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Sharlyn, Content Strong: So Hello, and welcome to higher thinking on higher. Ed. I am Sharlyn Carrington of content. Strong communications. We guide universities, colleges, small businesses through content crisis lead Gen and digital strategy solutions. Today I am super excited to continue diving into the trends and the challenges encountered by communications and marketing leaders in Higher Ed, and I am super honored

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Sharlyn, Content Strong: to welcome Brett Ludwig here to the table today Brett is the chief marketing and communications officer at Lehigh University, where he leads strategy across brand public affairs and executive communications with a background spanning fortune, 20 corporations and higher. Ed. Brett brings deep, deep expertise in reputation, management, institutional storytelling and navigating complex stakeholder landscapes. Thank you so much. Again, Brett, for bringing your expertise to this conversation. How are you doing today?

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Brett Ludwig: Yeah, Charlotte, I'm doing great, and I can probably promise one of those deeps. But I'm not sure I can give you deep, deep expertise. But.

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Sharlyn, Content Strong: Oh, you don't give yourself enough credit, Brett.

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Brett Ludwig: And I'm the one who's humbled to join you today and and talk about all of the things that are happening within the higher Ed landscape and more broadly within the marketing communications and even brand space that has impacts across industries and and across geographies. Because I think

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Brett Ludwig: we're at a super interesting space, both in terms of technology, consumer sentiment, societal impact. It's just it's it's a wonderful time to be a communicator. It's a challenging time to be a communicator, and I can't wait to dig into those topics with you.

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Sharlyn, Content Strong: Oh, good! I'm so happy to have you okay. Well, you know, I did speak a little bit about your background. But the 1st question I always like to ask really is just around your role. So I know you've come into higher Ed from this kind of long corporate background. And I'm just thinking about how that has shaped the way you approach your role right now at Lehigh, and what's felt

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Sharlyn, Content Strong: I don't know the most different or the most challenging about this sector.

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Brett Ludwig: Yeah. So thank you for that. I joined Lehigh University in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, just 3 years ago. Coming out of a 25 year career in industry. I was in healthcare. I was in insurance. I had a stint, as most of us do, as a newspaper reporter. And so so you know. 3 years ago

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Brett Ludwig: the headwinds were very different in higher Ed than they are today, of course, especially for us based institutions. But here's what I think. I think that coming in with a perspective from industry and from for-profit publicly traded companies, has been very helpful.

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Brett Ludwig: So number one, I come in, not as a member of the Academy who has a depth

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Brett Ludwig: and a history within higher Ed. But someone who comes in as an outsider right, and that brings both fresh perspectives, and also an innate curiosity to be able to say, Hey, I don't understand this. Help me understand. And and if you you approach a new role in a new industry with equal parts, confidence, and curiosity and humility.

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Brett Ludwig: Which, you know, I always try to do with a new role, but especially in a new industry. You learn a lot you get a chance to see. Oh, here's how the expertise I can bring can be applied. And also here are the macro and micro trends that I wasn't aware of, and how we can figure that out and harness that.

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Brett Ludwig: And so so what I think is curiosity is is key, especially in higher Ed, especially right now, being willing to ask questions, being willing to understand what are the dynamics? How do they operate? What are the external factors that are driving policy and procedure? What are the internal dynamics within our university? How do they work in concert, or at times in conflict with one another.

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Brett Ludwig: And where can we really step in as communication leaders, marketing leaders, brand leaders and help guide us towards a path that drives student outcomes that drives faculty research outcomes and ultimately societal value.

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Sharlyn, Content Strong: And, as usual, you said something that brought up other questions that were not originally planned to ask. But I mean, my big question is always going to be. You know, you talked about driving your institution forward just there. I want to think just a little bit about your role specifically, and how you think your role kind of shapes where your institution is going.

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Brett Ludwig: Yeah. So at Lehigh I I joined at a real inflection point and a lovely time to join a university. You know Lehigh's a a mid size. Residential Research University.

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Brett Ludwig: Very strong and well known in in the market. We are in but not as well known with lower awareness nationally, and so I joined just as we were embarking on a new strategic planning process.

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Sharlyn, Content Strong: Okay.

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Brett Ludwig: And I think that timing was perfect, because, having a senior communications leader involved in the gathering of data, the evaluation of that data in the actual crafting

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Brett Ludwig: of a of a long term. 10 year. Strategic plan was perfect timing, and and I say I was involved. But it was really the team that I lead very intimately involved in crafting our plan for the future called inspiring the future makers, and we use the term future makers to to think about both in terms of

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Brett Ludwig: Individuals who are are coming to Lehigh.

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Brett Ludwig: who are looking to make things right. Research make contributions, make societal impact, but also changing and shaping the future into ways that we can't even imagine.

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Brett Ludwig: And so I think that that strategy at at this moment in time is just so was so prescient that we landed on that 3 years ago. So so this role, I think, for for us as communicators, as marketers, as strategic brand advisors is vital

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Brett Ludwig: in terms of delivering on a strategic plan that has such a bold and

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Brett Ludwig: aggressive goals in it. And our plan is 3 main goals, 10 big initiatives. We, as our as the communications function, are actually leading one of those 10 initiatives focused on community engagement and involvement in in two-way multi-way

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Brett Ludwig: vital connection, which is amazing.

