2026 Independent School Brand Summit | Schedule

Join Mike Flanagan, CEO of E3n, as he opens the Independent School Brand Summit with an insider’s perspective on one of the sector’s most significant recent brand transformations. Drawing from the complex process of merging EMA and ERB into E3n, Mike will share hard-won insights about strategic brand integration in the independent school space. This keynote goes beyond the mechanics of rebranding to explore the deeper question that drives all our work: How do families actually make decisions when choosing an independent school? Mike will share how understanding these patterns informed every aspect of the E3n brand development process.

Attendees will gain practical insights into aligning brand strategy with authentic parent motivations, supported by real data and research from EMA’s extensive work in the field. Whether you’re navigating a rebrand or simply seeking to strengthen your school’s market position, this session will provide a roadmap for creating brands that resonate with the families you serve.

Whether your school is struggling to fill seats or thriving but looking to stay ahead of the curve, understanding enrollment trends is critical. But is your challenge a market problem or a marketing problem? Identifying the difference is key to making the right strategic moves. This session will help you diagnose the root cause of enrollment and retention struggles using market analysis, competitor benchmarking, and internal data. You’ll uncover whether shifting demographics, increased competition, or misaligned messaging is affecting your school, and what actionable steps you can take. Learn how to refine your marketing approach or pivot your strategy with confidence, using research-backed insights tailored to your school’s unique position. Through interactive exercises and real-world case studies, you’ll leave with clear strategies to strengthen enrollment now and set your school up for long-term success.

Speakers: Nicki Ragan, Carrollwood Day School, and Hannah Stathas, Carrollwood Day School

When your school’s story connects purposefully across departments, themes, and touchpoints, it becomes unforgettable and successful. This session explores how Carrollwood Day School’s marketing and advancement teams worked together to build a visually compelling, emotionally resonant gala campaign – “Through the Looking Glass” – inspired by the 2024-2025 IB Learner Profile theme, “Inquirers.” From concept to creative, the campaign invited the community to be curious and use their imagination to peer through the lens.

Attendees will learn how to root storytelling in shared values, turn annual themes into cohesive brand narratives, and inspire participation and giving. We’ll walk through the tools used for cross-department collaboration, creative execution, and post-campaign content reuse that extend impact well beyond the event. If you’re looking to elevate your brand through authentic, aligned storytelling, this session will offer both inspiration and practical tools you can use today!

Speaker: Barbara Barron, Barbara Barron Consulting

What does it mean to have a culture of philanthropy at  a school? What does it look like, and why do so few schools really have one? This session will answer those questions, debunk some myths, and help set you up at your school to begin to build a culture that is joyful and raises more money to meet the promise of your mission. Beware: it requires the work of many—including some people you may not think are or can be part of the solution! So, bring your colleagues and prepare to roll up your sleeves.

Speaker: Cristina Pawlica, Finalsite

Discover how to transform your school’s content into a strategic branding tool that enhances visibility, earns trust, and drives conversions across admissions and advancement. This session explores how Google’s evolving AI-driven search landscape rewards quality, authoritative content that directly answers families’ most pressing questions. Learn how to “chunk” and structure content so it earns citations in AI Overviews and search results. Uncover the “fan-out” strategy that amplifies reach across the entire family journey. Attendees will leave with an actionable framework for turning existing content into SEO-rich, trust-building micro-narratives that elevate school positioning.

In a marketplace crowded with noise and accelerated by AI, how do independent schools craft stories that cut through, build trust, and inspire action? Moira Vetter, founder and CEO of Modo Modo Agency, will explore how authentic storytelling strengthens a school’s brand across marketing, enrollment, communications, recruitment, advancement, and development. Drawing on her experience leading bold award-winning campaigns and guiding mission-driven organizations, Moira will inspire you to reclaim the power of human-centered storytelling—rooted in authenticity, driven by strategy, and designed to break through the clutter in a synthetic world.

