By Bella Grimaldi Staff Writer What is your academic and professional background? I have a bachelor of arts and a master of arts in communications. My bachelor of arts is from the University of New Hampshire, and my master's is from Georgia State University in Atlanta. In between those two degrees, I started off as a graphic designer and a production artist working in direct mail advertising, and then I worked for a local publisher in Boston called America's Test Kitchen. It's the publishing company that makes Cook’s Illustrated magazine, and I worked there. And then I went to grad school, and after grad school, I made my focus working in communications and marketing for higher education. I worked for Georgia State University for five years doing communications work for them. I took some time off from higher education and I worked in digital media for a number of years. I worked for CNN, I worked for How Stuff Works, and I worked for a radio program called Live Wire radio, mainly doing communications and marketing at How Stuff Works. At CNN, I was a writer, and I was a multimedia host there as well. Then, I went back to higher education in 2021, and I started working for Portland State University in Portland, Oregon, and now I'm here at Framingham State. What is one aspect of your job that is unique? In higher education, marketing and communications aren't always the biggest priority for universities, so it's unique in the sense that there aren't a lot of people who work in universities who have these backgrounds and skill sets. They're usually pretty small teams, and that's the case at Framingham. I think we have eight people on our team. I manage the University's budget for advertising - specifically for how we recruit prospective new students for enrollment - and that can be everything from working together with vendors like advertising vendors or platforms, doing research on audiences and our share of voice and then assessing the data from our advertising and seeing if it was successful, or if we need to change strategies. What is something students wouldn't know or expect about you? What are some of your hobbies? I started off not as a marketing person, but I started off in music, playing in punk and hardcore bands in the Boston music scene in the ’90s. I also write fiction on the side. I write for comic books and I write short horror stories as well. I like to read a lot, too. I read kind of a mix of everything, but I'm a horror nerd, so I'm very involved in the horror writing community, and I'm a previous member of the Horror Writing Association. I have one dog named Winn, and he's my constant companion, and we go hiking into parks and exploring on adventures. I'm still into music. I don't play music anymore, but I still enjoy going to see shows - not just punk, but I go to metal shows or really kind of anything. How will Framingham State's marketing change under your leadership? One of the big things that we're working on right now is developing a marketing strategy for the University that will align with the strategic plan that the University set up, and also the strategic enrollment plan that was already built, I believe, a year ago. We're trying to set that up, and what'll be different about that is I try to be very intentional about data-driven decision-making when it comes to marketing, and that involves brand management. It also involves setting up a strategy for social media and involving best practices. I would also say I try to think about marketing a little differently than most marketing people do. My background training as an academic is actually rhetorical criticism, not in marketing per se, and I believe that the basic principles of public speaking are applicable to all communications and marketing. I work from there, and then I try to incorporate the best practices of contemporary technology and society. What drew you to Framingham State? I was really excited about Framingham State because I really like the campus and the community. Framingham State is very different from where I've worked before. I previously worked at urban research universities, which were smack in the downtown of major metropolises. Framingham State just has one really beautiful, traditional, physical campus. Something that I've just been really excited about since I got here is there's just a great community and an atmosphere of belonging at Framingham State that I haven't experienced at other universities, both with the students and with the faculty and staff. What advice would you offer students at Framingham State? If there are students who are into communications and marketing, I would say that it's important to have a strategy like I was talking about, and make data-based decisions, but I think it's also important to leave room for your gut and trust your instincts about what may or may not work. Then you can always come back and do an assessment to figure out if it was successful. I think the other thing I would recommend for people getting into marketing in general is that the marketing industry can become really obsessed with trends, and those trends aren't necessarily good for the goals or the audience of the institution that you're working for. Some recent examples would be NFTs, which were very popular two years ago. Right now, the big thing is AI, and I would just say, don't let the fear of missing out drive your strategy.