Higher Ed Icons
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Podcast Overview
<p>Celebrating the pioneers, thought leaders, trend setters, and change makers in higher education marketing. With your hosts: Voltaire Santos Miran and Mallory Willsea.</p>
Language
🇺🇲
Publishing Since
4/1/2026
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Recent Episodes
August 11, 2026
Episode 10 - The Perception Cliff, the Trajectory of Streaming, and the New Creepy Cool
In 2010, Jennifer Lonchar pitched retargeting to higher ed with “janky PowerPoint decks” and a Zappos analogy, and schools called it Big Brother. The schools that said yes rode the digital wave for a decade. The schools that said no spent years catching up. Fifteen years later, she's having the same conversation again — same skepticism, same "does it even work," same budget hesitation — this time about streaming TV, with her own name on the company. Jen walks Mallory and Volt through what category education costs when you're early: the 3 years before real adoption, the cartwheels down the hallway over the first $100K contract, and the University of Cincinnati campaign that had a recruiter in Vietnam calling to ask why students kept showing up saying they saw the school everywhere. Then she gets into the second bet — the business partner who spent a year and a half convincing her, the 2 years of self-doubt before she printed AmbioEdu business cards for NACAC, and what it means that founding something felt like jumping off a cliff with your eyes closed even after being right the first time. The argument underneath: branding is lead generation. Students don't fill out forms for schools they've never heard of, and if you're waiting until they know your name to show up, someone else got there first. The living room, as Jen puts it, is the new quad. 🔑 What You'll Take Away Why the schools that called retargeting "creepy" in 2010 are the same ones struggling now and what that predicts about streaming How Jen sold digital before anyone was buying, and why being early means paying an education tax What streaming TV targeting can do at the household level Why the branding-versus-lead-generation debate is a false choice What the perception cliff is, why a Got Milk moment for higher ed hasn't happened, and who would have to fund one The doubt underneath a track record: what it took to bet on a second wave with her own name on the door
July 28, 2026
Episode 9 - The J. Crew Dean, the Need for Hip, and the Importance of Vibe
Lee Coffin made Tufts cool. Then he walked into Dartmouth and did it again. Over 30 years, Coffin turned two very good universities into two of the most wanted schools in the country. He gave the field its language — "the qualified muddle," the creative essay, the case for putting voice next to data on every application. In 2024 he made Dartmouth the first Ivy to bring back the SAT, and the rest of the Ivy League followed inside a year. He's spent the last 32 years and 100-plus podcast episodes pulling the curtain back on the whole process. If higher ed admissions has icons, Lee Coffin is one of them. We got him for the kind of conversation you only hear from someone in the top of the ninth, his words. He explains why volume is not the coin of the realm, even at a 6 percent admit rate. How he turned a test score into a story by reading it against the room it came from. Why he leaned Dartmouth all the way into rural when a consultant told him to sell urban. And what it costs to be the warmest gatekeeper in the Ivy League and still say no to 94 of every 100 students who knock. We also get into where it started: a public-school guidance counselor who looked at a straight-A kid and said "I don't have time for the smart ones," and the first-gen instinct that became a 30-year practice of translating this process for the families nobody helps. 🔑 What You'll Take Away Why a bigger pile of applications isn't a win and what selective colleges chase instead How a test score means more once you know the school behind it Why so many applicants look identical on paper and the idea ("the qualified muddle") that changed how schools tell them apart What it costs to love saying yes in a job that means rejecting almost everyone Why a student's grades and their story work as a team
July 21, 2026
Bonus Episode - The Hard Things Institutions Don't Do and the Lies That They Tell
Every institution claims students belong there. Dayana Kibilds says that claim falls apart the second you hold it up against the experience students find when they arrive. She has worked every seat this industry offers. She led domestic recruitment at Western University, ran brand and messaging engagements at Ologie across dozens of institutions, and now serves as AVP of marketing and community at Simpson Scarborough. She co-wrote Mailed It, the book higher ed marketers reach for when their email program stops performing. OnDeck Marketing CEO John Reid takes the host chair for this one. Day’s argument: the field avoids talking about the parts that are hard, and students pay for that. Academically rigorous institutions leave the rigor out of the marketing, so students show up unprepared for the reality. Every institution names community as its differentiator, which drains the word of meaning. Getting closer to right means showing instead of telling, then letting the audience decide whether the challenge described is the one they want. 🔑 What You'll Take Away Why "everyone belongs here" flattened institutional differentiation across the field What separates institutions closer to getting brand right from the ones repeating the same claim How to pitch a pilot when there is no data and no support in the room Why Day reversed her position on print and in-school presence The audience question that sits underneath every channel decision Thank you to our founding sponsor. OnDeck Marketing keeps colleges and universities visible where high school decisions actually start—inside the school day. Their North American in-school network puts branded screens in high schools and runs digital channels that maintain consistent presence in feeder markets, so institutions don't go dark on students before they ever start searching. Learn more at ondeckmktg.com.
12 total episodes available
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- What is Higher Ed Icons?
<p>Celebrating the pioneers, thought leaders, trend setters, and change makers in higher education marketing. With your hosts: Voltaire Santos Miran and Mallory Willsea.</p> - How often does this podcast release new episodes?
This podcast updates daily.
- Where can I listen to this podcast?
This podcast is available on 4 platforms including Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and more. You can also use the RSS feed directly.
- Does this podcast accept guests?
Yes, this podcast regularly features guests.
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