Leading Enrollment Through Disruption: The New Reality of Enrollment Leadership

Summary

For years, enrollment leaders have been told they need to modernize, innovate, and build resilience across every dimension of their practice. What's different is that resilience used to feel aspirational, but today it is mandatory. Decisions about staffing, technology, communication, and even which students to serve are no longer choices that can be deferred.

In this candid group discussion, Liaison's Sarah Coen, Chief Growth Officer, and Craig Cornell, Vice President of Enrollment Strategy, join host Stephen Taylor to explore what's driving that shift and what enrollment leaders can do about it. The conversation moves from the structural nature of today's disruptions, heavier than before, to the real cost of building enrollment operations around superhumans instead of systems. Sarah and Craig also discuss the role technology plays, not as a growth engine, but as a tool for risk management, real-time decision making, and staff sustainability.

TOPICS: Enrollment Management — AI

Key Moments in This Episode

Topic 1 | What the New Enrollment Reality Actually Feels Like

[00:42] The Disruptions Are Heavier, Not Just More Frequent
Sarah Coen opens the conversation by reframing the current moment: the headwinds enrollment leaders face are not entirely new, but their weight and scale have grown considerably. She points to staff burnout as one of the most significant downstream effects, driven by a pressure environment that keeps layering new complexity on top of an already demanding job.

[03:48] Staying Focused When Everything Is Competing for Attention
Sarah makes the case that strong enrollment leadership requires a disciplined return to core priorities: what do students want, what is the strategy, and how efficient are current workflows? She argues that leaders who step back to examine their own processes, rather than defaulting to how things have always been done, will be better positioned to weather ongoing disruption.

Topic 2 | Leading Enrollment Without Relying on Superhumans

[12:55] The Cost of Building Systems Around Exceptional People
Steve introduces a Peter Drucker quote on the risk of organizations that require superhumans to function, and Sarah connects it directly to enrollment leadership. She makes a pointed case for broader institutional support, more cross-campus collaboration, and realistic expectations around what enrollment leaders can reasonably be held accountable for on their own.

[17:56] Breaking Silos and Speaking the Right Language
Craig argues that enrollment leaders must be willing to cut through institutional silos, and that doing so requires speaking the “native language” of each stakeholder audience. He illustrates the point with a concrete example: framing financial aid requests in terms of net tuition revenue and discount rates, rather than recruitment need, changes the entire dynamic with a CFO.

Topic 3 | Technology and AI as a Leadership Strategy

[19:34] From Year-End Reflection to Real-Time Decision Making
Craig describes a meaningful shift in what is now possible with technology. Instead of waiting until after a cycle ends to analyze and adjust, leaders can use predictive analytics and real-time data to make in-season decisions. He frames this not as a growth tool but as a risk management capability, one that also helps build credibility with boards and CFOs when the data is brought back to them consistently.

[23:18] AI Without the Hype
Sarah reframes the AI conversation away from fear and toward function, encouraging leaders to start by identifying the specific problem they are trying to solve before evaluating any tool. She suggests that the most practical near-term use of AI is not replacing people, but reducing the routine, time-consuming work that keeps talented staff from doing what they were hired to do.

Closing | Lightning Round

[28:43] A Lightning Round of Hard-Won Recommendations
Sarah and Craig each name three things enrollment leaders should prioritize in the next year. Their combined advice spans self-compassion, strategic vendor partnerships, staying current on student expectations, planning for disruption as a permanent condition, and building systems with the flexibility to adapt in real time.

Stephen Taylor
Vice President, Graduate Enrollment Strategy, Liaison

Steve joined the Liaison team in 2020 after almost 20 years in higher education administration. Leading teams and driving innovation at schools like Harvard Business School and ASU’s W. P. Carey School of Business, Steve’s experience has focused on the intersection of people, process, and systems as drivers of smart growth. His most recent school position was as Associate Dean for Arizona State University’s W. P. Carey School of Business, where he led the unit responsible for all graduate business programs. He holds undergraduate degrees in General Studies and Information Systems and graduate degrees in Business Administration and Philosophy.

Sarah Coen
Chief Growth Officer, Liaison

Sarah Coen joined the team at Liaison as the Chief Growth Officer after 30+ years in the higher education industry. She has served in executive enrollment positions on college campuses and spent nearly 20 years as a consultant and then as a Senior Vice President of Consulting Services at RNL. She brings extensive industry knowledge, campus experience, and a passion for leading teams to success. Sarah has a bachelor's degree from Miami University and a master's degree from Central Michigan University.

Craig Cornell
Vice President of Enrollment Strategy, Undergraduate and State Systems, Liaison

Craig Cornell is the Vice President for Enrollment Strategy at Liaison. In that capacity, he oversees a team of enrollment strategists and brings best practices, consultation, and data trends to campuses across the country in all things enrollment management. Craig also serves as the dedicated resource to NASH (National Association of Higher Education Systems) and works closely with the higher education system that Liaison supports. Before joining Liaison in 2023, Craig served for over 30 years in multiple higher education executive enrollment management positions. During his tenure, the campuses he served often received national recognition for enrollment growth, effective financial aid leveraging, marketing enhancements, and innovative enrollment strategies. Craig has published, consulted, been a keynote speaker, served on multiple boards, chaired national committees, and has presented for many state and national organizations on the many facets of strategic enrollment management and effective financial aid leveraging.

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