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LIAISON SPOTLIGHT: Hayley Islas-Wolf

Liaison
Jun 7, 2023

In an interview for the Lead(H)er series with VentureFizz, our Regional Vice President of Sales Hayley Islas-Wolf covered a wide range of topics about her professional career and gave us a glimpse into her personal achievements, too.

Below is a glimpse of the topics covered and the full article can be found here.

Where did you grow up and how would you describe yourself as a child?

I was born and raised in Los Angeles, CA. I was always fiercely independent, loved the arts, was a social butterfly and an achiever.  I could be found making art, playing the piano, singing, dancing, and working with my dad around the house on projects.  I am the middle child between two sisters.  With a family legacy in the entertainment industry, I had thought I would end up in that world, but I instead made my own path.

What did you study in college and what was your first job out of school?

I was an Interpersonal Communication major with a minor in Music at California State University Long Beach.  I worked throughout college and held several internships, but my first job post graduation was at Deutsch, an advertising agency in LA.  I was a human resources assistant and started hiring for all of the entry level jobs at the agency and running the internship program along with making lots of copies and filling. I quickly realized that human resources was not where I was going to stay and somehow stumbled into working on a college campus.

Looking back, is this where you thought you’d be professionally?  Was it always your goal to be in this position?

I don’t know if I had a particular goal of being an RVP early on in my career, but as I found my direction and what I was passionate about, it makes sense.  I love solving problems and thinking creatively – ultimately helping others achieve their goals and dreams. Technology and strategy removes barriers and enhances the human element.  I love the consulting side of my job – using what I have spent my career doing and helping colleges and universities at a much larger scale and then I also love my team.  It is also fun to be a part of our company’s strategies and helping to voice the staff and customers voices in the process.  I knew I would be in leadership and use my people and technical skills in a role, so though I may not have known I would be a Regional Vice President at a large technology company, I knew the skills and goals I had that align with my current role.

What do you find most interesting/rewarding about your work?  What’s the most challenging?

Working in the technology space in higher education can be challenging and my career in higher education prior as I am an innovator and often like to see results quickly.  Higher education can oftentimes feel like a very big ship that take a very long time to turn.  I guess it is also part of the thrill, when you can be a part of that change, but change moves slowly.  I truly believe in the work we are doing.  Whether I was in my roles as a Director of Admissions or now as a Regional Vice President helping Higher Education Administration and end users serve students better, we are indirectly and directly helping set up the future generation.  I am also very passionate about equity, diversity and inclusion.  It was a very large focus in all of my roles on campuses and I think even if technology or consulting can bring down some of the barriers or biases, then we are winning.  That is meaningful work!

Read the full article on VentureFizz here!

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Over the last three decades, Liaison has helped over 40,000 programs on more than 1,200 campuses more effectively manage admissions through its Centralized Application Service (CAS™) technology and complementary application processing and support services. The higher education technology leader supports its partner institutions’ total enrollment goals by pairing CAS with its Enrollment Marketing (EM) platform as well as the recently acquired TargetX (CRM) and advanced analytics software Othot.