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Brett Ludwig: And and so I think that we we have impact in a variety of ways. I'll tell you what I think is most important for us as communicators, and I've I felt this way since I 1st started back in corporate in the late nineties which which dates me. But that's fine.

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Brett Ludwig: If if

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Brett Ludwig: if we don't understand the business that we're in and the the solid business fundamentals, then we will be

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Brett Ludwig: hard pressed to deliver the greatest value towards.

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Sharlyn, Content Strong: Absolutely.

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Brett Ludwig: Moving forth outcomes. So the 1st thing I did, after after

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Brett Ludwig: showing up and figuring out, what does a provost do? How do the Deans function and connect in? What does the Cabinet look like? What is my role in the Cabinet look like relative to other members of Cabinet? Was I really sat down with the Controller and with the Vice President of Finance, to understand what are the drivers of this business? Right?

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Brett Ludwig: And it's very different than in corporate in corporate. The drivers are very clear in a balance sheet you go through P. And L. You understand your customer base in higher Ed. We have a constituents that could be 15 year olds right.

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Sharlyn, Content Strong: Yeah.

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Brett Ludwig: For exactly one year, so that is, is both a migratory and a very unique, right, generational bunch. And then their parents.

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Brett Ludwig: And then alumni

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Brett Ludwig: who are on the typically the other end of the spectrum, and then policymakers, and then tenured faculty and staff members who are truly passionate and dedicated about what they do. Faculty dedicated to the furthering of research and helping students grow and understand the world around them. The audiences are so broad and diverse.

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Sharlyn, Content Strong: Fraud.

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Brett Ludwig: And the revenue streams are quite diverse as well. That drive financial success for institutions.

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Sharlyn, Content Strong: Right.

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Brett Ludwig: So I think, as communicators when we learn and understand how our strategies, how our technical implementation can help move forward with both the University's goals and mission. But so help drive from a revenue standpoint our our ultimate ability to be able to meet our revenue targets. Short term and long term. That's where the magic Sauce is.

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Sharlyn, Content Strong: I think you touched on a lot of things there. I mean, the biggest thing that I owe, and I have. This conversation, too, is the amount of stakeholders, the amount of people you're trying to reach, how you're trying to reach them, and what you're trying to say to them is so very different at

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Sharlyn, Content Strong: any given time, but still trying to drive your institution forward to this to this one goal. So it's almost like an interesting balancing act. And I want to pick up a little bit on what you said earlier. This idea about the time we're in and the challenge around the time we're in. So you did talk a little bit about that. In a previous conversation we had but this idea once again about the kind of the erosion of trust in the sector, and this struggle to communicate

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Sharlyn, Content Strong: the value of of post-secondary education. How do you think we kind of reclaim that narrative, and who needs to be at the table to do it.

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Brett Ludwig: Yeah, I it's it is, I think, the question

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Brett Ludwig: one of the big questions for the age we're in right. Sherlyn. So who would have thought that

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Brett Ludwig: maybe 2 or 3 years ago, who would have thought that the role of higher Ed in American society would be one of the top? Maybe 2

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Brett Ludwig: political themes that presidents and candidates would run on.

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Brett Ludwig: And yet that's what we experienced last November in in the Us. And that has global ramifications. Of course, right and and so, knowing that the value that a university provides is really under burned upon a microscope right now it creates both a challenge, and I think a huge opportunity

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Brett Ludwig: for those of us in higher Ed, and really for others, in the in the ecosystem that are not.

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Sharlyn, Content Strong: Right.

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Brett Ludwig: But organizations and institutions that benefit directly and indirectly from the outputs of the higher education landscape. And so here's what I mean by that when I think about the value that we provide as universities, we provide a number of different societal values. Number one, there's value in student outcomes. Right students are willing to invest money

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Brett Ludwig: to earn a degree there has to be. There's a there's more than a handshake agreement there. There has to be a delivery of something tangible

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Brett Ludwig: when you complete that degree. Right? And it isn't just economic, although the economics are really important. But what is it that you're preparing yourself to do? What connections are you making? What knowledge are you building that you wouldn't otherwise be able to gather, to create a more competitive you

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Brett Ludwig: to do whatever it is that you find meaning and also economic value in once you graduate. And I think for for me, student outcomes is a huge value that continues to get lost

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Brett Ludwig: in much of the public dialogue. That's 1 thing. The impact of research

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Brett Ludwig: is another thing. What we hear, I think again and again, is a conversation around university driven research that focuses too much on the cost and not nearly enough

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Brett Ludwig: on the impact that university driven research has.

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Sharlyn, Content Strong: On society.

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Brett Ludwig: On society, exactly.

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Sharlyn, Content Strong: Yeah.

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Brett Ludwig: The impact of global society cannot be understated right? Without university driven research, we wouldn't have

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Brett Ludwig: obvious and clear solutions for healthcare needs, for infrastructure based needs right? We wouldn't be driving on safe roads. We wouldn't be crossing rivers over safe bridges. We wouldn't be living in safe homes. We wouldn't be able to take on the disease states that are thankfully

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Brett Ludwig: knock on wood, a thing of the past that that's all. Driven by private public university partnership research programs.

