driven retention, mental health, and digital engagement.

* Institutional Transformation: Navigating digital transformation with a focus on workforce readiness and AVPs reimagining student care.

Whether you are a C-suite leader, IT Director, or Faculty member, join our community of 100,000+ professionals and subscribe to The Signal Newsletter at EdTechConnect.com to stay ahead of the curve.

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28 episodes
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Avg 30 min
English

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#107
Today · 31 min
Ep. 107 - Si Elliott: Change Your Shoes, Not Your Software
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 Notting
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#106
September 25 · 31 min
Ep. 106 - Jeffrey Stepakoff: Content Is What You Put in a Sofa
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
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#105
September 18 · 24 min
Ep. 105 -Michael Leggs: The Essay Was Never Evidence of Thinking
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. Micha
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S3 · E104
September 11 · 31 min
Ep. 104 - Raffi DerSimonian: Ikigai and purpose driven paths
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 ta
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#103
September 4 · 32 min
Ep. 103 - Jenny Petty: The Alignment Gap That's Bankrupting Higher Ed Marketing
Jeff Dillon talks to Jenny Petty, Vice President of Industry Relations and Advisory Services at Simpson Scarborough, who has spent over a decade inside higher ed—most recently as VP of Marketing Communications at the University of Montana, where she helped reverse a decade‑long enrollment decline. Jenny brings a rare combination of private‑sector marketing experience (including growing a Facebook community from under 200 to over 1 million at IGT, working with brands like Dolly Parton and Family
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#102
August 28 · 31 min
Ep. 102 - John Fees: The Insurance Founder Who Says His Own Company Shouldn't Have to Exist
What if the best measure of an insurance company's success isn't how many claims it denies, but how many it pays—and how many of those students re-enroll? In this episode, host Jeff Dillon sits down with John Fees, co-founder and CEO of GradGuard, a fintech company that has protected more than two million students across 750 colleges and universities. John brings a rare perspective: he's a founder who built his first company in higher ed in 1999, sold companies to Viacom and JP Morgan Chase, and
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#101
August 21 · 33 min
Ep. 101 - Jeff Wilser: How One Chatbot Cut Summer Melt in Half
In a world drowning in AI hype, how do you separate what's actually useful from what's just shiny? And what happens when the people building AI can't even agree on where it's going? Jeff Dillon sits down with Jeff Wilser, a journalist-turned-AI-strategist who has written for The New York Times, Wired, and GQ, hosted the AI Curious podcast (named by Inc. as one of the best ways to get AI savvy), and spoken at Davos. Jeff brings a reporter's instinct for cutting through noise and a storyteller's
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#100
August 14 · 28 min
Ep. 100 - Wendy Wong: Stop Asking What Users Want - Show Them Instead
In this episode—the 100th recording of The Signal—host Jeff Dillon sits down with Wendy Wong, Director of Enterprise Support and Client Engagement at Florida Atlantic University, who has spent 24 years transforming IT from a back‑office function into a driver of student and employee experience. Wendy shares the story behind OwlOne (FAU's branded version of Nebula One), a no‑code AI agent platform that sits in FAU's Azure infrastructure, giving the university complete control while avoiding the s
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#99
August 7 · 31 min
Ep. 99 - Brian Hartnack: Higher Ed Just Lost 25% of Its Search Traffic
What happens when an enrollment marketing agency that's been at it for 20 years looks back and realizes their biggest lesson wasn't about campaigns—it was about finding the right partners? In this episode, host Jeff Dillon sits down with Brian Hartnack, CEO of Archer Education, which just celebrated its 20th anniversary and was named Enrollment Management Solutions Provider of the Year. Brian shares the two founding principles that have guided Archer from day one: treat prospective students like
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#98
July 31 · 30 min
Ep. 98 - Andy Crestodina: There's No Appeals Process when AI Picks Your School
What happens when a prospective student asks ChatGPT for the best computer science program in the Midwest—and gets a complete answer without ever clicking on your website? For higher ed marketers who've spent 15 years optimizing for clicks, that shift changes everything. In this episode, host Jeff Dillon sits down with Andy Crestodina, co-founder and CMO of Orbit Media and author of Content Chemistry, to unpack what AI search really means for colleges and universities. Andy, who has been doing S
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#97
July 24 · 32 min
Ep. 97 - Russell Long: Stop Blaming AI. Your Data is the Problem
Every CIO I talk to wants to know how to get AI ready. But according to Russell Long, co-founder and CEO of Authentica Solutions, most institutions are asking the wrong question. The real bottleneck isn't choosing the right AI model—it's unifying the data that feeds it. In this episode, host Jeff Dillon sits down with Russell, who has spent two decades building the data infrastructure that sits quietly underneath education technology. He's taken a company through acquisition by BrightBytes (lat
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#96
