Enrollment Leadership in Action: Lessons From Liaison’s Leaders for the Year Ahead

Higher education is navigating a period of sustained volatility. Demographic shifts, policy uncertainty, staffing strain, and rapid technological change are shaping how enrollment leaders plan, lead, and make decisions.

A new on-demand webinar, Lessons From Liaison's Leaders: Expert Insights for the Year Ahead, brings together five Liaison leaders for a thoughtful conversation grounded in insights from the 35 Years of Navigating Change in Higher Education: Strategic Insights on What's Next for Institutions, Students, and the People Who Support Them report. Drawing on experience as former campus leaders and industry practitioners, the panelists reflect on what they are seeing across institutions and how leaders are responding in real time.

Rather than offering simple answers, the discussion explores shared questions facing the field: How to plan when conditions continue to shift, how to support teams under pressure, how to approach technology with intention, and how to maintain meaningful human connection in an increasingly complex environment.

Designed for higher ed enrollment and admissions leaders, this session offers perspective, reassurance, and practical insight into navigating what comes next.

As Liaison Vice President for Graduate Enrollment Strategy Steve Taylor notes at the outset, the pressures facing higher education today don’t feel like a single, discrete crisis. Instead, they resemble an ongoing convergence of challenges: financial strain, leadership turnover, staffing shortages, operational complexity, and rapidly evolving technology—especially AI.

These issues aren’t new, but they’re now colliding at once and forcing institutions toward sharper strategic clarity. Leaders are being asked to:

• Articulate return on investment more precisely.
• Sustain and motivate fatigued teams.
• Separate technological signal from noise.
• Protect mission and student experience.
• Continue to hit it enrollment goals.

Rather than predict the future, this webinar focuses on interpreting the present and learning from it. Along with Taylor, the panel includes several Liaison leaders who previously served as enrollment leaders on campuses across the country:

• Sarah Coen | Liaison Chief Growth Officer.
• Craig Cornell | Liaison VP for Enrollment Strategy.
• Karen Jacobs | VP for Account Management.
• Todd Abbott | VP for Business Development.

Across the conversation, they move beyond abstract trends and into the lived reality of making decisions in this environment.

Return on investment has become the dominant frame in public conversations about college. As Sarah Coen points out, ROI has always been part of strategic enrollment management conversations, but something has shifted: External voices—especially policymakers and media—have compressed ROI into a single outcome: “Will I get a good job and make enough money?”

The panel doesn’t dismiss that question; they lean into it. Speakers emphasize that the economic case for college is still strong, and that career outcomes are not the only value proposition of higher education—nor do they look the same for all prospective students, programs, or institutions.

The webinar explores how leaders can:

• Talk about ROI honestly without reducing their institution’s value to a single salary number.
• Align ROI conversations with institutional mission and student goals.
• Recognize that four-year degrees, certificates, and two-year paths all have roles to play.

One of the most candid sections of the webinar centers on leadership turnover and workforce sustainability.

While enrollment has always demanded multitasking, resilience, and constant change, those everyday pressures are now layered on top of other disruptors, such as the pandemic fallout, FAFSA disruptions, legislative interventions, and frequent leadership transitions.

For anyone feeling the strain of carrying enrollment expectations year after year, this conversation offers realistic strategies for staying grounded.

From her vantage point working closely with health professions associations, Karen Jacobs highlights a stabilizing force that sometimes gets overlooked: discipline-specific associations and Centralized Application Services (CAS).

When leaders and key staff turn over, institutions often lose:

• Historical context for decisions.
• Awareness of what’s already been tried.
• Continuity in long-term enrollment strategy.

Associations can help fill those gaps by:

• Documenting and sharing best practices across programs and institutions.
• Maintaining longitudinal data for a profession.
• Providing training, onboarding, and peer networks for new leaders.
• Serving as a trusted voice when internal politics are complicated.

Associations can help institutions regain balance and move forward when internal continuity is disrupted.

The panel also tackles a familiar challenge: Campuses are awash in data, yet often starved for insight.

Craig Cornell shares a piece of advice he received early in his career: Without data, you’re “an administrator with an opinion.” But simply having data isn’t enough. The real question is: What story is your data trying to tell, and how quickly can you act on it?

The webinar explores:

• Why traditional reporting and spreadsheets can’t keep up with today’s enrollment complexity.
• How new tools, including AI-driven analytics platforms, are enabling real-time course corrections and success instead of end-of-cycle postmortems.
• The difference between being “data rich” and truly insightful, and what leaders can do to bridge that gap.

Of course, no discussion about enrollment in 2026 would be complete without considering the role of AI.

Drawing a parallel to the early days of CRMs, Todd Abbott argues that AI is not just a new feature—it’s a forcing function for rethinking:

• How decisions that support enrollment success are made.
• How institutions personalize engagement at scale.
• How work is organized across the enrollment lifecycle.

He cautions against treating AI as a magic fix that will “solve enrollment” or, conversely, freezing in place because the pace of change feels overwhelming

Instead, he advocates for intentional piloting, clear problem definition, and realistic expectations: AI will amplify the strengths and weaknesses of your existing processes. It’s most powerful when paired with thoughtful strategy and strong teams working toward shared institutional goals.

You should make plans to watch this webinar now if you’re an enrollment or admissions leader looking for:

• Language to frame discussions about ROI in the context of recruitment.
• Perspective on leadership fatigue and how others are navigating it.
• Insight into how enrollment professionals and other school leaders can leverage partnerships with associations, data, and AI practically, not just theoretically, to support admission goals.
• A dose of pragmatic optimism—rooted in real experience, not platitudes.

Rather than prescribing one-size-fits-all solutions, the panel models the kind of nuanced, honest, and hopeful conversation about enrollment growth many teams are craving right now. You’ll come away with new framing, concrete ideas, and—perhaps most importantly—the reassurance that you’re not facing these questions alone.

Watch Lessons From Liaison's Leaders: Expert Insights for the Year Ahead now.