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Sharlyn, Content Strong: Right.

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Brett Ludwig: And when we put that at risk, and when we question it from a purely financial standpoint, I think we really put ourselves at risk as a society for bending that really really terrific trajectory that the impact of research has. And then I would say, the 3rd thing is the experience and the lessons that you learn

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Brett Ludwig: in your journey throughout your college career serves as an incubator for the rest of your life, and and oftentimes that message gets a little bit perverted in public dialogue and discourse, and yet I think that there's a real tangible

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Brett Ludwig: benefit and value there. So in my mind, those are the 3

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Brett Ludwig: real huge benefits. There are many benefits to the value proposition of higher Ed, but I would categorize them like that. And, Charlotte, I'm interested. You talk to a lot of people in this industry. What do you think? How do you see the value of higher ed in society?

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Sharlyn, Content Strong: I? Oh, well, no one's ever asked me. It's usually me asking the questions. I mean, I'm a person who let's say it was raised in a household to just have the basic understanding that seeking knowledge and getting knowledge is critical. It is.

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Sharlyn, Content Strong: It's valuable for your own critical thinking to know how to operate in life, to know how to respond to problems that you're faced with Number one just on a very basic level, on a bigger level. To me. Higher education contributes to exactly what you said. It contributes to society, everyday human being, everyday things, the way we operate with computers, the way we operate with people the way we operate grocery stores, all of these things get down into.

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Sharlyn, Content Strong: How did you get that skill? How did you develop that new technology. Where did you get that from? You got it from? Likely you went to school, and you got training on it right? So that's the very basic level. The higher level of that is is creating an environment or an economy. And I mean, nationally, of course, and I mean regionally depending on where you are. But then the bigger picture, right? This idea that we have these, these global economies that are able to work with each other, that are able to identify.

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Sharlyn, Content Strong: You know where they have strengths, where they have weaknesses and be able to trade goods. Literally, I actually truly believe that our once again, I'm not the person being interviewed. But

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Sharlyn, Content Strong: you know I do believe that there's a there's a huge importance on this idea of seeking knowledge and and being.

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Sharlyn, Content Strong: and being skilled enough to take on and to tackle some of those bigger problems that we face in society through education, that you get at higher ed institutions, because otherwise

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Sharlyn, Content Strong: there is no avenue to do that right. There is no avenue to actually chase down those solutions to those problems, and

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Sharlyn, Content Strong: the problems are shifting. And the problems are changing every single day. And to me that is the biggest value of higher Ed is that in in these kind of environments we question that.

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Sharlyn, Content Strong: and we explore and we discover. And that to me is the is the bigger role of higher Ed is is doing that exploration work and finding out what is our what is our path forward to finding those solutions that benefit the most amount of people? In my opinion.

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Brett Ludwig: I love that, and and if I could build off of that because.

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Sharlyn, Content Strong: Belt.

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Brett Ludwig: Because the second part of your question is, how do we? How do we reclaim

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Brett Ludwig: the the public narrative? Right? Right? One thing, to understand what the value is. But right now the sentiment, I think, is, is not that. And so what you just shared, and especially that economic piece that you shared Charlotte. I don't believe that higher ed leadership and higher Ed. Trade associations are well positioned, or should be

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Brett Ludwig: the only voices to really counter the prevailing argument in the public spectrum. Right? I think they're a critical and vital voice. I think we need to hear from presidents and provosts and leaders within the university ecosystem. I think we need to hear from students. I think we need to hear from faculty

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Brett Ludwig: about the value of of the university system. However, I think the the very powerful story is talking and hearing from hiring managers, from business.

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Brett Ludwig: from Ceos, who would say, Hey! Without a university that creates and and immense

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Brett Ludwig: electrical engineers and health economics, brilliant scientists. I wouldn't be able to compete in the global marketplace. My company wouldn't be able to compete without the knowledge and the super smart, super, bright, super, curious, interdisciplinary, trained individuals coming out of the the higher end system.

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Brett Ludwig: I wouldn't be able to run my business. I wouldn't be able to hire competitive staff. I wouldn't be able to run a government. I wouldn't be able to manage

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Brett Ludwig: right

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Brett Ludwig: municipal systems. And I think that's the story that we really need to do. So. I think we need to find that public private partnership for sharing stories and demonstrating the value that goes far beyond just hearing from the university system themselves, or from trade associations representing universities.

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Sharlyn, Content Strong: I agree with you significantly, and to me it ties back to that main piece that you mentioned just even in the very beginning, all of the different stakeholder groups that you're managing, or you're working directly with the industry partners being a huge stakeholder and a huge audience and a huge prospective partner in all of that right.

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Sharlyn, Content Strong: I want to think a little bit like still talking of pulling on this string of what's going on in our today's climate with, you know, political pressure, with global competition, with digital disruption. What are the most pressing risks? Institutions like yours are trying to manage? And how does that actually shape your direct communications and marketing strategies?

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Brett Ludwig: Yeah. So I I think about, I think about every challenge and

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Brett Ludwig: and I. And so so we're in an opportunity. Rich environment.

