Lay the foundation for enrollment growth and sustainability.
How do you create a data-informed strategic enrollment plan that meets enrollment goals, optimizes your academic offerings, and achieves long-term sustainability? How can you take a holistic, institution-wide view that includes key areas such as institutional branding, financial aid, and student retention?
Explore these critical topics at the 2026 Encoura + RNL Strategic Enrollment Planning Executive Forum. This interactive event for campus leaders will offer two days of key strategies, innovative ideas, insightful discussions, and candid exchanges on the challenges that enrollment leaders face. Our time together will lay the foundation for data-driven strategic enrollment planning that paves the way for your institution's growth and longevity.
Forum Registration
1-2 registrants – $695/per person
3+ registrants – $595/per person
Bring a team to spark discussion and create momentum for implementing new strategies.
Forum Location
The Bellevue Hotel
200 S Broad St.
Philadelphia, PA 19102
Encoura Special Rate: $269 + $20 destination fee
Available until March 30. Rooms may sell out sooner—please make your hotel reservations early.
Who should attend?
For maximum benefit, bring your entire cabinet or executive leadership team to evaluate high-impact strategies that cross divisional lines.
- Presidents and Chancellors
- Chief Enrollment Officers and Vice Presidents for Enrollment
- Provosts and Chief Academic Officers
- Chief Student Success Officers and Vice Presidents of Student Affairs
- Chief Financial Officers
Agenda overview
Tuesday, April 14
| Time | Event |
|---|---|
| 7:00-8:00 a.m. | Check In & Breakfast |
| 8:00-8:30 a.m. | Welcome & Introductions |
| 8:30-10:00 a.m. | Preparing for the Process of Planning: Campus Readiness Dawn Fortin Mattoon, Vice President, Strategic Enrollment Services We will kick off the Forum by guiding you through the process for establishing a structure that will ensure strategic enrollment planning (SEP) success. Participants will work through creating an organizational approach that cultivates communication and collaboration and identifies the key participants for the project. |
| 10:00-10:15 a.m. | Break |
| 10:15-11:00 a.m. | The Power of Data When Establishing, Implementing, & Tracking a Strategic Enrollment Plan Bridget Kurkowski, Senior Vice President, Enrollment Services A strategic enrollment plan is data informed. This session will discuss how to foster or enhance a data-informed enrollment culture and how to integrate data insights throughout the SEP process including implementation and continuation. Participants will review the SEP data checklist and best practices for collective data analysis. |
| 11:00 a.m.-12:00 p.m. | Strategy Ideation and the SEP Process Dawn Fortin Mattoon, Vice President, Strategic Enrollment Services Strategies are foundational to SEP. This session will explore where strategies originate, how strategies are sorted and prioritized, and how institutions develop strategies that are unique and competitive. |
| 12:00-1:00 p.m. | Lunch: Observations & Lessons Learned From Campus |
| 1:00-2:00 p.m. | The Role of Academics in Strategic Enrollment Planning Jessica Ickes, Vice President, Marketing and Research Services Engaging an academic working group that analyzes program level enrollment, the enrollment funnel, retention, market share, and the relationship between capacity and demand is critical to the SEP process. Learn how institutions are leveraging the SEP project to optimize the academic program portfolio. |
| 2:00-3:00 p.m. | Financial Aid: A Key Partnership in the Strategic Enrollment Plan Emily Coleman, Senior Vice President, Financial Aid and Modeling Services Leveraging financial aid is essential to both new student recruitment and continuing student enrollment. This session will provide an overview of financial strategies that elevate the strategic enrollment plan. Institutions will have the opportunity to reflect on their current aid structures and plan for the role of aid in the strategic enrollment plan. |
| 3:00-3:15 p.m. | Break |
| 3:15-4:15 p.m. | You Have to Know Your Brand Neighborhood to Own It Kim Reid, Principal Research Analyst Understanding your true position in today’s landscape empowers you to refine messaging, clarify value, and strengthen market differentiation. Using insights from the Eduventures Prospective Student Brand Research, we’ll unpack the concept of brand neighborhoods, clusters of institutions grouped not by how they see themselves but by how students perceive them. |
| 4:15-5:15 p.m. | The Key to a Strategic Enrollment Plan: Retention & Student Success Wes Butterfield, Senior Vice President, Retention Services Melt reduction, retention, persistence, and completion should be included in every strategic enrollment plan. This session will review national best practices, how to transform persistence, and how to provide a student-first support system. |
| 5:30 p.m. | Opening Reception |
| 6:30 p.m. | Free Evening to Enjoy Philadelphia |
Wednesday, April 15
| Time | Event |
|---|---|
| 7:00-8:00 a.m. | Breakfast |
| 8:00-9:00 a.m. | Reflections on Past Strategic Initiatives Join Rutgers University New Brunswick’s Vice Chancellor of Enrollment Management as he and RNL’s Vice President for Strategic Enrollment Services discuss a career of difference making. |
| 9:00-10:00 a.m. | Interactive Breakout Sessions |
| 10:00-11:00 a.m. | Interactive Breakout Sessions |
| 11:00 a.m.-12:00 p.m. | Interactive Breakout Sessions |
| 12:00-1:00 p.m. | Pulling It All Together Dawn Fortin Mattoon, Vice President, Strategic Enrollment Services What are the contents of an effective strategic enrollment plan? How can leaders institutionalize the strategic enrollment plan and cultivate an on-going culture for strategic enrollment? |
| 1:00-3:00 p.m. | Encoura Team Available for Questions/Brainstorming (optional) |
Register now for the
2026 Strategic Enrollment Planning Executive Forum