independent
schools
Just like education itself, the independent school landscape is changing. The cost of tuition continues to increase and families have many schools to choose from, including those that are free. And when most independent schools talk about themselves in the same way—small class sizes, individualized attention, inclusive community—the choice often comes down to which one is geographically closer. I've spent over a decade inside an independent school, running communications, branding, and marketing in partnership with senior leadership and working alongside admissions and development. I help schools uncover what actually sets them apart, and make sure families see it at every touchpoint.
how I help
Every engagement starts with learning and listening—to current families, prospective families who went elsewhere, and the administrative team and faculty who live the program day in and day out. A school's story must be recognizable to the people inside it and true to the families outside it. What I learn determines the strategy, and everything else flows from there.
Families comparing schools often hear the same things from each one. Branding work is about finding what's genuinely different about yours—starting with the people who know it best—and looking at how the school sits alongside the other options families are weighing. That becomes the foundation for a language and identity the whole school can use to tell a unified story about your school.
Internal discovery
Landscape assessment
Brand strategy and positioning
Messaging pillars
Full rebrands
Brand guidelines
branding
Schools communicate constantly—newsletters, admissions emails, appeals, the website, updates from the head's office—and some of it goes out simply because it always has. I look at what's being sent and why, what's landing and what isn't, and who each piece is meant to reach. The goal is communications that speak across audiences and a structure and workflow that a small department can sustain.
Communications audit
Communications infrastructure and design
Audience analysis
Fundraising communications
Email and newsletter content and strategy
Website strategy and content
Fractional or part-time support
communications
visual design
Design is how a school's brand shows up in the things families actually hold and scroll through—the viewbook, the website, the magazine, the weekly newsletter. For many prospective families, those pieces are their first impression of the school. And for current families, each piece matters for continued buy-in.
Admissions collateral: Viewbooks, magazines, inquiry packets, and marketing materials
Fundraising materials: Annual reports, donor materials
Website: User experience, layout, and mockups; collaboration with web developers
Newsletter and email templates: Headers and footers, body content organization and hierarchy
recent projects
Milwaukee Jewish Day School is a distinctive place in its community with steady enrollment. But with no one sitting in the communications and marketing seat internally, a small, piecemeal team had been keeping the essentials moving without strategic oversight or brand consistency. I was brought in to rethink the whole system. I started with in-depth internal discovery and an audit of every piece going out to every audience. I looked at what was landing, what wasn't, and where the gaps were. From there, I worked with the team to define messaging pillars that gave everyone a shared, confident answer to "what makes MJDS different?" Then I rebuilt the infrastructure around those pillars—designing a set of communication templates, developing editorial standards, and building an enrollment marketing plan—that a lean team could carry forward. I also partnered with the school's Director of Advancement to shape the strategy for the annual report and designed it cover to cover. The result was a communications system that runs on a clear strategy instead of scrambling to get things out the door.
rebuilding communications from the ground up: Milwaukee jewish day school
For the third year in a row, Greenhills School in Ann Arbor, Michigan, asked me to design Forum, its lively, content-rich annual school magazine. Each issue features strong stories and beautiful photography. The challenge was to keep the magazine feeling fresh year after year while staying true to the Greenhills brand. I built on the school's signature greens and blues and added new design touches so the look kept evolving. Full-spread photography put the school's people and programs front and center, and clean, open layouts gave every story room to land. For the main feature, I worked with an outside illustrator and guided the creative direction to give the story a distinctive visual layer that set it apart. The community's response has been enthusiastic every year, and Forum has become a publication that truly captures the school's energy, voice, and excellence.