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Brett Ludwig: There are plenty of plenty of challenges in the Us. We we have a political system that is a bit challenging for higher Ed, and that, you know, we can't have a conversation like this without acknowledging that elephant in the room.

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Sharlyn, Content Strong: Right.

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Brett Ludwig: That that we've got a we've got an executive branch who has put higher. Ed.

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Sharlyn, Content Strong: On the dropbox.

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Brett Ludwig: To, you know, into the.

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Sharlyn, Content Strong: Line of fire.

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Brett Ludwig: Science. Yep. And and here's what I think. I think that

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Brett Ludwig: a lot of what we hear, and a lot of what we see is driven by a a narrative, that is.

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Brett Ludwig: and so it is. It is incumbent on us, as members of higher ed leadership, to help counter that right, to do that through our own

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Brett Ludwig: very substantive work in relationship building with elected officials. So I'll talk very specifically about Lehigh and and politics for a moment, we believe strongly, and our President has been very outspoken on this topic.

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Brett Ludwig: The the strongest

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Brett Ludwig: efforts we can make are to continue to build really good working relationships with the elected officials from the districts that represent where we're located.

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Sharlyn, Content Strong: Right.

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Brett Ludwig: Russ we're in. We're in Pennsylvania. We have 2 very thoughtful Senators and the Us. Congressmen, who we've maintained very strong relationships with with the Representatives themselves, the Senators themselves, and members of their staff.

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Brett Ludwig: and they've been very receptive to having conversations and exploring the topics related to policy related to legislation related to budget reconciliation. Now, we're not always going to agree.

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Brett Ludwig: and that's to be expected. That's always been the case right? And in the political arena, but having open productive conversations, I think, is the way that we can really influence and drive some positive impact. I think the war of words is never going to be

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Brett Ludwig: one

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Brett Ludwig: in the current political environment. I don't think we'll ever be able to legislate by OP-ed in a way that's going to be as productive as we would. And I'm not saying that there isn't a role

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Brett Ludwig: for thoughtful opinion pieces and contributed articles sharing perspectives. But I do believe that doing the work and building those relationships and continuing those relationships at the elected official level at the the

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Brett Ludwig: government agency level will will benefit us far greater over time.

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Brett Ludwig: And I think that that's a way for us to approach the current political environment. Now, that's 1 challenge

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Brett Ludwig: you mentioned technology. Another thing we need to talk about is artificial intelligence, right?

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Sharlyn, Content Strong: Right.

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Brett Ludwig: Generative. AI. We can't have a conversation around higher Ed, or society, or communications, or marketing.

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Sharlyn, Content Strong: So.

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Brett Ludwig: Without talking.

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Brett Ludwig: It's a topic that I'm very passionate about, and that we are very passionate about. At Lehigh. We took the perspective early on to see and view artificial intelligence as a very strategic tool and a differentiator. And I'm very glad, and I feel fortunate that we've done that. So we see AI as a learning opportunity and as a tool in a system that students, faculty and staff alike

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Brett Ludwig: really need to understand how we can best benefit.

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Sharlyn, Content Strong: Right.

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Brett Ludwig: From from the tool, and also understand.

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Brett Ludwig: like maybe no other technology. Since the advent of the personal computer, right or email, the ethics and the morality that underpin this particular technology. And so so we're taking that off formed an AI Council

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Brett Ludwig: Advisory Council that spans both faculty and staff expertise to evaluate. How do we utilize artificial intelligence, tools and technology in the classroom outside the classroom to help benefit the way that we provide access to education and research, and also where and how do we put the guardrails in place.

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Sharlyn, Content Strong: You're right.

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Brett Ludwig: We're being thoughtful about its use. In in an educational environment. From a communication standpoint we view this as a tool and opportunity as well. And so number one we use in our.

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Brett Ludwig: The the way I have the team structured is we have a very thoughtful, content strategy as part of our university communication structure, both in terms of content, creation, and content distribution. That is a seesaw if we create the best content in the world. But we have a garbage system to deliver.

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Sharlyn, Content Strong: How are they gonna get? Get it?

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Brett Ludwig: We've just over optimized great content. And if we have a really amazing system but terrible content, we're just very, very efficient at pumping out garbage. So we found that balance of doing both very well

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Brett Ludwig: on the system side. We do that through very thoughtful external partnerships, with organizations that utilize and harness the underlying technology behind AI to help our systems be smarter. So over time when we're communicating out and we're sharing to audiences the content that we've created. Our system is a learning system that will know that Charlene doesn't open her email at 9 am. So it's kind of foolish to be sending an email.

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Sharlyn, Content Strong: Before 9 Am.

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Brett Ludwig: We know you're not going to be opening, but we do know that you'll be checking your text messages around the lunch hour.

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Sharlyn, Content Strong: Right.