Speaker: Gabriel Lucas, 12M & Ed Tech Recruiting

Everyone knows that storytelling is essential for advancement, admissions, and general marcom. But what about hiring? Too often, schools overlook not just the need but the opportunity for how to inject mission, strategy, branding, and storytelling into the increasingly competitive and challenging task of recruitment. In this informative and creative session, we’ll discuss proven techniques to connect a school’s unique identity and vision to the world of talent development and acquisition. Inspire a more diverse, mission-aligned applicant pool. Transform your human resources department from a focus on controlling process and procedure into a true partner for improving culture and community. Leverage content, assets, and collateral that you already have for initiatives that are too often boring and sterile. Broaden support among academic hiring managers for traditional advancement, admission, and marcom initiatives–by showing all school leaders the importance of brand identity, storytelling, and strategic positioning.

Speakers: Mattingly Messina, Throughline, and Kaitlin Windle, Apte

Reimagine how your advancement team communicates with one of its most important audiences: the board of trustees. This session shows you how to turn traditional board reporting into clear, visually driven communication that trustees can actually understand and use. Learn how to move beyond transactional charts and gift tables by presenting trends, outcomes, and donor behavior in ways that are easier to grasp—and more likely to prompt thoughtful questions and strategic discussion. Using real examples from schools across the country, we’ll compare typical board reports with redesigned, more intuitive alternatives that help trustees focus on what matters. We’ll approach this from two angles: the advancement team seeking meaningful buy-in, and the trustees who want to help—but don’t always know what they’re looking at. Designed for advancement leaders, heads of school, MarCom professionals, and anyone who collaborates with boards.

Speaker: J.P. Watson, The Gowan Group

What if strategic planning became a catalyst for institutional alignment, clarity of purpose, and bold innovation? That’s exactly how The Howard School approached the process—and continues to benefit from it. This session explores their inclusive, community-wide engagement strategy, including comprehensive surveys and values studies that informed a refreshed mission and inspired an audacious new vision. Learn how they developed essential documents like the Profile of the Professional, Portrait of the Graduate, and Student and Family Learning Journey to align purpose with practice. Discover how this work laid the foundation for a refreshed brand and a planning process that is dynamic, unifying, and forward-looking.

Transform admissions funnels by embedding ChatGPT into inquiry, visit, and follow-up stages while safeguarding brand voice and data privacy. Analyze market trends showing AI-driven personalization. Build “shadow team-member” workflows: auto-generate family persona briefs, craft values-aligned emails, script mission-rich tours, and produce post-visit nudges. Designed for enrollment directors, communications leads, and advancement partners.

Speaker: Dr. Colin Wyenberg, Finalsite

“The Sirens’ Call: How Attention Became the World’s Most Endangered Resource”  by Chris Hayes examines the commodification of human attention in the digital age and its profound effects on society. We will use this framework to specifically look at how independent schools can capture the attention of prospective families in ways that will stand out from the many, many voices that vie for their attention.

Speaker: Seana Peele, Woodlawn School

Transform your school’s communications from scattered to strategic in just five days. Learn a proven sprint methodology designed for independent schools facing immediate enrollment challenges, crisis situations, or leadership transitions requiring a rapid communications overhaul. Discover how to conduct lightning-fast brand audits, prioritize messaging gaps, and implement cohesive communications frameworks within tight timeframes. Examine real case studies of schools that successfully launched comprehensive communications strategies during critical periods, from emergency rebranding to competitive response campaigns. Discover the essential components of each sprint day: stakeholder analysis, message development, content creation systems, distribution channel optimization, and how to implement success metrics. Walk away with implementation guides, rapid assessment tools, and templates. Perfect for communications directors, enrollment managers, and heads of school who need immediate results. Whether launching new programs, responding to competitive threats, or rebuilding community trust, this session provides the roadmap for communications transformation when time is your greatest constraint.

