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.

  • 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

  • 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  

  • 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)

  • 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