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Brett Ludwig: Do know. And you know, an anonymized basis that you check our our website just after work hours. And so, as the system learns, we can then customize within given constraints like we could say, within a 24 h period. We'd like to communicate this message in an optimal optimal way to all of the intended recipients, and the system can learn and communicate out in a way that will maximize

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Brett Ludwig: the effectiveness of the delivery. So that's just one very specific example of how we're looking at AI as part of the communications tech stack, which I think is where and I believe strongly. That's where our

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Brett Ludwig: opportunity is monumental as communicators. Right? What the tech stack looks like today relative to 5 years ago. It's apples and oranges.

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Sharlyn, Content Strong: Unbelievable. Yeah.

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Brett Ludwig: And and what it'll look like in 3 years.

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Sharlyn, Content Strong: So, yeah.

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Brett Ludwig: Excited to envision what that might look like, because I believe that we need to be looking around corners on behalf of our institutions.

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Sharlyn, Content Strong: Of course.

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Brett Ludwig: Understand the world of possibility, so that we can be prepared to harness the new and upcoming technologies when it's still in its very nascent stages.

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Sharlyn, Content Strong: I think

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Sharlyn, Content Strong: so. I have another question to ask you, but I'm going to put that aside for one second, because I want to pull on this string again about this idea of what you're how you're really using AI to measure.

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Sharlyn, Content Strong: So for me, I'm thinking about, how are you measuring the impact of your work, especially knowing that we have this wonderful new tech stack of all these different things that we can do and all these different things that we can look at and how they can translate directly into our strategy. So you know, how are you measuring some of the impact of your work in such a complex and charged environment. And what metrics are most important to you and your leadership team. Right now.

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Brett Ludwig: Yeah. So I love that question because I'm a huge believer that what gets measured gets done and believer in that for a long time. So I'll talk 1st about AI enabled

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Brett Ludwig: metrics. But then I'll talk more broadly about our

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Brett Ludwig: thoughtful approach to what and how we measure and why.

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Sharlyn, Content Strong: Right.

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Brett Ludwig: So I believe that today, an AI based system or an AI enabled system can help us maybe more directly with activity versus outcome metrics, and that is changing and will change.

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Brett Ludwig: And there is a place to have activity-based metrics right? And and AI does a very, very good job with that, because it can automate in a way that would take a human a long time to do. AI will do it very quickly, and it's learning and getting much, much more accurate in in the data that it can crunch for us. So, for example, we use the system I was mentioning for content distribution.

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Brett Ludwig: we're able to generate and run reports to determine what types of content is hitting the mark in terms of.

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Sharlyn, Content Strong: Right.

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Brett Ludwig: Engagement and awareness, and what content isn't, and even a certain degree. Why, what content is being shared, what content is being engaged with, and AI systems can help us. With that I put that very much in to a certain degree in the activity based set of metrics. And I think those are important for us to be able to learn and grow and continue to improve upon our systems. Where the magic happens, I think, is finding.

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Sharlyn, Content Strong: Outcome.

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Brett Ludwig: Where are outcomes tied to the business of the university. And so we go after outcomes data in a variety of different ways. I'll give you one example. So so oftentimes, what we'll do is we'll put

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Brett Ludwig: specific survey questions embedded into events.

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Brett Ludwig: activities and programs that we've implemented to really try to determine how we're doing right. We can then build off of those, and that gives us great key insights we can derive. I'll give you actually a couple of quick examples.

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Sharlyn, Content Strong: Yeah, I love the examples.

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Brett Ludwig: Yeah. So the 1st is, we run a program on behalf of the university called compelling perspectives. And it's been for the last 2 years. We're now in year 3. It's a signature dialogue program on campus, where we identify a topic of societal significance each academic year. And we invite speakers who will be representing diverse perspectives on the same topic to campus. And then our president, Joe Halbley.

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Brett Ludwig: will engage in a moderated discussion that then ends with an open Q&A to explore the topic. So in year one, our topic was focused on national security and global environment. In this past year the topic was on traditional versus new media and the role of traditional media in contemporary society.

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Brett Ludwig: and we invited well-known speakers. We invited Theresa, May and Leanne Panetta. In year one we invited. We had a 3 for year 2 we invited Katie Couric, Marty, Barron.

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Brett Ludwig: and V. Spear, who's a Tiktok, a very well-known Tiktok journalist to speak on the topic, and among other things that we measure, we measured a net promoter score of the attendees. So we asked the question, Would you recommend this to friends and family? The same question you would ask for more traditional marketing Nps.

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Sharlyn, Content Strong: Of course.

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Brett Ludwig: And then we generate and ran the Nps numbers for each of those events that gives us a really good, clear outcome of how well, we're doing with this program. And we've seen improvement on the Nps. Actually, we see incredible results in the Mps for this program over time. So that's a great way to measure an outcome of an event like that.

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Brett Ludwig: Another thing that we've done is through one of our major strategic plan initiatives focused on how we engage with our local communities. We are now in year 2 of an annual community sentiment survey that we brought out of out of my office where we we decided, look.

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Brett Ludwig: we hear all kinds of anecdotal feedback from community members, right community members directly in South Bethlehem, where our university is located community members across the city of Bethlehem, across the entire Lehigh Valley.

