2008 Conference Speakers

John Baworowsky - Vice President for Enrollment Management, Hood College

John Baworowsky consults for Noel-Levitz from his position as vice president for enrollment management at Hood College (MD). He offers more than 25 years of experience combining his skills in enrollment management and public relations into effective direct mail, publications, marketing, writing, and financial aid strategies.

In his current duties at Hood College, Mr. Baworowsky is responsible for overseeing the recruitment and retention of freshmen, transfer students, and adult students. In addition he oversees the financial aid and scholarship offices of the institution.

Previously, Mr. Baworowsky served as vice president for enrollment and academic services at Saint Louis University (MO). In his three years at SLU, Mr. Baworowsky led the institution to a 15 percent increase in freshmen while reducing the tuition discount rate by three percentage points, increasing net revenue by over $4,000 per student. He merged the financial aid office and the bursar's office into a one stop financial operation and brought new technologies to the admission office that increased student search response rates from 2.3 percent to 14 percent.

Mr. Baworowsky has also served and as vice president for enrollment and student affairs at the Illinois Institute of Technology. In two-and-a-half years at IIT, he led a 57 percent increase in students and a significant increase in net revenue per student, all while increasing IIT’s academic profile. Before that, he was vice president for admission and financial aid at North Park University (IL). Over a five-year period, he played an instrumental role in North Park's41 percent increase in first-year students and four-point increase in average ACT scores. He has also served as director of public relations at Aurora University (IL) and Benedictine University (IL).

Education

Mr. Baworowsky received his master’s degree from the University of Miami (FL) and is working toward his Ph.D. at St. Louis University.

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Mary Chase - Asst. Vice President for Enrollment Management and Director of Admissions and Scholarships, Creighton University

Mary Chase has nearly fifteen years of experience in admissions and enrollment management.  She has been at Creighton University since 2004 and currently serves as the assistant vice president for enrollment management.  During her time at Creighton the university has enrolled four of the five largest classes in school history culminating in record overall enrollment.  Academic profile and diversity have also increased under her leadership.  Mary continuously seeks new and innovative ways to integrate technology into the recruitment process and played a significant role in Creighton’s initiative to be one of the first institutions to notify students of their admission decision by text message. 

Prior to coming to Creighton Ms. Chase consulted full-time for Noel-Levitz, the leading enrollment management consulting firm in North America.  While partnering with more than 30 institutions her consulting expertise includes new enrollment management technologies, database communications, predictive modeling, and staff training and development.  Noted for her expertise in personalizing the admission process and analytics, her counsel has been highly valued by colleges and universities across the nation. Mary continues to consult part-time with institutions. 

Ms. Chase began her career serving in the admissions office at Buena Vista University as well as the head women’s golf coach.  Throughout her time at the University, record enrollments were experienced accompanied by greater student retention and improved student quality.  She also led the first Buena Vista women’s golf team to win an Iowa Conference Championship and produced the first ever national qualifying team.

Mary is a graduate of Briar Cliff College and has a master's degree in higher education from the University of Iowa.

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Gary Fretwell - Senior Vice President, Noel-Levitz

As a senior vice president and a consultant for Noel-Levitz, Gary Fretwell has been a strong catalyst for enrollment success on hundreds of campuses throughout North America. His recommendations and guidance have helped institutions establish strategic and tactical enrollment plans, train staff and faculty in enrollment management practices, and coordinate comprehensive enrollment management initiatives for both graduate and undergraduate programs.
Mr. Fretwell has launched comprehensive enrollment initiatives on more than 350 campuses. He has consulted with institutions such as Wake Forest University (NC), Babcock Graduate School of Business (NC), American University (DC), Carleton University (ON), Bradley University (IL), Lynchburg College (VA), and Defiance College (OH). His work with the University of North Carolina Pembroke helped that campus increase student enrollment by more than 25 percent in just one year, while another campus, Nova Southeastern University (FL), saw new student undergraduate enrollment jump 48 percent and net tuition revenue rise dramatically thanks to Mr. Fretwell’s assistance.

In addition to providing consulting services, Mr. Fretwell frequently delivers presentations on such topics as strategic enrollment management, developing a campuswide retention program, graduate and professional school recruitment, and mobilizing your campus to achieve enrollment success. Mr. Fretwell has conducted hundreds of workshops and presentations at international, national and regional conferences in higher education, including the International Roundtable of Residential Colleges in Oxford, England.

Previous campus experience

Over the course of his 30-year career in higher education, Mr. Fretwell has served as vice president for enrollment and student affairs and dean at Millsaps College (MS). He has also held a variety of administrative posts at Tulane University (LA) and the University of South Florida. In 1995, his retention program at Millsap's received a Retention Excellence Award from Noel-Levitz in honor of the best-retained class in Millsaps 105-year history.

Education

Mr. Fretwell holds an M.A. from Stetson University (FL).

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Lance Merker - CEO, OmniUpdate, Inc.

Lance Merker is CEO of OmniUpdate, Inc., the leading provider of Web CMS and social networking solutions to higher education.  He is a regular industry guest speaker on the topic of technology and marketing in higher education.  More than 450 college and university websites currently use OmniUpdate to maintain more than three million pages of content.  Lance can be reached at 805-484-9400 or lance@omniupdate.com.

 

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Darren Wacker - Higher Education Consultant, James Tower

Darren Wacker is a Consultant and Business Development Executive with James Tower. Over the past six years, he has worked with the higher education team to develop and implement e-communication strategies for higher education institutions. Mr. Wacker works with new and existing clients to tightly define prospective student recruitment objectives, and the appropriate strategies and solutions for meeting them. Mr. Wacker has served and continues to work with a number of institutions including the University of Wisconsin-Stout, Clark Atlanta University, and Creighton University.

In addition to his role as consultant and client advocate, Mr. Wacker also provides presentations on recruitment strategies and technology marketing for regional and national conferences.

Prior to becoming an account manager with James Tower, Mr. Wacker was a producer/videographer/editor for corporate and higher education clients. He produced a number of award-winning multimedia and video projects for clients and worked to define marketing communications strategies for the Web and traditional communications.

Mr. Wacker attended Buena Vista College (now University) in Storm Lake, Iowa, prior to receiving his Bachelor’s of Journalism degree from the University of Nebraska at Lincoln.

You can contact Mr. Wacker at 507-386-1845 or DRWacker@jamestower.com.

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Christian Burk - Coordinator, Creighton University

Christian Burk is the web manager for Creighton University's Admissions website. At Creighton, he helped launch a new site for admissions in 2007. He also has brought new technologies to the site, incorporating social networking, video, blogs, instant messaging, rss-based photo slideshows and other Web 2.0 tools. When he is not rewriting web copy, re-jiggering the HTML or adding more Flash components to the site, he can be found trolling the tech blogs to see what's on the horizon.

Prior to coming to Creighton, Mr. Burk worked in marketing and public relations in Omaha for eight years.

He studied creative writing, receiving his Master of Arts in English from the University of Illinois at Chicago.

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Tom McCleery - District Sales Manager, Curtis 1000

Tom McCleery is a District Sales Manager with Curtis 1000, a nationwide leader in color-variable printing technology. During the past 12 years he has worked in the direct mail industry with financial, manufacturing, retail and non-profit clients.

Tom is noted for his expertise in the use of color-variable printing to increase client response rates and decrease the cost-per-response. As a member of the Curtis 1000 CampusWise Team, he has partnered with many colleges and universities throughout the Midwest including Illinois Wesleyan University, Illinois State University, Lindenwood University and Westminster College to increase response rates from direct mail solicitations.

Tom is a graduate of Washington University in St. Louis.

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