About Us
Our Commitment
MarComms is committed to proactive communication, consistent decision‑making, and reliable delivery. Our goal is to be a trusted, strategic partner—balancing responsiveness with the need to focus on the work that best serves the school as a whole.
Our Guiding Principles
- Service with Purpose
- We approach our work as a service to the Penn GSE community—delivered with care, responsiveness, and professionalism—while remaining anchored to institutional priorities, capacity realities, and strategic impact.
- Transparency Builds Trust
- We commit to clear expectations, visible workflows, defined service levels, and proactive communication—especially when timelines shift or constraints arise.
- Partnership Is a Two-Way Commitment
- Effective collaboration depends on shared planning, timely inputs, and mutual accountability. We work closely with partners while setting clear roles, decision rights, and responsibilities.
- Strategy Before Tactics
- We prioritize clarity of purpose, audience, and outcomes before execution. Our work shifts the team from reactive activity to intentional, sequenced efforts aligned to enrollment, reputation, and mission.
- Right Work, Right Channel
- We match messages to audiences and channels thoughtfully, using owned, earned, and paid platforms selectively and strategically to maximize relevance, reach, and effectiveness.
- Quality Over Volume
- We prioritize high value, well executed work over volume, focusing our time and resources where communications can meaningfully advance institutional goals.
- Consistency Strengthens the Brand
- We steward Penn GSE’s voice, visual identity, and editorial standards across all channels to ensure coherence, credibility, and long-term brand equity.
- Data Informs Improvement
- We use data, feedback, and retrospectives to evaluate performance, improve service delivery, and refine strategy across content, channels, and paid efforts.
- High Support, High Accountability
- We foster a team culture rooted in trust, clarity, and shared responsibility, supporting one another while holding ourselves accountable to commitments, timelines, and standards of excellence.
How the Team Works
We Manage
- Oversight and management of Penn GSE’s brand and institutional voice
- Development of all content formats—stories, news releases, announcements, social content, photography, video, and graphic design
- Flagship website content strategy, structure, and quality (gse.upenn.edu)
- School-owned and -branded social media channel management, optimization, and oversight
- Penn GSE newsletters (internal and external audiences)
- Penn GSE Magazine longform storytelling
- Media relations and crisis communications, including trade press and general news outlets
- Reporting and analytics (media value, social engagement, web traffic)
- Strategic paid marketing planning and execution, including audience targeting, creative alignment, and performance analysis, in support of enrollment and institutional priorities
We Support
- Academic divisions, traditional and executive programs, professional learning, centers, initiatives, and teams / units with story discovery and development
- Enrollment marketing and prospective student communication pathways, including selective paid amplification of priority programs and messages
- Development & Alumni Relations outreach and donor storytelling
- Faculty visibility, research dissemination, and recognition processes (awards, appointments)
We Advise
- Stakeholders on audience-appropriate messaging, storytelling opportunities, and channel selection
- Internal partners on editorial framing, timing, and content workflow
- Leadership on brand consistency and alignment with annual and strategic priorities
- Internal partners on when paid marketing and/or amplification is appropriate, effective, and aligned with institutional priorities
Meet Our Team
William Parker
Vice Dean of Marketing & Communications
Steven Binnig
Multimedia Designer
- Graphic Design
- Photography/Videography
- Animation
Nicole Breslin
Director of Marketing & Brand Strategy
- Branding Questions
- Enrollment Marketing
- Paid Media
- Strategic Marketing
- Web Strategy (research centers and initiatives, new pages, and new websites)
Matthew D’Ippolito
Digital Communications Specialist
- E-Newsletters (Educator’s Playbook and Penn GSE News)
- Photo Library
- Photography/Videography Vendor Hiring
- Short Links and QR Codes (Bitly)
- Video Hosting (YouTube and Vimeo)
- Web Requests (faculty bios and calendar events)
Dana Joyce
Associate Director, Marketing & Communications
- Audience Growth and Lead Generation
- Enrollment Marketing
- Paid Media
- Slate CRM and Marketing Performance Analyst
- Web Requests (content optimization, website updates, and professional development courses and certificates)
Jennifer Moore
Editor
- Faculty Writing Projects (editorial support for academic and public-facing writing projects, including journal articles, op-eds, books, and grants)
- Faculty Writing Retreats
- Faculty Awards and Professional Recognition
Rebecca Raber
Director of Content Strategy
- Penn GSE Magazine
- Penn GSE Newsroom
- Social Media (Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn)
Kat Stein
Executive Director of Communications
- Media Relations & Press Inquiries
- Faculty Research Promotion & Media Strategy
- Crisis Communications