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Brett Ludwig: Anecdotally, it's helpful. But we wanted quantitative data, and so we've put out a perception survey and gathered very specific data on

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Brett Ludwig: community perceptions of Lehigh, the role of Lehigh in the community, our impact in the community, the impact of faculty students and staff in the community perceptions of Lehigh. We did a net promoter score question. We did a question focused on trust so that we could be very open and honest with ourselves, and say, this is what the data tells us, and then we can cut that data by demographics, understand what it's telling us. And now, over time we've committed to doing this annually.

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Brett Ludwig: we'll be able to understand some of the drivers that move those numbers or don't move those numbers so that we can make decisions differently in terms of how we operate. So that's how that's how we move into the outcomes based mentality of how we measure.

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Sharlyn, Content Strong: Right and building that bigger story. I wonder what was your response? Like? Like? What was your response? And you don't have to tell me the exact number. But what was your response? Rate like?

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Sharlyn, Content Strong: Pretty significant.

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Brett Ludwig: It was great. We got significance. We did a. It was phone and text to web based, surveying.

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Sharlyn, Content Strong: Oh, wow! Okay.

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Brett Ludwig: And we have. We get 7 to 800 total responses in the community each year on the survey, and the responses are great. I mean, it gives us really good feedback. Right? We saw our trust and our net promoter score improve from year one to year 2. We know that we did a lot of things differently to drive that improvement.

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Sharlyn, Content Strong: Right.

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Brett Ludwig: And yet we also see, and better within the numbers areas of continued opportunity for us to make changes and improvements. And there was very specific questions around the number of community members who

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Brett Ludwig: come on campus, who have experiences with campus or not in a given year, and then we can run the numbers by those who have experienced campus and those who haven't, and those reputational drivers can vary quite a bit. And so that tells us the more we can engage our local community

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Brett Ludwig: in activities, right theater performances, athletic events, cultural events, experiences at our art museum the better and more impactful their experiences and beliefs and reputational drivers will be with Leh. So that's the kind of depth that we can get to when we look at the data.

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Sharlyn, Content Strong: Yeah, and being able to tell that bigger story, we always find that's the biggest issue with communications. Right? Everyone's. Oh, we've done this output this output, but really being able to tie it back, to draw a straight line to the outcome of something that you've done and what that means in a bigger perspective is huge.

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Sharlyn, Content Strong: It's huge. I want to touch quickly on some of the partnerships and the influence around that. So you mentioned a little bit about this. Need we talked about that about this need for industry partners to really advocate alongside us beside us. How are you thinking about partnerships with corporations with thought leaders, with policymakers to amplify the university's roles in solving these global challenges.

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Brett Ludwig: Yeah. So I think about this a lot. And we think about this as a university leadership team a lot because we can't. You know we can't be as successful alone as we'd ever be in coalitions and partnerships. And I want to give 2 examples. One is an example that starts locally on a topic that has broad global impact.

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Brett Ludwig: And then the second is a topic that is inherently a global topic, and how Lehigh is taking it on in partnership with the Federal Government and with many industry partners. So the 1st thing to talk about is access to affordable housing

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Brett Ludwig: and so affordable housing is a huge, huge issue, both globally and in the Lehigh Valley, where we're located. And so Lehigh has a research office within our institution called the Small cities lab.

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Brett Ludwig: And this group is responsible for thinking about hyper local issues that that small to mid size, municipals, communities face and and brainstorming and collaboratively coming up with solutions, and as a result of that work

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Brett Ludwig: we created a body of work with the city of Bethlehem to try and take on one aspect of a affordable housing issue in the city of Bethlehem. And that is how can we help

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Brett Ludwig: create alternative living

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Brett Ludwig: arrangements that would be lower cost living arrangements? And that's spun up into a program called the Alley House Program. And so this is a concept of creating incremental living spaces that can be attached to existing structures and homes.

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Brett Ludwig: and through the small cities lab at Lehigh we partnered with the city of Bethlehem, the mayor's office, and worked very collaboratively with them as well as local builders to identify. How can we make this happen? Can we make it happen?

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Brett Ludwig: We looked at other case studies in other cities across the country where where we've seen positive results from a program like this. And then ultimately the coalition that formed reached out to our elected officials at both the Congressional and the Senate level

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Brett Ludwig: and receive Federal funding to move forward with this as a pilot program, a lot of work went into figuring out, well, what do we do about zoning.

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Sharlyn, Content Strong: Right.

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Brett Ludwig: About building materials. What do we do about creating templates? How do we design it? Our own architecture? Students were hands on building design templates for different types of structures. And ultimately we now have alley houses being built in the city of Bethlehem through this innovative program. And it's all being studied and researched so that the learnings can be shared across

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Brett Ludwig: and ultimately even broader than that to help use this, it's 1 component of a much larger citywide strategy that the mayor's office is running to approach affordable housing. But it's a great example of a public private partnership coming together to solve something. So that's 1 example.

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Brett Ludwig: The next.

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Sharlyn, Content Strong: And it's another. It's another great example of how it's very difficult to see how important or how relevant you know, post secondary institutions are and what it means to be a part of higher Ed, and how higher Ed is driving all of these other, you know, impact indicators forward. Anyway, you go ahead.

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Brett Ludwig: Absolutely. And and you know it's so. It's so great that you say that, Charlin, because, you know, we we think about this, and and I talked about it nonstop, and yet to see it in action is is massive.