July 17 · 34 min
Ep. 96 - Troy Holaday: 52,000 Degrees Were Already Earned. They Just Hadn't Been Found.
Transfer credit is one of higher ed's most persistent headaches. Students lose credits, take longer to graduate, and navigate a labyrinth of institutional policies that often feel designed to frustrate rather than help. But according to Troy Holaday, president of CollegeSource, the narrative that "transfer is broken" is outdated—and it's getting in the way of real progress. In this episode, host Jeff Dillon sits down with Troy, a former academic advisor and professor who spent 16 years inside Ba
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#95
July 10 · 32 min
Ep. 95 - Jeff Meade: Why Paul Quinn College Made Entrepreneurship a Graduation Requirement
What if a college degree required not just passing classes—but launching a real business? In this episode, host Jeff Dillon sits down with Jeff Meade, Founding Director of Entrepreneurship at Paul Quinn College, where "Every Quinnite Is an Entrepreneur" isn't a slogan—it's a graduation requirement. Every student, regardless of major, must start and launch a venture before they leave campus. Jeff brings over 20 years of agency and consulting experience to higher ed, and he's using that builder mi
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#94
July 3 · 31 min
Ep. 94 - Elysia Labita: Marketing Can't Out-Optimize Misalignment
What if the biggest barrier to enrollment growth isn't your marketing budget—but your program portfolio itself? In this episode, host Jeff Dillon sits down with Elysia Labita, Executive Director of Portfolio Strategy and Marketing at EdPlus at Arizona State University. Over the past decade, Elysia has helped scale ASU Online from roughly four programs to more than 400, serving over 118,000 students. She brings a provocative and practical lens to one of higher ed's most uncomfortable conversation
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#93
June 26 · 33 min
Ep. 93 - Dave Tucker: The Note Taker's Dilemma — Why Lectures Are Mostly Wasted
What if the biggest barrier to student success isn't ability—but the belief that effort is even worth it? In this episode, host Jeff Dillon sits down with Dave Tucker, founder and CEO of Genio, a learning technology company that's been quietly transforming how students study, learn, and persist for nearly two decades. What started as an assistive note-taking tool for students with dyslexia has evolved into a platform used by over 900 institutions worldwide, supporting more than 160,000 learners—
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#92
June 19 · 31 min
Ep. 92 - Paula French: From Clicks to Conversions—A Practical Playbook for AI Search
Your traffic is down. Your inquiries are flattening. But your applications haven't dropped. What's happening? The front door just moved—and most higher ed marketers haven't noticed. In this episode, Jeff Dillon welcomes Paula French, Director of Sales and Marketing at Search Influence, a digital marketing agency with more than 16 years of experience helping institutions stay visible online. Paula co-authored a groundbreaking study with UPCEA titled AI Search in Higher Education: How Prospects Se
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#91
June 12 · 31 min
Ep. 91 - Mallory Willsea: Activity vs. Strategy—Why Higher Ed Marketing Measures the Wrong Things
After nearly 20 years watching colleges pour millions into sameness—the same viewbooks, the same home page videos, the same taglines—Mallory Willsea has a message for higher ed: stop mistaking activity for strategy. In this episode, Jeff Dillon sits down with Mallory, a strategist and consultant who has been shaping digital marketing in higher ed since the early days of social media. From her early experiments with YouTube recruitment videos at St. Michael's College to co-founding Higher Ed Icon
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#90
June 5 · 30 min
Ep. 90 - Haley Platt: Breaking the Information Barrier: How First-Gen Students Navigate College
What happens when a recent college graduate who grew up with smartphones, social media, and the chaos of modern college applications becomes a chief marketing officer? You get a perspective that most higher ed leaders desperately need but rarely hear. In this episode, host Jeff Dillon welcomes Haley Platt, Chief Marketing Officer at Síembra Mobile—a company building technology to connect first-generation students and families with post-secondary pathways. At just 23 years old, Haley made the lea
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#89
May 29 · 31 min
Ep. 89 - Leslie Weller: How AI Site Search Turns Student Discovery Into a Competitive Advantage
Every month, nearly half a million people type questions into your university's search bar. They're telling you exactly what they want to know—about deadlines, transfer credits, program fit. And yet, 31% of higher ed digital teams have no access to that data at all. In this episode, Jeff Dillon welcomes Leslie Weller, Director of Product Marketing at SearchStax, a site search platform helping colleges and universities transform how students find information online. Leslie brings over 25 years of
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#88
May 22 · 30 min
Ep. 88 - Brian Clark: Building RISD's Digital Future at Scale
What happens when a prestigious art and design school has over a hundred siloed websites, each with its own content management system, hosting arrangement, and visual identity—many of them orphaned and unmaintained? You get a digital governance nightmare. But you also get a rare opportunity to rebuild from first principles. In this episode, Jeff Dillon welcomes Brian Clark, Senior Director of Digital Experience at the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD). Brian shares the remarkable story of how
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