Speaker: Dr. Raymond Carnley, Winkler Group

Campaign donors expect access to school leadership. That’s why the most successful campaigns feature strong, visible engagement from the head of school. Yet many heads are either reluctant fundraisers or unclear about their role—especially since campaigns typically occur only once every 5–7 years. Designed for heads of school, advancement professionals, and school leaders planning a campaign in the next 18 months, this session offers a practical roadmap for leadership engagement at every stage of the campaign. Participants will learn actionable strategies.

• Define the head of school’s role in building donor confidence and campaign momentum
• Complete a campaign readiness self-assessment
• Learn the four pillars of a successful campaign
• Understand how to design a feasibility study that builds donor engagement
• Clarify leadership time commitments by campaign phase
• Explore how to prepare the board for campaign leadership
• Define how advancement staff can support and hold leadership accountable

Speakers: Morgan Lewis, Maclay School, and Bob Weston, CCS Fundraising

Schools often find themselves in a position where a donor has a particular interest that does not fit within a current campaign or immediate need. How do you navigate these conversations while maintaining strong donor relationships? This session explores strategies for guiding donor conversations, aligning giving with strategic goals, and fostering long-term partnerships. Our conversation will include

• Leveraging your school’s identity and long-term vision to shape donor engagement.
• The importance of a strong strategic plan as the foundation for donor conversations.
• How to confidently say “no” while preserving relationships.
• Techniques for shifting from transactional to transformational giving.
• Case study discussion — successful alignment and challenging donor scenarios.

Speakers: Ann Cousins, Wesleyan School, and Haley Hurst, Wesleyan School

Whether your communications team is a one-person show or a full department, no professional wants to hear the phrase, “Just make it pretty and print it.” How do communications offices continue to create high-quality work while shifting to a process that is proactive, collaborative, and much less painful? Wesleyan School’s communications office has adopted the model of an in-house agency with department heads serving as our clients. Through regular check-ins and strategic planning, we help departments anticipate needs and execute high-impact, cohesive communications across every platform including email, social, web, and print.

In this session, we will share strategies to best anticipate your colleagues’ needs, make recommendations, and support your recommendations with data. When we collaborate proactively, we avoid “quick five-minute conversations” that unexpectedly turn into hours of work.

Speaker: Trey Boden, Roar

Transform your content chaos into strategic advantage through cyclical planning aligned with the school year. This hands-on workshop addresses the universal challenge of last-minute content creation that communications teams face. Participants work through mock school scenarios using a four-lens framework (Marketing, Admissions, Community, Development) to map predictable content needs. Discover how different team structures can execute the strategic communications. Leave with practical tools including quarterly content templates, execution models for various staffing levels, and AI-powered prompt libraries for sustainable content creation.

Speaker: Chris Dudley, AdvancementEDU

Think beyond the formal campaign by staying in campaign mode year-round. Identify and articulate funding priorities that inspire giving. Meet with major gift prospects regularly to cultivate long-term relationships that lead to transformational gifts. Align donor passions with your school’s needs to create transformational change for your school. In this session, learn practical strategies to maintain momentum, communicate urgency, and foster a culture of philanthropy that keeps fundraising at the forefront. Walk away with actionable steps to engage donors, steward gifts, and ensure your school is always in campaign mode.

Speakers: Graylyn Loomis, 38 House, and Eric Thorp, 38 House

Is your school approaching a milestone anniversary, or do you want to explore a brand “refresh” without losing the school’s identity? Rebranding doesn’t have to mean reinventing your identity—it often means rediscovering it and communicating it more effectively. Learn how to lead a rebranding process that engages your community, reflects your values, and strengthens your market position. This session presents a step-by-step approach to school rebranding—from internal discovery and messaging alignment to visual identity and launch strategy. School leaders will leave with a clear understanding of the rebranding process, including pitfalls to avoid, how to approach brand change with confidence, and more.