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Sharlyn, Content Strong: In action.

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Brett Ludwig: Because at the end of the day

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Brett Ludwig: people will have a perspective of what students in private universities are doing.

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Brett Ludwig: And yet you can break all those stereotypes just by coming to our campus. And we have the old Bethlehem steel research facilities are part of our campus, and we have these huge big bays where you can do loud, big, messy stuff.

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Brett Ludwig: And we have architecture students. And we have humanity students thinking about the social and psychological implications. And we have, you know, a wood shop and a metal shop, and we have community home builders and members of the zoning commission and members of the city infrastructure all coming in together. And they're building things, and you've got 2 by fours, and you've got saws going, and you're figuring it out.

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Sharlyn, Content Strong: Right.

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Brett Ludwig: And ultimately coming up with

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Brett Ludwig: the solution. And it's all happening right there on campus. And you're right. It's it's it's the perfect example

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Brett Ludwig: of of how a community can come together.

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Brett Ludwig: and how a university can help convene those anchor that.

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Sharlyn, Content Strong: Right.

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Brett Ludwig: Make that happen. Yeah. And I can give just 1 1 other quick time.

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Sharlyn, Content Strong: Give it.

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Brett Ludwig: Far more broad. Alright weather.

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Brett Ludwig: That's that's the topic, Charlotte. Weather weather patterns and catastrophic weather events are very much a reality globally.

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Sharlyn, Content Strong: Now in particular.

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Brett Ludwig: And right now in particular, and we see a lot of need

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Brett Ludwig: for evaluating the models that government agencies, private organizations, nonprofit organizations, use to evaluate and even predict when significant weather events happen so that you can plan better for them.

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Brett Ludwig: We decided as part of our strategic plan, that we wanted to stand up a couple of university-wide research centers. The 1st such research center is our catastrophe modeling and resilience center. This is a center that is housing brilliant faculty minds.

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Brett Ludwig: brilliant student minds. We actually have a master's program of catastrophe modeling

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Brett Ludwig: within this research center to evaluate and help better create models that can predict

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Brett Ludwig: the impact of major storms and weather events. And this is this is a group that's now just beginning year 2, working collaboratively with the Us. Government with

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Brett Ludwig: 20 to 30 public and private companies that have come together alongside other major research institutions. To say, this is a real topic that needs deeper exploration. How can we work together? How can

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Brett Ludwig: for-profit companies, nonprofit research institutions and the Federal government come together, pool resources and figure this out in a way that's going to ultimately benefit

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Brett Ludwig: American citizens and global citizens. And it's a really, really exciting program. It's an exciting research kind of a world lab that's headquartered right in in our Bethlehem campus, but takes on and looks at, you know, earthquakes that may impact countries in Central Asia

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Brett Ludwig: or wind and water events that could impact any country across the globe. So these are just a couple of examples where public private partnerships are coming together, anchored by a Research Institution to take on some of the most compelling societal challenges.

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Sharlyn, Content Strong: Yeah. And it goes back to my earlier point. It's difficult to see. It's difficult not to see the value in what higher education does, and what these institutions do for society at large.

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Sharlyn, Content Strong: My very last question. I know I've taken up so much of your time, Brett, but my very last question is a question I ask every single person, and the question really is about thinking about your goals over the next 6 months. If I were to give you a magic wand right now, and you could wave it. And you can use that magic and magically fixed one major challenge in the way your university specifically communicates their purpose and manages their brand. No politics, no budget barriers. What would you fix.

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Brett Ludwig: Yeah, that's a great question. And it's such a big question.

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Sharlyn, Content Strong: Know.

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Brett Ludwig: Because there are external drivers, there are internal drivers. I

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Brett Ludwig: here's my thought on that

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Brett Ludwig: And and remember I come out of a a corporate background where I've lived in and worked in both decentralized and centralized environments, where

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Brett Ludwig: silos can can and have been created inadvertently that slow down the process of innovation and discovery. Right? And this is this is not a message just about my institution, but it's a message, I think, about

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Brett Ludwig: institutions in general. If I had a magic wand, I would say I would want to tear down the bureaucratic silo building that inhibits

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Brett Ludwig: good, smart, talented people from doing the work and working together.

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Brett Ludwig: and that is something that I would have wanted to have done from my early twenties working at State Farm insurance in California to today, and I've seen it done better or worse at different organizations. Some companies try it, some companies don't try it. Some companies try to change culture

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Brett Ludwig: through policy which never works. So if I had my magic wand, I would say, Let's just start from scratch and get rid of the the silo building, because most of it happens inadvertently.

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Brett Ludwig: and then it's very difficult to get at the the actual goodness of people working together and figuring things out, regardless of what your role is, regardless what your level is, regardless of what part of the organization you're sitting in, regardless of where your budget is coming from, or who is, you know, approving your expense reports. That's what I'm doing.

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Sharlyn, Content Strong: That's a great! That's a great.

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Brett Ludwig: Yeah.

