The Signal

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 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 bring...

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 Azur...

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 principle...

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...

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 educat...

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 Tro...

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 ...

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 a...

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 ...

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 ...

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 YouT...

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...

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 transfo...

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 I...

What happens when a sitting vice president of enrollment management—who evaluates and buys ed tech every day—decides to build his own solution to a problem he's lived for 15 years? You get a conversation that cuts through the hype and gets real about what actually works in higher ed technology.

In this episode, host Jeff Dillon welcomes Grant Greenwood, VP for Enrollment Management and COO at McMurry University, and co-...

What happens when a data scientist who built over 100 enterprise AI solutions for Fortune 500 companies decides to walk away from the money and prestige to tackle student success in higher ed? You get a founder who understands both the power and the limits of AI—and who isn't afraid to say that most chatbots are solving the wrong problem.

In this episode, host Jeff Dillon sits down with Arjun Arora, founder and CEO of Advisor...

What happens when a former gubernatorial candidate, healthcare CEO, and state budget director steps into the college president's office? You get a leader who doesn't accept "that's how higher ed has always done it" as an answer.

In this episode, host Jeff Dillon sits down with Jay Gonzalez, the 15th president of Curry College—a leader whose resume looks nothing like a traditional academic career. From running a $32 billion st...

Is higher education using AI to simply do the same things faster, or are we on the cusp of a genuine transformation in how students learn, access support, and build opportunity?

In this episode, host Jeff Dillon welcomes Dr. Betheny Gross, Research Director at WGU Labs, for a candid, research-grounded conversation about where AI is actually moving the needle for students—and where it's falling short. With over two decades of ...