Strategic Domestic Student Recruitment

Mary’s primary focus in higher education has always been on student success through the creation of offices that nurture people through creativity, openness, and continual engagement that serves to improve the student experience. Throughout her experience, she has gained diversity, breath, and multiple ways of assessing challenges and understanding opportunities across varied institutions.

Mary has served at both colleges and universities in Newfoundland, British Columbia, and the United States. Her career spans more than 25 years, with leadership roles that include Registrar, Director of Student Services & Enrolment, Admissions & Records, and Higher Education Consultant. In her last full-time role as Registrar, she was a member of a university executive team, greatly enhancing her ability to influence strategy, key directions, and decisions.

The areas of accomplishment within her career in higher education are:

• Strategic Enrolment Management;
• Student-based technology solutions;
• Staff development & training;
• Compassionate cultures & high-performing team;
• International & domestic recruitment;
• Policy development, writing, and implementation; and
• Process design & redesign.

Dr. Joe Stokes is the AVP International and University Registrar at Ontario Tech University in Oshawa Ontario Canada, where he is also an award winning professor (adjunct) in the Faculty of Education. Joe is the past Chair of the Ontario Universities’ Council on Admission, and the Ontario University Registrars’ Association, and has led work across the post-secondary sector on, Internationalization, governance, strategic enrolment management, and student retention and student success.

Dr. Stokes’ research interests include International student mobility, strategic enrolment management, leadership psychology, and higher education policy and governance. In the last 3 years Joe has lead groups that have attracted over $1.3 million in research funding including leading the creation of Ontario’s international study brand, and the development of a competitive internationalization toolkit for the province’s post-secondary system. His most recent publications focus on international student mobility in the pandemic era, and strategic enrolment management in a time of global disruption.

Matt Stiegemeyer has been involved in higher education for over twenty years. While working at the University of Memphis in the student recruitment office, he completed his Doctorate of Education in higher and adult education. He then immigrated to Canada, working in undergraduate student recruitment, marketing, and admissions at the University of Victoria (BC), Concordia University (QC), and the University of Western Ontario (ON). He has previously been involved in policy reviews for setting English proficiency standards and implementing student success initiatives. His current role with ETS/TOEFL is focused on working with institutions across Canada to identify opportunities to enhance their enrolment management activities for students who require a test of English language proficiency.

Dan is an award-winning leader with more than 20 years of experience in student enrolment and success. Currently, Dan is the Associate Vice-President, Enrolment Management & Registrar at Saint Mary’s University.

He holds an Honours Bachelor of Arts (Bishop’s University) as well as a Master of Communications Studies and a University Teaching Certificate (University of Calgary).

During his career, he has worked at five major Canadian universities and brings a wealth of experience in key areas such as enrolment management, internationalization, student recruitment, admissions, scholarships, marketing, student success, retention and student experience.

Jackie Cox is the Director of Marketing and Recruitment at the Southern Alberta Institute of Technology (SAIT), where she leads strategic initiatives to elevate the institution’s brand and drive enrolment. With more than two decades of marketing experience, Jackie is adept at crafting and executing effective and impactful integrated strategies and campaigns.

Danny Freire is an energetic and dedicated professional with a combined fifteen plus (15+) years’ of experience in student recruitment, registrar services and enrolment management. Danny was born in Ecuador and moved to Canada on a high school exchange. He completed his Bachelor of Science in Computer Science and his Master of Leadership in Postsecondary Education at the University of Saskatchewan.

Danny began his career in the language education sector, working for more than six years in Japan and China. In 2010 Danny accepted the position of Assistant Marketing Coordinator at the University of Saskatchewan Language Centre where he was responsible for recruiting students from Latin America, Japan and China.

Danny was promoted to the position of Manager of Student Recruitment at the University of Saskatchewan in 2014. He was responsible for providing leadership and coordinating student recruitment activities across the university’s 17 Colleges and schools, assisting the university with meeting its ESL, undergraduate and graduate student enrolment goals. He also ensured that the university was aware of new partnerships, collaborations, and research opportunities.

In 2022, Danny joined Saskatchewan Polytechnic as the Director of Enrolment Services and Registrar where he had an opportunity to lead a team of 6 Managers and a combined 80 staff members in service of the institution. Modernizing the office of the Registrar was a priority task with the successful implementation of MyCreds, a digital credential platform, a comprehensive review of the Admissions Policy with a Strategic Enrolment Management lense, the implementation of the Academic Scheduling (provincially) and the Customer Relationship Management (application and admissions), and finally to modernize and re-organize the office to reflect the provincial model.

Jennifer Powell is a passionate advocate for student success and is dedicated to empowering the next generation. With over a decade of experience in enrolment management, including roles in marketing, recruitment, admissions, academic advising, work-integrated learning, employer relations, and a college board member. Jennifer has cultivated expertise in creating positive post-secondary experiences and facilitating academic-to-career transitions.

As Director of Programming and Community Engagement at Brainstorm Strategy Group, she leverages her skills as a connector, systems thinker, and solution-oriented professional to support Canadian post-secondary institutions and campus recruitment teams across North America. Jennifer helps organizations refine their approach to student support and recruitment through engaging workshops, webinars, and training sessions.

Her enthusiasm extends to stakeholder relations, event planning, partnerships, marketing, and communications. Jennifer’s forward-thinking and dynamic approach reflects her optimism and unwavering commitment to improving student success and outcomes.