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Sharlyn, Content Strong: Oh, I Oh, my goodness, I don't know. That's a

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Sharlyn, Content Strong: that's a very big you're right. That's a very, very big question. What would I do. I mean the silo piece is a is a good piece of it. I think

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Sharlyn, Content Strong: I don't know. It would have to be something about some of the I mean. It's kind of silo related, too, but it's more so about some of the roadblocks to, you know, thinking quickly and being authentic on your feet. I feel like specifically when you're thinking about specific audiences at universities and colleges, for example, are trying to communicate with

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Sharlyn, Content Strong: a big challenge that I see is to your point. Some of the bureaucracy, right? Like you have to go through 18 different jump points before you get to one specific idea and one strategy, and then it takes you another 10 years to execute that thing. When really some of these things, someone needs to make a decision. You need to make a decision quickly. You need to be able to act on it quickly. You need to be able to follow it up in a specific way. You need to be able to set the right the right benchmarks so that you can see how well you did if it's working, if it's effective. If it's not how you change.

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Sharlyn, Content Strong: anyway, it probably if I need to think about it some more. But probably it would be something around that

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Sharlyn, Content Strong: as as a huge.

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Sharlyn, Content Strong: But I would like to say that you were not the only person who said that this idea about, you know, breaking down those silos. And really the idea about addressing organizational structures and a lot of people I've spoken to recently have said, we're going through a reorg because we don't know how to manage this and this and this, and we need to reorganize ourselves in order to manage this and this and this and this and this. So you're in good company, friend.

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Brett Ludwig: Yeah. And I'll tell you, a reorg never solves this problem.

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Sharlyn, Content Strong: Never.

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Brett Ludwig: And if I got a bonus magic wand, if you're giving me 2 magic.

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Sharlyn, Content Strong: I'm giving you 2.

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Brett Ludwig: I'd want to pop all of our algorithmic social media bubbles and get us talking to each other and out of the realm of immediately, being at odds with everybody who doesn't follow the exact worldview that we've created for ourselves, driven by our iphones and our, you know.

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Brett Ludwig: laptops and our mobile devices. That's what I would do with my second manager.

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Brett Ludwig: I would say. Let's actually engage with each other

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Brett Ludwig: and not engage with content. That is specifically directed at encouraging you to accept your strict worldview that you've

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Brett Ludwig: created for yourself, to the extreme avoidance of all any and all other perspectives that was.

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Sharlyn, Content Strong: Pouring.

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Sharlyn, Content Strong: encourage division. Right? This is the idea that we're encouraging this divisive mentality all the time. I agree with you completely, and I've had a similar conversation. But this idea that you know, especially with this new, I want to say this new generation. But our generations included this idea that we're becoming that much more savvy to some of the things in front of us. And this idea that we are turning off, and therefore it is.

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Sharlyn, Content Strong: I think we place more value on having one-to-one conversations and meeting people where they're at. But it does become more difficult in a world where, you know, we're using AI as a tool, and people are trying to figure out what's real and what's not and where they should trust and where they shouldn't trust. So it's a i feel like we could go on for days about that one. Brett.

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Brett Ludwig: I know. That's why I saved it for the end.

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Sharlyn, Content Strong: Yeah, you're smart.

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Brett Ludwig: If we started there we wouldn't invent it anymore.

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Sharlyn, Content Strong: We would, we would still be talking on for the next 10 years. But I think it's a valid discussion, and it's very, very interesting.

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Sharlyn, Content Strong: I have to say, thank you. Thank you. Thank you so much for sharing your time and your experience and your perspective with us today. Is there anything else that comes to mind before I let you go. Anything else that you're like. I have to say this, Charlene.

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Brett Ludwig: I mean, there's a million things. But just one thing I would say is, and this is going to be a shameless plug.

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Sharlyn, Content Strong: Shameless plug. Do it.

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Brett Ludwig: The Institute for Public Relations is an extraordinary group that puts out research on many of the topics that we just talked about, but their groundbreaking research on disinformation is something that ties directly to this last topic we just talked about, and if we were to point people to one place to say, how can we think about this differently? I would suggest taking a look at the

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Brett Ludwig: incredible data and insights that come out of the Institute for public relations study on disinformation. So it's a great, it's a great place to go. I'm also, you know, the the vice chair of the board, so

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Brett Ludwig: I'm very much incented to be in favor of of our research, but it's tremendous research, and it's really helpful to understand some of the drivers there.

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Sharlyn, Content Strong: Well, I'm glad you mentioned that, because any anything that's useful like that I will always grab, and I will share it as long as it's available to be to be shared. So we'll follow definitely. Follow up on that piece, because it may be it may be nice to include here.

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Sharlyn, Content Strong: It's been so wonderful, such a thoughtful, generous conversation to anybody who watches who listens to this. I hope the episode sparked ideas affirmed your own experiences helped you see a challenge in a new light. It definitely has affirmed a lot of things in my brain today. If you're a communications or marketing leader in higher. Ed, and you want to contribute to this

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Sharlyn, Content Strong: evolving conversation. I'd love to hear from you, because I think at least, these conversations aren't just talk. They really are ideally the start of, you know, a roadmap for the future of our field. So let's get to work. Thank you so much again, Brett.

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Brett Ludwig: Thank you, appreciate it.